A good cracker is hard to find. I steer clear of many of the mass-produced brands. Many of the artisan types can be expensive and heavy on flavorings - black pepper, rosemary, etc. Inevitably, when I pop into a store to stock up, the more neutral flavors that I like to serve with certain wines or cheeses are sold out. My theory? The key to a good and reliable cracker supply is zeroing in on a good cracker recipe. Once you lock onto a solid cracker-making technique, like the one I'm going to highlight today, making crackers is a breeze. Thank you Patricia Wells.

I have in my possession Patricia's new book, Vegetable Harvest: Vegetables at the Center of the Plate. I have most (all?) of her books and prize them for their direct, accessible, and inspiring recipes - I wrote about her Honey Ice Cream from The Paris Cookbook a couple years back. Looking at her new book, it took me a looong time to figure out which recipe to try first, eventually deciding on her crackers. Because of the focus of the book, I thought about going for one of the more veg-centric recipes, but the crackers eventually won me over.

I went for the crackers in part because I was curious about the polenta-based dough, and also because I've had numerous conversations about making crackers in the past two weeks. It seems as if crackers are in the air - one friend was telling me about making the worlds best crackers for a wedding she catered with a friend. Another friend was telling me about a class taught by Peter Reinhart where they apparently made the ultimate crackers from whole-grain flour (and various seeds, if my memory serves me correctly). Peter's book should be out relatively soon, so I'll see if he'll hook us up with that cracker recipe to celebrate the occasion when the time comes.

So, in the end, cracker curiosity won me over - and this turned out to be a good thing because I was absolutely delighted with Patricia's recipe. I loved the unique polenta/flour blend for the cracker, the polenta sucks the buttermilk right up and makes the dough extremely easy to deal with once you've let it sit for a few minutes. Rolling it out extremely thin is no problem whatsoever. As far as cracker design goes, you can cut the crackers any shape you like. Next time I'm going to do long slab-like strips. This version has a touch of cayenne, but you could easily do a more neutral version. I can imagine many many variations on this cracker incorporating different spice blends and add-ins (or not) - whatever you end up doing just be sure nothing is too chunky, you'll run into trouble rolling out the dough.

In addition to this recipe, Vegetable Harvest is overflowing with ideas. I've earmarked more recipes than I'll ever get around to making - and it's clear, Patricia's love of chickpeas rivals my own. I counted seven recipes featuring them. Others recipes from the book that caught my attention:

• Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Hazelnut Oil
• Warm Goat Cheese and Artichoke Cannelloni
• Golden Cauliflower and Rice Pilaf
• Lamb's Lettuce Puree
• Pumpkin Gratin with Pistachios and Pistachio Oil
• Goat Cheese "Oreos" with Truffles
• Sheep's Milk Yogurt Sorbet

Also worth noting, the 300+ page book includes lots of ingredient-based photographs (vs. recipe illustrating photographs). Separately, while the emphasis of this book is on vegetables taking center stage, Patricia does incorporate fish & shellfish, meat & poultry chapters. Enjoy!