Rhubarb is my current favorite flavor and one of the things that actually grows very well here in Anchorage. There's only a few small plants at my house but I've been trimming back the rhubarb plants at my neighbors' house regularly.

Ingredients:
1/3 c butter
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 c chopped rhubarb, raw
2 c sourdough starter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Cream butter & sugar. Add egg, vanilla. Add everything else. Bake in greased loaf pan at 350°F for 1 hr or until done.

I have actually quit measuring ingredients but the above is the amounts I think I should be using. And I probably shouldn't call this "bread" it's more like cake without frosting.

Maybe the best cornbread I've ever made... okay so the only cornbread I've ever made not from a package but still...

2 Cups White Flour
1 Cup dry Polenta
1/2 Cup Ground Cornmeal
2 1/4 T Baking Powder
1/2 T Salt
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Corn Kernals

2 Eggs
1/2 Stick Butter, melted
1 1/2 Cup Buttermilk

Mix the dry ingredients, including corn kernals. In separate bowl whip eggs and add butter and buttermilk. Add wet ingredients to dry, do not over-stir. Pour into greased pan, about 8-9" square and bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until done.

Recipe from TheFreshLoaf.com

Can't help but love banana bread. AND it's better because I can use my sourdough starter!

1/3 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup mashed banana
1 cup sourdough starter
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla or 1 tsp grated orange rind

Cream together the shortening and sugar, add egg, and mix until blended. Stir in bananas and sourdough starter. Add orange rind or vanilla. Add dry ingredients, stirring until just blended. Pour into greased 9x5" loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 1 hour.

This came from Don and Myrtle Holm's Sourdough Cookbook in 1972 via TheFreshLoaf.com.

When I made this for Alan, he asked if it was a quiche. Silly boy, who puts whipped cream on quiche, although now that I think about it...

So my pie didn't turn out a brilliant lime green like the ones in the store, but it tasted delicious. My sister, Kirsten, was co-cook for this one.

Lime Filling
4 tsp grated lime zest
1/2 c freshly squeezed lime juice (3-4 limes)
4 egg yolks
1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk

Graham Cracker Crust
9 graham crackers, broken
2 Tbs granulated sugar
5 Tbs unsalted butter, melted & still warm

Whipped Cream Topping
3/4 c chilled heavy cream
1/4 c confectioners' sugar
1/2 lime, sliced paper thin & dipped in sugar

Directions:
1. For the filling: Whisk the zest and yolks in medium bowl until green, about 2 minutes. Beat in the condensed milk, then the juice; set aside to thicken at room temperature, about 30 minutes.
2. For the crust: Preheat Oven to 325 degrees with oven rack in middle position. In a food processor, process the graham crackers until evenly fine, about 30 seconds. Add the sugar and pulse to combine. Continue to pulse while adding the warm melted butter in a steady stream; pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand. Transfer the crumbs to a 9-inch glass pie plate and evenly press the crumbs into the pie plate. Bake the crust until it is fragrant and beginning to brown, 15-18 minutes; transfer to wire rack and cool completely.
3. Pour the lime filling into the crust; bake until the center is set yet wiggly when jiggled, 15-17 minutes. Return the pie to wire rack; cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours.
4. For the topping: less than 2hrs before serving, whip the cream in a chilled bowl with an electric mixer to very soft peaks. Adding the confectioners' sugar 1 Tbs at a time, continue whipping to just-stiff peaks. Decoratively pipe the whipped cream over the filling. Garnish with sugared limes.

I don't know why I call this the recipe page, I should call it the "Things Laura Likes to Eat" page. Yuri was in Cable this weekend and brought me a box of Candinas truffles. Candinas has the prettiest packaging of any choclate I have met. I always thought that Godiva was the best, but it looks really flashy next to a Candinas box. Check out their website at www.candinas.com for a picture of their chocolates. And not just the packaging, you open the box and there sit 9 truffles in a perfect square looking almost too gorgeous to eat. Almost.

I would recommend serving this with some ice cream to your competition... that way the get fat and slow. In fact all of the foods in my recipe collection would be good to fatten up the competition. I really do eat healthily most of the time. Susan Heyvaert made this for me while I was visiting.

Ingredients:
1 c sugar
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp instant coffee (I don't usually like coffee things, but this is really subtle)
1 c heavy whipping cream, divided
1/2 stick butter

Directions:
Combine sugar, cocoa, and coffee.
Add 1/2 c of whipping cream and mix into paste.
Add the remaining cream and butter.
Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved & butter is melted.
Cook 5-8 minutes on low heat until thickens.

Name: Candinas Truffle- from asst. Candinas gift box.
Cocoa: unknown, guessing 60%
Country: Verona, WI
Form: Round truffle dollop
Review: This truffle had a crisp outer shell coating a silky fudge filling. I found it a refreshing treat for a summer evening. The flavor is delicate with a very short finish. The inner chocolate has a hint of hazelnut and melts quickly on the tongue, leaving the outer shell to finish the taste with a classic sweet chocolate. In the end it left me searching for a deeper, more complex flavor. Luckily, Candinas is associated with CXC so I will hopefully get to try their other chocolates.

Name: Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Dark Chocolate.
Cocoa: unknown, guessing 60%-70%
Country: Durango, CO.
Form: 3.0oz/85g bar
Review: This thick bar in gold wrapping reminds me of a gold brick from some robbery movie, say the Italian Job. This creamy, dark chocolate is true comfort chocolate. It provides a sense of solace and warm fuzzy feelings when consumed. With a hefty thickness, this bar is not for nibblers. The chocolate is filling and the flavors are not complex, but sweet and subdued, reenforcing my imagined state of being curled up in a big, comfy leather chair with a fireplace and a good book.

Some pro cyclists had left this recipe at Barb's house so we decided to try it. I mean, they were fast so they must know how to cook, right?! (logical fallacy)

3 c crispy rice cereal
3 c toasted oats
1 1/2 c rasins
3/4 c sunflower nuts
1 c honey
1 (16 oz) jar natural peanut butter
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 c chocolate chips
any other yummy things from the cupboard

1. Combine cereal, raisins, sunflower nuts, chocolate chips in large bowl.
2. Heat honey to boil for one minute. Add peanut butter and vanilla, stir until peanut butter is melted.
3. Pour over cereal mixture; mix well.
4. Press mixture into greased (or foil-lined) baking pan. When cool cut into squares.

The cutting into squares part didn't really work for me. It more just crumbled into chunks of various sizes. Next time I might try packing the mix into round balls and letting it cool down that way. This makes a great post-workout snack.

One of my favorite summertime snacks. Kirsten and I made a huge batch last week and it vanished quickly. I like my jello mixed with whipped cream or yoghurt.

Ingredients:
Jello mix
hot water
cold water
random fruits

Steps:
Follow directions on jello box, adding random fruit.

We layered different flavors of jello, adding a different fruit (frozen, fresh, canned) to each layer and letting the layers set for at least an hour in the fridge before carefully adding the next layer.

You know the Cooking Light Cookbook? The purple one with the luscious blueberry pound cake on the cover, I think it's the best recipes from the year 2004. Everytime I look at that book I want to eat the cover. What could be better on a summer day then a fluffy lemon cake lightly glazed with frosting and full of juicy blueberries? Mine did not look like the picture on the cover of the cookbook but it was still delicious! Try this:

Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup (4 oz) low fat cream cheese, softened
3 large eggs
1 large egg white
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (yum!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (hint: do not confuse baking soda and baking powder... they are NOT interchangeable)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (8 oz) carton lemon low-fat yoghurt (I think Kirsten and I mixed vanilla and orange creamsicle yoghurts and put more in just because I like yoghurt- still worked out)
Cooking spray
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice

steps:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Beat granulated sugar, butter, and cream cheese in mixer at medium speed until well-blended (~5 min.). Add eggs and egg white, one at a time, beating well after each egg. Beat in vanilla.
3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 tablespoons flour and blueberries in a small bowl and toss to coat. Combine remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yoghurt, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in blueberry mixture.
4. Pour batter into a 10-inch tube pan (I think what we used was actually a jello mold) coated with cooking spray. Sharply tap pan once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350F for 75 minutes or until done.
5. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 10 min., remove cake from sides of pan. Cool on wire rack for 15 more minutes before removing from the pan.
6. Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl; drizzle over warm cake. Cut into slices using a serrated knife.

Yield: 16 servings. (So the recipe claims. Looks like four servings to me.)

Not a recipe; I wish I could make this. Since I eat chocolate much more than I cook desserts, I thought I should keep a review of the chocolates that I try.

Name: Lindt Excellence Dark chocolate, Extra Fine.
Cocoa: 85%
Country: France
Price: 3.5oz/100g for ?
Review: This is one of my standards. It has a high cocoa content but it is fine enough that it stays creamy in your mouth instead of breaking into unpleasant granules like many chocolates with a high cocoa percentage do. It also has a savory aroma where, like a mature red wine, you can't stop trying to pick out the myriad of different scents it exudes. I like how thin the chocolate is, so you get bites of chocolate wafer instead of a chocolate boulder. The packaging makes it difficult to travel with because it is hard to rewrap.