• Food Stories

    Whatever Happened to Pudding?

    I’d like to know: what happened to pudding? Especially in the 1950s, thanks to good old Jell-O, our pantry was well-stocked with vanilla and chocolate pudding boxes. And when our local grade school began providing hot lunches, I would look…

  • Food Stories

    Emulating Indigenous People in Giving Thanks

    We’re about to partake in Thanksgiving, an annual event that typically involves a traditional collection of relatives and people you know together with a turkey, a lot of food, and occasional overeating. For some, it’s not Thanksgiving without a communal…

  • Food Stories

    Rethinking Thanksgiving Turkey

    As we come upon Thanksgiving, I find myself asking: “Why turkey?” After all, the traditional feast was built around mythology; authentic records don’t exist. Historians actually surmise that the 1621 colonists viewed the large birds as hard to prepare. Hmmm.…

  • Food Stories

    Soul-Satisfying Soup

    The weather is downright cool at night and the leaves are falling: It’s soup season. When I visited my mother on the farm in mid-October, she requested ham soup with dumplings. Upon returning home, I’ve been following that lead, cooking…

  • Food Stories

    Lazy Cooking

    I suspect I’m like most family cooks; there are times when I’m just not up for preparing dinner. I don’t want restaurant takeout or a premade meal from the grocery store – but something homemade and really easy. Sound familiar?…

  • Food Stories

    Can You Name That Apple Dessert?

    This is the time of year when my mother and grandmother would get together to make apple pies that were put unbaked into the freezer for a future dessert. They were masters at pastry, and the apples were from my…