lemon « A Woman Sconed

Scone of the Month: Cooling it with citrus

By rahoward, on June 30th, 2019

Certain ingredients create certain sensations, like those whose tastes create the illusion of cool, despite not actually being a lower temperature. Powdered (confectioner’s) sugar is one…a fine dusting of this soft sweetness automatically tempers any sort of sweet — even one as strongly warm-flavored as coffee or chocolate or cinnamon — and on . . . → Read More: Scone of the Month: Cooling it with citrus

Baked Sunday Mornings: Lifting the spirits with Lemon Lemon Loaf

By rahoward, on February 24th, 2019

When considering the rightness of the Universe, one can look no further than the timing of the lemon. The depth of winter — this year,= dark, cold and freezing from coast to coast — is the height of lemon season. Bright citrus of all kinds, lead by the lovely lemon, proliferate in the . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Lifting the spirits with Lemon Lemon Loaf

Slicing and baking through the holidays

By rahoward, on December 23rd, 2018

I’ve been pretty obsessed with slice-and-bake cookies for…awhile. Like many things I become obsessed with, I spend most of my time obsessing and not enough time doing. Every Christmas cookie season, it has been my aim to have a catalog of cookie logs in my freezer, ready to go, so that I would have . . . → Read More: Slicing and baking through the holidays

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

Hushing with a sweet Charlotte

By rahoward, on August 31st, 2018

“Curving back within myself, I create again and again.” —Bhagavad Gita

In recent years, I’ve pondered the word “faith” a lot. I think it’s a term most associated with religion, but beyond that, it is, I think, a firm, reliant belief that there is something beyond us, taking care of things or (here’s one to . . . → Read More: Hushing with a sweet Charlotte

Escaping with a fragrant, lemony ‘visiting’ cake

By rahoward, on December 20th, 2017

I’ve written here recently of the October Northern California wildfires, one of the strangest, saddest times I’ve experienced in a while. For those in the fires’ paths of destruction, it was a sheer nightmare. For those of us on the nearby periphery, it was a surreal time, holding in place under a veil of constant . . . → Read More: Escaping with a fragrant, lemony ‘visiting’ cake

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: Testing the wings of a dough dove

By rahoward, on March 26th, 2016

I had not considered the obvious parallels of birds and bread and lightness and flight until I made a bird out of bread recently. I had no choice but to make a bird out of bread recently when, in search of an annual Easter bread, I landed on a creature called Columba di Pasqua, . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Testing the wings of a dough dove

Bread of the Month: Filling the heart -- with jam

By rahoward, on February 13th, 2016

“The Heart wants what it wants, “ poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “– or else it does not care.”

My heart, or at least the scones I made into hearts, wanted jam, and who was I to deny them? Scones and jam have gone together since the clocks could strike three and mean teatime. And . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Filling the heart — with jam

Trying out two winter tonics

By rahoward, on January 31st, 2016

I like the word “tonic.” It has a reality-based sense of comfort and a tinge of humor for the extent it’s been applied to things that aren’t necessarily…good for you. What it seems to connote most, for me, is something you can make to heal yourself. Whether it’s a hair oil or a skin treatment . . . → Read More: Trying out two winter tonics

“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