Bread and tomatoes and other stuff

Here we are at the end of May.  Surprisingly here in Kansas City, we've not had much heat yet.  In fact, the first days of June later this week are forecast to be quite mild.  With the rainy spring we've had, gardens and landscaping all over the city are healthy and vigorous.  It seems we have a mild summer ahead of us.  At least that's how I read it based on my experience and history here in Kansas City.  We might roast once in a while in July and August.  But after such a mild time heading up to the summer season, it won't be too hard to get through any roasting days.

This next weekend we have honey oatmeal bread and roasted tomatoes on the menu.  They are a great combination.  I don't meant necessarily that they are meant to be eaten together literally.  But they do pair well, so maybe if you order both, you can make a nice meal out of them.  The honey oatmeal bread is a real addictive favorite of mine.  Once I slice into a loaf, I go back again and again as long as it lasts, until the last slice is gone.  I love this bread.  And the tomatoes are so healthy and flavorful that they are hard to resist as well.

The following weekend I have Swedish visiting cakes on the menu again since a few people didn't get a chance to get some in the last couple days.  I'm also making extras just in case.  And keeping with the Swedish theme, I also put Swedish oatmeal cookies on the menu.

Once we get to July, I will be doing more cooking than usual.  For the entire month, I have no teaching obligations.  I have many things on my list that I want to experiment with.  Sometimes I make such a list in response to requests from eaters here.  Sometimes it is spawned as a result of leafing through recipes in various sources, online and otherwise.  Sometimes it just comes because I find myself craving something or inspired to make something.  

When I'm cooking, no matter what I'm cooking, no matter how much I'm cooking, I taste everything.  Certainly it's a good idea to eat a cookie from a batch that I'm sending out the door to someone.  I always want to taste test to make sure that it's a good batch.  As long as I'm not distracted by something while I'm cooking (which might lead to a mistake I make), it comes out as expected.  But I like to be certain anyway.

Sometimes when I'm cooking, I taste one thing and it makes think of another thing and then a combination of things.  Pretty soon, I'm writing down the ideas.  Sometimes I get to those ideas right away, but most of the time they go on a list of things to experiment with at a future time.  Well, July coming up is a future time that will be devoted to whittling down this list.  I'm looking forward to it very much.  You'll be able to read all about it here.