There's nothing wrong with using a bread machine! I just don't own one. The Mother Thing started baking bread at home while we were still in Minnesota in the 1990s. It was partly to save money as we kids devoured sandwiches, french toast, and the like at a prodigious rate. She also wanted to use better ingredients than the mass-produced grocery store breads used. She baked five or six loaves at a time in the oven, and then froze whatever we weren't planning to use immediately.