“There used to be a stone yard at 26th and Charles and in it was a large tool box about 6′ by 4′ by 4′. This the older boys called THE HOT BOX, and they took delight in locking the younger boys in there for a couple of hours, and believe me by that time…
Definition of olio 2a: a miscellaneous mixture : HODGEPODGE — Merriam-Webster It didn’t take too many years of research for me to come to the disappointing realization that a lot of the romantic notions I’d held about recipes were simply not true. “Recipes” are not exact formulas. They can never really live up to the…
Thelma Magturo was barely a year old when Japan attacked the Commonwealth of the Philipines in December, 1941. The United States had been transitioning the Philippine Islands to independence in a process drawn out over the preceding decades. In 1936 the U.S. had provided some funds to establish the Philippine Army. Facing growing concerns about…
Lest we forget the Pennsylvania Dutch contribution to the Maryland culinary tapestry, it was high time I tackled that old classic: Shoofly Pie. This crumb-topped molasses pie most likely gained its folksy name from a brand of molasses, according to historian William Woys Weaver. He wrote about the pie in his 1993 book “Pennsylvania Dutch…
The (possibly questionable) story of the late-1970s “Grannie’s Goodies from Somerset County” cookbook is that the residents of the Tawes Nursing Home in Crisfield complained about the food so much that the director asked for recipes, which were later compiled into the book. In the books’ preface, the nursing home’s activity director and compiler of…