breakfast « A Woman Sconed

Bread of the Month: Basking in a morning glory muffin

By rahoward, on July 18th, 2017

My mom’s got a thing against muffins. She won’t make them. She won’t eat them. This stems from a traumatic period in her childhood, where her obligations as a member of 4-H pushed her to the brink after years of being chained to an oven, churning out muffin after muffin.

It’s not the taste . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Basking in a morning glory muffin

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: Chronicling a Kansas flapjack

By rahoward, on May 30th, 2015

In the thousands of miles famed roving food writer Clementine Paddleford logged in the 1940s and ‘50s for her How America Eatscolumns and cookbook, she did not skirt her home state of Kansas.

Of Liberal, Kan., “self-styled Pancake Hub of the Universe,” where an annual pancake race of international notoriety is still held every year, . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Chronicling a Kansas flapjack

Bread of the Month: Welcoming Welsh Cakes

By rahoward, on March 9th, 2015

Imagine a place where a pancake, a scone and a donut all meet. Well, apparently, that place is Wales and the treat is a very humble-looking yet flavorful little bread called a Welsh cake.

In the Welsh language, they are called “cage bach” or “picau ar y maen.” In much more pronounceable terms, they . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Welcoming Welsh Cakes

Bread of the Month: Ascending with angel biscuits

By rahoward, on September 30th, 2014

Oh, give me September and long light and fading days and pungent air. Fiery colors, dropping leaves, the smell of earth as she bakes, then cools. Spiders and squirrels, equally industrious. Give me September’s National Biscuit Month, and I’ll give you…biscuits, no question.

A biscuit is mostly considered a bread on the rise through baking . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Ascending with angel biscuits

Marveling at simple tortilla espanola

By rahoward, on May 18th, 2014

Probably the most curious item I’ve ever seen brought to a potluck was a tortilla espanola. It was served in a basket, wrapped in a towel…a potato and onion omelette, so firm it was cut in wedges and could be eaten by hand. Having consumed more eggs over my years than the average person, this . . . → Read More: Marveling at simple tortilla espanola

Bread of the Month: Weighing in on fluffy buns

By rahoward, on April 17th, 2014

Its appearance is simple; its diminutive texture, light as air. Yet the hot cross bun carries a lot of symbolic weight. Originally a little tea roll created to celebrate spring, it was adorned with a cross and — if eaten during the Easter season, usually on Good Friday — has been credited with helping . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Weighing in on fluffy buns

Bread of the Month: Falling for a savory muffin

By rahoward, on November 5th, 2013

It has occurred to me lately that what has given pumpkin the flavors usually associated with all manner of pumpkin treats are its companion spices — ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. These lend our fall favorites the air of pumpkinpiedom, but tend to relegate pumpkin to the sweet end of the spectrum. What are pumpkin’s . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Falling for a savory muffin

Scaring up a spicy pumpkin smoothie

By rahoward, on October 13th, 2013

It happens every year. The light changes,becoming slanted and long-shadowed. Night comes more quickly. Leaves rattle dry whispers. And nearly every possible incarnation of pumpkin appears!

This is by no means a complaint, but at times, the pumpkin-flavored this and that doth seem an over-saturation. I love pumpkins. I love their jolly heralding of . . . → Read More: Scaring up a spicy pumpkin smoothie

Bread of the Month: Conjuring a cat head biscuit

By rahoward, on October 13th, 2013

Despite my biscuit binge in the Deep South, I could only resist for so long. Come September and National Biscuit Month, this wee baker’s fancy turned to thoughts of those crisp-edged, yet tender pillows of lofty saltiness that call many of us home.

I’ve made a lot of biscuits, and while I return . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Conjuring a cat head biscuit

“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