About

Beth making biscotti
Making Old Nonnie’s Biscotti with Aunt Dot

Hi, I’m Beth Smith!

I am head cook and bottle washer for Piecrust & Pasta.  My first vivid food memories are of me sitting on a stool in the corner of my mother’s kitchen jabbering at my Nonnie or just watching while she would whip up one of her delicious chocolate cakes, finally dropping the batter-speckled beaters and lightly scraped bowl into my grubby paws for a few moments of sweet bliss. That food association is very strong for me.  Feeding is love and care.

Why I blog

My own adventures in cooking started not long after, baking the classic Wacky Cake of my childhood. With a mother who is a wonderful baker herself, but an even better cook and aunts from all sides of the family with their own repertoires and personal styles, I have many lifetimes of talent and recipes to cull through, cook for the family, and share with you all.  There are some I will not; you’re welcome. There was a strong era of aspic and Jell-O molds and an aunt who once made scrambled eggs with Crisco as the fat. These will remain in the realm of family lore.

Aunt Dot and Bunny (my mother) . Cooking with them is like herding cats

And now here I am, married to BD and the mother of three, making my own food memories for my people.  We live in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.  Other than a 10 year stint in Richmond, VA, and a wretched freshman year in the land of no sun (Western Pennsylvania … sorry folks from that area but it wilted me), I have lived within 25 miles of my birth place.  This has given me the wander bug; I have made it a point to travel as much as possible to see the country and the world. I have eaten many wonderful meals and gained a great perspective on how food keeps us together as families and in community and helps us find common ground when we are strangers no matter where we break bread in the world.

My inspiration

Wilma T. Polvinale
Nonnie

Ultimately, this blog is an ode to my Nonnie, Wilma T. Polvinale (1920 – 2011) and to all of those fabulous home cooks who created the taste memories we build on with our own families.  Nonnie, though a wonderful cook, very rarely wrote down a recipe.  And if she did, the original version would soon become a distant memory as she tweaked and updated to suit her tastes. My goal is to dig into family recipes, stories and family gray matter to create a library available for my children, family and friends (old and new) to enjoy, build on, and tweak to their heart’s content.  I include my own recipes as well since I, too, may one day be a Nonnie (though I am leaning toward GrandQueen or something equally regal) and hope that my kids and theirs will want to carry on the traditions and share the stories.


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