Uncategorized « A Woman Sconed

Merging the tastes of spring in classic soup

By rahoward, on April 17th, 2018

Growing up, we ate lots of homemade soups. All very basic, simple, homey and quite delicious: rich beef stew, flavored with lots of vegetables, including chopped cabbage that cooked to a clear tenderness holding all the rich juices of the chunks of chuck roast; pots of beans that, depending on their liquid proportions, teetered between . . . → Read More: Merging the tastes of spring in classic soup

Baked Sunday Mornings: Deepening a joy for ice cream-making

By rahoward, on April 8th, 2018

I love to make ice cream. But when I bought my first ice cream maker, just several years ago, I had dueling ideas about where things might go from there — would I be making all sorts of the ice creams, gelato and sorbets of my dreams, or would the ice cream maker sit, unused, . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Deepening a joy for ice cream-making

Baked Sunday Mornings: Satisfying an unwavering love of scones

By rahoward, on March 11th, 2018

Clearly — as one could see from the name of this blog — I am a scone fan. I’ve written of my love and admiration of scones here before, but I don’t have a problem making a new scone recipe to remind me of everything good — and great — about scones.

Of course, scones . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Satisfying an unwavering love of scones

Baked Sunday Mornings: Whipping up a homemade marshmallow

By rahoward, on February 25th, 2018

I’ve never made a marshmallow. It seemed like one of those impossible kitchen possibilities, like spinning your own cotton candy or pulling taffy. But I have EATEN a homemade marshmallow, made by my confectionary/culinary/baking-maven friend, Elaine, and it was a heavenly thing, a world apart from the store-bought versions. It was cloudy soft, sweetly vanilla-laden.

In the mix: Calling up ‘The Big Easy’ from a box

By rahoward, on February 12th, 2018

Each year, I’m determined to get at least a little closer to visiting New Orleans, if only via a Crayola-yellow box and 48 ounces of hot cooking oil.

We’re talking beignets here, those puffy little squarish French doughnuts made famous by Cafe Du Monde, the French Quarter landmark coffee stand that has been for decades . . . → Read More: In the Mix: Calling up ‘The Big Easy’ from a box

Bread of the Month: Searching for the best banana bread

By rahoward, on February 2nd, 2018

I have made countless loaves of banana bread over the years, always hoping for THE one…the one that will end my search for the perfect version. Then, I can just stop trying and always have MY go-to method at the ready.

I’ve made banana breads that have ended up too dry and some too wet. . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Searching for the best banana bread

Baked Sunday Mornings: Exploring a Black Forest cookie

By rahoward, on January 28th, 2018

I almost opted out of the Black Forest Chocolate Cookies on the Baked Sunday Mornings schedule. I had a number of deadlines and other cooking projects on my docket, and thought I might be too busy. Then, I thought: Too busy to bake cookies? That doesn’t even make sense!

Looking over the recipe, a . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Exploring a Black Forest cookie

Baked Sunday Mornings: Recalling ‘butterscotch days’ through tarts

By rahoward, on January 14th, 2018

I love my first paging through a cookbook, particularly one as visually and deliciously stunning as “Baked: New Frontiers in Baking” by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (2008). Usually, this initial “walkthrough” establishes my “must-make” list. Without question, the Butterscotch Pudding Tarts in the book has always been number one.

It’s easy to understand why, . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Recalling ‘butterscotch days’ through tarts

Bread of the Month: Rolling with the meant-to-be

By rahoward, on December 24th, 2017

The first food gift I remember was wrapped in aluminum foil and topped with an adhesive-backed bow. Cinnamon rolls…jillions of them, all over the countertops in their silver packets, awaiting Christmastime delivery to family, friends, neighbors.

My mom got up in the wee hours of the morning to do this, because the rolls were . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Rolling with the meant-to-be

Turning out a new fave cookie

By rahoward, on December 20th, 2017

Occasionally (well, perhaps more often than occasionally), I become mesmerized by little cooking videos on the Internet. You know the ones, where an overhead camera view captures the step-by-step process (often sped up to keep the video short) that makes whatever is being made look like a snap. Maybe sometimes it is, but everything just . . . → Read More: Turning out a new fave cookie

“People ask me: "Why do you write about food, and eating, and drinking? Why don't you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way the others do?" . . . The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry.”
--M.F.K. Fisher

"It was in a yellow limestone church in Stockdale, Kansas, a crossroads town, that I sat dreaming during summer Sunday sermons, not of heaven or hell, but of the good dinner to come."
--Clementine Paddleford