Today’s Pic of the Week comes from the Library’s collection of American church, club, and community cookbooks. The picture featured is the cover of the 1889 Cooks in Clover: Reliable Recipes, compiled by the Ladies of the North Reformed Church (Passaic, New Jersey). This cookbook is “dedicated to their husbands and gentlemen friends.” Selections from […]
I was recently at a dinner party where the gracious hostess embellished the dining room table with Sweethearts, also known as Conversation Hearts and Sweet Talks. As you can imagine, the guests questioned the history of these sweethearts and turned to me for an answer. I promised that when I returned to the Library that […]
My mother has tried nearly every contemporary diet ever conceived, which has resulted in her becoming a collector of diet books. Through my mother’s obsession with diet programs, I have become familiar with a variety of weight loss fads and trends–from the Cabbage Soup Diet to the Blood Type Diet, and from the Flat Belly […]
The earliest cultivation records of the sweet potato date to 750 BCE in Peru, although archeological evidence shows cultivation of the sweet potato might have begun around 2500-1850 BCE.
Most would agree that summer is the peak season for ice cream consumption. Therefore it makes perfect sense that, in the United States, July was proclaimed National Ice Cream Month. It was President Ronald Reagan’s Proclamation 5219 promoted this national observance, designating July 1984 as National Ice Cream Month. Today ice cream manufacturers carry on this tradition […]
Being a vegetarian, it may seem strange that I am writing about cooking meat. To be honest, I love the smell of barbecue. There must be a part of my ancestral brain that gets triggered, because my stomach starts to growl every time I smell the sweet smoke of a barbecue. Since prehistoric time humans from […]
Our guest author today is Constance Carter, head of the science reference section, mentor, and cookie goddess. Today is the birthday of Ruth Graves Wakefield, “mother of the chocolate chip cookie.” She was born on June 17, 1903, and Inside Adams is celebrating by unveiling the division’s latest acquisition, the 1938 edition of Ruth Wakefield’s […]
January 1 begins the new year of the Gregorian calendar. Many of us who celebrate this day have traditions for bringing in the New Year such as banging pots and pans, blowing horns, kissing the person next to you, and making resolutions. We also have food traditions and special meals that we prepare and serve on […]
I thought it might be helpful to explain why turkeys have dark and white meat.
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a sweet potato and yam?