Yeast

Q. I read about people getting bitten by mosquitoes, and I want to tell you my experience. For the past 20 or 30 years I have been taking (along with other vitamins) a half-tablespoon of brewer's yeast a day. Since I started taking this every morning I have never been visited by mosquitoes. My wife gets bites during the warmest part of the summer, but mosquitoes leave me alone. Maybe it is my Swedish blood they don't like. They must love my Sicilian wife. A. Yeast is rich in B vitamins, especially thiamine.

When it comes to baking sweet yeast breads, almost any excuse will do. Kneading, braiding and pinching are the pleasures of the baker at any time, but when holidays roll around, experimental and ho-hum baking ceases and rituals take over the kitchen. After all, there are legends to continue and traditions to keep. Throughout the Christian world, yeast breads are traditionally served for the Easter celebration. A little sweeter, a little richer, a little more complicated than our daily bread, these baked goods are the specialty of ethnic bakers.

NOW THAT THE Baltimore Ravens have answered some of life's big questions, namely, what is the best defense in the history of professional football and how many words can be paired with Maximus, small questions persist. Questions like what can you fix for supper. My answer is homemade pizza. Lately that's what I have been tossing on the table to quiet the hungry horde. There are three things you have to have to make this version of homemade pizza. First, you need a food processor with a steel blade to mix the dough.

Q. Someone recently asked you about natural ways to avoid mosquito bites. We use brewer's yeast for this. My son (age 5) reacts badly to mosquito bites, and I don't like to use bug sprays on him. Years ago a vet recommended brewer's yeast for a dog allergic to flea bites. Our pediatrician had never heard of using this for kids but thought it couldn't hurt. My son hasn't had a single bite since I started giving him one tablet of brewer's yeast every day. I have a friend who swears by brewer's yeast to ward off cold sores.

Bunches of rhubarb arrived at the Waverly Farmers' Market this past weekend -- a sign that local gardens will soon be overflowing. Stewed rhubarb was a springtime dish on my family's table, but don't think that everyone delighted in it. In fact, there were but a few people who smacked their lips for this sour, slimy stuff. Rhubarb was one of a category of difficult dishes that issued from the kitchen of the Guilford Avenue home where I was born. Each season had its own strange item -- a food that was a very different feed from the standard rib roast of beef, crab cake or spaghetti dinner.

When I first entered the culinary world, I was greatly intimidated by bread baking. Actually, any recipe that called for yeast was quickly rejected on general principle. Making bread seemed too technical, exacting and scientific -- not creative and flexible like cooking. And reading recipes in bread books certainly didn't help, because most required six to seven different steps and several days to come up with an edible loaf. Now, 23 years later, I've overcome my fear of yeast and of accurately measuring the temperature of water.

I am going to tell you how to make crusty Italian bread today because many readers asked for the recipe after I mentioned it in Friday's column and because the therapeutic benefits of pounding dough on a day like this cannot be overstated. Bake bread when there's snow on the ground. You'll feel better. Trust me. You need 7 cups of flour and 4 packets of dry active yeast. I know: That's trouble right away. You have neither flour nor yeast. (Or the yeast in your cupboard dates to the first Reagan administration.

1998 Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay, Columbia Valley ($11). The 1998 chardonnay from this ultra-reliable Washington state winery is a worthy successor to the excellent 1997, also a Wine-of-the-Week selection. It's not a humongous chardonnay, and that's part of its magic. It's a crisp wine that's in perfect balance, with a certain zing that its California counterparts seldom achieve (at least for this remarkable price). The flavors are a moderately complex mix of apple, pear, light oak, nuts, yeast, lemon and white pepper.

Bertha Whitmire of Kelso, Wash., requested a recipe for Cheddar Cheese Bread. She wrote that she had tasted a slice of the bread at a senior potluck dinner in Longview, Wash. "I tried to find out who made it," she said, "but to no avail."Pam Simon of Laurel came to the rescue with a recipe from Bernard Clayton's "New Complete Book of Breads." "I make it frequently for gift giving, and it always gets rave reviews," she said.Cheddar Cheese BreadMakes 2 medium loaves2 cups water1/4 cup sugar2 teaspoonssalt2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature1/2 cup nonfat dry milk12 ounces (3 cups)

A whiff of pizza baking in the oven promises good food and good times. One of the best things about making your own pizza is the freedom to create break-out-of-the-box combinations that redefine good pizza. A case in point is something you'll probably not find at the supermarket or local pizzeria: a vibrant vegetarian spinoff of Chicago-style pizza.Wilted escarole adds color and flavor to a meatless pizza topping that's as visually appealing as it is good-tasting, while cornmeal gives the crust extra crunch.