Because it's my birthday and Virgos love long-form cake history! penknife.substack.com/p/baking-by-...

The concept of “unskilled labor” is a classist myth and cake shaming is such a strange use of energy. Wrote about the latest online cake drama in my latest newsletter:

Hello! Very excited to have my first byline in the @washingtonpost.com about an indigenous consumable plant near and dear to my Texas/Southern heart. wapo.st/4nTb1Cq

Chatting with @thesweetfeminist.bsky.social about feelings, cookbook bans, and what she’d bake her worst enemy (can you guess who it is?) in the latest issue of CHOPPING BLOCK!

Moderated my first in-person book talk! It was a pleasure to discuss An American Girl Anthology: Finding Ourselves in the Pleasant Company Universe with co-editors @justineodashs.bsky.social and @kchysmith.bsky.social at @portersqbooks.bsky.social in Cambridge on Friday.

Happy pub day, An American Girl Anthology! Sharing a bit about the book process and my feelings about writing my first not-food book (and the food history that helped shape it) in my latest newsletter with fellow food scholar/co-author @emartin.bsky.social!

Loved having @maryburke.bsky.social's smart thoughts and wit in this amazing anthology!

The 🇫 key on my keyboard keeps getting stuck which is very rustrating because I write about ood and also now I can’t type out the word “ uck” as oten as I’d like. This ucking sucks.

A fun fact about me is that my full name is Katherine and any time I’m in the writing groove and type out a word with a “th” in the middle I inevitably type the rest of the letters as my name. Gatherine. Togetherine. Southerine.

Happy May Day! Here's to workers' rights and cake!

Bring your dolls!

hey, NYC! ⭐️ @kchysmith.bsky.social and I are coming to MOFAD on May 22nd! www.mofad.org/calendar/ag-...

New newsletter just in time for holiday baking this weekend!

Bring your dolls!

This and reading A Modest Proposal in high school English.

So excited to present at this conference next week with @kchysmith.bsky.social —big ups to the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (GSWS) program at Pitt ❤️‍🔥

congratulations @justineodashs.bsky.social @kchysmith.bsky.social et al 🥳🎉

Hot takes here! Fresh off the griddle! penknife.substack.com/p/pancake-po...

I wrote this historical perspective on the importance of the FDA on day 10 of the HHS public comms freeze (which was supposed to end on 2/1). Today is day 15. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Shared some food history perspective (it's never just about food) with a group of folks from Wayne Co. NC at an event called Finding Common Ground. We used cornbread to talk about our differences and our similarities and next meeting they're going to make a community cookbook together!

Spoiling your Friday with some food history perspective on the current FDA public communication freeze. penknife.substack.com/p/our-fda-sh...

With the big changes on social media and in our society last week, my little newsletter received a number of new subscribers. I put together a new welcome post to introduce folks to my work and to remind longtime readers that Penknife is never just about food, because food is never just food.

Congrats, Chef Ricky! So grateful I got to help share your story in THE SALTBOX SEAFOOD JOINT COOKBOOK!

Out: Seed Oils. In: Snake Oil.

The spooky vegetable masks, a cauldron filled with wool smoke and fortune telling walnut shells, squash blossom dolls with salted almond baskets! Nary a chocolate bar in sight! A short post for Halloween! penknife.substack.com/p/the-progre...

Babe, you okay? You've barely touched your festive Halloween Weeny Witch. 🌭🧹https://penknife.substack.com/p/spooky-food-histories

Spent the end of my summer getting lost on #lemonpossettok. Thank you @ahahistorians.bsky.social and @lmansley.bsky.social for the chance to write this fun #foodhistory piece!

If you don't have to haul out the mixer then it doesn't count as labor.

A "fun" throwback for #nationalcreamsicleday. #inthearchives

An incomplete list of all the food-related Barbie dolls in chronological order. My fingers are crossed for a 2024 Barbie x Fishwife collab for the girl-dinner fans or maybe an alt-milk Barbie farmer for all of us oat milk girlies. https://penknife.substack.com/p/dressed-for-pepsi-fun

This Barbie is a Cake! Wrote about my grandma again and cake history and got to check off @eater.bsky.social from my byline wishlist! https://www.eater.com/23801665/barbie-cake-history-popularity-trend-wilton-pan

At a Kitchen AI workshop at Cal Poly this week and this morning I rode in my first Tesla AND we've just been told we're being recorded by AI (for transcription purposes only).

Grandma Wanda and the family heirloom coffee grinder over on Food52 today!

Crossposting cause I don't care. Please tell me the Barbenheimer girlies have seen this.

Gentleman Farmer-core. Iykyk. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/07/realestate/modern-farmhouse-suburbs.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

Currently reading this beautiful piece by Ifrah Ahmed! https://tastecooking.com/xawaash-is-the-somali-food-blog-that-taught-a-generation-of-diaspora-kids-how-to-cook/

“Who in this patriotic country could let George and Martha Washington melt in their mouths and swallow a U.S. flag without feeling a swelling of national impulses.” The Grenada Sentinel, March 2, 1907. Read more here: https://penknife.substack.com/p/the-evolution-of-the-american-flag?sd=pf

Me showing up to the 4th of July picnic today.

I'm researching posset recipes (currently trending on the socials rn) for work and I need everyone to know that another definition for it is "A quantity of milk regurgitated by a baby" i.e. "baby vomit."

Just learned that The Saltbox Seafood Joint Cookbook that I helped Chef Ricky Moore write is on Carmy's season 2 cookbook shelf! Guess I should finally watch #thebear now.