One of the best things about reading is all the doorways it opens. Reading can be a visual or aural or tactile experience, depending on the kind of reading you’re doing. But beyond the immediate experience of absorbing words into your brain, via sound or touch or sight, there’s all the sensory experiences that reading evokes. Some books elicit a strong emotional response. Others make me feel a particular way in my body — angry or excited or overwhelmed. Often, …
Tag: baking
“Sheltering” & “Learning to Eat a Mango” * Poetry * Katherine Szpekman
Sheltering In her lust to comfort, she melts chocolate, stirs the swirling velvet in hot butter. These days are long. Why not write a sonnet to brownies; she hears the glossy sputter. Beats two eggs and sugar, pale and frothy, sifts flour, salt and soda like fine sand. Combines all; the batter smooth and sticky. Licks the luscious darkness, upon her hands. Bakes at 350 for half an hour. The fragrance is maddening, but must cool. Patience, in the memory …
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“The Smell of Purple” * Fiction * Rainie Zenith
Before my grandmother died, we would walk down to the cemetery, sit on the bench that faced the road and count cars. Just the red ones. When the count reached ten, we’d walk back up the hill to Gran’s house for a cup of tea and a shortbread biscuit. The most amazing thing about Gran’s house was the bathroom. It was purple in every sense of the word. That is, it was painted mauve and always smelled like lavender, from …
Munsterthal Torte * Jazz Baking Video * Marc Wagnon & Sarah Pillow * Includes Recipe!
From the picturesque village of Chandolin, situated in the Val D’Anniviers (a valley in the Swiss Alps) comes this delightful jazz baking video by Marc Wagnon and Sarah Pillow that will tickle your ears with its jazz melody and enchant your eyes with its lovely alpine scenery while it teaches you to make a traditional Munsterthal Torte. The recipe comes from Marc’s grandmother Alice Schellenberg. As you’ll learn, it’s very chocolatey, a bit boozy, and oh so delicious. If you …
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“Jack’s and Steamers, a Neighborhood Restaurant Giving People with Disabilities the chance They Deserve” by Samantha Meddaugh
Have you ever walked into a restaurant and immediately felt welcomed and right at home? For me, Jack’s and Steamers in Arvada, Colorado is exactly that. When I walk in after being gone for over three years, the aromas of coffee and home-style cooking happily lead me by the nose, bringing back memories of when I worked there as a blind baker from 2014-2016. It’s a bright blue day outside, or so I’m told, when I return to Jack’s Bar …
A Blind Baker’s Perspective * Samantha Meddaugh * Interview Plus Holiday Recipe!
As a former professional baker, Samantha Meddaugh decided to have a talk with herself about why she chose baking as a career. She had a self-to-self interview about her experiences and challenges being blind and a baker, as well as misconceptions about being disabled. She spoke to herself in her home kitchen, which features stainless steel appliances, white-with-grey-squiggles granite countertops, and all-white cupboards, with a wooden butcher’s block table in the middle. Interviewer Samantha Meddaugh: How did you get into …
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