“O Canada! Our home and native land
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise
The true north, strong and free
From far and wide, O Canada
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free
O Canada! We stand on guard for thee
O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.”

And there you have it, hockey fans – the words to Canada’s national anthem, which you’re always too preoccupied to REALLY listen to while waiting for the ref to drop the puck.

Today, July 1, is Canada Day, formerly known as Dominion Day – and a.k.a. Canada’s Birthday.

And I’ll bet you thought, all these years, that the U.S. was the only North American country with a July birthday, right?

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Is there anything quite as lovely as a simple corn muffin?

Its sunny interior perfectly reflects the color of the corn from which it springs.

You know the liquid-yellow hue of a just-shucked ear of corn? It’s not Crayola yellow, nor golden, nor even bright lemon.

No, fresh corn is a pale but rich yellow, the color you might expect an opal to be – if opals came in yellow.

The muffin pictured above isn’t exactly corn-colored; it’s a deeper tone, a combination shucked corn and mahogany. But its slightly less sunny color is the result of a secret ingredient…

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Nanaimo.

It sounds so exotic, doesn’t it?

Bali. Maluku. Oahu.

Nanaimo.

There’s just one difference between those first three island paradises, and the last-

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Yogurt.

Thick, creamy yogurt, with enough tang to let you know it’s cultured, but not enough to come off as mouth-puckeringly unpleasant.

Where do you find The Perfect Yogurt?

Right at home. Making homemade yogurt is a lot easier than you might think…

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What’s your favorite flavor?

We’re talking baking now; answers like cilantro, umami, and Kettle Chip Spicy Thai are off limits.

We posed this question on our Facebook page several months ago, and the results were surprising – at least to me.

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Now I ask you, does this look like a pizza that would elicit doubt? Not just doubt, but apprehension.

To say nothing of puzzlement.

Yea, even a touch of “Ewwwww.”

That’s just how my Web teammates greeted this pizza when I brought it, hot from the oven, into our office for a birthday lunch a few weeks ago.

“What IS that on top? That’s not potatoes, is it?”

“Yes,” I replied, “Those are most certainly potatoes, and they are indeed on top of this pizza. Along with chopped scallions and melted chunks of Asiago cheese. Ya got a problem with that?”

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It’s a beautiful  afternoon, isn’t it? The laundry is done, the lawn all mowed. You’ve finished the paperback you picked up at a yard sale yesterday and you’re aching to get out and stretch your legs in the sunshine. Have you ever heard of…

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I distinctly remember the first time I had cherry ice cream. We were in Sturbridge, Massachusetts for the day, and my mother must have been off in the shops as I was alone with my dad. We stopped at a little ice cream window on a side street and he talked me into ordering Bing cherry ice cream.

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Pork shoulder, simmered for hours in a vinegar/brown sugar broth, fall-off-the-bone tender…. this is barbecue at its best.

It’s so readily available in the South and Midwest; so UNAVAILABLE in most of the rest of the country.

Oh, sure, there’s probably good barbecue in metropolitan areas all over. And there may be pockets of barbecue scattered around, say, South Dakota.

And some expat may have set up his or her pit in Vermont – someone like Curtis Tuff, who’s been selling chicken and ribs at Curtis’ Barbecue (a.k.a. Curtis’ All American “9th Wonder of the World” Barbecue) in Putney, Vermont for years.

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This blog has been focusing on buns a lot lately.  And I confess – I’m the culprit for the monotony (if you’re not a bun lover); or inspiration (if you are).

I happen to love buns. Fat, golden little loaves, one-serving wonders that baby your burger, harbor your hotdog, or simply serve as a base for melting butter.

And buns aren’t just for cookouts.

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