Parkie versus the Bread Machine

I got a really nice Cuisanart convection bread machine for Christmas. Some of what I've made has been good. A couple of things have been - blech! Here's a rundown:

1. rustic french bread - heavy crust with some whole wheat thrown in. family verdict - good. Parkie 1; Bread machine 0

2. basic white bread - plain jane vanilla recipe. family verdict - don't make this again it is tasteless. Parkie 1; Bread machine 1

3. Made some whole wheat bread - it just didn't come out. very crumbly, couldn't really slice it. not sure what I did wrong. I didn't even need a family verdict on this one Parkie 1; Bread machine 2

4. Made some Buttermilk wheat something or other. went all over town looking for wheat gluten. it was hard as a rock - maybe not enough gluten? I'm not even sure what it does. Parkie 1; Bread machine 3

5. Now I am getting annoyed. Back to basics I think. Let's go for some pizza dough. The kids had a blast helping me make the pizza. Family verdict - delicious. Yay! Parkie 2; Bread machine 3

6. So now I'm thinking ... maybe it's the recipes. so I searched for bread machine recipes. I added some rye flour to my list of supplies. I found a recipe for Steakhouse black bread and thought .. YUM. Which one is it that serves this? the one with Flo isn't it? the big haired lady? This recipe has just about everything in it - whole grain, rye, coffee, molasses, chocolate ... chocolate?? Hmmmm.. Family verdict - delicious. Again - yay me!! Parkie 3; Bread machine 3

7. so now I think the french bread came out all right. I'll make a loaf of regular french to go with the potato soup I'm making. I about burnt out the motor of my electric knife just trying to slice the thing Ummm - blech I sliced the rest though. I'm starting to think I need to save my disasters for like croutons, stuffing or bread pudding or something so I'll feel better. Parkie 3; bread machine 4

8. does it count that we decided on pizza again and I made another batch of dough?? prolly not

9. I'm thinking I'm right - the recipes in the book that came with the machine are just ... not interesting. When I say blech - I just mean that it really just had no interesting flavor at all. I might make another batch of that steakhouse bread but since I didn't count the pizza dough I can't count the bread. I'm thinking I need to find some good recipes .... maybe some rolls.

In the meantime there's a Red Lobster commercial that just came on with a close up of those biscuits.... Mmmmmm ... maybe I'll just search up a recipe for that instead!