My husband likes to use his mini laptop to listen live to news, debates and other types of programs on National Public Radio out of Boston, considering its international news coverage and quality of programming superior to that of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. There are some programs he particularly likes, among them a rather casual Saturday-evening presentation about cooking. Last Saturday, because American Thanksgiving was fast approaching, there was an item about a type of raisin pie that appears to be a favourite for that holiday.

This pie, and its ingredients - sour cream, sugar, various spices, eggs and raisins - appealed to my husband. Mind, for our own Canadian celebration of Thanksgiving, more than a month before the American one, nothing could replace his all-time favourite; pumpkin pie. But he was certainly curious about the recipe and looked it up, then assigned me the voluntary task of baking it the following Friday. Which I did. The finished product was nice enough and tasty enough, but I still think the traditional raisin pie I bake is superior, though we did enjoy this one for Friday-night dessert.

What I did enjoy on Friday morning was his company in our kitchen. While I set about making an ordinary bread dough - to be refrigerated until put to use the following evening, for a pizza crust - and pie-baking, and putting on our usual Friday-evening chicken soup, he busied himself at the same time putting together the constituents for a pumpernickel bread, to be baked in his newly-acquired bread-making machine. The resulting loaf was plump, moist, flavourful and exceedingly edible, as we discovered on Saturday morning.