Category Archives: memoir
CHoWline–Savage Feast
Immigrant stories are fascinating, especially when they are inspired and illustrated by the kitchen and the table. They touch on familiar feelings–the sense of disconnection, feelings of being different, striving for reconciliation. In Savage Feast, Boris Fishman, hits those tropes … Continue reading
Edna Lewis, At the Table with an American Original
Edna Lewis is an inspiration–or should be more of one. She pursued her talents and beliefs, from dressmaking to politics, whether they fit expectations or not. She valued and drew on her rural, self-sufficient childhood in a community of free … Continue reading
Posted in Culinary Historians of Washington DC, cultural, farming, memoir, personality, regional
Tagged Edna Lewis, Sara B. Franklin, unc press
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The Viennese Kitchen
For almost thirty years I repeatedly saw one and the same dream: I would arrive in Vienna at long last. I would feel really happy, for I was returning to my serene childhood. Alfred Schnittke In its culture and life, … Continue reading
Posted in baking, cultural, international, memoir, recipe, what's for dinner
Tagged Cafe Hawelka, Interlink Books, Monica Meehan, The Viennese Kitchen, vienna
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Cleaning Out the Basement–Between Meals, An Appetite for Paris
Nostalgia for Paris, for a particular Paris, is rich territory. Were you there pre-war or post-war, and which war. It was always better before you got there–Belle Epoque, the Lost Generation, GI Bill expats, and now, perhaps even I can … Continue reading
Some Things Never Change
And thank goodness for that! As you know it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving at our house without fragrant, warm bowls of Indian Pudding, with a lump of vanilla ice cream sledding down the side. Molasses–check, milk–check, cornmeal–check. We’re ready and loyal to … Continue reading
Posted in entertaining, holidays, memoir
Tagged Durgin Park, Indian Pudding, stuffed ham, Thanksgiving
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Voracious
I live on good soup, not on fine words. –Moliere Yes, but good soup is much tastier when accompanied by a good book. In these essays just long enough to read while you’re stirring a risotto or waiting for the … Continue reading
Posted in cultural, history, literary, memoir
Tagged Back Bay Books, Cara Nicoletti, Voracious
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Why Your Bicycle Should Have a Basket
Warning, this post contains nostalgia. This post is about one of my favorite childhood meals, though it was hardly a meal at all. I was about 13 or 14–too young to get a job, but too old to run out the … Continue reading
Posted in ephemeral kitchen, literary, memoir
Tagged Fritos, Jane Eyre, Joan Aiken, What Makes Sammy Run
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How to Cook a Moose
I felt like I’d been misplaced in the cosmos and I belonged in Maine. Terry Goodkind Sometimes we are born in our homes and sometimes we find them. Kate Christensen grew up in the Arizona desert, and “always felt alienated by that … Continue reading
Posted in literary, memoir, regional
Tagged How to Cook a Moose, Islandport Press, Kate Christensen, Maine
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Personal Rituals–Dinner
You can’t possibly ask me to go without having some dinner. It’s absurd. I never go without my dinner. No one ever does, except vegetarians and people like that. ― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest According to the … Continue reading
Posted in ephemeral kitchen, memoir, what's for dinner
Tagged dinner, judith jones, marion cunningham, rust hills
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I Love a Box!
I’ve always loved words. I ate up all the books I could get my hands on, and when I couldn’t get books, I read candy wrappers and labels on cereal and toothpaste boxes. –Judy Holliday I love words too, and … Continue reading
Posted in cultural, ephemeral kitchen, memoir, novelty, travel
Tagged bonito, boxes, digestive biscuits, IKEA
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Appetite for Books 