Nougat Magazine Articles
Each month from April, 2006 through June, 2008, I wrote an article for Nougat Magazine. Enjoy them here.
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The Tasting Games, June, 2008. When my family in Germany fed me, it was German food. When we in the Bluegrass feed our horse-loving guests from around the world in 2010, let’s return the favor.
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Mother Knows Best, May, 2008. What grows together goes together — Mother Nature’s rule, and my mother’s rule converge into a beautiful Kentucky Sunday springtime dinner.
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Earth Day at Snug Hollow B&B, April, 2008. The most glorious place! Sustainable and green before most of us had any idea of such things. Just think “porch,” “iced tea,” “home-grown, home-cooked,” and just think…peace.
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We can grow our own: Food “Sovereignty” for Kentucky, March, 2008. We have the climate, history, tradition, land, people, and good sense — let’s grow our own food!
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A Valentine for Alfalfa, February, 2008. The restaurant without which I cannot imagine my life! True!
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Be Ye Comforted During List-Making, January, 2008. In January people plan weddings, plan gardens, plan to generally be much, much better than in December. While doing all that planning – we might as well enjoy winter, with hot chocolate, hot vanilla, and homemade marshmallows.
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Have Yourself A Piggy Little Christmas, December, 2007. In which all the Scrooge and Grinch in me drain away as I encounter two women from two western Kentucky families that have long traditions as producers of perfectly made country ham and other smoked, preserved meats.
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Spectacular Kentucky Gift Baskets, November, 2007. As part of Nougat’s issue dedicated to great local holiday gift options, I describe three great gift basket possibilities that showcase Kentucky’s great food.
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Sweet Sorghum Molasses, October, 2007. A passionate — and slightly territorial — love song to my favorite, magical, amazing, pure Kentucky sweet.
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Al’s Bar and Grill Move New Energy Up North Limestone, September, 2007. The wonderful people who transformed Stella’s Deli into Stella’s Kentucky Deli — major focus on Kentucky ingredients and growers — recently bought Al’s Bar, a notorious spot on a notorious corner. They plan to ease wonderful Kentucky ingredients into Al’s traditional menu, and they are already contributing to good things in the neighborhood.
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Ripe Tomato: A Symphony in Four Movements, August, 2007. Swoon, slurp, slide beneath the waves of tomatoes’ splendid summer siren song.
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Make Mine Local, July, 2007. We’re building a community encyclopedia of local food sources. Go add what you know to www.makeminelocal.com.
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A Tale of Two Chickens, June, 2007. A conversation on the porch of marvelous Holly Hill Inn turns serious, make me commit to eat more chicken — certain types of chicken in certain type of restaurants, anyway — and leads to musing about whether we pay enough for our food. No, we do not.
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Don’t Diss Doughnuts!, May, 2007. From a sparkling breakfast — with homemade doughnuts — at the Colorado Kitchen in Washington, DC, comes a meditation on the wonders of sublimely fried dough.
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For Earth Day, I Celebrate Susan Hill, April, 2007. Dear, sweet, perfect friend – and community changer, architect extraordinaire, advocate and practitioner of all things green, LEED Accredited Professional, and baker of the world’s best Italian Cream Cake.
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Delicious and Virtuous: Drinking Kentucky Wines, March, 2007. Life is so sweet in Kentucky, where we can drink delicious local wines and help our neighbors keep their farms, which helps us keep our communities as beautiful and whole as they should be.
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My Heart Belongs to Debbie Long, February, 2007. The beautiful and brilliant Debbie Long set Dudley’s Restaurant on a path of featuring great locally grown ingredients more than 20 years ago. This beloved restaurant serves great food today with warmth and grace. This is my 2007 Valentine, and it goes to Debbie.
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Students Resolve to Change Our World, January, 2007. Middle school students in Lexington, Kentucky present hard science in support of sustainable school grounds and buildings.
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Love and Joy Come to You, December, 2006. The wretched excess at our house is not in the shopping – it’s in the delights of shared cooking, particularly at holidays.
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Gratitude for Garlic, November, 2006. As I eat Thanksgiving dinner, I feel gratitude for my dear friends, Jean and Leo Keene of Blue Moon Garlic Farm in Madison County, who are probably in their fields as I sip and taste.
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The Wonders of Low Mileage Food, October, 2006. A piece of Kentucky Bleu cheese and a Honey Crisp Apple evoke 9/11, Wendell Berry, and thoughts about ways toward food freedom.
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Hazelfield Farm: Edible Art, September, 2006. I visit Raphe Ellis and Teresa Biagi at the Lexington Farmers Market every week to feed my hunger for beauty. Changes in Kentucky agriculture have forced them to be creative in ways that go beyond the expressiveness of their flowers and heirloom vegetables.
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Applesauce: Sweet! Apple lessons: Bitter, August, 2006. For Nougat’s back to school issue, a story about how Trudy and Dana Reed learned to grow perfect, impossibly delicious apples on the border of Kentucky’s Bourbon and Harrison counties.
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Black, Blue, and Free All Over, July, 2006. A tale of love, freedom, and blackberry wine.
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The More or Less Crude Kentucky Salad, June, 2006. A tale of three Kentucky salads, from the most local to the most crude-oil intensive.
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The Morel of the Story: Kentucky Savor, May, 2006. Kentucky’s morels are so good they lead to juvenile crime; meet a master mushroom forager, Dallas Jones.
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Kentucky: Perfect for Slow Food, April, 2006. Kentucky’s food culture and heritage is a fine match for the “good, clean, and fair” values of the Slow Food movement.
