[I]’ve long been intrigued by Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Halloween is my favorite holiday and in its truest respect, it honors the night that is not only the fine dividing line between seasons, but the barrier — at its thinnest — between the living and the […]
[O]h, give me September and long light and fading days and pungent air. Fiery colors, dropping leaves, the smell of earth as she bakes, then cools. Spiders and squirrels, equally industrious. Give me September’s National Biscuit Month, and I’ll give you…biscuits, no question. A biscuit is mostly considered a bread […]
[I]ts appearance is simple; its diminutive texture, light as air. Yet the hot cross bun carries a lot of symbolic weight. Originally a little tea roll created to celebrate spring, it was adorned with a cross and — if eaten during the Easter season, usually on Good Friday — has […]
[S]ay what you will — or say nothing at all to remain nutritionally chaste — but fried dough is a thing unmatched. Looking beyond any wickedness, how can one say that a hot doughnut, a hushpuppy, a fritter — all warm from the fryer — is anything but a good […]
[T]his blog is devoted to certain recipes, tried and true; others, brand new. I love to try something I’ve never done before. The bread-of-the-month adventure reflects this, and with the end of 2013, I approached making a holiday bread I’d eaten many times but never made myself. Each holiday season […]
[T]ime was, a simple pizza crust would do. I came of age when I saw this concept turn. I grew up in the land of Pizza Hut, and after the advent of pan pizzas and personal pan pizzas, there began an onslaught of pizza crust one-uppings in every chain in […]
[I] sought a simple loaf bread recipe for this month’s recipe test. But when I began perusing the King Arthur Flour website for possibilities, I was overwhelmed with so many delicious options and became impossibly hungry. l thrilled from my thyme-laced popovers (see blog entry in 4/13), I came across […]
“A good fight should be like a small play, but played seriously. A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Not thinking, yet not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come.” — Bruce Lee, “Enter the Dragon” AWS appreciates challenges and does rise to them. Given the time and […]
I cannot begin to write about my mother’s bread making without mentioning her kneading. And I would have to begin any discussion of her kneading by describing her hands. My mother is not, nor has she ever been, a delicate doily of a damsel, and neither are her hands. Big, […]
My friend, Elaine – whose own oven yields magic at such a staggering and humiliating output, her kitchen could make Willie Wonka’s factory look as though it has gone dormant – not long ago gave me one of the nicest gifts I have ever received. She came to work and […]