Flour -  For most of the recipes on this webpage you'll want to use all-purpose flour.  You can use other types of flour, but this is the flour I used to test all the recipes with.  You can use a self-rising flour, but you must make adjustments to the salt and leavening measurements, cause, self-rising contains salt and leavening.  So best to stick with all-purpose flour when cooking the recipes on this site.

Baking Powder - as always fresh ingredients work the best and if you aren't doing a lot of baking, you may want to get a new baking powder cause it does lose its strength.  So look for the expiration date on the can, you should be able to find it.

Spices - How old are your spices in that spice rack?  While spices that are old can't harm you, they lose some of their taste as they age, so you'll want to think about getting new spices about every six months...you can increase shelf life of a spice if you put them in a tight container in a cool area away from heat.

Mixing breads - You can use an electric mixer for most of the mixing of breads.  I recommend mixing the dry ingredients with the liquid ingredients by using a wooden spoon to make sure you don't overmix, but, if you are careful you can use an electric mixer.

Baking - Preheating, preheating, preheating, umm, think I'm trying to tell you something here, yes, I am.  Preheat your oven 15 minutes before cooking bread...when recipes say, preheat your oven, they mean just that, preheat it.  Also, another thing to keep in mind, ovens are not always created equal, meaning, that 350º in one oven, might not be 350º in another.  You can test your oven with a thermometer or always look at your bread after the minimum cook time is reached, then stick the bread with a wooden skewer or you can use a knife, and if it comes out clean, the bread is done.

Storing Bread - If you aren't going to eat the bread right away (meaning within the day or two at most), you can wrap it tightly and freeze it until you're ready to eat it.