Tillamook cheese bread and White Zinfandel
I had never watched tennis until I met my husband. He was the cutest player on the University of Oregon men’s tennis team. Well, okay he was the only player I watched (or knew). Five years later we started our married life in Arizona, where of course, tennis was very popular. My husband’s parents also played tennis and his mom loved to celebrate Wimbledon. She’s been gone for 28 years this August, but I think about her every year when Wimbledon occurs. In the days before streaming, she’d plan her day — and sleep — around the time of a key match (her favorite was Chrissy Evert). For the finals, she would make chocolate-dipped strawberries and a toasty, gooey Tillamook Cheese bread meant to be enjoyed with a glass of White Zinfandel. After all, this was the late 80s. A few times a year I dig out the recipe card that’s in my mother-in-law’s handwriting and reminisce about watching tennis with my husband’s family. With the grand slam tournament being cancelled last year, this year’s Wimbledon (semifinals July 8/9 and finals July 10/11) calls for lots of cheesy bread and juicy chocolatey strawberries, and wine. But make mine rosé.
Challah bread ups your morning toast game
Avocado & Egg Toast | Overnight Crème Brûlée French Toast
There aren’t many things better than the smell of warm bread baking in the oven. Well except for eating that warm bread with a big slab of melty butter smeared on top. Bread is one of the world’s oldest foods. In fact, Egyptians were buried with loaves of bread to provide sustenance in the afterlife. (Hmm, perhaps one can live by bread alone.) Most of us probably remember our moms or grandmas baking bread; and depending on your age, you may remember bread machines being a big trend in the 90s. But chances are you may have never made your own bread. Well, now is the time. Baking bread has been extremely popular during the pandemic. The act of making bread with your own two hands provides the ultimate fulfillment. It’s comforting, relaxing and provides a form of creative expression. Plus, the end result is delicious and makes everyone in the house happy. I recently made my first challah bread that beyond just giving us thick slices to enjoy, lent itself to a breakfast of avocado and egg toast one morning, followed by a custardy blueberry French toast the next. (And I think my husband snuck in an afternoon BLT.)
Twist and Shout: Pretzels and Dips for Super Bowl Sunday
When I think of soft pretzels, I envision days past when my young kids would ask for a cinnamon sugar pretzel at the mall, which always turned into a disaster as I frantically searched for enough napkins, wetting them with water from my water bottle to clean the cinnamon sugar mixture that went from ear-to-ear on their little faces all while instructing them to “not touch anything.” If it was just me at the mall, I would opt for grabbing a pepperoni pretzel because shopping took precedent over taking time to sit down and eat. We visited Wetzel’s Pretzels when we lived in Arizona and later Auntie Anne’s, but our pretzel days disappeared as the kids got older. On a business trip to Nuremberg, Germany a few years ago, everywhere I looked there were warm authentic pretzels calling my name. Then the other day my sister sent me a picture of the pretzels her 14-year-old son begged her to make. I decided to give it a whirl and determined that these easy-to-make pretzels would be a fun game day snack (or what the heck, dinner) for Super Bowl Sunday.