What's cooking: White Bear Lake church offers hearth-baked bread that helps satisfy many hungers

Eating homemade bread can be one of life's great pleasures, and now it can help others through "Baking With a Purpose," a monthly bread baking program at White Bear Lake United Methodist Church. Several years ago, church members built an outdoor community bread oven, inspired by Pastor Bryce Johnson's experience with wood-fired brick ovens in Europe. Now their massive oven is the focal point of many church and community events, and serves a monthly charitable purpose. The next baking date is July 2, from 1-3 p.m. Anyone can place an order on the previous Wednesday — this time around, that would be June 29 — and pick up a freshly baked loaf for Saturday night dinner. This past month's selections were potato focaccia bread and whole-wheat with currants and hazelnuts. Breads are about $5 a loaf, with proceeds donated to one of the church's community partners. To learn more or to place an order, visit wblumc.org.

Linden Hills Co-op raises the hemp curtain on its newly remodeled store on June 25, the monthslong remodeling project coinciding with its 40th anniversary. Improvements include a new cheese island and salad bar, a dining area, an expanded meat department with made-to-order sandwiches and rotisserie chicken and much more. Saturday events at the co-op, at 44th Street and France Avenue S., include a morning ribbon-cutting, afternoon cookout and sample giveaways all day. Plus, all departments will have some items on sale for 40 percent off from June 25-27. To learn more, visit http://lindenhills.coop.

Sabes Jewish Community Center is hosting Food Fest from 2-5 p.m. June 26 with demos by chefs such as David Fhima and Robin Asbell, food talk with Sue Zelickson, live music, a kosher wine-tasting, a community garden tour, a bake-off, cookie decorating, food vendors that include Crossroads Deli, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Common Roots Café, and more. The center, at 4330 S. Cedar Lake Road in St. Louis Park, also encourages people to bring a nonperishable food item for food shelf donation. Entrance fee is $10 for ages 13 and older; $7 for ages 4-12. For details, visit sabesjcc.org/jgames-food-fest.php.

People with food allergies or special diets know the challenges of adapting recipes. Now there's an app for that. Kitchology has a cooking app on iOS devices that allows users to create a profile with items to avoid, such as peanuts, dairy or gluten. The app then will use this "filter" to find recipes that match the users' needs. Each recipe is listed alongside its ingredients and directions, and users can add these ingredients to their in-app shopping list. In a future update, the app will help users find ingredient substitutions so more recipes become available. Kitchology is available to download for free on the iTunes App Store.

KIM ODE