I’ve left the sourdough starter on its own, and it looks exactly the same as when I’ve ‘refreshed’ it – I will try a loaf tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.
Thankfully – I have this recipe for incredibly good bread from a machine that comes together in about 10 minutes and has only 7 ingredients. The instructions say to run it in the machine on the ‘white’ cycle – but I use 
the ‘French’. It keeps fresh for days in a bread box (a worthy addition to any well-kept kitchen), and, if any is left, can be cubed, tossed with olive oil and herbs, and baked in a slow oven for use as croutons. It makes a GREAT grilled cheese sammich, and, as mentioned before – not too, too bad French Toast. I wouldn’t object to just a slice spread with some nice butter either, a la Mr. Beard.
INGREDIENTS
•1 Tbsp Olive Oil
•1-1/3 cup Water
•1-1/2 tbsp Honey
•3 cups flour
•1 tbsp sugar
•1/2 tsp salt
•2 tsp yeast
Whisk the water, honey, and olive oil together in the bottom of the bread pan, then add the sugar and the salt. Add the flour on top of this liquid mixture, arranging it so that it’s more or less covered.
Sprinkle the yeast over the top, select the Normal bread cycle (White bread) – as I said above, I don’t do this, I use the French OR the basic cycle, medium crust.
Makes 1-1/2 lb loaf.
NOTE: My bread machine specifies adding ingredients in a certain order; wet, dry, then yeast. If your machine instructions say something else, you should probably do it that way.