“They had colcannon, and the funniest things were found in it — tiny dolls, mice, a pig made of china, silver sixpences, a thimble, a ring, and lots of other things. After supper was over all went into the big play-room, and dived for apples in a tub of water, […]
[E]ver since I discovered September was National Biscuit Month, I cannot let it go by without trying a new biscuit recipe or honoring a favorite. After all, I never knew a biscuit I didn’t like — some more than others and some haunting me still (did you know that, in […]
[T]here are some folks who just get the job done. Others say they will do this or that, and don’t — they simply collapse back on themselves, and just thinking about the thing they aim to do tires them. Then there are people like Glen Lamontagne, who charge ahead tirelessly, […]
“…when you realize that you can neither write nor not write, when you are convinced that all the exits are blocked, either you take to believing in miracles or you stand still like the hummingbird. The miracle is that the honey is always there, right under your nose, only you […]
[I]’ve been asked what my favorite movie is. I don’t answer right away. When your favorite movie (or, at least one of the top three) is “Sling Blade,†you hold off telling because people will react in a couple of ways. They will either stare at you as if you […]
[T]hough I’m not a traditional mom, I’ve had a number of charges in my care. Critters of all manner, wild and tame; I’ve rehabilitated a bird or two, watched over baby chicks, kept an ailing rabbit warm in my armpit. I’ve looked out for things for other people — the […]
[S]ometimes 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 […]
[I]n 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 […]
“Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be.†— Jennie Paddleford to her daughter, Clementine [H]ow is it possible that, in the four years I attended Kansas State University, majoring in journalism, spending two years working on the school’s daily newspaper, The Collegian, and even planning and […]
[I] anticipate my monthly bread adventures the way others look forward to road trips or nights on the town. I enjoy those things, too, but the plotting and planning of a bread-baking day has my mind aswirl and my excitement on the rise, especially when I embark on a recipe […]