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Crescent Dragonwagon

I FEED THIS GUINNESS STOUT CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE TO MY FATHER ONLY IN MY DREAMS

I FEED THIS GUINNESS STOUT CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE TO MY FATHER ONLY IN MY DREAMS

By Crescent Dragonwagon 15 Comments

IT’S ALMOST ST. PATRICK’S DAY, SO IT IS TIME FOR ME, AGAIN, TO OFFER YOU THIS GUINNESS STOUT CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE. IF YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR AN IRISH-ISH DESSERT THAT IS A KNOCK-YOUR-SOCKS-OFF WOW, THIS MAY IS IT. IT IS (SHE SAID MODESTLY), ONE OF THE THREE BEST CHOCOLATE DESSERTS I EVER CAME UP WITH, IN A LIFETIME OF DEVELOPING… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast, Maurice Zolotow, recipes, self-understanding, personal growth Tagged With: Arkansas, chocolate cake, Dairy Hollow House, death, Eureka Springs, fathers and daughters, Fionulla Flanagan, Guinness Stout Chocolate Cake, Irish dessert, Marilyn Monroe, St Patrick's Day dessert, St. Patrick's Day, sudden death

MAPLE-PECAN UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

MAPLE-PECAN UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

By Crescent Dragonwagon

To dessert-lovers, a good cake has no down side. Unless, of course, it happens to be an upside-down cake. These minor miracles of topsy-turviness start with a layer of fruit (most often canned pineapple) in a sweet, syrupy, buttery glaze in the bottom of a heavy pan or skillet. Over this, a good cake batter is poured. After baking, in… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon

BUT WHY ARE THESE FOODS LUCKY?

BUT WHY ARE THESE FOODS LUCKY?

By Crescent Dragonwagon

Janus, the Roman god who gave January its name, was two-faced. Not in the saying-mean-things-behind-someone’s back way: rather, he had two faces on either side of his handsome head. Thus, he could look forward, into the future, and backwards, into the past. Notice, though, he had no face for “now”, which is — moment to moment, second by second —… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon

AN ABUNDANCE OF RECIPES FOR FALL

AN ABUNDANCE OF RECIPES FOR FALL

By Crescent Dragonwagon

This, harvest-time, is my favorite time of year to go to the farmer’s market and garden-stands. It’s a cornucopia! Now, harvesting technically begins in spring, when the first asparagus tips poke up boldly through the still-cold soil. And harvesting  goes wild in the summer, when cukes and zukes overwhelm us with their fecundity, when the okra, its pods pointing happily… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast

COOL HAND CUKE: CD’S CUCUMBER & GREEN GRAPE SOUP WITH FRESH MINT

COOL HAND CUKE: CD’S CUCUMBER & GREEN GRAPE SOUP WITH FRESH MINT

By Crescent Dragonwagon

THE ONLY SUMMER SOUP RECIPE YOU WILL EVER NEED. FORGET GAZPACHO. SAVE YOUR GORGEOUS SUMMER-RIPE TOMATOES FOR SOMETHING ELSE. BECAUSE, FRANKLY, THIS LEAVES GAZPACHO IN THE DUST. To jump directly to recipe, click here. Deniers gonna deny, which the rest of us are pretty clear on (extreme weather events, such as record-smashing heat caused by human-made climate change). But regardless… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast Tagged With: cold soup, cucumber, Cucumber-Yogurt Soup, hot weather food, summer food, summerfood

YOU’RE INVITED: A NEW YEARS DAY PARTY PLAN B (AS IN BLACK-EYED PEAS)

YOU’RE INVITED: A NEW YEARS DAY PARTY PLAN B (AS IN BLACK-EYED PEAS)

By Crescent Dragonwagon

In the years since I have been an adult, I have hosted a New Year’s Day open house, in the late afternoon on the first day of the new year, probably once every three or four years. What I served at the first one, back when I was nineteen and had just moved to the small Ozarks boho Victorian arts… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast, recipes Tagged With: black-eyed peas, New Years

MY FABULOUS GREEN TOMATO (MEATLESS) MINCEMEAT

MY FABULOUS GREEN TOMATO (MEATLESS) MINCEMEAT

By Crescent Dragonwagon

MAKE IT NOW, WHILE THE FARMER’S MARKET (OR YOUR OWN GARDEN) IS PROBABLY OVERFLOWING WITH GREEN TOMATOES. ENJOY IT ALL YEAR LONG — STARTING BUT BY NO MEANS ENDING WITH THANKSGIVING. A sweet-savory-spicy combination of fresh and dried fruits and vegetables into a dark, mysterious, delectable conserve. Perfect for pies, but you won't stop there!   What should you do… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast Tagged With: Crescent Dragonwagon recipe, green tomato mincemeat, mincemeat, Thanksgiving, vegan, vegetarian

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

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

By Crescent Dragonwagon

THEY COULDN’T LOOK MORE UNPREPOSSESSING. 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

IMPEACH UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

IMPEACH UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

By Crescent Dragonwagon

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

— 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

OVEN-BAKED POLENTA (RECIPE ONLY)

OVEN-BAKED POLENTA (RECIPE ONLY)

By Crescent Dragonwagon

To learn the whole story on this revolutionary method of cooking Oven-baked Polenta, go here. If you just want the recipe, you’re in the right place. Ingredients: spray oil, or butter, vegan butter, or olive oil, for greasing pan (plus optional addition later) 4 to 5 1/2 cups water (less water gives you a thicker finished polenta, more a thinner;… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, #pandemicpantry, recipes Tagged With: cupboard, grits, oven-baked polenta, pantry, polenta

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

— 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

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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

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