New Member from California Central Coast

I just found this site a couple days ago when I was researching fresh-ground flour for my new Nutrimill.  (I've already embarassed myself by accidentally posting my first entry twice - the site seems to be sluggish and I got impatient.)  I live in Morro Bay on the Central Coast of California, alone except for my five cats who do nothing except eat, sleep, excrete, shed, shred, and vie for my lap.  I'm retired except for a part-time job and volunteer work.  I love to knit, especially lace shawls. Knitting is a lot less fattening than bread, but I love to make bread, too.  I think knitting is probably more expensive, but I've spent a fair amount of money on my bread baking, too.

I learned to bake from my mother.  I think I probably made yeast breads as a teenager.  I do remember trying to be an Earth Mother in the 1970s when that was a popular thing to be.  I'm still a wannabe, but with less pressure.  I hadn't baked in a long time, and then I got a bread machine more than a decade ago.  I hadn't used that for several years when one day I found a recipe for bread sticks I wanted to make for a potluck.  It turned out that I hadn't been using the bread machine because it was broken.  So I threw it out and kneaded the dough by hand, and I remembered how much I used to enjoy baking bread.  And here I am.

This site has a wealth of information, it would seem.  I've been on it all morning (in between working on a loaf of bread, which is in the oven right now).  I look forward to learning from you all.

Rosalie