Cornmeal

On these beautiful, lazy mornings of late spring, brunch beckons like the promised land. Bring a couple of good friends (or your mom), sit in the sunshine and catch up over a relaxed meal. We're not talking giant buffets but carefully prepared, seasonal dishes. I don't indulge often, but whenever I do, I leave with a feeling of well-being that leaves a glow on the rest of the day. A.O.C. Reserve a table in the romantic garden at A.O.C.'s new digs (the former Orso). Bougainvillea nods over the garden wall.

  Black Russian rye bread Total time: 1 1/2 hours, plus rising and cooling times Servings: Makes 2 loaves (about 16 servings) Our recipes, your kitchen: If you try any of the L.A. Times Test Kitchen recipes from this week's Food section, please share it with us: Click here to upload pictures of the finished dish. Note: Adapted from "The Bread Bible" by Beth Hensperger. Specialty flours are available at select well-stocked markets, health food, cooking and baking supply stores, as well as online.

This Mexican spoon bread is a twist on a wonderful old Southern cornmeal recipe. It isn't really a bread that is sliced and buttered, but it's just as comforting. Spoon bread is soft and creamy and can be eaten with a fork or a spoon. The combination of black beans and cornmeal makes this dish especially comforting on a cool winter day. Serve this with your favorite salsa on the side along with a dollop of sour cream and you will certainly feel satisfied.

What's in a name? Well, just about everything, if you consider what has happened to cornmeal mush and then think of polenta. They are basically identical, but just try to tell that to an Italian from Lombardy. Or an orthodox "foodie," for that matter. I suspect that if you put "cornmeal mush and cheese" on the menu in a fashionable Los Angeles restaurant, it wouldn't sell.

Question: I am seeking information on raising escargots, a.k.a. snails, for food. Could you tell me how to decontaminate garden snails for human consumption? A friend of ours is eating them and sometimes has peculiar stomach pains. Are snails nutritious? Answer: The common brown garden snail, which was originally brought to this country from France, is the same type of escargot that is eaten in many restaurants.

Several years ago, we started seeing polenta on trendy menus. Sometimes it was an appetizer, sometimes a main course, sometimes even a dessert. It's a new treat that is quite old. An American Indian product, polenta is basically ground cornmeal; in Italy, however, it is cornmeal that is cooked slowly, spread out, cooled and topped with sauces, cheese, vegetables, even powdered sugar. By itself, corn--and thus polenta--is only moderately nutritious.

English muffins Total time: 50 minutes, plus overnight proofing and rising times Servings: Makes 1 dozen muffins Note: This recipe calls for instant yeast or rapid-rise. The recipe calls for a stand mixer; the muffins can also be mixed by hand, though extra flour may be needed when kneading the dough in step 2, resulting in muffins that are not as light as those mixed in a stand mixer. 4 cups (18 ounces) bread flour, divided 1 tablespoon plus 1½ teaspoons sugar 2 teaspoons instant yeast 3 tablespoons melted butter 1 1/2 cups milk, at room temperature 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 1/2 cup cornmeal, for dusting 1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together 3½ cups (15.75 ounces)

The first thing you may notice about Rocio's Mole de los Dioses, an immodestly named restaurant not far from the Burbank airport, is the cactus. By this I don't mean that there are potted cactus plants around, or pictures of cactus on the walls, or a blinking neon cactus in the window, but that there is cactus on the plate almost everywhere it is possible for cactus to be. (The restaurant is somehow related to the cactus-intensive tortilleria Nopaltilla next...

Polenta, the Italian name for cornmeal mush, is not exactly a household word. But you are likely to be hearing more about this classic Northern Italian dish in the year to come. Cornmeal that is readily available in supermarkets--the same type you may have on hand for corn bread--will create a wonderful hors d'oeuvre.