[I]t 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 […]
[D]espite 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 […]
[W]hen we travel, we meet ourselves head-on. Outside of our regular routines and familiar environments, we can self-startle and see sides of us we don’t always see. Like my stomach…I saw it walking ahead of me in downtown Atlanta, sticking straight out, fuller than I had ever seen it, proud […]
[A] few weeks ago, I sat down to begin writing of a delicious hollandaise sauce I had made in the blender, when I read the words of Julia Child in Vol. 1 of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”: “It is extremely easy and almost foolproof to make in the […]
[S]ometimes it is necessary to fall under a spell. And my potion of choice recently has been hot chocolate. I have been inspired in the past and of late by a beautiful little film called Chocolat (2000), which has its own mystical properties. Based on the novel by Joanne Harris, […]
[T]raditions. More and more — in terms of cooking and beyond –it seems the option one grew up with, be it a recipe, cooking method, practice, is the correct and only one. Take cornbread, for example. I do like a sweet cornbread, but because of my family’s declaration that a […]
[I]f you are lucky to live long enough, it gets easier to separate the wheat from the chaff. Over a life, if you pay attention, you will find yourself in the idyllic condition of understanding what matters most. And what means something to you. And what make up your favorite […]
[B]irthday cake got this blog started; a scone gave it the name. But I believe making biscuits may have been the very foundation for why I began writing my food blog. Just a few years ago, in the wee hours of the morning when all was dark and quiet, I […]
“To feed your Muse, then, you should always have been hungry about life since you were a child.” — Ray Bradbury, “Zen in the Art of Wrting: Essays on Creativity” [R]ay Bradbury told me why I am here. He told everyone, but only some of us were listening. I feel […]
I have had the privilege of attending many powwows and from my first time at one, I’ve sought them out around California. I go for many reasons, not the least of which is that I find going resets my heart to a rhythm matching that of the drums and dancers. […]