Delicious potato stacks I adored before social media even existed.

Before I attended Chicago’s Halloween on Halsted parade in 2003 dressed as Liza Minnelli (pictured here), I made this “usually picked up pre-made from your local produce section to bring to a Super Bowl party when you have no time” dip. It’s easy, and a bit silly (because I did most of it wrong the night I made it for this photo shoot). But I brought this dip to my friend Spiker’s (pictured with me here paying homage to Boystown’s own Miss Foozie), partly because it’s hearty and salty, and I knew we’d likely be drinking sweet cocktails later that night (I was correct). I think of this picture often because this was taken RIGHT before my whole life started to change in ways I had no way of anticipating. And there’s just sweet, smily Liza there, just giddy to be in her favorite place with her kind friends.

Re-enter a long-ago November in 1997 when I studied for my Philosophy Exam with my friend Amanda at Amerigo in Ridgeland, MS. Shrimp Scampi on Angel Hair.

“I arrange the toasts on our prettiest pewter platter. I place a sprig of rosemary on either end. I cut two apricots, wholly out of season but hungered for, into rose-gold slices…”

Kelly Foster Lundquist (that’s me), Beard: A Memoir (forthcoming, Eerdmans)

One of my editors has said that I write food the way most people write sex. Another jokingly said that my upcoming memoir, Beard (forthcoming from Eerdmans), is perhaps a food book with other stories thrown in. It’s not just a food book, I promise, but neither of those editors was entirely wrong. There are a lot of depictions of food in the book, and so rather than launch a standard literary blog leading up to my book release, I instead plan to release one recipe from the book every month until the book comes out. As an homage to one of my literary and culinary icons, James Beard, and his masterpiece, Beard on Bread, I am entitling this section of the site: Beard on Beard: Recipes and Excerpts from Beard: A Memoir.