The Manuscript Cookbooks Survey describes the handwriting in the “Hoffman Cook Book” as having an “unvarying mood.” That is one way to put it. The text is dense. Impenetrable. To my eyes: a nightmare. The exhausting handwriting likely belonged to Lydia A. Hoffman Smyser, who was born in Maryland in 1837 and ended up in…
“You don’t cry when someone dies,” Elsie Czerkovich told the Baltimore Sun in April 1974. “You rejoice because he is going to heaven to live with the Lord.” It was the day after Easter, and Czerkovich was gathering with other worshipers from the congregation of the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church for a picnic. Women…
William Earl Travers was just one on a list of names printed in the Evening Sun on June 20, 1945. Two killed; 18 wounded; 2 missing. 21-year-old Travers was one of the missing. Just two years earlier, the Wilmington Delaware News-Journal had reported on his engagement to Naomi Louise Roe. “The couple will live in…
We have a barbecue tradition in Maryland other than pit beef?
“Ham-Lettuce Mixture”: the awkward title caught my eye. The recipe opened with this: “A hearty country dinner, fit for guests or family. A good conversation menu!” I thought the recipe was so odd, I had to make it immediately. I invited friends over for dinner. I told them what I was making. My friends politely…