what do you mean, “broken”?

Just ask Tanja and she’ll tell you that I’ve been debating whether or not to buy a bread machine for at least three years. Partly because there’s just no food (or smell) like fresh hot bread, and also because the list of ingredients in store-bought bread is growing longer and scarier these days.

So, I finally took the plunge yesterday. As of 10 this morning I was 4 hours and 7 minutes away from my very first loaf of bread in my brand spanking new bread machine.

About three hours in, just as it was starting to look like bread and my excitement was building, it beeped at me. Then the screen showed, “E L”. I had no idea what “E L” meant but there was no more heat and the half baked loaf of bread stopped rising up out of the pan.

So off I go in search of the Japanese manual, and find some reference to a screen showing, “E L” at the very bottom of the last page. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be good.

This is the conversation with my friend who translated the meaning of “E L”

Friend: “It means its broken”
Me: “What do you mean, broken?”
Friend: “Just broken”
Me: “Just broken?”
Friend: “Unh-just broken”
Me: “It can’t be, I just bought it, and its in the middle of baking my bread and since when did machines tell you they’re broken? If its functioning enough to tell me its broken, I’d think it would be able to finish making the bread!”
Friend: “It just says its broken and you have to call this number”

*sigh*

I call. But of course its a holiday, so no answer there. Not sure what to do with the half-baked loaf of bread stuck in there. Who knows, maybe I’ll need it as proof of the faulty machine.

So three years later, I have the bread machine, but no bread. I guess this means there won’t be any fresh baked bread for Christmas either.

*sigh*