Fresh Bread

Bravo, bread soups. Not one bread crumb goes to waste.For centuries, Italians have turned leftover loaves into scrumptious recycled repasts. Stale bread plumps as it absorbs the luscious flavors from the warm broth. It softens into a glorious texture, filled with the scent of fresh vegetables, legumes and herbs.Not so long ago, it was difficult to find rustic, artisan-style breads, the key ingredient in these soups. But now coarse-textured, hard-crusted beauties are sold in almost every supermarket.

"Hey, what do you know? This is kind of neat."These are the words muttered by a skeptical appliance executive shortly before millions of bread machines found their way into American kitchens.Tom Lacalamita, of Welbilt, a New Jersey home appliance company, was sent home one weekend in 1988 with a bulky machine a colleague had toted back from Japan. Rumor had it that it made bread. Mixed it, kneaded it, shaped it, let it rise and baked it."Before I took it home, I didn't find it appealing to do something in a machine that we do so well by hand.

Q: Many recipes call for garlic to be diced, which I find to be a tedious process. Why can't I just crush it?A: Food purists may tell you that crushing garlic or using a garlic press will give a bitter garlic flavor due to the extreme breakdown of the cell walls. However, if you find the flavor to be acceptable, by all means, use a garlic press. The time saved is well worth it.Q: I have never been able to figure out how to make soft bread crumbs. What's the secret?A: The best trick to making soft bread crumbs (or bread crumbs from fresh bread)

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait -- Sometime today, three cargo ships loaded with water and vital supplies will ease into the deep-water port of Al-Shuaiba behind the British minesweeper HMS Cattistock.They will be the first supply ships since the invasion, and their arrival is a welcome step in the slow process of restarting this stalled country."The port's the ticket," said one U.S. Army officer. "When the port opens, you can do away with these truck convoys."Long caravans of flat-bed trucks have rumbled slowly north into Kuwait since the fighting stopped.

A little bundle of joy came to my house recently. It weighs about 8 pounds and just fits in my arms.That's right, I bought a bread machine.I didn't plan on it. I don't usually buy such things. I managed to avoid the entire decade of the '80s without buying a pasta maker.But a few days ago, I needed some coffee filters and I was in a shopping mall and so I ducked into one of those upscale kitchen stores, the kind with bare wood floors and hanging copper pots and wire baskets filled with gadgets.

SMOKE RISES FROM a grill. It curls and arches and spreads under the dark steel and concrete pillars that support the Jones Falls Expressway where it reaches Gay Street in the city of Baltimore. It's Sunday morning, time for inhabitants to come out and eat roasted meat, to gather greens, to take part again in a weekly ritual that celebrates community, enterprise and abundance. Stock market experts will say whether this has been a good year or a bad year. There are other ways to measure prosperity.

Good bread is our bottom line. Our kitchen can run short of fresh vegetables and fruit, or pasta and meat. That's OK. But when we're out of bread, something must be done, and out comes the bread bowl.Bread is the ultimate fast food. Slice it, toast it or simply tear off a chunk and eat it. Granted, baking good bread is hardly a quick activity, and the best bread takes patience. But if you add up the total number of minutes actively spent making bread (as opposed to the time spent doing other things while it rises and bakes)

The spirit of a horse-drawn bread wagon bangs around Baltimore inside a dented Dodge van with "M. Marinelli & Son" hung in the window.Behind the wheel sits the "son" -- 81-year-old Anthony Marinelli, last of the old-time Little Italy bakers still making bread at his house. Just about the same age as his business, Tony Marinelli's entire life has been mixed up like flour and water in golden loaves of "pane.""There were four or five Italian bakers around here in the old days," says Mr. Marinelli, whose earliest memory is hanging on his father's bread wagon when deliveries were made door-to-door.

First impressions are important.Two years ago, when Mike and Marybeth Morsberger first walked into a 76-year-old, three-story Colonial in Cedarcroft in North Baltimore, both were pretty sure that this was the home they wanted to live in with their two small daughters, Courtney and Allison.Marybeth nearly gasped when she saw the Georgia honey pine floors, grand fireplace and elegant French doors. "But I didn't want to seem too eager," she said.Mike was impressed when he walked into the main foyer and could see up to the second floor balcony.

There was a time, not too long ago, when wine consumers had a rather limited choice when they wanted to indulge in a bottle of true French champagne. About a dozen well-known brands - names such as Moet & Chandon, Mumm and Taittinger - dominated the market. Connoisseurs of esoterica could choose from another two dozen small producers - if they could find a bottle. That has all changed in a big way. Recent years have brought a flood of new names into the champagne market. Even the experts are having a difficult time keeping up with the profusion of choices.