Cook's corner.

Here's a book that's both a cookbook and a fun history lesson at the same time! Loaves of Fun is a history of bread with recipes and activities from around the world.

You'll learn about bread's earliest beginnings as a lumpy, crude mixture of crushed grains and water 75,000 years ago -- before fire had been tamed. Then, approximately 10,000 years ago, people living in Asia started heating this mixture over a fire. It was the ancient Egyptians, though, who really advanced modern bread -- baking by adding yeast to the recipe (yeast is what makes bread rise and become fluffy).

When the Pilgrims came to the New World in the 1600s, they brought along hard pieces of round bread called "ship's biscuits" made from pea flour, wheat flour, and water. When they settled in America, they discovered a new grain to use, and corn bread was born.

Here's a recipe for johnnycakes, a pancake that the early colonists made and enjoyed at nearly every meal. (According to the author, the word "johnnycake" may have come from "journey cake" -- breads that Pilgrims took on long journeys across the seas.)

What You Need:
1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter, plus extra for oiling
the pan
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup milk

What You Do:
1. Bring the water and 2 tablespoons butter
to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high
heat.
2. Mix the cornmeal, salt, and sugar in a
bowl and pour the water and butter
mixture in. Add the milk and stir.
3. Put a skillet on the stove over medium
heat and melt enough butter in it to coat
the surface.
4. Spoon pancake-sized dollops of the batter
onto the hot skillet. Cook for 5 minutes on
each side or until golden brown.
5. Serve hot, topped with jam, syrup, or
apple butter. (Makes 12 johnnycakes.)

Loaves of Fun is written by Elizabeth M. Harbison and published by Chicago Review Press, 1997; 1-800-888-4741.

Recipe and art reprinted with permission by Chicago Review Press.

Healthful Recipe Contest

The Children's Better Health institute and U-S-Kids are looking for original, healthful recipes to share with our readers. Send us your own original recipe, and you could win a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place certificate and be featured in U-S-Kids! Here are the rules:

1. Recipe must be orginal -- not one from a cookbook 2. Recipe must be healthful! That means low in fat, sugar, and sodium, high in fiber, and containing no artificial sweeteners (no dessert recipes, please). 3. Print (or type) your recipe on white paper, and include your name, the name of your recipe, your address, phone number, age, and parent's signature. Also include a school picture of yourself, or a picture of you and your family. 4. Entries must be postmarked no later than December 31, 1997.

Mail your recipe entry to: Healthful Recipe Contest U-S-Kids, P.O. Box 567 Indianapolis, IN 46206.

Sorry, we are not able to return entries/photos. All entries become property of the Children's Better Health Institute.