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Crescent Dragonwagon

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

INSTEAD OF “HEALING”, GRIEVING TRUTHFULLY

INSTEAD OF “HEALING”, GRIEVING TRUTHFULLY

By Crescent Dragonwagon

How do we travel through widowhood and grief towards whatever the next phase of our life will be if, as we said last week,  “healing” doesn’t work as a model? And let’s look at a couple of other commonly used phrases that also don’t apply;  “getting over it,” and  “closure.” How can you “get over” the death of someone you… Read More

Filed Under: #WidowhoodWednesday, Fearless Living Tagged With: compassion towards self and others, death, gradual transformation, grief & grieving, Vermont, widowhood, Widowhood Wednesday

YET ANOTHER  SECRET REVEALED IN MY FAMOUS “RAISIN-PUMPERNICKEL BREAD WITH A SECRET”

YET ANOTHER SECRET REVEALED IN MY FAMOUS “RAISIN-PUMPERNICKEL BREAD WITH A SECRET”

By Crescent Dragonwagon

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… Read More

Filed Under: Deep Feast Tagged With: bread recipes, cooking, Crescent dragonwagon, culinary writing, fame, polenta, Raisin-Pumpernickel Bread with a Secret, Vermont

IN HEAVEN AS IT IS ON EARTH

IN HEAVEN AS IT IS ON EARTH

By Crescent Dragonwagon

If there is nothing after this, I thought, right after I said it, this is enough. The “it” I’d heard myself say out loud was one word: “Heaven.” I don’t believe in heaven. I don’t not believe in heaven either, though I’m doubtful. I’d stepped out for a quick stretch-break from my laptop. I had an ostensible, wholly unnecessary task: carry recyclables to… Read More

Filed Under: Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer Tagged With: Dragonwagon, Earth, ecocide, heaven, Vermont, walking

elegy for a tomatillo … and Steve Jobs

By Crescent Dragonwagon

We planned to go for a walk at twilight tonight, David and I, but when we stepped outside the dusk was chillier than we'd anticipated. "I wonder if I should go check the forecast," he said. "Yeah, you should," I said, "because if it's going to get below freezing we probably need to do some harvesting." He went back inside,… Read More

Filed Under: Charlotte Zolotow, Crescent Dragonwagon, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer, self-understanding, personal growth Tagged With: aging parents, beans, blossoms, canning & preserving, compassion towards self and others, Crescent dragonwagon, death, first frost, gardening, gradual transformation, grief, grief & grieving, health, hope, love, narrative, natural world, Ned Shank, potentiality, preserving, resilience, salsa verde, Steve Jobs, story, tomatillos, Vermont, writing

Aunt Dot & the Splendid Sunflowers

By Crescent Dragonwagon

When I came to 410 East 57th Street that night, it was already dark, but not late. Early winter, then, it must have been, maybe about 7:30 or 8:00. A Sunday evening.  Aunt Dot, then 95 or 96, was seated facing into the living room, in one of the two 50’s-era Danish modern recliner chairs (blonde wood, cushions covered in… Read More

Filed Under: Crescent Dragonwagon, Nothing Is Wasted on the Writer, self-understanding, personal growth Tagged With: aging, aging parents, appreciation, change, death, eldercare, gardening, grief & grieving, home, hope, hospice, letting go, love, natural world, saying goodbye, sunflowers, Vermont

“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

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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