By this time of the summer, mint threatens to overrun my garden. The sprigs that I welcomed when they poked up through the icy soil now crowd my rosemary and parsley. What better way to thin them than to pick them for a recipe? Continue reading
A Mighty Mint Cordial
Posted in cocktails, cookbooks, Food, history, History
Tagged 1850s, brandy, cognac, Early American Beverages, Mary Randolph, mint, Richmond, Virginia
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Texas Enchiladas That Fed a ‘Giant’
Marfa, Texas Photo by Martha Schnee
When the cast and crew of the movie Giant came to Marfa, Texas in 1955, they traded Los Angeles glitz for an arid, desolate landscape. “[Marfa] is located somewhere south and west of El Paso in a region of the damned…It was a hot, lifeless, boring place,” wrote Mercedes McCambridge, who co-starred in the film with James Dean, Rock Hudson, and Elizabeth Taylor.
I learned more about making of the film from Recipes4Rebels, a blog celebrating recipes from James Dean and his contemporaries. The blog’s Cowboy Day Cookalong for the National Day of the Cowboy on July 23 sounded too fun to resist Continue reading
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Posted in Food, history, History
Tagged 1950s, chile peppers, Cowboy Day Cook-Along, Donald Judd, Elizabeth Taylor, enchiladas, Fritos, Hollywood, James Dean, Marfa, Mercedes McCambridge, mexican, National Day of the Cowboy, Old Cafe Borunda, red chile sauce, Rock Hudson, Texas, tortillas
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An Icy Dessert from Garden Ingredients
From Eden to Babylon, gardens for thousands of years have inspired legends. In America, the U.S. Botanic Garden opened on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 1820 and still operates nearby. Michelle Obama revived gardening on the White House Lawn in 2009; A White House Garden Cookbook tells you more about it. A garden also inspires Alexandra Risen, who has just published the memoir Unearthed. Continue reading
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Posted in cookbooks, Food, memoir
Tagged Alexandra Risen, blackberry, granita, lemon, mulberry, U.S. Botanic Garden, Unearthed, White House garden, White House Garden Cookbook
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‘Something a Little Exotic’ to Grill
Americans have long celebrated July 4 with picnics but they didn’t always grill hamburgers and hot dogs. The Food Timeline reports that at various times in history, Americans served whole, broiled hogs; cold meats; salmon with new potatoes and green peas; and “temperance” beverages.
If you’re in search of something different, but still all-American, look back to the 1960s. Continue reading
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Posted in cookbooks, Food, history, History
Tagged 1960s, A Treasury of Great Recipes, apple, chicken, Hawaii, hibachi, July 4, Mary Price, Maui, pineapple, skewers, Vincent Price
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A Cocktail From the 50th State
Hawaii, coveted for its sugar plantations and its strategic location in the Pacific, didn’t become the 50th of the United States until 1959. Just six years later, history does not creep into Vincent and Mary Price’s A Treasury of Great Recipes (1965). Continue reading
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Posted in cocktails, cookbooks, Food, history, History
Tagged 1960s, A Treasury of Great Recipes, Hawaii, Mary Price, Maui, pineapple juice, rum, Vincent Price
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Cucumber Soup from a ‘Culinary Landmark’
When I participated in the Vincent Price Treasury Cookalong with Silver Screen Suppers and many other bloggers in the fall, I had yet to pick up a copy of the 50th Edition of the Treasury of Great Recipes that Vincent Price co-authored with his wife, Mary. I’m circling back now because I just added the book to my shelf, Continue reading
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Posted in cookbooks, Food, history, History
Tagged A Treasury of Great Recipes, California, cold soup, cucumber, dill, Los Angeles, Mary Price, Scandia, Scandinavian, soup, Vincent Price
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‘Shake Until Frost Forms’
In the 19th century, British sailors used to mix their rations of lime juice (to prevent scurvy) with rum, creating the gimlet and other gin-lime cocktails. This Cool o’ the Evening cocktail from the Charleston Receipts (The Junior League of Charleston, 1950) uses the same citrus-gin idea Continue reading
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Posted in cocktails, cookbooks, Food, history, History
Tagged 1950s, Charleston, gin, Junior League, lemon, mint, South Carolina
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Hurry Up Curry: Convenience from the 1930s
In this age of microwave dinners and mail order meal kits, we all seem intent on erasing every extra second from food preparation. My Richmond grandmother, Hanna, was attracted to the same idea in the 1930s. Continue reading
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Posted in Food, history, History, memoir
Tagged 1930s, chicken, curry, grandmother, one-dish meal, raisins, rice, Richmond
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Peach Cake Rushes the Season
A week of gloomy weather in Boston means it’s time for a sunny recipe. This peach-almond kuchen does double duty for Mother’s Day Continue reading
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Posted in Food, history, memoir
Tagged almonds, kuchen, Mother's Day, peach, Richmond, Virginia
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Baseball Cocktail with Global Appeal
The Boston Red Sox just returned to Fenway Park for the 2016 season with concession stands awash in expensive beer. It’s easier, though certainly less rowdy, to watch a game from the living room couch nursing a Cooperstown Cocktail. I discovered this mint-accented combination of vodka and vermouth in a German-language cocktail book that my son brought me from Germany. Continue reading
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Posted in cocktails, cookbooks, Food, history, History
Tagged baseball, Boston, Cooperstown, Fenway Park, Germany, mint, Red Sox, vermouth, vodka
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