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    • Tuesdays with Crescent WINTER-SPRING 2021

Crescent Dragonwagon

How we feed our hungers and what we feed them with, is rooted in every part of human life.

History, agriculture, environment; ethnicity, class; community and family, celebration and famine, health and disease, religion and ritual, ethics and economics, migration and science: look to food and you’ll find these and countless other connections between what we eat and who we are.

Look to Deep Feast, and you’ll find provocative discussion about this.  Almost anything could be on the table we’ll share here.

Does Deep Feast contain recipes? Sure, you’ll find some here. What about ooh-and-ahh photographs of, say, pear-cherry upside-down cake, or illustrated pictorials of step-by-step how-tos, like, say, how to make, and put up, green tomato mincemeat? Sure, you’ll find some of that here, too.

But there are good recipes and gorgeous photographs on many, many other food and cooking blogs (indeed, we explore, and link to, some of them here).

Deep Feast, though, is “writing the world through food.”

Deep Feast’s food writing includes, but transcends, the recipe.

In every bite we eat — whether it’s a wedge of skillet-sizzled buttermilk cornbread with beans and a green onion on the side, a Big Mac, or local artisanal sheep’s milk cheese on a homemade oatmeal cracker with a crisp Northern Spy apple from your own orchard — we take in not just (hopefully) nourishment and pleasure, but connection with our world.

In every bite we eat, we sign, over and over, a usually unrecognized  contract. That contract inheres in inhabiting a body on earth: you eat, and are, eventually, eaten. Ashes or flesh and bones return to that same earth, to become sustenance for other creatures who will also, in their turn, eat and be eaten.

In every bite we eat, we confirm the story of life: both an individual life and life itself. This story is told over and over again. Meal by meal, bite by bite, plate by plate. This story is always particular and universal. This story is many stories — some of which we explore in Deep Feast.

For this is where the narrative of humanity begins: food, shelter, and story. Our forbears killed the mammoths (food), dragged them back to the cave (shelter), and then painted what they had done on the ceiling (story).

It’s this last act that makes us human. All other animals, after all, also seek food and shelter. But we Homo sapiens also feel that third component, and  with deep urgency:  to narrate, whether through art, oral storytelling, or writing, what happened to us. To explore why; to discover who we are. In this exploration, though we may serve food, food serves us, and serves us generously.

We need the arc of beginning, middle, and end, because, as human beings, we are aware that we had a beginning, live (and eat) somewhere in the middle, and will meet an end. Because we are aware of our mortality, we are, as anthropologist Roy A. Rappaport wrote, “meaning-making animals.”

Let’s make meaning together.

Let’s make dinner. Let's talk, as we gather around a table as big as the world.

Let’s celebrate, together, the Deep Feast: life itself, the whole world, bite by bite.

IMPEACH UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

IMPEACH UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

By Crescent Dragonwagon 7 Comments

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Given the day (February 10, 2021), and all we were in the middle of, it was always going to be something. Cobbler? Crisp? Pie? No! It was an IMPEACH UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE! To dessert-lovers, a good cake has no down side. Unless, of course, it happens to be an upside-down cake. (Go directly to recipe here.) To those of us who love making… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast Tagged With: baking, baking from scratch, upside-down cake

PERFECT HEIGHT-OF-SUMMER VEGETABLE RECIPES THE-TIME-IS-JUST-RIGHT-FOR: PANDEMIC PANTRY PLEASURES

PERFECT HEIGHT-OF-SUMMER VEGETABLE RECIPES THE-TIME-IS-JUST-RIGHT-FOR: PANDEMIC PANTRY PLEASURES

By Crescent Dragonwagon Leave a Comment

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— a pandemic pantry post — 8 WAYS TO DELIGHT IN SUMMER & FALL’S FRUITS AND VEGETABLES; YES, EVEN (ESPECIALLY) NOW I have been thinking a lot this year about something Annie Dillard wrote: “How we live our days is how we live our lives.” For reasons you know as well as I do, these, the days of 2020, have… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, #pandemicpantry, Deep Feast, recipes, self-understanding, personal growth Tagged With: best way to cook okra, cooking, culinary writing, eating locally, fallfood, gardening, green tomato mincemeat, okra, summerfood, upside-down cake, vegetarian, winter squash

STAYING CUCUMBER-COOL IN HOT TIMES

STAYING CUCUMBER-COOL IN HOT TIMES

By Crescent Dragonwagon 9 Comments

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IN THIS MOST UNEASY OF ALL SUMMERS, WE NEED A WAY TO STAY COOL. I DON’T HAVE A BIG SOLUTION, BUT HERE’S A SMALL ONE: MY COLD CUCUMBER SOUP. BLISSFULLY CHILL, IT’S A GENTLE REBUKE TO AT LEAST PHYSICAL HEAT. IT’S ALSO EASY TO MAKE, INFINITELY VARIABLE, AND A LOVELY PALE LUNAR GREEN. AND, SO GOOD. (Jump to recipe) Fresh,… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, #pandemicpantry, Deep Feast, recipes Tagged With: Arkansas, chilled soups, cucumber, cukes, Fayetteville, gardening, soup

12 PERFECT BEAN RECIPES THE-TIME-IS-JUST-RIGHT-FOR: PANDEMIC PANTRY PLEASURES

12 PERFECT BEAN RECIPES THE-TIME-IS-JUST-RIGHT-FOR: PANDEMIC PANTRY PLEASURES

By Crescent Dragonwagon 4 Comments

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— a pandemic pantry post — “BEANS,”  SAID A NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER, IN A RECENT TWEET, “ARE HAVING A MOMENT. “ SHE THEN ADDED, “… FOR HORRIBLE REASONS.” THOSE REASONS, OF COURSE, ARE THE CORONAVIRUS, WHICH HAS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF US THINKING ABOUT HOW TO STOCK PANDEMIC-PROOF PANTRIES…AND WHAT TO DO WITH THE INGREDIENTS WE’VE STOCKED. I BRING… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast Tagged With: beans, black-eyed peas, cooking with beans, cooking with dried beans, dried bean recipes, lentil soup, lentils, Mjeddrah, pandemic pantry, Tanzanian Black-Eyed Pea Soup with Coconut and Bananas, veggie burgers

NIX THE GREEN BOTTLE: IRISH CUISINE & HISTORY DESERVE MORE THAN FOOD COLORING

NIX THE GREEN BOTTLE: IRISH CUISINE & HISTORY DESERVE MORE THAN FOOD COLORING

By Crescent Dragonwagon 3 Comments

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“PRAY FOR PEACE, AND GRACE, AND SPIRITUAL FOOD, FOR WISDOM AND GUIDANCE – FOR ALL THESE ARE GOOD. BUT DON’T FORGET THE POTATOES.” -J. T. PETTEE THIS ST PATRICK’S DAY, DITCH GREEN BEER, AND ANYTHING INVOLVING GREEN FOOD COLORING. INSTEAD, CONSIDER THE POTATO, AND ITS BITTER AND SUSTAINING ROLE IN IRISH LIFE, ESPECIALLY IRISH-AMERICAN LIFE. THEN, HAVE SOME REALLY SUPERB IRISH… Read More

Filed Under: Deep Feast Tagged With: best potato soup, Famine, Great Hunger, Irish potato soup, leek and potato soup, St. Patrick's Day

HERE’S THE RECIPE FOR THAT STORIED WASHINGTON POST-WORTHY LENTIL SOUP, “RICH, FRAGRANT, SATISFYING”

HERE’S THE RECIPE FOR THAT STORIED WASHINGTON POST-WORTHY LENTIL SOUP, “RICH, FRAGRANT, SATISFYING”

By Crescent Dragonwagon 35 Comments

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WHO MAKES AND EATS A SOUP, THE SAME SOUP, DAILY, FOR LUNCH, HUNDREDS OF TIMES? REID BRANSON, OF SEATTLE, THAT’S WHO. THIS IS QUITE A STORY… AND MY PAN PAL AND FELLOW BEAN AFICIONADO, WASHINGTON POST FOOD EDITOR JOE YONAN FOUND IT AS IRRESISTIBLE AS I DID (EXPECT A POST FROM ME ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK, COOL BEANS, IN THE… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast Tagged With: Bean by Bean, lentil soup, lentils, Rancho Gordo, soup, Steve Sando

MY FAVORITE “IMPOSSIBLY GOOD” VEGGIE BURGERS

MY FAVORITE “IMPOSSIBLY GOOD” VEGGIE BURGERS

By Crescent Dragonwagon 10 Comments

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IMPOSSIBLE BURGERS? BEYOND BURGERS? I SAY, NOT FOR ME. I SAY, IMPOSSIBLY BAD. BEYOND UNPLEASANT. BUT THEN, I AM NOT THE INTENDED MARKET FOR THEM (see below) ARE YOU READY FOR A MUCH, MUCH BETTER VEGETARIAN BURGER? ONE YOU MAKE AT HOME? ONE THAT’S ACTUALLY TASTY, HEALTHY AND NOT PSEUDO-ANYTHING? IF SO, READ ON, COOK ON, AND GET YOUR BURGER-GROOVE… Read More

Filed Under: Deep Feast Tagged With: best veggie burger, Beyond Meat burgers, burgers, grill, Impossible Burger, kofte, Maurice Zolotow, stuffed vegetables, vegan, vegetarian, veggie burger

THE *** BEST *** BLACK-EYED PEAS FOR NEW YEAR’S DAY

THE *** BEST *** BLACK-EYED PEAS FOR NEW YEAR’S DAY

By Crescent Dragonwagon 12 Comments

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HAVE YOU PURCHASED YOUR BLACK-EYED PEAS YET? DO YOU, PERHAPS, EVEN HAVE ‘EM SOAKING? (EITHER BECAUSE YOU LIKE TO DO THINGS A LITTLE AHEAD, OR BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT THE LONGER INGREDIENTS IN ALMOST ANY KIND OF STEW-Y DISH CO-MINGLE, THE BETTER THE FLAVOR?) HOWEVER… HERE IS A CROCKPOT VERSION OF AN EXCELLENT BLACK-EYED PEA RECIPE, WHICH YOU CAN EVEN… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast Tagged With: beans, black-eyed peas, black-eyes, delicious, foods for New Years, New Years, New Years recipes, Recipes

COMFORT ME WITH APPLES… BUT MAKE THEM *BAKED* APPLES, PLEASE.

COMFORT ME WITH APPLES… BUT MAKE THEM *BAKED* APPLES, PLEASE.

By Crescent Dragonwagon 11 Comments

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THEY COULDN’T LOOK MORE UNPREPOSSESING. AND THEY COULDN’T BE EASIER. AND THEY COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE MORE DELICIOUS, OR MORE PERFECT FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR. MEET MY MOTHER’S BAKED APPLES. AND, IF YOU HAVE SOMEONE AT YOUR THANKSGIVING TABLE WHO IS GLUTEN- OR GRAIN-FREE, OR AVOIDING ADDED SUGAR, OR VEGAN, BUT YOU STILL WANT THEM TO BE ABLE TO… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast, recipes Tagged With: apple recipes, apple varieties, Baked Apples, fall food, How to Make Baked Apples, what is a baking apple, what is a cooking apple

OKRA: LOVE IT, RIGHT NOW

OKRA: LOVE IT, RIGHT NOW

By Crescent Dragonwagon 4 Comments

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OKRA-HATERS! STOP MALIGNING A VEGETABLE YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND OR HAVEN’T HAD COOKED RIGHT! OKRA-LOVERS! LEARN A NEW WAY TO ADORE THOSE GREEN PODS! EITHER WAY, DO IT QUICKLY, RIGHT NOW, BEFORE SUMMER DEFINITIVELY ENDS. (PLUS, TWO DON’T-MISS BOOKS, AN EXAMPLE OF YANKEE WTF-NESS, RACISM IN THE KITCHEN, AND THE QUESTION OF SLIMINESS, DEALT WITH ONCE AND FOR ALL) People who… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast Tagged With: Arkansas, best okra recipe, best way to cook okra, Crescent Dragonwagons Greek-Style Smothered Okra, CSA, farmers market, Fayetteville, foods the slaves brought to America, okra, racism, summer food, The Cooking Gene, The Jemima Code, vegan, vegetarian, Vermont, Walker Farm, what makes okra slimy, white privilege in the kitchen

MY MIXED-BERRY UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE: FROM SCRATCH, OH-SO-EASY & SIMPLY DELICIOUS

MY MIXED-BERRY UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE: FROM SCRATCH, OH-SO-EASY & SIMPLY DELICIOUS

By Crescent Dragonwagon 3 Comments

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To dessert-lovers, a good cake has no down side. Unless, of course, it happens to be an upside-down cake. (Go directly to recipe here.) To those of us who love making dessert — who find baking from scratch as much or more fun than eating it — the upside-down cake is a high-scorer. If short on time needed for your… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast, recipes Tagged With: baking from scratch, berries, Crescent Dragonwagon recipes, quick desserts, upside-down cake

“PAROXYSMS OF JOY”: EASTER BRUNCHING ON FEATHERBED EGGS

“PAROXYSMS OF JOY”: EASTER BRUNCHING ON FEATHERBED EGGS

By Crescent Dragonwagon 25 Comments

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FEATHERBED EGGS, A SWOONINGLY DELISH, DO-AHEAD CASSEROLE — AN EGG MIXTURE IS POURED OVER CRUMBLED, SLIGHTLY STALE CORNBREAD, AND THE WHOLE SHEBANG IS BAKED TO A FARE-THEE-WELL — IS PROBABLY THE PERFECT MAIN DISH FOR AN EASTER BRUNCH WHERE YOU DON’T WANT TO SPEND THE WHOLE TIME FUTZING IN THE KITCHEN. IN HONOR OF THAT, THE RECIPE, WITH THIS STORY… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast, recipes Tagged With: breakfast, cornbread, Dairy Hollow House, Featherbed Eggs, The Spiced Life

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Read Aloud with Crescent and Mark

NOT A LITTLE MONKEY, by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrted by Michelle Chessaree

"So, the little girl climbed into the big waste-basket and waited." ' Oh no,' said her mother, ' we don't want to throw you away.'"There are many ways to express love and the need for attention. Here, a busy mother and her just-a-bit naughty little girl tease each other affectionately — the little girl making her point without even uttering a word.That's today's story time — read aloud by the author's daughter at Crescent Dragonwagon's Writing, Cooking, & Workshops, with Mark Graff's "text support" and discussion."Just right for two-to-fours, the humor of this true-to-life story of a mischievous little girl who blocks her mother's attempts to clean house will elicit giggles from the lollipop set." Kirkus Reviews

Posted by Crescent Dragonwagon's Writing, Cooking, & Workshops on Thursday, June 4, 2020

Read Aloud with Crescent

Read Aloud with Crescent

The Washington Post on Crescent’s Lentil Soup Recipe

The Washington Post on Crescent’s Lentil Soup Recipe

Greek Lentil Soup with Spinach and Lemon, photograph by Tom McCorkle, Washington Post

March Offering

March Offering

Bean By Bean Cookbooks

#DeepFeast Recipes

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"... like a warm luminescent blanket at bedtime... softly lulling." -- New York Times


"(With) weary animals, Dragonwagon offers an “alphabet of ways to sleep,” smoothly working in some alliteration..."
- Publishers Weekly (starred review)


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