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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

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

BLOSSOMING, NO MATTER WHAT: A CHRISTMAS (CACTUS) STORY

BLOSSOMING, NO MATTER WHAT: A CHRISTMAS (CACTUS) STORY

By Crescent Dragonwagon

SOMETHING, SOMEWHERE, IS BLOOMING. NOW.  IT MAY NOT BE THE PLANT YOU WANTED OR EXPECTED. ITS TIMING MAY BE OFF, OR ODD, OR MYSTERIOUS. BUT BEFORE YOU GIVE OVER TO  DESPAIR, — EASY, IN THESE DIFFICULT AND UNENDINGLY STRESSFUL TIMES —  LOOK FOR THE BUD, THE BLOSSOM. IF IT CAN FLOWER IMPROBABLY, SO CAN YOU. 2012 was the last full… Read More

Filed Under: Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer Tagged With: aging, aging parents, Arkansas, Charlotte Zolotow, Christmas cactus, compassion towards self and others, David Koff, death, eldercare, friendship, grief, grieving, love, memoir, memoir-writing, writing

COOL IT: BEST-EVER CUCUMBER & GREEN GRAPE SOUP

COOL IT: BEST-EVER CUCUMBER & GREEN GRAPE SOUP

By Crescent Dragonwagon

WHAT? A WEEK OF 90 DEGREE DAYS BEFORE WE EVEN HIT SUMMER SOLSTICE? ARRRRGGGH! OKAY, THAT DOES IT: IT’S EARLY IN THE SEASON FOR ME DO MY ANNUAL POST OF MY BLISSFULLY CHILL CUCUMBER-GREEN GRAPE SOUP RECIPE, BUT, HAVING JUST MADE THE FIRST GALLON OF WHAT WILL BE MANY GALLONS BETWEEN NOW AND FALL… I MUST. IT’S EASY TO MAKE,… Read More

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

OKRA: LOVE IT, RIGHT NOW

OKRA: LOVE IT, RIGHT NOW

By Crescent Dragonwagon

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

This is the way it works: reminder from a turkey buzzard

By Crescent Dragonwagon

This is the way it works. You return to a town where you used to live. You go on a short walk, on a street you have walked many times. You are only stretching your back and legs and getting a few more steps in so your Fitbit will be happy at the end of the day. You are only… Read More

Filed Under: Crescent Dragonwagon, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer, Writing Courses Tagged With: appreciation, Arkansas, David Koff, Eureka Springs, fitness, gradual transformation, grief & grieving, home, hope, love, Ned Shank, poetry, resilience, Wislawa Syzmborska, writer's memory

“fixing to” … and a message via indigo bunting

By Crescent Dragonwagon

The original inventers of twittering have been coming and going from the feeder all day today. Whenever I look out, from the bathroom window upstairs or the french doors in the kitchen downstairs, different visitors are at the cafe. Finches yellow as canaries, finches as reddish-purple as if they’d bathed in grape juice. Sparrows, in tweedy brown-gray-black-white. Black-caped chicadees. Grosbeaks,… Read More

Filed Under: Crescent Dragonwagon, Fearless Writing, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer, Writing Courses Tagged With: anxiety, Arkansas, birds, change, compassion towards self and others, cornbread, Crescent dragonwagon, death, Eureka Springs, fear, Fearless Writing, grief, grief & grieving, grieving, hope, indigo bunting, love, natural world, Ned Shank, resilience, spring, Vermont, writer's memory, writers, writing, writing workshops

whimper while you work: life-density, writing, very dark chocolate

By Crescent Dragonwagon

First, let me say how humiliated I am that I haven’t done a new blog post since (OH my GOD, this is ETERNITY in Blogland!) … since last July.  Actually, I did do one. It was, juicily, about older babes who are still sex-positive in their late 50’s and onward, sometimes way onward. I number myself, gladly, among this group,… Read More

Filed Under: Crescent Dragonwagon, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer Tagged With: appreciation, Arkansas, bittersweet, Burdick, cats, chocolate, cooking, Crescent dragonwagon, culinary writing, Dairy Hollow House, Double-Density, Double-Density Chocolate-Walnut Torte, Eureka Springs, Food and Drink, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, innkeeping, Ned Shank, peace, practice makes practice, sex after 50, 60. 70, sexuality, writer's memory, writers, writing, writing practice, writing process

a sound of wings unseen, inadvertent wisdom: a fathering day post

By Crescent Dragonwagon

Walking yesterday, up near Frazier's sugar shack here in Vermont, I heard an animal rustle in the underbrush edging the woods by the gravel road. Though I stood stock-still and watched, I couldn't see what it was. Too large for a chipmunk or a squirrel, smaller by far than a deer, I was left only with the sudden sound of… Read More

Filed Under: Charlotte Zolotow, Crescent Dragonwagon, Maurice Zolotow Tagged With: Aekansas, aging, aging parents, Ann-Margret, appreciation, Arkansas, Audobon Society, birds, Brigitte Bardot, celebrity biography, change, Charlotte Zolotow, Count Basie, Crescent dragonwagon, death, Duke Ellington, environmentalism, Eureka Springs, fame, Father's Day, Film, friendship, great blue heron, great blue heron, Heraclitus, Hollywood, hope, John Wayne, John Wayne, King's River, Los Angeles, love, Marilyn Monroe, Maurice Zolotow, natural world, nature, peace, spruce grouse, Tallulah Bankhead, Ursula Anndress, Vermont, walking, walking, walks, wildlife. writing, writer's memory, writers, writing

the deer’s ears: Mose, me, misery & moments

By Crescent Dragonwagon

Today, coming down to the hill towards the pond, beginning my morning walk, two animals — one large, one small — standing in the middle of the gravel road. I caught my breath, stood stock-still, blinked and waited, blinking a few times to clear my not-so-good vision so I could identify them. Ah. A white-tailed deer, and – what was… Read More

Filed Under: Charlotte Zolotow, Crescent Dragonwagon Tagged With: aging, aging parents, appreciation, Arkansas, Bounding, cat, cats, change, Charlotte Zolotow, Crescent dragonwagon, David Koff, death, deer, eldercare, eldercare, environmentalism, Eureka Springs, ferns, grief & grieving, home, love, Mose Allison, Mose Allison, mother, mothers, natural balance, natural predators, natural world, photography, poetry, Traca Savadago, Vermont, walking, walking, walks, woods, writer, writers, writing, writing

Part Two, at last! “the rare hare of hope” bounds back in: with guest appearances by Letterman, Aunt Dot, Chou-Chou, Joseph Campbell, Konrad Stanislavski & Sir Francis

By Crescent Dragonwagon

I began writing these words on Easter Sunday, as Christians celebrated the triumphant arc of their spiritual year, when Christ rises from death. But resurrection itself belongs to everyone, regardless of belief, or non-belief. Here in much of America, Easter-time coincides with the year's resurrection. The alarm clock set by the spin and wobble of this particular planet on which… Read More

Filed Under: Books, Charlotte Zolotow, self-understanding, personal growth Tagged With: aging, appreciation, Arkansas, Bounding, bunnies, Bunny, change, change, change of seasons, Charlotte Zolotow, children's book writing, children's books, compassion towards self and others, Crescent dragonwagon, David Koff, death, death, dying, e e cummings, Easter, eldercare, environmentalism, friendship, gradual transformation, grief & grieving, hope, hospice, loss, love, love, natural world, peace, Pixar, rabbit, Religion, spring, spring, Steve Zolotow, Vermont, winter, writer's memory, writers, writing

dreaming, as two decades join: “rare hare of hope,” part one

By Crescent Dragonwagon

My unconscious, in the dreams it chooses to deliver to me, seems to view my conscious mind as a kindergartner. When it gives me the information that it's decided I need, it does so in very simple terms. Simple, but strange. Like the dream I had two nights ago, just before one decade ended and another began. And, though simple… Read More

Filed Under: Crescent Dragonwagon, self-understanding, personal growth Tagged With: 2010, appreciation, Arkansas, boundin, Bounding, bounding, change, community, compassion towards self and others, Current Affairs, David Koff, death, death, Eureka Springs, Film, films for children, friendship, future, George Bush, gradual transformation, grief, grief & grieving, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Hope, hope, jackalope, Janus, libraries, love, love, movies, narrative, natural world, Ned Shank, new decade, partisanship, partisanship, Pixar, Pixar, positivity, resilience, Vermont, Vermont, writing

Redecoration, Part One: Aunt Dot contemplates the living room of the future

By Crescent Dragonwagon

“I suppose you’ll live here one day?” Aunt Dot said. A statement; a question. She gave a quick, birdlike glance at me, then looked away. Waiting, I naturally assumed, for an answer. But how could I answer when I wasn’t sure what the question was? She was sitting, that night, on the wooden chair with the woven seat, near the… Read More

Filed Under: Books, Charlotte Zolotow, Crescent Dragonwagon, self-understanding, personal growth Tagged With: aging, aging parents, appreciation, Arkansas, aunt, cats, change, Charlotte Zolotow, compassion towards self and others, Crescent dragonwagon, death, eldercare, Eureka Springs, Eureka Springs, families, farm, gradual transformation, grief & grieving, home, love, natural world, Ned Shank, redecorating, Strong on Music, Vermont, Vermont, Vermont Country Store, wallpaper, writing

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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

#DeepFeast Recipes

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Dinner with Dragonwagon

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A NAPPA Gold Winner
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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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read aloud with Crescent Dragonwagon

Until Just Moistened

Until Just Moistened

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