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Crescent Dragonwagon

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

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

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

PUCKER UP, BUTTERNUT: SOULFUL WINTER SQUASH SOUP WITH GINGER-APPLE SALSA

PUCKER UP, BUTTERNUT: SOULFUL WINTER SQUASH SOUP WITH GINGER-APPLE SALSA

By Crescent Dragonwagon

The circle turns. The green world again goes gold, yellow, red. Instead of the zucchinis, the excess of which we may have complained about only six weeks ago, we now coo over adorable gourds and mini-squashes, admire big honkin’ pumpkins and sweet, bright creased or crook-necked winter squashes.  So pleasing aesthetically, sculptural, decorative, signal of the season. And then! Beneath those… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast Tagged With: Butternut Squash, Soulful soups

COOL HAND CUKE: CUCUMBER-YOGURT SOUP WITH MINT, & GRAPES,  WITH A VEGAN VARIATION.

COOL HAND CUKE: CUCUMBER-YOGURT SOUP WITH MINT, & GRAPES, WITH A VEGAN VARIATION.

By Crescent Dragonwagon

THE ONLY SUMMER SOUP RECIPE YOU WILL EVER NEED. SO SAVE YOUR GORGEOUS SUMMER-RIPE TOMATOES FOR SOMETHING ELSE. BECAUSE, FRANKLY, THIS LEAVES TRADITIONAL GAZPACHO IN THE SHADE. It got up to to 96 degrees yesterday. In Vermont! And it wasn’t even quite July yet! This struck me as cruel and unusual punishment, because part of the reason I adore Vermont… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast Tagged With: chilled soup, cold soup, Crescent dragonwagon, Cucumber-Yogurt Soup, green grapes, mint, recipe, summer food

STILL BEANING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

STILL BEANING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

By Crescent Dragonwagon

There’s no doubt of this: New Orleans is a city which knows its beans. So when Camellia Beans, a well-respected and well-loved brand of dry beans based in that municipality approached me about using some of the lima bean recipes from my book Bean by Bean,  of course I gladly said yes. They have just put up the post featuring  three… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon, Deep Feast Tagged With: Bean by Bean, beans, Brunswick Stew, Camellia, Crescent dragonwagon, Ragout of Shiitake Mushrooms Butter Beans & Southern Greens with Potatoes, Southern Country-Style Butter-Bean & Green Bean Soup

BISCUITS AND GRAVY, A SIDE OF OVER EASY: LOVE, BREAKFAST, MEMORY

BISCUITS AND GRAVY, A SIDE OF OVER EASY: LOVE, BREAKFAST, MEMORY

By Crescent Dragonwagon

I’m in New York at the moment, with my boyfriend. I woke up early, suddenly and fully this morning, filled with reasonless happiness. He was asleep, warm beside me. I started thinking about what to make for breakfast. Out of nowhere, in that funny discursive way memory has, biscuits and gravy came to mind. THE SUN KITCHEN I used to… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon Tagged With: biscuits and gravy, breakfast, Crescent dragonwagon, eggs, Eureka Springs, lat life romance, mushrooms

THE WHOLE ENCHILADA: LOOKING BACK ON WINNING, LOSING, & LIFE’S COMBO PLATE

THE WHOLE ENCHILADA: LOOKING BACK ON WINNING, LOSING, & LIFE’S COMBO PLATE

By Crescent Dragonwagon

FOREWORD: I wrote recently here about traveling to the awards ceremony for the International Association of Culinary Professionals,\ with one of the first-time nominees. Our conversation made me recall a post I’d written immediately after I had won an award for one of my books, Passionate Vegetarian, back in 2003. It was a book which had also been nominated for and lost… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon Tagged With: cookbooks, eldercare, Hastings-on-Hudson, IACP, James Beard Award, losing, Ragavan Iyer, rehab, winning the James Beard Award, writing

WHITE CHOCOLATE-PINEAPPLE BREAD PUDDING WITH DARK RUM SAUCE, DONALD TRUMP, & CULINARY LITERACY

WHITE CHOCOLATE-PINEAPPLE BREAD PUDDING WITH DARK RUM SAUCE, DONALD TRUMP, & CULINARY LITERACY

By Crescent Dragonwagon

“Should I just throw these out?” I asked him. I was referring to 15 or 20 leftover muffins: carrot-pineapple-coconut muffins. We were doing that lovely post-party couple-dance of cleaning up, putting the house back to rights, discussing the event we had just co-created. He wrinkled his brow.  The give-me-more-information look. He was drying the glasses, replacing them on the shelf. “”I mean,… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon Tagged With: bread pudding, coconut, dessert, Dragonwagon, pineapple, post-election party, trump

Love, Life & What I Baked: a 130th Birthday Key Lime Pie-Cake

Love, Life & What I Baked: a 130th Birthday Key Lime Pie-Cake

By Crescent Dragonwagon

Last week I was obsessing about birthday cake. One particular birthday cake … a cake worthy of two twins celebrating their shared 65th birthday, which I had tasked myself with making. After all, one twin was my beloved Alpha Male, and the other was his sister, who I’d never met, who was flying all the way in from Washington state to celebrate with… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon

THE DILL-SEEKERS: AN HERB, A MOTHER, MEMORY

THE DILL-SEEKERS: AN HERB, A MOTHER, MEMORY

By Crescent Dragonwagon

I’d had friends over last Friday, for dinner. A couple of the dishes I’d served them required a little fresh dill. Now, you can’t buy a little dill. You buy it by the bunch. That bunch is usually, especially this time of year, preposterously large. This is problematical. I live alone, except for when my boyfriend comes up from New York to spend a few… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon Tagged With: aging, aging parents, Charlotte Zolotow, cooking, Crescent dragonwagon, culinary writing, dill, Food and Drink, herbs, mothers and daughters, vinaigrette

PEPPERS, PUDDINGS, & FOOD FOR THE HIGH NOON OF SUMMER: A DINNER PARTY IDYLL

PEPPERS, PUDDINGS, & FOOD FOR THE HIGH NOON OF SUMMER: A DINNER PARTY IDYLL

By Crescent Dragonwagon

High noon, on the year’s clock. That’s what it is right now. I know technically, literally, that summer’s high noon would be the Solstice, towards June’s end. But subjectively, I place it about a month later. That’s when the overflowing, abundant generosity of my local farm-stand makes me swoon with possibilities, and it’s hard not to overbuy. All that produce!… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon Tagged With: cooking, Crescent dragonwagon, dinner parties, Food and Drink, friendship, Recipes, vegetarian

THIS METHOD OF COOKING POLENTA WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

THIS METHOD OF COOKING POLENTA WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

By Crescent Dragonwagon

— a pandemic pantry post — POLENTA: A TEXTURE-Y COOKED CORNMEAL WHICH SERVES AS A BED FOR SAVORY STEWS, A FRIED EGG. BUT ALSO JUST FINE SERVED ON ITS OWN. IT’S PEASANT FOOD FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY, AND, IF YOU SKIP THE STOVETOP AND OVEN-BAKE IT, IT COULD NOT BE EASIER. I AM UPDATING AND DOING SOME RE-HORN-HONKING OF… Read More

Filed Under: #DinnerwithDragonwagon Tagged With: cooking, Crescent dragonwagon, Dragonwagon recipes, polenta, Recipes

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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

Bean By Bean Cookbooks

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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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Until Just Moistened

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