A special and exclusive 2026 Gaithersburg Book Festivalpre-order sale of Hildie S. Block's PANTRY, a mini-bar stocked with snack-sized personal essays about spices, food, recipes, menus, and emotion. Pantry is separated into 5 sections, of 10 essays each: Spice, Cold Storage, Dry Goods, Recipes and Menus.
 
Approximately 70 pages
Perfectbound paperback
ISBN: 979-8-90214-218-8
To be published: November 17 , 2026
 
About Author Hildie S. Block
Hildie S. Block is a lifelong Democrat and activist living in Arlington Virginia with her husband, two kids, a white dog, a black cat and a pink Axolotl named Xipe! Her day doesn’t start until after coffee and NPR. She’s the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, a proud member of Gen X and obsessed with the weather. She’s spent the last 30 years nurturing writers in the Washington DC metro area through college courses, workshops, and online interactive learning. She edited the anthology NOT WHAT I EXPECTED: The road from womanhood to motherhood, and has published in the Washington Post, Salon, Gargoyle and many other anthologies and literary magazines where her work has won contests and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize 4 times.
 
Table of Contents
 
SPICE
Salt (What is love?)
Pepper (Not knowing)
Parsley (Queen of Cups)
Sage (Advice)
Rosemary
Thyme
Cinnamon
Spicy
Mint
Vanilla
 
COLD STORAGE
Egg/shells
Blackberries
Sex, Death and Fish in the bathtub
Farmer’s Market
Bill the Butcher
Garlic
Ice Cream
Fish Heads
Look Closer
Sweet and Sour
 
DRY GOODS
Sugar/high  
Coffee 
Holden Caulfield’s Chocolate Dichotomy
Popcorn Diplomacy
Things not to do in Gibraltar (M&Ms)
Hanging the Ghost (Halloween Candy Stash)
Diet Coke with Lime
Pop the Cork
Myth of the Neglected Kitchen Grater
The Yellow Pot
 
RECIPES
Stewing
Stirring the Pot
Holiday “Rain” Casserole
Making Dinner
Oma’s Plum Cake 
Recipe for a New Year’s Eve Cocktail
Olio (You Dip Your Bread in It)
Smell the Soup
How Long to Bake?
Recipe for a Holiday Meal
 
MENUS
Eating While Broke, a math lesson 
Picnic, Roosevelt Island
Snow Day Menu
Getting Stuffed
Sitting Shiva
December, While Jewish
Drained
Good Luck
Holiday Postmortem
What Do I Want For My Birthday?