1912 Mary Frances Cook Book: Adventures among the Kitchen People (children’s audio cookbook)
We’re experimenting with internet radio on blogtalkradio today. The show is broadcast on Thursdays at 3:30-4:00 PM central time. Join me for a reading from the 1912 children’s cookbook The Mary Frances Cook Book: Adventures of the Kitchen People.
– Rena Goff
Stories
Valentine Wish
by Rena
When I think of the pies and
the puddings you make,
And all of the hundreds of steps
that you take,
With hands ever skillful
no pains do you spare
To make all those happy who
chance to be there
May your life be quite rosy
and read like a book
And give as much pleasure
as the good things you cook.
– anonymous
1909-1922 Akin to Love
by Rena
Excerpt from Akin to Love written between 1909-1922 by Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Annie of Green Gables
Josephine misjudged David just as much as he misjudged her. She had really asked him to stay to tea out of pity, but David thought it was because she was lonesome, and he hailed that as an encouraging sign. And he was not thinking about getting a good meal either, although his dinner had been such a one as only Zillah Hartley could get up. As he leaned back in his cushioned chair and watched Josephine bustling about the kitchen, he was glorying in the fact that he could spend another hour with her, and sit opposite to her at the table while she poured his tea for him and passed him the biscuits, just as if—just as if— Full Story –>
1859 Something about Cooks
by Rena
Excerpt from TRIALS AND CONFESSIONS OF A HOUSEKEEPER (fiction) by T. S. Arthur; PHILADELPHIA: 1859.
WAS there ever a good cook who hadn’t some prominent fault that completely overshadowed her professional good qualities? If my experience is to answer the question, the reply will be—no.
I had been married several years before I was fortunate enough to obtain a cook that could be trusted to boil a potato, or broil a steak. I felt as if completely made up when Margaret served her first dinner. The roast was just right, and all the vegetables were cooked and flavored as well as if I had done it myself—in fact, a little better. My husband eat with a relish not often exhibited, and praised almost every thing on the table.
For a week, one good meal followed another in daily succession. We had hot cakes, light and fine-flavored, every morning for breakfast, with coffee not to be beaten—and chops or steaks steaming from the gridiron, that would have gladdened the heart of an epicure. Dinner was served, during the time, with a punctuality that was rarely a minute at fault, while every article of food brought upon the table, fairly tempted the appetite. Light rolls, rice cakes, or “Sally Luns,” made without suggestion on my part usually met us at tea time. In fact, the very delight of Margaret’s life appeared to be in cooking. She was born for a cook…. Full story –>
