PANTRY « A Woman Sconed

Gathering a bouquet of floral flavors

By rahoward, on May 30th, 2017

If something has a flower flavor, I’m on it….like a bee. Recently I was exposed to some delightful imported Italian sodas flavored with, of all things, elderflower! I could not resist. It was a beautiful taste, slightly peachy and as soon as my little fingers could do their walking, I was looking for this . . . → Read More: Gathering a bouquet of floral flavors

Bread of the Month: Gobbling a strawberry cobbler

By rahoward, on April 30th, 2017

Sometimes, it’s good to see red. Strawberry red, that is. Spring months usher in that beautiful ruby across California fields and farmers market tables. This year, with all the rain, the berries are big, beautiful and bodacious, and you make room in your life/schedule/oven/fridge for any and all ways to use them.

A couple of . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Gobbling a strawberry cobbler

Chomping at a Welsh rarebit

By rahoward, on March 31st, 2017

It was long ago when I first ran across a recipe for “Welsh rarebit” or “Welsh rabbit,” as it is sometimes called. As a girl who studied cookbooks, I couldn’t have been that old, but I was certainly intrigued and excited by a melty cheese sauce dish that was named for — but contained not . . . → Read More: Chomping at a Welsh rarebit

Bread of the Month: Rounding out a country loaf

By rahoward, on March 26th, 2017

I baked bread today. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is. Some of you did way more, I’m sure, and I commend you. But my country loaf was a commitment of four hours of work (and wait) or more, begun before it was light.

You have to resign to this commitment to make . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Rounding out a country loaf

Trusting in a go-to mushroom parmigiana

By rahoward, on February 13th, 2017

I’ll admit, I’m a little too attached to instructions.

My sister and I kid each other about this difference between us — she is more of a “freestyle” cook who invents and improvises (sans measuring spoons and cups), while I refer strictly to a recipe, allowing myself a few adaptations.

I can’t always hold a . . . → Read More: Trusting in a go-to mushroom parmigiana

Bread of the Month: Expecting (big things from) a Dutch baby

By rahoward, on February 1st, 2017

I won’t say I was anticipating a Dutch baby almost as much as a real one because that wouldn’t be true. First off, I have no anticipation for a real one; second off, as excited as I was to make a Dutch baby, I’m sure the thrill level would fall far shorter than the usual . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Expecting (big things from) a Dutch baby

Bread of the Month: Revering an artist and a Rosca de Reyes

By rahoward, on January 5th, 2017

Beyond some of her work and her unforgettable image — dark-haired, piercing-eyed, flower-crowned — I didn’t know enough about the Mexican artist and icon Frida Kahlo until the 2002 biopic “Frida,” starring Salma Sayek, in a stirring performance examining her life. That movie, for me, ignited an admiration for the artist,who died in 1954 at . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Revering an artist and a Rosca de Reyes

Keeping the fire with cinnamon candy

By rahoward, on December 18th, 2016

Throughout my childhood, I was treated to a tale of candy. The imagination can almost act as the proverbial “candy store,” and I was the kid who went there, as my parents recounted a magical place. Next to a local movie theater, there existed a candy store where the proprietor not only made all the . . . → Read More: Keeping the fire with cinnamon candy

Popcorn and a Movie: Revisiting a ‘Big Night’

By rahoward, on December 15th, 2016

“To eat good food,” says Italian chef Primo in the 1996 film, “Big Night,” “is to be close to God.”

And truthfully, over the 20 years since I first saw this movie, I have said, again and again, that my idea of heaven was the kitchen where Primo, played by Tony Shaloub and his brother, . . . → Read More: Popcorn and a Movie: Revisiting a ‘Big Night’

Bread of the Month: Feeling focaccia at the fingertips

By rahoward, on November 29th, 2016

I have always been able to make sense out of things (somewhat) by writing about them. Even still, lately, I have had trouble writing.

It made no sense and yet perfect sense that on a rainy November evening, while I received the news of a loss of life as close to my own as any, . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Feeling focaccia at the fingertips

“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