One of these days I’m going to stop choosing recipes before looking into whether there’s an uncover-able story. This is another new post with scant facts.Still, I enjoyed looking into the life of Gertrude Comer, who contributed her “crazy” chowder to a cookbook put out by the Gatch Memorial United Methodist Church in the 1960s….
With our food culture fixated on ‘chef as singular genius, driver of innovation and change,’ I’ve come to brag about how I prefer to value the contributions of home cooks. I like to tout and uplift cooking born of tradition and love -and yes- sometimes plain old drudgery. I make a show of respecting these…
It’s pretty rare that I should have *too much information* about a person associated with a recipe. For years now I’ve sighed in frustration when all I can find on someone is a date of birth, a passing newspaper mention, a headstone. This week’s recipe comes from a woman who has been so scrutinized and…
This rich corn soup is not unlike Elizabeth Ellicott Lea’s Corn Fricassee. The flavor of the corn is front and center (or, depending on your palate and your corn, the soup is bland). The attribution in “Maryland’s Way” is “Mrs. Murray’s Bride’s Book, 1858.“ It is possible the recipe is to be found somewhere within…
First Published in 1962 by The Episcopal Church Women of St. Paul’s Parrish in Queen Anne’s County, this spiral bound cookbook is of a type I come across frequently – the church or fund-raiser “community” cookbook. Usually spiral-bound, printed by various specialty companies, and containing home-grown illustrations if you’re lucky, these volumes are a great…