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Norman Mathews

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Dessert

Home Tag Dessert
Buttermilk Cake Donuts

Buttermilk Cake Donuts

Apr 20, 2025

Nowadays high-quality raised donuts are not difficult to find. However, I find that quality cake donuts are quite another matter—thus...

Torta Caprese

Torta Caprese

Jan 17, 2025

Torta Caprese is a rich, flourless chocolate cake that was born in Capri—therefore the name Caprese.  Its origin is uncertain,...

Swedish Fruit Soup

Swedish Fruit Soup

Oct 11, 2024

Cold Swedish Fruit Soup is a wonderful fall or winter dish when you’re beginning to miss those fresh peaches, apricots,...

Savarin with White Peaches

Savarin with White Peaches

Sep 18, 2023

A savarin is nothing but a large-size baba. Because it uses a yeast dough, it is more like a bread...

Soufflé Omelet with Strawberries

Soufflé Omelet with Strawberries

Aug 31, 2023

If you’re looking for a different dish for brunch, you can’t do better than this Soufflé Omelet with Strawberries. The...

Chocolate Applesauce Spice Cake

Chocolate Applesauce Spice Cake

May 11, 2021

Chocolate, applesauce, and a myriad of spices. What’s not to like? Years ago in Manhattan, I used to shop at...

Caramel-Butterscotch Pudding

Caramel-Butterscotch Pudding

Oct 13, 2020

I love butterscotch pudding, but all the recipes I’ve encountered seem insipid, lacking in both flavor and character. I began...

Buttermilk Peanut Rolls

Buttermilk Peanut Rolls

Jun 4, 2020

Buttermilk Peanut Rolls were one of the special treats of my childhood. Rockford, Illinois, had a a plethora of great...

Eggnog Pie

Eggnog Pie

Apr 2, 2020

Many times out of the holiday season I crave eggnog, so I decided to combine this craving with a dessert—hence...

Pennsylvania Dutch Chocolate Cream Pie

Pennsylvania Dutch Chocolate Cream Pie

Mar 8, 2020

As a child, my favorite pie was chocolate cream. My mother always used a mix that she got from a...

Midnight Cake With Salted-Caramel Icing

Midnight Cake With Salted-Caramel Icing

Jan 7, 2020

Although my favorite chocolate cake is the Pennsylvania Dutch Chocolate Cake (see recipe), there are times when I just want...

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Nov 12, 2019

Tired of the same old pumpkin, minced, or pecan pie for your Thanksgiving feast? Here’s a variation on the pecan...

Buttermilk Raspberry-Chocolate Shortcakes

Buttermilk Raspberry-Chocolate Shortcakes

Aug 4, 2019

It’s summer. It’s hot. And the cookin’ should be easy. Thus with raspberries at their prime in July and August,...

Vacherin Tropical

Vacherin Tropical

Jul 7, 2019

If you’re looking for the perfect dessert for these hot summer days, here’s Vacherin Tropical to the rescue. It’s like...

Buttermilk Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Buttermilk Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Apr 21, 2019

Pineapple upside-down cake is one of the more toothsome desserts. I’ve discovered, however, that you can significantly improve the richness...

Deep-Chocolate Brownies

Deep-Chocolate Brownies

Mar 24, 2019

I’m inordinately fussy about my brownies. I like them moist with a deep chocolate flavor, studded with walnuts, and frosted...

Pennsylvania-Dutch Chocolate Cake

Pennsylvania-Dutch Chocolate Cake

Dec 30, 2018

Pennsylvania-Dutch Chocolate Cake Despite my love for elaborate European pastries, my favorite dessert will always be this Pennsylvania-Dutch Chocolate Layer...

Raspberry Marbled Cheesecake

Raspberry Marbled Cheesecake

Nov 11, 2018

Raspberry Marbled Cheesecake Raspberry Marbled Cheesecake with a chocolate-crumb crust was the prime specialty at Miss Grimble’s, a wonderful bakery...

Chestnut-Filled Crepes With Chocolate

Chestnut-Filled Crepes With Chocolate

Sep 21, 2018

I love chestnut-filled crepes with chocolate. However until the last few years, making sweetened chestnut purée was an ordeal. It...

Red-Currant, Bavarian-Cream Cake

Red-Currant, Bavarian-Cream Cake

Aug 20, 2018

Red-Currant, Bavarian-Cream Cake This is a perfect cake for the end of summer, when red currants are plentiful. The tart currants...

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Go to Books Tab for Information on My Autobiography

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On Sale Now!

Featured in Kirkus Reviews The Best Books of 2018

My article, “When News Drives Creativity,” which discusses Trump’s executive order not to report civilian death’s by drone, is featured in Theater Art Life Magazine. Click here.

Critical Acclaim for The Wrong Side of the Room

“The book’s second half is fully stocked with accounts of stage shows galore—not to mention impressive name-dropping (Barbra Streisand, Betty Grable, Dorothy Lamour, Gene Kelly). These anecdotes from the theater’s social scene glide alongside vivid imagery from the author’s performances and other successes. The book also has a delightful, chatty sense of humor with moments of wry wit that make it exciting to read.
In the end, it effectively celebrates a life of artistic inspiration alongside the giddiness and glory of live theater.”

—Kirkus Review

Read the entire Kirkus Review here.

 

Readers’ Favorite Review
by Asher Syed

The Wrong Side of the Room: A Life in Music Theater by Norman Mathews is an autobiography chronicling the author’s life as he transitions from a confusing and often abusive childhood, born in a sleet of uncertainty (literally, as it turns out). Masked by imagination and written with a humor that most would not be able to apply to such situations, Mathews is able to harness this creativity and hitch it to his own ambitions as a rising star. When an injury threatens to derail an ascent that defies all odds, Mathews is forced to reinvent and reignite himself once more, and does so amid a whole host of personal and professional turmoil, scandal, and the kind of stories that are all the more shocking – and inspiring – because they are actually true.

Norman Mathews delivers a riveting memoir with The Wrong Side of the Room that opens with a contentious genesis and powerfully surges through to its finale. This is the ultimate tale of a man who is knocked down seven times and gets up eight, except in this case our tenacious narrator is struck to the ground far more than that. But he does continue to rise and appears to have carved out a genuine niche for himself until, “I woke up one morning with a strange pain in my back and running down my right leg. In a few days, it got much worse, and I began limping.” With the support of his partner Todd, he buys a Steinway, dives into formal education, and…well, at first that all implodes too. But Mathews is the consummate phoenix and, much like he displays in the writing of this book, skillfully maneuvers the trajectory of his life’s own narrative into a story that we are fortunate enough to have shared in The Wrong Side of the Room.

Impressively candid, exceptionally informative, deftly written, organized and presented, “The Wrong Side of the Room: A Life in Music Theater” is an extraordinary memoir that will have special and particular appeal for anyone with an interest in show business. . .very highly recommended for both community and academic library Contemporary American Biography collections.

—Midwest Book Review

News

The Wrong Side of the Room is the Bronze-Medal Winner in the Non-Fiction —Music/Entertainment Category of the Readers’ Favorite Book Competition.

To see my coming-out video on YouTube, click here.

 

BOOK CORRECTION: In my autobiography on page 152, I state that Carolyn Morris died in a motorcycle accident. I learned from her daughter-in-law that though she was severely injured she did not die. She is still living in Rutland, Vermont.

Get a free copy of Chapter 1 of my autobiography just by commenting on whether you think Sondheim or I am right about setting Dorothy Parker’s verses to music. Click here.

Read my new article, Sicilian Classics from Nonni’s Kitchen in the Times of Sicily. The article gives 4  of my grandparents’ interesting recipes.

Read my interview about my autobiography, The Wrong Side of the Room, with Norm Goldman, editor of BookPleasures.com here

The Wrong Side of the Room has been listed on Vincent Lowry’s site eAuthorSource. Click here.

 

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