pinching seams & cutting corners

I have taken up bread baking. 

Wait... scratch that... I want to take up bread baking. 

At this point, I'm starting slowly. It's not that I'm a newbie to yeast and all things doughy, but I haven't in recent years spent much time on the high risen arts. I've been mostly a pancake and muffin kinda gal. 

But my boys love, love, love any kind of cinnamony bready type toast in the morning. And I love the idea of making it for them. I'll never achieve weekly sandwich loaf status for this crew. Even at their young age, they could keep a full-time baker in business. But I do think a slice or two of fresh baked every now and again might be an attainable goal. 

This is my first loaf. It turned out okay. There's only one problem...

...I cheated. 

I was given a yummy looking Honey-Wheat bread machine bread mix from Williams-Sonoma at Easter. 

I don't own a bread machine. 

I sincerely appreciated the gesture and didn't want it to go to waste. So I improvised and turned it into a cinnamon swirl loaf. I guess really... that's less cheating than if I had used it in a bread machine, right?

What about you? Do you bake your own bread? What's your favorite recipe?