Guest Kitchen: Following in (peanut) brittle footsteps

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’

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’

Baking three (or more) cooks and one pumpkin into a pie

I don’t consider myself a great pie baker, and I’ve not made a lot of pies. I’ve had better success with other baked goods. The problem I have – which recurs in any number of areas of my life – is I suffer from great anxiety about pie baking, and when I suffer from anxiety . . . → Read More: Baking three (or more) cooks and one pumpkin into a pie