GUEST KITCHEN « A Woman Sconed

Circling back to the center again with a roll cake

By rahoward, on September 29th, 2019

Not long ago, I looked up and another year at my blog — and in my life — had passed. We’d taken another 365 1/4 days of a circular trip around the sun. It was hard to believe I’d been at the blog for nine years and going on my own life’s journey . . . → Read More: Circling back to the center again with a roll cake

Dishing on the simplest holiday side

By rahoward, on November 17th, 2017

I think more than any other meal, it is the sides of Thanksgiving that get us all excited. Never is more effort put into all the bowls and platters on the holiday table; never is there more variety (outside of a summer potluck). And they bring with them rich flavors exclusive (but, why?) to this . . . → Read More: Dishing on the simplest holiday side

Bread of the Month: Mastering great garlic bread

By rahoward, on June 30th, 2016

I’ve eaten a lot of good garlic bread, even making some myself (often an herb-infused-in-olive oil version), but I had not eaten GREAT garlic bread until I sat down at the table of Liboria Salerno (for more about her, please see blog entry, “Presenting Pavlova to a ballerina” of 6/16). The bread was toasted to . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Mastering great garlic bread

Guest Kitchen: Presenting Pavlova to a ballerina

By rahoward, on June 30th, 2016

When I first began conversing with Al Dente Floyd at work, he gave me his mother’s phone number, saying, “Since you do the food thing, you might want to talk to her — she has a lot of recipes.”

But, he admonished, “Whatever you do, DON’T talk to her about the ballet.”

What?!?!

Al Dente . . . → Read More: Guest Kitchen: Presenting Pavlova to a ballerina

Bread of the Month: Pressing forth aboard the tortilladora

By rahoward, on September 16th, 2015

There are some folks who just get the job done. Others say they will do this or that, and don’t — they simply collapse back on themselves, and just thinking about the thing they aim to do tires them. Then there are people like Glen Lamontagne, who charge ahead tirelessly, bringing order out of chaos, . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Pressing forth aboard the tortilladora

Bread of the Month: Planning tea -- and scones -- for two

By rahoward, on June 30th, 2015

Sometimes I get weird ideas. Actually, I get weird ideas most of the time, but I only act on a portion of them. When I decide to act on one of my curious notions, it’s as if I’ve signed a contract…it’s odd. I am as unyielding on myself as if the world expected me to . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Planning tea — and scones — for two

Bread of the Month: Handing down a roll recipe

By rahoward, on June 29th, 2012

I cannot begin to write about my mother’s bread making without mentioning her kneading. And I would have to begin any discussion of her kneading by describing her hands. My mother is not, nor has she ever been, a delicate doily of a damsel, and neither are her hands. Big, rough and muscular are not . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Handing down a roll recipe

Guest Kitchen: Following in (peanut) brittle footsteps

By rahoward, on December 31st, 2010

My late Grandma Mae called my parents nearly every day until her death in 2008 at the age of 92. Her inquiries were nearly always the same: “What’s new?” “What’s the weather doin’ over there?” “How’s your firewood holding up?” But one of her predominant questions was as much to affirm as to ask: . . . → Read More: Guest Kitchen: Following in (peanut) brittle footsteps

Faring well in ‘fruitcake weather’

By rahoward, on December 17th, 2010

Imagine a morning, a coming of winter morning when you exclaim, “Oh, my! It’s fruitcake weather!”

Truman Capote did, and upon reading his story, “A Christmas Memory” for the first time about a decade ago, I never quite felt the same about Capote, Christmas or fruitcake.

I was always a Capote fan, ever . . . → Read More: Faring well in ‘fruitcake weather’

“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