Bread of the Month: Loafing beyond pumpkin spice

Despite my love of autumn, I have to admit I get sick of all the pumpkin spice. There, I said it. Maybe it’s more the homogeneous mainstream concept that pumpkin spice represents that is less appealing to my taste.Yes, it’s become the hallmark of the fall season (which, according to Starbucks began in . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Loafing beyond pumpkin spice

Scone of the Month: Speaking of sweet potatoes

Sometimes I am a rebel. When the rally cry is pumpkin spice, I start to think about sweet potatoes.

Or should I call them garnet yams, which is what the red-skinned, orange-fleshed creatures most of us call sweet potatoes really are (the jewel sweet potato is another version of the orange-interiored…for a great . . . → Read More: Scone of the Month: Speaking of sweet potatoes

Cookie of the Month: Hunting an Irish ‘biscuit’

I can certainly be accused of “procrastibaking” that “practice” of baking when you should (“should”?) be doing something else (I’m also guilty of its flipside — procrastinating on getting baking projects done). But in that same vein, I also fall under the spell of what I call “escape baking” or “esca-baking” (you heard . . . → Read More: Cookie of the Month: Hunting an Irish ‘biscuit’

Steeping in the recipes beloved by Vincent Price

The name Vincent Price, to most people ,immediately conjures something at the minimal spooky or sinister, at the most the stuff of nightmares. For decades, Price (who died in 1993), with his moody ominous presence (in the characters he portrayed) and THAT VOICE that was at once irresistible and shiver-inducing, made him somewhat . . . → Read More: Steeping in the recipes beloved by Vincent Price

Scone of the Month: Adding spice to whole wheat biscuits

Rarely a month passes that I don’t make a biscuit of some kind. They are simply my favorite bread, probably because they are so simple to make (and comforting to eat). I’ve been celebrating the scone all year with recipes each month and decided to honor the biscuit in September, which has been . . . → Read More: Scone of the Month: Adding spice to whole wheat biscuits

Taking a break with Molasses Coffee Cake

Two years ago, Northern California was ablaze the first of two fall seasons where wildfires raged and devastated communities,  and for weeks darkened the skies and filled the air with a smoke that choked and permeated the atmosphere. It was during that first season of fires that, grateful to have a home, but . . . → Read More: Taking a break with Molasses Coffee Cake

Slicing and baking through the holidays

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

Escaping with a fragrant, lemony ‘visiting’ cake

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

Bread of the Month: Marking 150 posts with gingerbread scones

When this post is completed, it will be my 150th for “A Woman Sconed.” But, who’s counting? Just me. That’s kind of the point of a blog, or, at least my blog. This space has been mine to dwell in, mine to decide in, mine to create in, mine to fail in, mine to mine . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Marking 150 posts with gingerbread scones

Trying out two winter tonics

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