bread making!

hi guys! it's been a while since i've said or done much about baking. working 45 hours a week with poor sleep quality (work-related dreams--bleh!), i haven't had the time or energy to do any baking. this month, since there has been a lot of craziness with the flooding, i decided to bake bread to use up some extra ingredients we had. now i'm not master chef or baker, but here are a few of my tips and tricks on how i make these bread recipes. also, consider that i began making these in a small college apartment with little kitchen space, so these tips also include ways i reduce the number of dirty dishes. ~Lin-chan ^.~

oatmeal wheat bread (click for recipe) -- this is actually a pretty easy recipe if you have a stand mixer. for this recipe, i like using bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. the following is how i generally make this recipe.

1. use a glass measuring cup for the milk. heat milk in a small to medium pot on the stove. 
2. while milk heats, measure all of the ingredients for the flour mixture into the stand mixer bowl and stir them a bit.
3. prepare remaining oat-mixture ingredients: stir in oats and butter (it can melt in the pot!). lightly oil your measuring cup before adding honey (to make it easier to remove) and pour into oat mixture. 
4. heat water in glass measuring cup (from milk) in microwave for about 1 minute. add yeast and honey, and allow to stand 5 minutes or until very foamy. gently stir into to oat mixture.
5. gradually add oat mixture into flour mixture. when mixture becomes less sticky, i stop the mixer, flour my hands and add some flour into the bowl and knead the bread in the bowl (instead of worrying about cleaning and using the counter). after kneading, place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover in plastic wrap and a towel, and place on top of refrigerator. this is actually a fairly warm place, if you don't have the space to do this, a low temp oven should do the trick (minus the towel!).
6. after about an hour or two, or doubled in size, i knead the dough again, inside the bowl. then divide the dough (if i'm making two loaves) and place into buttered loaf pan(s). cover with towel and allow to rise again for another hour.
1. the loaf pans i use are 9x4 pullman loaf pans by usa pans
2. tip: when you finish a stick of butter, fold and save the paper wrapping in the fridge since there's still a bit of butter on it, then use the paper to butter your dishes when baking!
7. preheat oven. i generally skip the step about putting an egg wash and oats on top of the bread, since it's kind of a waste of an egg in my opinion, and the oats on top get kind of messy when you go to cut into it. then bake & enjoy! this bread is more of a snack-size than sandwich, but you made it, eat it how you'd like!

banana [nut] bread (click for recipe) -- this is an extremely easy recipe that anyone can make. say you bought too many bananas and they're too ripe to eat and about ready to be tossed? why waste them, when you can make a super quick and easy banana bread with ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen! this recipe is so simple, i'm not listing out everything like before, but as a tip: use either a fork or a potato masher to mash the bananas!