The Perfect Pantry

Sour cream (Recipe: currant cardamom scones)

In the house where I grew up, the words sour cream and dollop went everywhere together.

On blitzes. On borscht.

On latkes. Oh, yes, on latkes.

I never knew that you could do anything with sour cream other than dollop it.

In fact, I never really knew much about sour cream.

Powdered buttermilk (Recipe: pear spice cupcakes)

When you drive toward my town from pretty much anywhere, you pass a mall or two.

Big box stores, little box stores, grocery stores and discount stores. Drive-through doughnuts, drive-up banking. Hardware, software, sportswear.

It's hard to believe that, a century ago, apple orchards and dairy farms, punctuated by occasional clusters of tiny wood-shingled houses along the road, were all you'd find around here. Today, what remains is the name -- Apple Valley -- and just a handful of orchards.

Our house is on the outskirts of Apple Valley, five or ten miles from here to one of those grocery stores, not far to drive in good weather but not fun in the winter. So, at this time of year, I always keep shelf-stable milk and powdered buttermilk in my pantry.

Mahlab (Recipe: Armenian brioche filled with dates, honey and walnuts)

Today, another guest post by one of the food bloggers I've adopted through the Adopt-a-Blogger mentoring program. (Please be sure to visit their terrific blogs.) Today, meet Sandie of Inn Cuisine, the second blog I adopted. Sandie, a writer based in Kansas City, specializes in recipes from bed and breakfasts, country and urban inns, as well as cooking with local, sustainable foods. Her blog is full of recipes you'll love to have in your repertoire when entertaining family, friends and guests at home.

Guest post and photos by Sandie of Inn Cuisine.

As an avid reader of The Perfect Pantry, I have learned much from Lydia’s work: from interesting facts about ingredients I thought I knew, to discovering products and spices completely foreign to me. That’s why, when Lydia asked if I would write a guest post, my mind raced. What pantry ingredient could I feature? What recipe could I share?

In Perfect Pantry style, I decided to push myself, learn about and cook with a pantry item I had not previously heard of or experienced: mahlab.

Whole wheat flour (Recipe: grilled pizza)

Have you tried grilled pizza? While I'm on vacation, please enjoy this updated post, with new photos and links, and a printer-friendly recipe.

I'm an every-other-decade kind of baker.

In the 1960s and again in the 1980s, I baked bread, sometimes every week. I started with a basic recipe for white bread, from the classic Beard on Bread, and slowly I branched out.

My pantry reflected that bread passion, with jars of unbleached all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, rye, semolina, oatmeal, seeds and nuts and grains from the local health food store.

Now that we're nearer to the end of the 00 decade than to the beginning, I'm feeling the urge to bake again. I bought Dorie Greenspan's book. Ted's run off with it, but I'm not complaining; he made glorious lemon madeleines. And brioche. And French toast from the brioche...

Cardamom (Recipe: Finnish pulla bread)

Ten things I know about cardamom (you'll be glad to know them, too):