My Bread Machine

One of the few things that I have learned to do fairly competently is use my breadmaker. Baking seems to be a little more down my alley then other types of cooking and there is a good reason for it. Baking requires very precise measurements and the recipes always tell you exactly how much of each ingredient to use. Being a guy, that makes sense to me, as I have a typical male mind that grew up learning how to do things like carpentry, projects around the house, etc. Therefore, I am used to precise measurements and expect that. I always get annoyed when I watch cooking shows and they say things like use some oil "once around the pan," or "a palmful of" such and such. How much is once around the pan? Whose palmful? Why can't they just say "use a half a cup of oil," or a tablespoon of such and such. The plumbing books don't tell you to "cut a dash of pipe." It is a blow to my cooking confidence if I don't know if I am using the right amount of ingredients. If I load the breadmaker following the directions exactly, it works perfectly every time. Therefore lately I have been using it to make pizza dough, using the dough setting, which they all have. As a result, I have been making pizza once a week on Sundays and it is working out really well. I make the dough in the breadmaker(three cups of regular Gold Medal breadflour, 1/2 a tablesoon of salt, 1 1/2 tablespoons of yeast, one cup of water at room temperature or slightly higher, and two tablespoons of olive oil). Then roll out the dough into a pizza shape, add pizza sauce, cheese, and whatever toppings I want, and cook it in the oven on a pizza stone at 450 degrees. I have refined the recipe so that I think it is every bit as good as pizza parlor pizza, and actually much better then what I can order for home delivery. I will get more into pizza making this weekend and talk about everything I have learned about it, and give up any secrets I might have. I will also post pictures of the process of making the pizza this weekend. I am now on the quest to make the best pizza I can possibly make, and in the meantime learn how to cook other things. I wouldn't mind eating pizza for every meal, but that probably isn't a good idea.