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.

Part One. Inheritance

My Mother/Her Kitchen (Chicken Jambalaya, Pecan Pralines)
Sand Plum Jelly
Rice Culture (Aunt Gertie's Red Rice)
A Beet Recipe (Borscht)
Zarouhe's Easter Gift (Media, Enginar, Persian Pilaf)
Gravy
Song of My Mother
Vermont Kitchen (Sweet Pickles)
The Sweet and Vinegary Taste
'Family Liked 1956'. My Mother's Recipes (Ginger Crinkles)
Follow the Food (Soup of Soups)
Grandmother's Pickles. Creating a Space (Kheema, Baingan Masala)
Mother, I Hardly Knew You (Potato Latkes, Matzoh Meal Latkes)
Hedge Nutrition, Hunger, and Irish Identity
'Laying on Hands' through Cooking. Black Women's Majesty and Mystery in Their Own Kitchens
My Grandmother's Hands (Ma's Buttermilk Griddle Biscuits)

Part Two. Transformations

What's that smell in the kitchen?
The Cook, the Maid and the Lady
What My Tongue Knows (Black Beans, Lemon Garlic Shrimp, Spanish Paella, Buttermilk, Raisin Light Whole Wheat Bread)
But Really, There Are No Recipes . . .
Layers of Pleasure. Capirotada (Aunt Carmen's Capirotada)
The Parable of the Lamb (Shish Kebab)
Fast, Free Delivery (Simple Chicken Marinade for Saturday Night)
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)
The Staff of Life
Home Cookin' (Home Cookin' (Spanish) Omelette)
Greene
New Directions
Making Do with Food Stamp Dinners
Thoughts for Food
Boiled Chicken Feet and Hundred-Year-Old-Eggs. Poor Chinese Feasting (Soy-Boiled Chicken Feet)
Convalescence
Appetite Lost, Appetite Found (Horace's Torte, Vegetables Gardiniera)
A Kitchen of One's Own
Getting Hungry (Spicy Greens with Hot Vinegar, Pasta Salad, Garlic and Olive Spaghetti)
The Power of the Pepper. From Slave Food to Spirit Food (Jennifer's Trinidadian Chicken Curry, Jennifer's Trinidadian Pepper Sauce)
Hunger
Food and Belonging. At 'Home' in 'Alien-Kitchens' (Ketu's Rice, Yellow Potatoes)
A Lesbian Appetite
Kitchens
Sacred Food (Anoushabour)
Corn-Grinding Song