Charity isn't always about money.

Years ago, when we had a farm, I sold produce at the local farmers' market. We set up in a parking lot in an urban area, near the factories and low-income apartments which housed many elderly and close-to-homeless people.

Mothers hear so much about the Mommy Wars. We're told there's an absolute no-holds-barred battle that leaves moms in the paid workplace and those at home fulltime raising kids unable to share a playgroup or a carpool, let alone a smile or a story. Is life at the local playground and the preschool pick-up line as bad as all that? Mothers report that for the most part, it doesn't matter who's getting a check at the end of the month, that--to quote the latest kid-rave High School Musical--we're all in this together.

The hardest thing to do when you're stay-at-home is take time for yourself. I get so stressed and so--well, depressed, that I don't take care of myself. There's always something else to do when your job is your home. It also doesn't help that I'm a workaholic, a tendency that seems to be part of the American character.

I've been reading Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much again, and this bit leaped out at me today:

Next to my stove is a clear squeeze bottle filled with dark brown stuff. People usually think it's soy sauce, but they get a shock if they put it on rice. It's not soy sauce, it's molasses.

"Why keep a squeeze bottle of molasses next to the stove?" you're thinking. "How often do you make gingerbread, anyway?" Because in modern American homes, that's about the only time molasses gets pulled out of the slightly gummy back recesses of the cupboard, if there's any in the cupboard at all--for gingerbread at Christmas.

Why doesn't Lynn's bread look as nice as the results say it should?" you may be asking yourself. A few reasons, plus some notes on things I do differently than Jean that you might be able to see in the photos

Measuring and mixing ingredients is a major part of any recipe. But what makes bread-making different is how you work them together. Whole wheat breads create an additional problem because, well, they're harder to work with than white flour breads.

Making whole wheat bread that you love is often touted as one of the great culinary feats of the world in cookbooks. Whole wheat by itself, you see, makes a dense, heavy loaf that no true aficionado would tolerate if it weren't necessary.

Here are the hands-on steps to making the perfect pie crust.

All of the anal-retentive suggestions you have ever heard about pie crust are true, because pie dough is a very special kind of dough. It isn't hard to achieve, once you know what you're going for and why, but pie crust can still intimidate a lot of people.