Bread of the Month: Feeling fully corny with muffins

Around the end of May, my usual love and admiration for all things corn amped up a bit.

I mean, I’ll put corn in anything, but I took it to an extra corny level as corn season approached, exploring recipes related to my favorite vegetable. Working ahead on my column for Kansas Country . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Feeling fully corny with muffins

Bread of the Month: Oiling up an herb-y scone

Sometimes, all the planets (or ingredients and time of the year) align in order to make the right recipe. I was recently thumbing through my original favorite scone book, “Biscuits and Scones,” (Clarkson N. Potter; 1988) by Elizabeth Alston. You would think I had made every recipe in the book, but far . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Oiling up an herb-y scone

Scone of the Month: Picking a floral-scented scone

Sometimes, you can’t see the recipe for the blooms. I’m twisting an old phrase here, but it applies to my obvious lack of perception when trying to decide on a scone recipe for this month.

I was set on something with raspberries or white chocolate or coconut. Or white chocolate-raspberry-coconut, when lo and . . . → Read More: Scone of the Month: Picking a floral-scented scone

Bread of the Month: ‘Bubbling’ with garlic and herbs

In the 1990s, I had the pleasure of frequenting an Italian restaurant in the community where I lived in Southern California. It was a smallish, but lively place near a golf course, with most of its seating in a walled-in, covered patio that stayed comfortable all year long. It was here that I got hooked . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: ‘Bubbling’ with garlic and herbs

Remembering a ‘forgotten’ food writer

“Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be.” — Jennie Paddleford to her daughter, Clementine

How is it possible that, in the four years I attended Kansas State University, majoring in journalism, spending two years working on the school’s daily newspaper, The Collegian, and even planning and putting together a weekly . . . → Read More: Remembering a ‘forgotten’ food writer

Lifting the senses with lavender

We all know of lavender’s aromatherapeutic and cosmetic advantages. Try pulling yourself away from a lavender-scented candle or just dare yourself to be stressed out when you have the soothing fragrance of lavender on your skin. It’s heavenly. But if you have never tried eating lavender in some form, now’s the time, as culinary lavender . . . → Read More: Lifting the senses with lavender

Bread of the Month: Rounding out a pizza dough

Time was, a simple pizza crust would do. I came of age when I saw this concept turn. I grew up in the land of Pizza Hut, and after the advent of pan pizzas and personal pan pizzas, there began an onslaught of pizza crust one-uppings in every chain in America, where all manner of . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Rounding out a pizza dough

Bread of the Month: Perfuming air with herbs

I sought a simple loaf bread recipe for this month’s recipe test. But when I began perusing the King Arthur Flour website for possibilities, I was overwhelmed with so many delicious options and became impossibly hungry.

l thrilled from my thyme-laced popovers (see blog entry in 4/13), I came across a French Herb Bread that . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Perfuming air with herbs

Bread of the Month: Testifying to a proper cornbread

Traditions. More and more — in terms of cooking and beyond –it seems the option one grew up with, be it a recipe, cooking method, practice, is the correct and only one.

Take cornbread, for example. I do like a sweet cornbread, but because of my family’s declaration that a true cornbread should . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Testifying to a proper cornbread