There is talk aplenty of comfort foods in the cold winter months, and among the constants (like mac and cheese and mashed potatoes) on the lists of fare that warm the heart and the belly, you will usually find chicken pot pie. I have been a pot pie fan since […]
I recently had what was – without a doubt – the strongest coffee I have ever had. This is not a mild statement, as I have come to be known as one who likes her coffee notoriously brutish (like her men – just kidding). I have a reputation for making […]
Way back in late November, when I was writing about my pie-baking apprehension (I guess it wasn’t that long ago, but it seems as if years have passed since then), I suggested a challenge to myself aloud (for me, typing is as aloud as speaking — sometimes louder) for 2011: […]
For a moment, I’m going to follow the New Year’s resolution media trends and talk healthy. Now, I know this seems an anomaly among all of these blogs about baking, brittle and bacon (oh, yes…it’s coming), but truth be told, AWS strives hard to be a healthy person. I entertain […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
For those of you who love cranberry sauce and have never made it, I have one question: WHY? Are you so attached to the geometric uniformity of that jellied cylinder that plops out of an Ocean Spray can that you would deny yourself the sensory bonanza of making the sauce […]
I am not a Druid, but do feel a special connection with and reverence for trees. I often place my hand on a tree trunk in greeting and wait to feel the vibration or movement it makes in its natural rhythm with the wind. To me, they feel as alive […]
Long before “blog†was a term or even yet a twinkle in some bright penny’s eye, the name for my blog materialized. It was the early ‘90s, and through what I could have looked at as divine timing but instead considered professional misfortune, I was in a position where I […]