I made bread with a mixer for a while, but then a neighbor gave me an unwanted bread machine. After using it, I realized how salty bread from the supermarket is. Now I make almost all our bread in a machine.

When the first one died, I bought another at a thrift store for $5.

Before I had the machine, I would get bread to rise nicely by filling a kettle with hot water and putting the bread and the kettle in the oven.