Talking with My Mouth Full: Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes, and Other Kitchen Stories

Bonny Wolf

Macmillan, Oct 2, 2007 - Cooking - 272 pages

"As reassuring as a big bowl of buttery mashed potatoes...a delicious read."
—Library Journal

What and how do American families really eat? Bonny Wolf writes about the great regional and family food traditions in this country—birthday cake and dinner party food, hearty American breakfasts and Fourth of July picnic dishes. In Talking with My Mouth Full, she writes stories about food, and also about the people who eat it.

Many of the delightful national treasures Wolf writes about—bundt cake, barbecue, roast chicken, fair food—are timeless. Each chapter, whether it's about true regional specialties like Minnesota's wild rice, Texas' Blue Bell ice cream or Maryland's famous crab cakes or about family favorites like noodle pudding or Irish raisin soda bread, ends with a perfectly chosen group of recipes, tantalizing and time-tested.

In the tradition of Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking, Talking with My Mouth Full is a book you will turn to over and over for wonderful food writing and recipes for comfort food, a great nosh, or the ideal covered dish to take to a potluck supper.

"Charming, lighthearted...refreshingly accessible."—Publishers Weekly
"Savory collection of essays."—Washington Post
"Delightful."—Austin Chronicle

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - aliciamalia - LibraryThing

Entertainment Weekly ran an article last fall about the best in food writing and food memoirs. Some were certainly not the best (I found Madhur Jaffrey's Climbing the Mango Trees unreadable), but ...

Talking with my mouth full: crab cakes, bundt cakes, and other kitchen stories

User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict

This collection of essays about the foods that mark special occasions in the average American's home is as reassuring as a big bowl of buttery mashed potatoes. A food commentator for NPR'sWeekend ...

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• The Little Cake Pan That Could: 15
• Aunt Esthers Antipasto: 21
• An Ode to Toast: 29
• Kitchen Tools: 35
• Cold Comfort: 49
• Let Them Eat Cake: 62
• Tied to My Apron Strings: 70
• JellO Redux: 86
• A Day at the Fair: 92
• The Comforts of Food: 100
• FEEDING THE MULTITUDES: 107
• Forever Breakfast: 120
• Giving Thanks: 126
• Dinner Disasters: 134
• Tis the Season: 141
• The Chicken Challenge: 147
• Lights and Latkes: 159
• Entertaining in Color: 165
• Food on Fire: 171
• The Running of the Shad: 181
• Market Pleasures: 194
• Fruits of the Sea: 203
• Local Flavors: 209
• Vegetarian Times: 216
• Plain and Simple: 228
• Eating Chinese: 234
• Its Bawlmer Hon: 240
• Index: 247

About the author

Bonny Wolf is a journalist who has worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in New Jersey, Texas and Washington, D.C., where she lives. She has been a food commentator for National Public Radio's Weekend Edition since 2003, is the host for NPR's food podcast "Kitchen Window," and writes a food column for The Washington Post.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Talking with My Mouth Full: Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes, and Other Kitchen Stories
• Author: Bonny Wolf
• Contributor: Scott Turow
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2007
• ISBN: 0312373856, 9780312373856
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Cooking / Essays & Narratives