I'll bet you can smell this picture! County Fairs and local food festivals were always a favorite destination for my family, and to this day I try to take in at least one or two every summer. I enjoy the livestock and culinary exhibits, photography displays, craft and quilting contests, and of course, seeing who won the blue ribbon for a beautiful loaf of homemade bread! But let's face it---for many of us, county fairs are all about the food on the midway! Here are the recip

As many of you know, I am offering bread baking classes in the kitchen of our monastery guest facility, the Bethany House. Saturday I taught a class in braided loaves to a 7th-grader-to-be and she ROCKED it! We did a slab braid, a crown braid and a lattice braid with ham and cheese. Afterwards we made fresh butter and she gave me a little violin concert. Special thanks to mom and dad for taking such great pictures. Check out the slide show! Then Sunday I had an engaged couple

One of my favorite bacon recipes is for Austrian povitica ("poh-VEE-teetz-ah" or "poh-vuh--TEETZ-ah" depending upon which Slovenian you ask). My recipe for povitica has been in my family for four generations. My great-grandmother, Frances Zunic Sardick, brought it to this country from Austria. You most often see the Croatian or Slovenian versions of this bread (usually called potica) which use ground walnuts, cream, honey, and a much sweeter dough rolled into very thin laye

During the Covid quarantine I produced a multigrain baking mix to use when yeast became scarce in the grocery stores. If you already use baking mixes, you might be surprised to see that this version requires refrigeration, but you might be equally surprised to discover that the package on the commercial versions also recommends that you refrigerate their product after opening. But most baking mixes use shortening and have a number of preservatives and therefore are more “shel

This image is from the manufacturer, Norpro If you spend any time at garage sales or in thrifts shops, you have probably seen these tin tubes for sale, and perhaps wondered what they are for. These unique pans are canapé molds, used to bake bread that have decorative shapes when sliced. The slices are used as a base for hors d'oeuvres or appetizers. I see them often on eBay, Etsy, and when thrifting, which suggests that the people who buy them don't use them very much. Person

This year, in addition to my usual Zoom programs and group demonstrations, I started offering one on one and small group classes at the Bethany House, our monastery's guest facility. You can learn more HERE . Recently I gave baking lessons to the children of one of my former students: scones for her son and pizza for her daughter. It was their Christmas present, and we had a grand time! (Photos used with parents' permission) I also have classes in basic breads and braids, din