Through the Kitchen Window: Women Explore the Intimate Meanings of Food and Cooking

by Arlene Voski Avakian

Overview

These days any woman knows that the sensual pleasures of food and cooking are all too often obscured by the increasing demands of careers, families, battles over body image, and the desire for a life outside the 'traditional' domain of the kitchen. With contributions by Dorothy Allison, Maya Angelou, Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Marge Piercy among others, Through the Kitchen Window offers a fresh look at food and cooking as more than the makings of a meal. For the writers in this provocative collection, food is a cultural declaration, an expression of hidden hungers, a symbol of our intimate connections to one another. Including memories of Latina, Geechee, Chinese and Indian kitchens, Through the Kitchen Window reveals everything from the painful struggles to overcome an eating disorder to the tantalizing delights of cornbread and barbecue eaten from a lover's hands, and challenges assumptions about women, food, and the true satisfaction of cooking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845203269
Publisher:	Berg Publishers
Publication date:	10/01/2005
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Arlene Voski Avakian is Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Table of Contents

Introduction* Part One: Inheritance * My Mother/ Her Kitchen (Chicken Jambalaya, Pecan Pralines)—Clare Coss * Sand Plum Jelly—Karen Coody Cooper * Rice Culture (Aunt Gertie's Red Rice)—Julie Dash * A Beet Recipe (Borscht)—Joan Ormondroyd * Zarouhe's Easter Gift (Media, Enginar, Persian Pilaf)—Arlene Voski Avakian * Gravy—Sally Bellerose * Song of My Mother—Tahira Naqvi* Vermont Kitchen (Sweet Pickles)—Janet Dike Rood * The Sweet and Vinegary Taste—Chery Savageau * 'Family Liked 1956': My Mother's Recipes (Ginger Crinkles)—Sharon L. Jansen * Follow the Food (Soup of Soups)—Barbara Haber * Grandmother's Pickles: Creating a Space (Kheema, Baingan Masala)—Beheroze F. Shroff * Mother, I Hardly Knew You (Potato Latkes, Matzoh Meal Latkes)—Letty Cottin Pogrebin * Hedge Nutrition, Hunger, and Irish Identity—Marie Smyth * 'Laying on Hands' through Cooking: Black Women's Majesty and Mystery in Their Own Kitchens—Gloria Wade-Gayles * My Grandmother's Hands (Ma's Buttermilk Griddle Biscuits)—E. Barrie Kavasch * Part Two: Transformations * What's That Smell in the Kitchen?—Marge Piercy * The Cook, the Maid and the Lady— Caroline Babayan * What My Tongue Knows (Black Beans, Lemon Garlic Shrimp, Spanish Paella, Buttermilk, Raisin Light Whole Wheat Bread)—Margaret Randall * But Really, There Are No Recipes...—Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich * Layers of Pleasure: Capirotada (Aunt Carmen's Capirotada)—Pat Mora * The Parable of the Lamb (Shish Kebab)—Martha A. Ayres * Fast, Free Delivery (Simple Chicken Marinade for Saturday Night)—Paula Martinac * On Becoming a Cuban Jewish Cook: A Memoir with Recipes (Mojo Criollo, Basic Cuban Tomato Suace, Picadillo, Zarzuela de Mariscos, Arroz Con Pollo, Stove Top Paella)—Ester Rebeca Shapiro * The Staff of Life—Margaret Randall * Home Cookin' (Home Cookin' (Spanish) Omelette)—EL. Cortés * Greene—Leah Ryan * New Directions—Maya Angelou * Making Do with Food Stamp Dinners—Trudy Condio * Thoughts for Food—Caroline Urvater * Boiled Chicken Feet and Hundred-Year-Old-Eggs: Poor Chinese Feasting (Soy-Boiled Chicken Feet)—Shirley Geok-lin Lim * Convalescence—Leah Ryan * Appetite Lost, Appetite Found (Horace's Torte, Vegetables Gardiniera)—Helen Barolini * A Kitchen of One's Own—Doris Friedensohn * Getting Hungry (Spicy Greens with Hot Vinegar, Pasta Salad, Garlic and Olive Spaghetti)—Leah Ryan * The Power of the Pepper: From Slave Food to Spirit Food (Jennifer's Trinidadian Chicken Curry, Jennifer's Trinidadian Pepper Sauce)—Jennifer Iré * Hunger—Jyl Lynn Felma * Food and Belonging: At 'Home' in 'Alien-Kitchens' (Ketu's Rice, Yellow Potatoes)—Ketu H. Katrak * A Lesbian Appetite—Dorothy Allison * Kitchens—Aurora Levins Morales * Sacred Food (Anoushabour)—Anais Salibian * Corn-Grinding Song—Wendy Rose * Hunger—Jyl Lynn Felma * Food and Belonging: At 'Home' in 'Alien-Kitchens' (Ketu's Rice, Yellow Potatoes)—Ketu H. Katrak