Showing posts with label cook book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cook book. Show all posts

Sunday, September 29, 2019

The Little Women Cook Book: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family

For one hundred and fifty years readers have identified with the March sisters. Louisa May Alcott drew from her family members and life, making Little Women a beloved story with relatable characters.

Set during the Civil War, with Mr. March at war far from home, the March sisters and their mother struggle to obtain their basic needs. Food insecurity impacts their home and the community. The novel begins with the preparation of a Christmas breakfast feast which the girls valiantly donate to an immigrant family. The women content themselves with a meal of bread and milk. The book ends with a meal as well, a picnic supper.

Wini Moranville, "writer, cookbook author, and lover of historic and heirloom recipes," was asked to write The Little Women Cook Book in conjunction with the 2019 Little Women movie.

With charming illustrations and quotations from the novel, it is a delight. I enjoyed revisiting the novel through the lens of communal meals. Well-chosen quotations from Little Women keep our attention on the inspiration source for the recipes.

Wini researched American cookbooks from the mid 19th c. Some foods from the novel, like the pickled limes traded between schoolgirls, would not appeal today, so Wini gives us "Pickled Lime" Sugar Cookies.

Milk-Toast was a simple meal of warm milk poured over buttered toasted bread, perhaps seasoned with salt or sugar and cinnamon. I recall my grandfather, born in 1905, enjoying it as a dessert from his country childhood.

From the passage, "The omelet was scorched, and the biscuits speckled with saleratus",  Wini gives two recipes, omelets and Maple-Cornmeal Drop Biscuits, and a history of baking powder.

Other recipes from the past include:

"Meg was already covering the buckwheats..."~Buckwheat Pancakes

"It was too bad to laugh at the poor little jelly pots."~ Meg's Currant Jelly Sauce

"We'll have lettuce and make a salad."~ Jo's Lettuce Salad

"...and Amy made lemonade..."~Amy's Lemonade

Also appearing are Mr. Bhaer's Chocolate drops; Bonbons and mottoes, candies wrapped in papers printed with riddles and sayings; Jo's Gingerbread; the apple turnovers from the picnic; and Meg's Plum Pudding.

Where the novel is silent on specifics, Wini turns to recipes popular during the time period.

Newlywed Meg uses a popular cookbook, The Young Housekeeper's Friend. Indian meal--cornmeal--was popularly used in many dishes. Wini offers us Indian Meal Griddle Cakes, with a version with blueberries that caught my attention.

Meg also has Mrs. Corneliu's Receipt Book and Wini shares Meg's Macaroni and Cheese from that book. It is very like the recipe I have used all my life.

The recipes are tempting!

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Little Women Cookbook: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family
by Wini Moranville; Louisa May Alcott
Harvard Common Press
Publication October 1, 2019
Hardback $19.99 / £12.99
ISBN: 9781558329911

Friday, May 29, 2015

South Meets North in Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen is home to Donna Bell's Bake Shop with its Southern style baking. For Mother's Day I received the new cook book Donna Bell's Bake Shop: Recipes and Stories of Family, Friends and Food.  The recipes, each with a photo, will bring on a bad case of sugar craving and an itching to get into the kitchen. (Or a sudden desire to visit New York City.)

The bake shop was started and is owned by friends Pauley Perrette, Darren Greenblatt, and Matthew Sandusky. The store name honors Pauley's mother Donna. "Cooking and baking down South were a part of every day and every experience," Pauley writes.

Essays by the three friends are interspersed between the recipes. We learn about Pauley's family, her career, and the friends she made along the way.

Darren Greenblatt grew up in Philadelphia and was designing jewelry when he meet Pauley in New York City. "I felt like I had found my long lost sister," he writes. Meeting Donna he helped her in her kitchen and became obsessed with Southern cooking. Matthew Sandusky came from Pittsburgh and meet Pauley in LA where she was breaking into acting. Each of the friends sacrificed something to make the bake shop become a reality. It is a labor of love.

Pauley Perrette is one of the most recognized and beloved media figures in America. She plays Abby Sciuto in the television show NCIS. I first watched NCIS when my dad was in the hospital during his last months and I was staying across state to be with Dad. At the end of the day my brother and I would go back to Dad's house and chill out watching NCIS reruns. After dad's passing I returned home and introduced my husband to the show.

Recipes include biscuits, muffins and scones, quick breads, bread pudding, bar cookies, cookies and cakes. Some that I can't wait to try include:

  • Hummingbird Bread Pudding with Cream Cheese Glaze made with crushed pineapple and coconut
  • Champagne Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting, yes it uses champagne
  • Cranberry White Chocolate Rise Krispies Treats; this is not your kiddie's cookie
  • Strawberry Scones with Lemon Glaze, yum!
The book from Simon and Schuster can be found in hard cover at your local bookstore or online shop.