Talking with My Mouth Full

Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes, and Other Kitchen Stories

What does America really eat? Which recipes do real home cooks turn to again and again? More often than not, they are dishes handed down from great aunts and painstakingly copied out of smudged recipe boxes rather than the creations of celebrity chefs. Bonny Wolf, food commentator for NPR's "Weekend Edition", 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. This book gives a snapshot of the American traditions that have contributed to what and how we eat. Food trends come and go, but many delightful national treasures—bundt cake, barbecue, roast chicken, fair food—are timeless. Each of Bonny Wolf's chapters, whether she's writing 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.

A corn dog is a hotdog on a stick dippedin a cornmeal batter and deep fried. The
Pronto Pup is dippedina wheat flour batter. It is on a stick.It is eaten withalotof
yellowmustard. Itisthe fair. The Pronto Pup, however, is just the beginning. There
are the classics: pork chopon a stick,corn on a stick, and deepfried cheese on a
stick. Pickles are represented by a plain pickle on a stick, a batterfried pickle ona
stick, and something called a pickledog ona stick—pastrami andcream cheese ...