Homemade

It's a sausage lover's world out there, right? Especially at this time of year, nothing goes better with a great cold beer. The crisp crunch of that first juicy bite, the perfect blend of fresh ground meat redolent with toasted spices and pungent herbs. Granted, you can increasingly find some pretty good packaged sausages. But for the true fan, nothing compares to the texture and flavors to be found in great homemade sausage. Sausage making is an art that spans almost every regional and ethnic cuisine, a craft carefully honed and perfected over thousands of years.

Scones are one of the basic pleasures in life. Like biscuits with a touch of added sweetness, the best scones are delicate and light yet somehow wonderfully rich, each bite suggesting bits of butter that have all but disappeared, leaving behind tender, flaky layers. A scone is a singular work of art, yet any sweet or savory flavorings just add to the magic. And as hard as it may be to resist a beautiful scone in a bakery display case, nothing beats the flavor of homemade. Like biscuits, scones are part of the quick bread family, rustic cousins to more refined pastries and cakes.

The military considers them just another piece of equipment; they even have service numbers tattooed inside their ears. Soldiers often treat them as pets, playing with them and feeding them the junk food common on the remote bases of Afghanistan. To their handlers, bomb-sniffing dogs are more like battle buddies. "I'd trust Urmel over most people," Army Sgt. Tait Terzo said of his 4-year-old Belgian Malinois (service number: L-424). At the same time, he said, if a bomb is lethal, better it kills a dog than a human.

There's no sign of Caine Monroy's game arcade when I pull up to his father's Boyle Heights auto parts shop. The 9-year-old is taking his show on the road, enjoying the perks of becoming a viral video star. He and his dad will be at the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco this weekend, so Caine can explain to geeked-up science fans how he turned a bunch of cardboard boxes into an elaborate arcade and social network phenomenon. "They sent a 17-foot semi truck and loaded everything up," Caine's father, George Monroy told me. Next, Caine's headed to New York City, for a meeting with an arcade company.

Thank you for the wonderful article on tamale making ("A Christmas Tradition: Tamales," Dec. 13). We're a Japanese-American family that has been making homemade tamales every Christmas for more than 30 years. Someday soon I will be passing this tradition on to my 2-year-old daughter. JULIE KYOSAI-WATANABE From the Internet

A man died after the homemade soapbox racer he was riding in spun out of control during a race and crashed into a parked car. LAPD Sgt. Jim Mascola said the incident took place about 7:45 a.m. Other racers said the victim was 21 years old and one of about 35 members of the San Fernando Valley Illegal Soapbox Federation out for an early-morning downhill race.

A man who was already on probation for domestic violence against his estranged wife has been charged with possessing illegal bombs and weapons after making new threats against her, authorities said Monday. Ronald Gary Turner, 44, could face more than 13 years in prison if convicted on all counts, authorities said. He was arrested last week after police received information that he possessed illegal weapons and had threatened his wife, whose name was not released. On July 2, authorities pulled Turner's car over on the 22 Freeway and recovered handcuffs, pepper spray, knives and a stolen 9-mm firearm with its serial numbers removed.

I'm sorry, what is up with you people? Despite heaps of praise, too many of you are taking a pass. Are you worried that it's just another desert war movie, depressing story, faces hidden by burkas or beards? Well, let's defuse that notion. What we have here is a psychological thriller, man against machine, the clock ticking as Jeremy Renner, a stealth bomb of an actor, sets about disarming the homemade kind. It's chess reconceived as an extreme sport, every action carrying the possibility of reaction.

A homemade bomb exploded while being defused outside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Lakewood substation Sunday, and deputies found three more bombs inside a motor home parked just outside the station's lobby, authorities said. No one was injured and no property was damaged, deputies said. Joseph Anthony Dimuro, 34, the motor home's owner, was arrested on suspicion of possession of explosive devices and for alleged weapons and narcotics violations. He was held in lieu of $60,000 bail at the Lakewood station jail.

I think the problem Howard Leff has ["Your Big House or Mine?" June 30] is that he only knows single women. All the married women I know can whip up a fabulous tiramisu after they've just finished repainting the pool fence. See, what happened was that we all married smart, intellectual types who make a good living. But guess what? They don't know how, or care, to paint the house. As my husband said, "This is why I make a lot of money. Hire someone." End of story. I gave my husband sawhorses for his birthday, but they were really for me. True, he does know how to program the VCR and he's really sweet.

IDLIB, Syria - Scattered around the house that Abu Nadim once shared with his wife and five children are hints of its former existence: a SpongeBob SquarePants pillow, a baby's crib, a woman's purse. Now the four-room home is a bomb-making workshop. Bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, containers of peroxide and acetone and powdered aluminum cover the floor, along with boxes of wires, PVC pipes, computer parts and cigarette ash, as if someone had wandered through without thought for an ashtray.

It's cooking class this week at Try This - for skin cream. If mixing your own cosmetics sounds like fun, here's a recipe we think is worth the effort. The concoction comes courtesy of Rosemary Gladstar, a Vermont-based herbalist and author of "Science and Art of Herbalism" and numerous other titles. "It turns out a really fluffy, beautiful white cream like what you would buy in any fancy cosmetic store," she says. The all-natural moisturizer calls for ingredients that can be found at health food stores or online at places such as Mountain Rose Herbs (www.mountainroseherbs.com)

Homemade pop tarts? Are we crazy? Absolutely not. This isn't just another example of the locavore artisanal movement gone mad, these pastries developed by food writer Amy Scattergood are really delicious. The dough is much richer and flakier than the original — and it's made with whole wheat. You can fill it with jam or fruit preserves and it'll be really good. But what got this recipe into the top 10 was the filling of almond-flavored frangipane. Making them is a bit of a project — certainly more work than just popping them in the toaster — but the flavor more than makes it worthwhile.

Homemade food makes a wonderful gift this time of year, but so often carefully made delicious treats are piled unceremoniously onto paper plates, wrapped haphazardly in tinfoil or carelessly tossed into plastic bags. It may be the thought that counts, but packaging matters too. With so many easy and inexpensive ways to wrap food gifts, there is no excuse not to create an attractive presentation. Discount and craft stores are great sources for inexpensive containers and low-cost embellishments.

You can't have an infantry without F-A-N-T. Family members say Spc. Garrett A. Fant , 21, enjoyed the play on his name, telling them and his fellow soldiers that it proved he was always meant to be in the Army . Fant's older sister, Shanna Askins, said he played with G.I. Joe action figures from the age of 3. When he was 4, he wore an Army outfit and practiced saluting, and later dressed as a soldier at Halloween. Fant was killed Sept. 26 when he stepped on an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, on the Pakistani border.

Lately, I've been on a homemade mustard kick. Think mustard, and your thoughts might veer first toward the bright yellow stuff you get in a squeeze bottle. Or maybe you prefer something a little less mild, as you reach for your favorite brand of Dijon or maybe a spicy whole grain. But have you ever tried making mustard from scratch? You won't believe how simple it is. Essentially, mustard is nothing more than a combination of seeds and liquid. Soak seeds in the fluid of your choice (water, vinegar, perhaps a double bock beer)

So you have decided to bake a cake. It's that time again . . . a glorious Easter weekend coming . . . colorful flowers of spring in beautiful bloom. What better inspiration could one want, other than envisioning delighted faces and getting a pat on the back from satisfied cake devotees? What else could stop you? Afraid to take another chance after a chocolate mousse cake turned out to be disaster? Blame it on that temperamental mousse, genoise.

Taco Bell fans have spent the last week wondering what's really in their meals after a lawsuit was filed alleging that the popular fast-food chain's meat contains a whole lot of mystery. Some consumers cringed at the term "taco meat filling," which is how the lawsuit says Taco Bell should advertise its seasoned beef. It alleges that the product contains mostly substances other than beef. Taco Bell Corp., a Yum Brands Inc. subsidiary based in Irvine, has fired back, refuting the lawsuit's allegations and defending its menu ingredients.

A powerful homemade bomb killed four U.S. service members Monday in southern Afghanistan, military officials said, an unusually high number of troop deaths in a single explosion. Bombs known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have caused the bulk of Western combat casualties in Afghanistan, despite concerted efforts to provide better protection for troops in the field, including sophisticated mine-resistant vehicles and improved body armor. Because these homemade bombs are the weapon most favored by insurgents facing a far more powerful conventional military force, the rate of catastrophic battlefield wounds among U.S. and other Western troops is on the rise, including loss of multiple limbs and injuries to the groin.

Thirty-nine people were injured when a disgruntled former bank employee set off a homemade gasoline bomb in China's northwestern Gansu province Friday, the New China News Agency reported. Six people were seriously wounded. All of the injured were taken to a hospital. Yang Xianwen, a former cashier who was fired in April over embezzlement charges, allegedly threw the bomb into a meeting room on the fifth floor of the Tianzhu County Rural Credit Union and fled the scene. Survivors were reportedly seen jumping out of windows to escape the fire caused by the blast.