Flour

No grain has passed through the elaborate chutes of Roop Mill for a half-century. But if you ran a ton of wheat through it today, it might still come out as flour.You would get a lot of dust and cobwebs, too. The only thing missing from the old turbine-powered mill is a bell that rang to let the miller know a barrel was full of flour.But a whole lot more has been piled on since the 18th-century mill closed in the 1940s. Old boards, furniture and farm tools have piled up inside, all but hiding the treasure: the intact remains of a once-thriving grain mill.

Mixing popular summer cocktails and cupcakes was the ingenious brainchild for one of the delicious desserts from Flavor Cupcakery in Bel Air. Located near Harford Mall, the cupcakery is known for its unique flavors made with the finest ingredients. “We always wanted to have great recipes and commit to using high-quality ingredients,” says Shelley Stannard, owner of Flavor Cupcakery. “And we like to research interesting combinations.” The Margarita cupcake is only one such combination.

Lab results show that what investigators suspected was gunpowder seized from the home of one of three teen-agers accused in a bomb plot at Glen Burnie High School is flour and cornstarch, a defense lawyer said yesterday.Defense lawyer Patrick M. Smith and a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office said they would ask today for the immediate release of the 15-year-old, who has been held at the Waxter Children's Center since April 29. The other two suspects are also being held at Waxter.

Executive Chef Daniel Wecker reflects: This is one of my personal favorites because of the combination of the elegant, flaky flounder with the tartness of the sauce with the capers. I recommend a rice blend or creamy polenta as the starch and a garnish of chopped parsley. This dish pairs very nicely with Pouilly-Fuisse, White Burgundy, a rich, dry white wine. Sauteed Flounder Grenobloise Sauce Ingredients: - 3 cups of brown chicken stock - 1/3 cup roux (equal parts butter and flour cooked)

I want to make a roux without fat. Will it be possible to do so in a Teflon-coated pan? The very definition of roux, a French word meaning reddish, is flour cooked in fat. Traditionally, half butter and half flour are used. Other kinds of fats, such as vegetable oil, can be substituted, but the flavor will be inferior. Extra-virgin olive oil may be a more healthful choice while also imparting its own flavor. Whether you use a coated pan or bare metal pan, some fat will be necessary. The roux is used to make sauces, and the cooking time depends on what kind of sauce is desired.

BAGHDAD -- An explosives-laden truck blew up yesterday at a crowded market in Tal Afar, killing at least 50 people and injuring 103 others, officials said. The truck had been loaded with flour, and shoppers were invited to help themselves. "They were all innocent civilians," Mayor Najin Abdullah Jubouri said. "Their only fault is that they are Shiite." Across the country yesterday, at least 84 Iraqis were found dead in bombings, mortar attacks, sniper fire and execution-style shootings.

One of the most visible and well-known landmarks along the Baltimore Beltway, the hulking, former Stroh Brewery Co. tower, will be demolished during the next few months in an $8 million project to make way for a vast warehouse and office building complex that could bring about 200 jobs to a Baltimore County enterprise zone. The property's new owner, First Industrial Realty Trust, bought the 400,000-square- foot plant in Halethorpe in late December for $13.9 million. The building was owned by Washington Quality Foods, which is still using part of the plant for manufacturing.

When the nation was young, millers sought the junction of field, falls and harbor. They came to Baltimore.Field for grain. White water for power. Blue bay for commerce. Nowhere else from Georgia to Massachusetts do the three coincide. Two centuries ago, grist turned to dust under 200 millstones on the falls of Jones, Gwynns, Gunpowder and Patapsco.Those days are gone -- stolen by time, steam energy and the unlocked West. But like a Triassic survivor on an island primeval, Wilkins-Rogers Inc. carries one of Maryland's oldest industries into the age of the fat-free, quick-mix muffin.

Frank Anthony Serio, who built up a bakery supply and flour distribution business into a large regional wholesale ingredients supplier, died Saturday at St. Joseph Medical Center. The 83-year-old Cockeysville resident died of complications from a fall at his home. Born in Baltimore and raised near Edmondson Village, he attended St. Bernardine's Parochial School and was a 1942 Calvert Hall College High School graduate. He enrolled at Loyola College and, while on a blind date, he met his future wife, Rose Proietti, a College of Notre Dame of Maryland student.

Rebecca Burris of Owings Mills said she has "recently fallen in love with Starbucks' Very Berry Coffee Cake," and she was looking for a similar recipe so that she could make the cake at home. Unfortunately, Starbucks does not share its recipes, but I felt confident that an Internet search would yield a recipe that would come very close to the cake that Burris enjoys so much. I found a recipe on http://www.food.com for a Very Berry Coffee Cake that I tweaked just a bit and came up with a real winner.

Rebecca Burris of Owings Mills said she has "recently fallen in love with Starbucks' Very Berry Coffee Cake," and she was looking for a similar recipe so that she could make the cake at home. Unfortunately, Starbucks does not share its recipes, but I felt confident that an Internet search would yield a recipe that would come very close to the cake that Burris enjoys so much. I found a recipe on http://www.food.com for a Very Berry Coffee Cake that I tweaked just a bit and came up with a real winner.

Rick Seyfried from Columbia was looking for a recipe he has lost for making a quick Christmas Stollen bread that he found on a package of Jell-O vanilla pudding mix some years ago. He said that he has written the "Jell-O company to search their archives for the recipe to no avail. " I searched the Kraft food website but could not locate a recipe for a stollen that used pudding. However, in my internet search I did find on http://www.tasteofhome.com an excellent quick and easy recipe for making a stollen.

Leda Hoffman from Sonoma, Calif., was looking for a recipe she has lost for making apricot nut bread. She says she especially liked to make this bread around the holidays. Gladys Wilt of Lothian sent in two recipes from her collection for apricot nut bread. I tested the one from "The Ladies' Home Journal Cookbook," published in 1960, because it sounded like what Hoffman was looking for. This recipe makes a very hearty and dense tea bread that is full of nuts and dried fruit.

Ronald Collins from Nottingham was looking for a recipe for making sweet potato biscuits like the ones his best friend's mother made when they were growing up on the Eastern Shore. Louise "Buttons" Bassett from Berlin sent in a recipe that she said was given to her by the late Betty Kelly , a longtime friend and native of Salisbury, on the Eastern Shore. She said that the recipe has never failed to give her delicious biscuits. I found that the biscuits to be denser in consistency then more traditional ones, but they had a delicate sweet flavor and a beautiful deep orange color.

Hope Dailey of Sykesville wrote in on behalf of a friend about a recipe for coconut pound cake. She said her friend's mother-in-law made this cake with lots of eggs, butter and frozen coconut and she thinks it may have been a Southern recipe. Dotty Rather of Knoxville, Tenn., sent in a recipe for coconut cream cheese pound cake, which she said came from an older issue of Southern Living. The cake is rich, dense and delicious. It is rife with coconut flavor and needs no frosting or glaze.

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have devoured raw cookie dough. At least that's how Vanessa Simmons sees it. "My friends and I used to buy a role of slice-and-bake and just eat spoonfuls of it during a breakup or crisis," said Simmons, a 23-year-old Johns Hopkins graduate who lives in Mount Vernon. Raw cookie dough may heal a broken heart, but it's not so hot for the rest of you. Last month, E. coli turned up in refrigerated Toll House cookie dough at Nestle's Danville, Va., plant.

My family loves gravy with most of the things I make. Are there any tips that you have for avoiding lumps that sometimes occur when I make gravy? I assume you are talking about good old pan gravy like my mom used to make. You probably remember someone in your family mixing together a little flour and water to thicken those wonderful pan juices produced by roast beef or chicken. That seems like a good idea, and there's nothing wrong with flour and water; it's just that some things are fine on their own but wrong when they're put together.

Mixing popular summer cocktails and cupcakes was the ingenious brainchild for one of the delicious desserts from Flavor Cupcakery in Bel Air. Located near Harford Mall, the cupcakery is known for its unique flavors made with the finest ingredients. “We always wanted to have great recipes and commit to using high-quality ingredients,” says Shelley Stannard, owner of Flavor Cupcakery. “And we like to research interesting combinations.” The Margarita cupcake is only one such combination.

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have devoured raw cookie dough. At least that's how Vanessa Simmons sees it. "My friends and I used to buy a role of slice-and-bake and just eat spoonfuls of it during a breakup or crisis," said Simmons, a 23-year-old Johns Hopkins graduate who lives in Mount Vernon. Raw cookie dough may heal a broken heart, but it's not so hot for the rest of you. Last month, E. coli turned up in refrigerated Toll House cookie dough at Nestle's Danville, Va., plant.

As part of a two-person household, you may be hesitant to do any baking. Those 5-pound bags of flour are daunting, and if you use sugar by the teaspoon, not the cup, buying it in bulk can be overwhelming. You can bake for two, but you may want to scale down your purchases. The standard advice is to buy larger sizes because you're paying less per cup. However, smaller packages take up less room in your cupboard and have a faster turnover. Buy flour in 2-pound bags. If you bake infrequently, store the bag in the refrigerator (this is especially important for whole-wheat flour, which can turn rancid)