"You will find my story is a lot like pie, a strawberry-rhubarb pie. It's bitter. It's messy. It's got some sweetness, too. Sometimes the ingredients get added in the wrong order, but it has substance, it will warm your insides, and even though it isn't perfect, it still turns out okay in the end." When journalist Beth M. Howard's young husband dies suddenly, she packs up the RV he left behind and hits the American highways. At every stop along the way—whether filming a documentary or handing out free slices on the streets of Los Angeles—Beth uses pie as a way to find purpose. Howard eventually returns to her Iowa roots and creates the perfect synergy between two of America's greatest icons—pie and the American Gothic House, the little farmhouse immortalized in Grant Wood's famous painting, where she now lives and runs the Pitchfork Pie Stand. Making Piece powerfully shows how one courageous woman triumphs over tragedy. This beautifully written memoir is, ultimately, about hope. It's about the journey of healing and recovery, of facing fears, finding meaning in life again, and moving forward with purpose and, eventually, joy. It's about the nourishment of the heart and soul that comes from the simple act of giving to others, like baking a homemade pie and sharing it with someone whose pain is even greater than your own. And it tells of the role of fate, second chances and the strength found in community.
Gives an account of the author's life from age twelve to eighteen, crafted from diaries, notebooks, and letters, and reflects all the joys and sorrows of growing up in the 1970s.
Beth M. Howard knows about pie. She made pies at California's Malibu Kitchen for celebrities including Barbra Streisand (lemon meringue), Dick Van Dyke (strawberry rhubarb), and Steven Spielberg (coconut cream) before moving back home to rural Iowa. She now lives in the famous American Gothic House (the backdrop for Grant Wood's famous painting) and runs the hugely popular Pitchfork Pie Stand. With full-color photos throughout, Ms. American Pie features 80 of Beth's coveted pie recipes and some of her own true tales to accompany them. With chapters like Pies to Heal, Pies to Seduce, and Pies to Win the Iowa State Fair, Beth will divulge her secret for making a killer crust without refrigerating the dough and will show you how to break every rule you've ever learned about making delicious, homemade pie.
In the vein of Where'd You Go, Bernadette, this whip-smart romantic comedy is as incisive as it is funny—and refuses to be thwarted by convention. After getting dumped by her husband, a woman sets out to prove her worth by entering a 'best housewife' pageant in 1970 Palm Springs.
Long before the natural-food movement gained popularity, Edna Lewis championed purity of ingredients, regional cuisine, and the importance of bringing food directly from the farm to the table. Gourley lovingly traces the childhood roots of Edna's appreciation for the bounties of nature. Full color.
Master bread baker Peter Reinhart follows the origins of pizza from Italy to the States, capturing the stories behind the greatest artisanal pizzas of the Old World and the New. Beginning his journey in Genoa, Reinhart scours the countryside in search of the fabled focaccia col formaggio. He next heads to Rome to sample the famed seven-foot-long pizza al taglio, and then to Naples for the archetypal pizza napoletana. Back in America, the hunt resumes in the unlikely locale of Phoenix, Arizona, where Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco has convinced many that his pie sets the new standard in the country. The pizza mecca of New Haven, grilled pizza in Providence, the deep-dish pies of Chicago, California-style pizza in San Francisco and Los Angeles—these are just a few of the tasty attractions on Reinhart's epic tour. Returning to the kitchen, Reinhart gives a master class on pizza-making techniques and provides more than 60 recipes for doughs, sauces and toppings, and the pizzas that bring them all together. His insatiable curiosity and gift for storytelling make American Pie essential reading for those who aspire to make great pizza at home, as well as for anyone who enjoys the thrill of the hunt.
When Lorraine Dube went for her annual mammogram on September 4, 1997, she asked the technician for compression films of her upper chest area, right front shoulder, and underarm areas. She explained that, for almost a year, she had felt a pulling sensation in these areas. Although her doctor had assured her many times that it was nothing, probably just an after effect of the radiation treatment she had after her lumpectomy seven and a half years earlier, she still had a nagging concern about that odd tight feeling in her chest. When the technician took the films, it was five times more painful than when she did the routine compression shots of the breast. Tears were running down Lorraine´s face, but she not dare move. Four days later, her doctor called. Lorraine, this is Dr. V. How long have you had that mass in your chest? You have to see a surgeon immediately. Lorraine asked herself why Dr. V had ignored her concerns all those times. She reprimanded herself for not seeking a second opinion when she first experienced that pulling sensation and did not feel comfortable with his lack of response to her concern. So many things went through her mind, yet memories of her own lumpectomy were just the tip of the iceberg. She relived the horror of more than thirty years earlier when, as a mother of three small children at age 22, she heard those terrible words from Dr. DeVillers about her 26-year old husband´s cancer condition & four to six weeks the doctor had said. All of this flashed through her mind at speed warp ten ... literally in just a few seconds. Her life path had taken her through quite a few coaster rides throughout her 57 years, but all those were kiddy rides compared to this one. And so, the mother-of-all-roller coaster rides of life began with that fateful phone call from Dr. V. Lorraine Dube beat the odds. She beat that aggressive Stage 3 sarcoma lodged in her chest wall. But the battle was not without many, many scars. In the process, she lost five ribs, all her lymph nodes in the right arm area, a piece of her clavicle, most of the use of her right arm and hand "and nearly her life. After seven surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, experimental brachytherapy and countless battles with infection, including a flesh eating bacteria inside her chest wall, Lorraine Dube was cancer free but left suffering from chronic, debilitating pain, a souvenir from her ordeal that she would carry for the rest of her life. Lorraine was a survivor, always had been. But this time it was different. Why had God spared her from the terrible cancer and its aftermath of surgery, infections and lost body parts " only to leave her suffering from such unimaginable pain? The cancer was gone, but at what cost? What the heck was she supposed to do with the rest of her life? On her way to figuring it out, her daughter suggested that she write a book about her life. Don´t worry about writing a best seller, Mom. Just write it from the heart. Write it for your grandsons. Five years later, Ms. Dube began writing this book, the story of her life. She tells the story of her life from the earliest recollections of childhood, through the sometimes rough years of adulthood all with a few purposes in mind. She wants to tell her grandsons about her history, their history, and to relate all her adult experiences some good, some bad, some easy, some tough, all with the purpose of showing them that they, too, are survivors like their Memere. Her message: Life may, indeed, be a roller coaster, but nothing is impossible. Somewhere along the line, writing this book became Lorraine´s therapy. She began to make peace with, and sense of, the chronic pain that gripped her and kept her from leading the life she wanted, the life she expected. After all, her golden years were supposed to be her happiest. This b
Too many of us take too much for granted. For example, if we saw an old lady crossing the street, many of us would look at her and say, Well, thats just an old lady, or wouldnt think anything of her at all. We dont stop to realize that the little old lady is someones mother, that she belongs to someones family, and that she means a lot to somebody. We take too much for granted. We let the little things that mean so much go by every day, and once they are gone, time never gives them back. Concentrate on these things, because they can bring so much to your life. Take the time to thank your heavenly Father, make family time, husband time, wife time, children time, listening time, talking time, caring time, sharing time, crying time, peaceful time, special time, and last but not least, giving time.
Winner of the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award (Baking and Desserts) A New York Times bestseller and named a Best Baking Book of the Year by the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, Bon Appétit, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Mother Jones, the Boston Globe, USA Today, Amazon, and more. "The most groundbreaking book on baking in years. Full stop." —Saveur From One-Bowl Devil’s Food Layer Cake to a flawless Cherry Pie that’s crisp even on the very bottom, BraveTart is a celebration of classic American desserts. Whether down-home delights like Blueberry Muffins and Glossy Fudge Brownies or supermarket mainstays such as Vanilla Wafers and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream, your favorites are all here. These meticulously tested recipes bring an award-winning pastry chef’s expertise into your kitchen, along with advice on how to “mix it up” with over 200 customizable variations—in short, exactly what you’d expect from a cookbook penned by a senior editor at Serious Eats. Yet BraveTart is much more than a cookbook, as Stella Parks delves into the surprising stories of how our favorite desserts came to be, from chocolate chip cookies that predate the Tollhouse Inn to the prohibition-era origins of ice cream sodas and floats. With a foreword by The Food Lab’s J. Kenji López-Alt, vintage advertisements for these historical desserts, and breathtaking photography from Penny De Los Santos, BraveTart is sure to become an American classic.
