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…
The Baltimore Sun advertised in April of 1909 that they would be running two features in their Sunday editions, with soup recipes from M. Henri Casalegno, a former chef at the Maryland Club. That credential was apt to make Baltimore housewives pay attention. H.L. Mencken certainly knew that when he gave the chef the freelance…
I’ve been a fan of the cheddar-apple pie combination for many years now and I often make my apple pies with a cheddar cheese crust. Somehow, I’d never considered doing the same for peach pies. I made this simple pie for a Labor Day crab feast and my family raved about it – despite the…
“I suppose they gave it that name because it isn’t real, good, genuine ice-cream—just sort of a sham. You know, a ‘hocus-pocus’ is another word for a ‘hoax,’ or trick. So hokey-pokey ice-cream is a cheat. It’s cold and tastes sweet, but it isn’t good, clean wholesome food.” – Modern Physiology Hygiene and Health primer,…