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I've been teaching @ Bryn Mawr for 26 years, and every one of those years I've offered a first-year writing course. But this is the first one called "Food for Thought," and the first one where I've been thinking analytically about the food I like, and what the psychological, economic and political implications of those likings might be. I'm not nervous, but I am very intrigued to see what we'll find out together.

I'm from a very large southern family of farmers who raise a good portion of their own food--including beef and pork--and who love to get together to plant and weed and harvest and cook and eat. One of my favorite childhood memories is picking up potatoes with all my cousins--I still remember the warm soil under my bare feet, and the fun of following the plow and finding the potatoes. This was the epitome of my family's ethic: work-as-productive pleasure. (Then there was the reward of a trip to the drug store and a lemon phosphate afterwards.)

A current favorite food is something we call "squash bread"--it's a sort of spoon bread made with yellow squash. In July and August, when the garden is producing more squash than even this huge family can figure what to do with, we eat a LOT of squash bread. It's soft and sweet and warm: the ultimate comfort food.