Given to Barbara by her mother-in-law’s close friend**, this bread’s development into a decades-long family tradition cemented it as one of her most meaningful recipes. Almost every Sunday, without fail, Barbara and her children would prepare two loaves of A-to-Z bread together (so named for the vast range of potential additions to the base recipe) for the following week. 

“It’s just regular loaf-pan bread, but the special part is the different types of things you can put into it,” she explained.

“You could add nuts, tomatoes, or blueberries,” Barbara listed. “You could even make date-and-walnut bread. Anything, really.” 

To Barbara and her children, the baking process was one of innovation and exploration.  

“My children were always in the kitchen with me, helping to set the table and cook,” she told me. Each week, she let the children choose what new ingredients to add—and when successes emerged, the loaves were often polished off before Tuesday evening. 

When asked if there were any no-go ingredients, Barbara recalled one disastrous Halloween-themed loaf. “We used pumpkin once, but we didn’t cook it before we put it in the bread. It came out terrible.” So beware, bakers, readers, and pumpkin-eaters. 

But when I asked her about the importance of A-Z Bread, Barbara’s answer had nothing to do with the quality of the final product itself. 

“ It’s not so much the eating; it’s the sitting around the table and sharing the memories.” she clarified, emphasizing the enthusiasm of her children and her husband. 

“My kids, who are now in their late forties, want that recipe, want to remember these events and memories that are associated with this bread,” Barbara concluded. 

“It’s sharing time, love, and food…sharing lives with other people. And wonderful memories. That’s the most important thing.”