FIELD TRIP « A Woman Sconed

Springing to life with homemade citrus salad dressing

By rahoward, on May 26th, 2019

Spring fever hit me hard this year. It began way back in January, with the greening from the rains here in California, and it has not let up. It has had me pondering the moon, cricking my ear for every croak and chirp, sniffing every blossom. It had me sitting in the backyard . . . → Read More: Springing to life with homemade citrus salad dressing

Pleasing the plum palate

By rahoward, on September 23rd, 2018

Is it possible I’ve been hypnotized by a fruit? If so, it is the plum that has seduced me, once again. Fortunately — or not, really — the season is woefully short, but during it, I find myself drawn, again and again, to the stunning array of plums, pluots and plum/cherry hybrids, gleaming like jewels . . . → Read More: Pleasing the plum palate

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: 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

Searching for the morel to the story

By rahoward, on May 24th, 2015

If there is some truth to the notion that we pick our parents before we are born, then I must have selected mine because I knew they would lead me to morel mushrooms. By lead, I mean literally. During my childhood in Kansas, I was taken on jaunts into timber so thick it seemed unnavigable . . . → Read More: Searching for the morel to the story

Bread of the Month: Shaping Pan de Muerto

By rahoward, on October 28th, 2014

I’ve long been intrigued by Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Halloween is my favorite holiday and in its truest respect, it honors the night that is not only the fine dividing line between seasons, but the barrier — at its thinnest — between the living and the spirit world.

Day of . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Shaping Pan de Muerto

Winning a challenge to oneself

By rahoward, on October 21st, 2014

I don’t like competition, but like many other beings at times compromised by human nature, I often fall under the spell to compete and compare with others. It’s a losing battle, really. As a very wise friend once told me, comparing yourself to others is “dangerous.” No matter what, if you don’t have the proper . . . → Read More: Winning a challenge to oneself

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

Field Trip: Noshing in Nashville

By rahoward, on June 30th, 2011

I learned a number of things on a recent trip to Nashville (my first visit to what I consider the real South). Among them: Mentioning a fried baloney sandwich gets people moving nearly as well and as swiftly as yelling “Fire!”

The difference being people move away from a fire; people move toward the . . . → Read More: Field Trip: Noshing in Nashville

Returning ‘home’ for an Irish breakfast

By rahoward, on March 17th, 2011

There are places we dream about before we’ve ever seen them. Such was the case for Ireland and me. For years, I’d have dreams about a land that was green and rocky, with rolling hills and coastal edges, cool and deeply mystical. When I finally saw these images in magazines and on television and . . . → Read More: Returning ‘home’ for an Irish breakfast

“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