Author Archives: heritagerecipebox

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About heritagerecipebox

I am named after my great-grandmother, who only prepared two dishes, according to anyone who remembers. Somehow I ended up with a cooking gene that I brought with me from Richmond, Virginia to my current home in Boston, Massachusetts. I have worked as a journalist and published three cookbooks plus a memoir and a novel. This blog gives me a chance to share family recipes and other American recipes with a past.

Friends by the Lake: Mrs. Henry Ford and Mrs. Thomas Edison

Lake. Hills. Sky. That’s my view at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York, where I work all summer. This region is most famous for Welch’s grape juice (made from grapes grown in Lake Erie terroir), Buffalo wings, and an … Continue reading

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Raise a Glass of Strawberry Soda for Juneteenth

Growing up in the South, I drank a sugar shock-inducing amount of garishly colored Nehi grape and orange sodas, but I never heard of a strawberry soda. Maybe that’s because I hadn’t yet heard of Juneteenth, which each year on June 19 … Continue reading

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‘Top Knot’ Cookies for a Birthday Girl

My grandmother, Hanna, launched a generation of young Richmonders by baking birthday cookies for them at the nursery school she directed. She topped each birthday boy or girl’s cookie with a Hershey’s chocolate kiss, making a special treat for a … Continue reading

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Finders, Keepers: Rescuing a Discarded Recipe Book

When I found a red, three-ring notebook of someone’s favorite recipes in the magazine swap bin at my local library, I knew I had to bring it home. I would value a stranger’s carefully clipped and pasted recipes that no … Continue reading

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Rum Punch and Rice Pudding to Honor the Nation’s First Memorial Day

Memorial Day honors all who sacrificed their lives while serving in the U.S. military, but it started as a Civil War remembrance. In the spring of 1866, a year after the war ended, people in towns in the North and in … Continue reading

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Eggplant Stew from My School’s International Dinner

The elementary school I attended in Chicago in the 1960s is within walking distance of the home where Barack and Michelle Obama lived before they moved to the White House. My parents used to take me for ice cream at … Continue reading

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Lemon Chess Cake: My Mother’s Special Request

In between the time that people traded recipes over the back fence and the internet, newspapers often published recipe exchange columns for readers. For my mother, the Richmond Times-Dispatch ran “Trading Secrets,” which let readers answer requests for everything from Greek Green Beans … Continue reading

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Carrot-Raisin Salad for National Raisin Week

Name a food, there’s probably a holiday to celebrate it. That’s what I discovered at foodimentary.com, a site that tracks almost daily tributes, from the sublime-sounding National Coconut Cream Pie Day (May 8) to the somewhat ridiculous National Nutty Fudge Day (May 12). When … Continue reading

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Beef Stew: Traditional Boston Marathon Finish Line Dish

After I managed to trudge through all 26.2 miles of the Boston Marathon at the pace of a tortoise having a rough day, I gratefully received a bottle of water almost as soon as I crossed the finish line. Wrapped … Continue reading

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Rushing the Rhubarb Season

The daffodils have just emerged and so have the rhubarb leaves in my back yard. Since the stalks are still too small to harvest, I cheated and bought a few from the supermarket. Then I tried to find a family … Continue reading

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