Biden-era lockdowns, quarantines, and supply chain shortages blamed on COVID have transmogrified into runaway inflation, soaring prices, and a looming recession. Some blame the Chinese, some blame President Trump, and some blame Vladimir Putin. Personally, I blame Biden, and it’s…
With gas prices breaking $5 and even $6 per gallon, weekly runs to the supermarket have become pricey and painful propositions. At least it’s easier to find parking spots. The bad news is that shelves are emptier, selections limited, and…
My great-grandpa John Jacob Howard (1846–1931) returned from the war in 1865, married Sarah Amanda Coldiron in Bell County, Kentucky, and raised eight kids — five boys and three girls. To all accounts, Great-Grandma Howard (1848–1924) had a knack for…
An old English proverb recorded by John Heywood in 1546 (and who may or not have been a distant relative of mine) has it that: “It is indeed an ill-wind that blows no one good.” The ill wind that blew…
The last two years of on again off again COVID-driven shutdowns, lockdowns, and quarantines decimated my once-well-stocked pantry and has had me leafing through family recipe collections dating back to my great-grandma Sarah Amanda (Coldiron) Howard, the mid-1800’s, and the…
COVID quarantines and lockdowns kick-started my inner chef, and, since I only went out for groceries when I really needed to, put me on intimate terms with the contents of my pantry. While still in Phase One, I had a…
Baking with sourdough starter has enjoyed a resurgence during the dark days of COVID quarantines and isolation. Now that COVID is receding into the rearview mirror and shopping for groceries is becoming less of a soul-sapping, face-masked, hand-sanitized, social-distancing drudgery,…
I don’t have recipes; I just DO it. The generations behind me (I am 71) seem to have been raised as mac ’n’ cheese junkies. I ate it some at my Maw Maw’s Sunday dinner, where it was, of course,…
I’ve read that sourdough starter, and all the myriad, scrumptious, soul-satisfying baked goods that can be improved by sourdough, has enjoyed a resurgence during the last 12 months of COVID quarantines and isolation. Now that things are opening up and…