The third time’s the charm: recipe from Cooking Light magazine

The first time I made this bread, I didn’t spread the filling properly and it clumped together in the middle, leaving me with lovely end pieces but nothing more. The second time I was to make it, my mom had no flour in the house (!) and then she got sick with the flu and wouldn’t have eaten it anyway. The third time, for tonight’s book club, it turned out great. The lesson? Persistence really does pay off.

Being in baking mode right now is ideal since the weather’s taken a turn for the snowy. It’s great to fill the house with warm scents when you’re surrounded by a blanket of the white stuff.

Speaking of which, when I went outside this morning to shovel the driveway, I found to my surprise (and definite delight) that my neighbor had snowblowed everything behind our cars. He was still out there and I thanked him. His response? “Sometimes I get carried away!” And he wasn’t kidding. I looked around and noticed he’d plowed out the driveway of the college girls across from us and the couple next door. What a nice guy!