I’m a pastry chef – but I don’t work in restaurants anymore, so you can just call me giver of dessert happiness. I’m also a collector of pressed pennies, a serial eBayer and a sort-of writer. We built a new old English Tudor house here in Lawrence, Kansas, the coolest college town in America, and I started the blog to talk house, but quickly found people would rather stare at food. Who wouldn’t?
If you were to visit, I’d bake chocolate ginger scones and serve you green tea. We’d take my dopey black lab Cleo walking downtown and grab an iced americano – for me, not the dog. You’d hear me gripe at my teen daughter, gripe equals love, and trade a few sweet barbs with my husband – my lawyerly, quieter and ultimately better half.
Bad habits include asking inappropriate questions, habitually checking e-mail and snacking on butter. On the plus side I make true deep dish pizza, I kiss my dog, I remember birthdays and can carve a turkey.
A Chicago native living in Kansas, I love the Midwest and its piled-plate glory. I’ve been a chef, daughter, mother, writer, wife, entrepreneur and friend, but what I’m best suited for is just plain handing out delicious things. And repeating all the stories that go with them.
contact me: marilyn.naron@gmail.com
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Where else can you find me simmering on the web?
As a special features contributor on PaulaDeen.com
Mandelbread and French Onion Cider Soup recipes on Saveur’s Sites We Love.
New York Daily News’ Mothership Meals talks kids baking and links to Two-Bite Jam Tarts.
Great Reads for Culinary Kids, a featured book list on Flashlight Worthy Books.
Over at the marvelous Sister Project, grateful to be writing here and written about here.
Babble.com lists Simmer Till Done as one of the “50 Best Mom Food Bloggers.”
[...] wouldn’t want to check it out, right? I clicked through to read the recipe and ended up on Marilyn’s blog Simmer Till Done. I scanned a few more posts because I wanted to see what else this pastry [...]
Hi Marilyn! I have a little award for you. Stop by and pick it up.
Marilyn, your website makes me so very happy.
OK Sufi: thank you for those sweet words. We aim to please.
Lovely. I, too, am a Chicago native–if I search this site for your deep dish pie recipe, will I find it??
Hi Paige: shamefully, there’s no deep dish recipe here. Know why? Because in my futile attempts to replicate my beloved Lou Malnati’s, I make it just a tiny bit different each time. Different every time = scribbled scraps of paper, and no clean recipe to show for it. I do, however, have a kind of sedimentary template I work with no matter what, and if I can stop eating mozzarella long enough to photograph the steps, I will. Thanks for coming by!
Marilyn, I was randomly stumbling food blogs when I merrily came across your site! So till about the 2nd or 3rd page in I discovered your from Lawrence (where I am!) What a coincidence. I am going to be starting a food blog within the week and would love to put you on my must read roster! (The Banoffi Pie is a to do tonight, can’t wait). Go KU!
Now you have me scouring your blog for any crumbs I’ve missed. I am a junkie. We collect pressed pennies here at The Greasy Skillet. We even have a little passport where we keep them. We even found pressed penny machines in Europe. My wife and daughter just returned from Disney World with a few new pennies for our collection. Maybe you should do a post on your pennies.
Darling,
I was feeling down and even more downtrodden today. After enduring a week’s worth of rain, the first glimpse of sun peeked out from behind the clouds this morning. However, I still managed to wake up tired, moody, and sad. My boyfriend left on a trip. I had to work. A friend was being a pest. I glanced at foodgawker.com, drinking (or rather, clutching for dear life,) my coffee, when I found your blog.
Needless to say, your blog and your way with words became the highlight of my day. Thank you!
Aw, I love that! Very nice.
Enjoyed your blog. I have shared it with friends.
Lovely to read about your adventures with food! So cool that you think Lawrence is the coolest college town in America – which I can agree with although I grew up in Topeka (cough-rivalry-cough. ahem) and we weren’t always welcomed there. Just linked from Margaret Roach’s blog and the SummerFest link for your upside down tomato basil bread. INSPIRED! what about trying a sweet version of it, with some kind of cinnamon/nut pesto variation? mmmmmm. I think I’ll try both.
I see you link to Free State Brewery, but I believe that out here in Hays our LB Brewery can beat the Free Staters. Check it out if you’re ever in Hays.
http://www.gellasdiner.com/
cheers,
jennifer in western kansas
Hi Marilyn,
So glad I found you! I found you through Paige — thanks for having her guest blog because I loved her story about her mama.
Now I must ask you. Why Lou Malnoti’s and not Giordanos? We had a side by side taste test last time i was in chicago and the critics were split. But I think i liked Giordanos sauce better.
Any Chicagoans want to wiegh in?
Hey, Marilyn. Leni told me about your site yesterday. I haven’t really read it yet, though I intend to, but I’m already in deep admiration of your photography. Gorgeous! Looking forward to reading more.
While dreaming of deep dish pizza in the Midwest, there’s nothing like Gino’s on State St. in Madison Wisconsin in the 1980′s. Double crust with tomato, not too much cheese, and ARTICHOKE HEARTS. Great cold for breakfast.
Hi, Marilyn! Found you through @meredithmo. How do you snack on butter?
Beautiful and I don’t find the time to visit your blog enough. Each time I do I find joy, laughter and wonder in your words.
Found your blog through Kate in the Kitchen today….LOVE it and now subscribing! My husband and I met in Great Lakes, Illinois north of Chicago back in Feb 1990. We met while stationed in the Navy in Waukegan. Love Chicago…but I was surprised when I still couldn’t wear shorts in May. I grew up on the east coast (DC, MD & NC).
Love your voice. So happy I found you… can’t remember through whom, but it was on Twitter;).
Love your blog, and the fact that love live in Lawrence! We just moved back to Shawnee from Los Angeles last Spring, and have been shouting the wonderfulness of Lawrence, KS for years. At the KU vs UCLA bball game at UCLA, there were more Jayhawks than Bruins! Nice. Anyways, I’m excited to try some of your recipes!