BREAD

We're eagerly awaiting James Beard's forthcoming book (in October) on bread and bread making which promises to be the last world on the subject, but in the meantime if you can stomach the mystique of ""bread power,"" Weiner and Collier have come up with a fine assortment of staff-of-life recipes ranging all the way from a billowy challah to various sourdoughs, dark ryes and pumpernickels -- some flavored with onion or sesame or anise -- and on to muffins and biscuits and popovers and even a few quite exotic items like an Indian Puffs which grandma never made. All with careful instructions on kneading the dough and making the yeast rise and controlling the oven temperature. If you have the time and energy, say goodbye to Taystee's styrofoam and go to it.