I am in the waiting room of the Springfield, Vermont office of Dr. Richard Lane, absent-mindedly, slightly anxiously, working on a jigsaw puzzle (blue Victorian house, hanging flower baskets, edges almost complete). This is my first visit. I was referred by my regular eye doctor, because I needed minor outpatient surgery.
I know it’s minor but jeez, it’s my eye, plus there is a shot involved. Hence I am dispelling minor unease by doing this jigsaw puzzle, thoughtfully set up in the office waiting room, as my boyfriend patiently reads People. Not characteristic activities for either of us.
In pops a cheerful woman in a pink blouse. “Crescent?” I look up. “Hi, I’m Cindy, the office manager… I just wanted to say hi, and welcome you. And I just want to let you know, you’ve got some real fans here. One of us even has one of your cookbooks!”
Eventually I am ushered to the room where “the procedure” will take place. My eye pressure is taken by another nurse, Angelina, and I wait, until in bustles the doc, also cheerful as can be, middle aged, in glasses, friendly, solidly built, white jacket over blue shirt.
“I’ve got to tell you, ” he says, “When I was looking over the patient list for today and saw your name, I almost flipped out! I thought, there can’t be more than one Crescent Dragonwagon in America! Love your Dairy Hollow House Cookbook, the soup and bread one — I cook out of it all the time!”

Published in 1992 and long out of print, S & B is the best-selling of my cookbooks: 287,000 copies.
“Call me Rich.” he says.
I’m in the examination chair, an unusual place to have this kind of discussion.
“Um, what are your favorite things to make out of it?” I ask.
“Well, I’m the bread-baker in the house and I make your Raisin-Pumpernickel Bread with a Secret a lot. A lot! It’s so good! I’ve made it at least six times, probably more. And when I bring it somewhere everyone always raves about it… And the raspberry butter that goes with it, that is just perfect!… “
“Oh, I love that one too,” I say.
And I do. I learned it from fellow innkeepers, George and Katie Hoy, who used to, maybe still do, own an inn in Sagamore Falls, Ohio. The Inn at Brandywine Falls. Delightful couple. Gee, I haven’t thought of them in years. They must be pretty old now. I wonder how they’re doing. If they’re alive. If they still have the inn.
And my goodness it’s been a long time since I’ve made that fine bread of theirs.
“In fact I brought my copy in,” says Rich, a little shyly. “Could I impose on you to sign it? ”
“But should we take care of the other…” says Rich, “First?”
Meaning my eye.
Which, of course, means including Ned’s death.

Portrait of the Innkeepers as a Very Young Man & Woman, circa maybe 1984
Since those readers who I am unacquainted with personally only know Ned alive and well as he was and is in my earlier books, this is news to them. It’s a shock to hear, as I’ve seen more than once: the flash of surprised pain visible.
Ned was almost as much a part of some of my books as he was to my life then, and I suppose thus to readers’ lives too, in a small way. They, readers of those books, would have a picture of these two people who loved each other, and cooked well and ate well together: an accurate picture at the time I wrote it, but now vanished.
And since I loved Ned so dearly and we had such a good time, I guess that comes across too.
He says, “I believe you’ll be reunited.”
I say, “Well, I don’t really believe that. I don’t not believe, but I don’t believe.”
He says, “Well, we won’t know until we get there, will we?”
I say, “I guess so.” I say, “And, like, what if you’re widowed young, and you get with someone else? How would being reunited work then?”
“I don’t know,” Rich says thoughtfully. “It’s a good question. Maybe the Hindus have it right.” (Meaning, I guess, reincarnation?) “I’m science-based, but there’s a lot we don’t know. I guess we’ll just have to leave it to the good Lord to figure out.”
“Yes,” I say, “Maybe. I agree, there’s a lot we don’t know.”
I’m not particularly eager to deal with my eye. On the other hand, the sooner it’s done, the sooner I can stop dreading the shot.
“My favorite kind to sign.”
And this is also true. I love the little spots and dustings of flour and occasional pages stuck together with egg yolk…it says my recipes were used. Loved. In some way had meaning in someone’s life. Even when a book is long out of print, as this one is, its reach continues.
I sign their book. Carolyn went and got my boyfriend in from the waiting room to take a picture of the three of us, which he did. More pleasantries.
While it could be part of #DinnerWithDragonwagon, the deeper truth, the not-so-secret secret to the bread and everything else, is: this life, its table loaded, groaning, contradictory, funny, tragic, offers a deep feast. Love/hate. Love/loss. Absence/Presence.I’ll choose, whenever I can, Love, Love, Presence.
The photograph on the top of this post is courtesy of writer Holly Jennings. It appears on her post about this book, which is part of her Dowdy Corners Cookbook Club, RIP.

P.S. As I wrote this post, I googled “The Inn at Brandywine Falls”, George and Katie’s place in Sagamore Hills. And I kid you not, right there on the page, was this note. “Today is the 28th Anniversary of the Inn at Brandywine Falls!!”
And now I am going to call them, and wish them a very, very happy anniversary.
DHH Soup & Bread is such a good one. Back when it was in print, I gave a copy as a “starter cookbook” to a young friend who had just graduated college. Recently I was buying some other out of print books and snapped up a copy of this one for some future need. I mean, in case the pages on mine become so stuck together that I destroy a favorite recipe trying to get the pages to open. Or the right gift-giving moment appears. Some books are just so good that I feel having a second copy around is even better. (probably silly) So what do I cook from this one? The skillet-sizzled cornbread, of course. Featherbed eggs. My own take on the chicken and cheese soup with green chilies (as I look at it, I think I add beans and may, just possibly, omit tomatoes). The orange muffins. The curried slaw, though it’s been a while for that one. The focaccia. Hillbilly many bean soup. DHH Pasta Salad, which I made for my daughter’s wedding, along with the orange blossom beans from Bean by Bean. Hmm, it’s getting close to dinner time, time to go!
Thanks, Nora… And now, this bread (and the herbed mezzalunas) go onto your list, right? And the Cuban Black Bean Soup… And the Chicken and Olive Soup Eureka… And… Oh, the pumpkin-tomato bisque…I appreciate your loyal and passionate cooking and eating!
When I had to whittle my 1000+ collection of food related books down to just a couple dozen, your Soup & Bread Cookbook made the first cut along with Julia, Diana Kennedy & Anna Thomas. I love this book. I’ve read it cover to cover numerous times but right now it’s temporarily packed away. I was happy to find you Pumpernickel bread recipe online. I’ve made it dozens of times and will be making it again this week! Thanks!??
Thank you, Kate. I am so tickled that you put me in this fine company! I knew Julia (fondly, collegially, though not intimate friends) and Diane Kennedy (just met a couple of times), have not ever met Anna, but still. I am sure our books are also happy to be hanging out together.
Here is a story I wrote about my most interesting adventure with Julia…