PANTRY « 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

Bread of the Month: Panning for a golden potato scone

By rahoward, on March 16th, 2018

Throughout the year, I mark (via Post-it, bookmark or scrap of torn envelope) interesting recipes in my cookbooks that I think I might want to try at some point.

Sometimes, this really yields treasure, particularly, if one of my books has been neglected. I’m not sure where or when I picked up “Prairie Home Cooking” . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Panning for a golden potato scone

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

Commanding with cauliflower in soup

By rahoward, on January 19th, 2018

I’m glad to see long-overlooked vegetables having their day. But…cauliflower — wow! All of a sudden, cauliflower — the albino broccoli, that veggie that for decades was relegated to be the pale, raw dip delivery device on the crudité tray, the roughage round-out in the bag of steamer veggies or the simple cabbage-like side to . . . → Read More: Commanding with cauliflower in soup

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

“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