My wife said she can't remember how long her mother has had the bread
machine, but fondly can recall the loaves it made for a long
time. Now, that her mother gave it to me, I'm having fun
experimenting. I use the bread machine for simple breads or
something I may give away. For fancier breads and something I want
to really take care making, I use my KithenAid mixer and do it the
old-fashioned way.
I like what gonzowhite said to use the white settings for most
everything and like Andrew mentioned, the DAK recipes seem to all
limit it to 3 cups flour.
I got kind of flummoxed with the other recipe books at first because
they said "follow manufacturer's directions" and I had no clue. Plus
it seemed most of the recipes only used the bread machine to mix the
dough. Without knowing the various settings, I only knew to start
from stir to bake. There's a loud voice in my head "Make it work" :-