Kitchenary

About the Book

In the autumn of her life, Landis harvests the stories of her seventy years. Here are stories of friendship and forgiveness, heritage and hospitality, generosity and gratitude, loss and love, and the people of a lifetime with whom she has broken bread. The memoir is a series of key words arranged alphabetically to construct a dictionary of her life. She coins the work "Kitchenary" to link the significance of food, its flavors and aromas, to memory. Because food evokes strong emotions, it recalls people and places to mind. When Landis tastes the smoky tartness of hot bacon dressing it conjures up a picture of her mother gathering the early spring shoots of dandelion along the farm fencerows to make a green salad. Food is the theme that binds the essays together. Realizing how our need and enjoyment of food remain constant, even though many aspects of family life change, she uses this medium as the connecting point across generations. Fifty-seven recipes are included, all from the kitchens of Landis, her family and friends.

About the Author

Growing up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Jay B. Landis liked school and favored the teachers who assigned writing and directed poetry clubs. His own English teaching career spanned fifty years. He is an alumnus of Eastern Mennonite College and holds a master’s degree from Case Western Reserve University and a doctor’s degree from Idaho State University. Retired in Harrisonburg, Virginia, he and his wife Peggy have two daughters and three grandchildren. For relaxation he shares the roses from his garden.

A gathering of poems written over Landis’s teaching life, Verse Assignments reflects themes that include classroom quotidian routine, daily family, community, and faith experience, as well as response to requests about celebratory occasions and the achievements of colleagues. Landis finds much to respect in the deeds of love that surround us and how the meaning of life can be enhanced when it is expressed in the sound and rhythm of verse.