Category: Cooking

“Take a Goose or a Duck” Wins Gourmand Awards Best in USA for Cookbook History & Writing

November 25, 2022

Wow! And to be in such company as Henry Notaker and Tom Jaine. Doing somersaults!   So happy to report that “Take a Goose or a Duck” has won the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for cookbook history and writing for the USA! Competing for Best in the the World, but with Henry Notaker and Tom … More “Take a Goose or a Duck” Wins Gourmand Awards Best in USA for Cookbook History & Writing

Speaking of France …

September 18, 2022

You’re not supposed to begin a piece of writing with a question. Why not? No idea, except that the “experts” seem to think that it’s an easy way out. “You can do better,” they say. So what was my question? Oh yes. Why is traditional French food so terribly unpopular at the moment? Many authors … More Speaking of France …

The Gilded Age in Florida: A Few Words about the Flaglers and their Food

August 7, 2022

No, here I’m not celebrating Julian Fellowes’s TV series, “The Gilded Age.” I’ll confess something right off the bat: I watched only a few episodes. Why? The story of that tumultuous time is actually more interesting than fiction. First of all, Mark Twain coined the phrase, “The Gilded Age,” in a satirical novel meant to … More The Gilded Age in Florida: A Few Words about the Flaglers and their Food

Writing about History: A Few Words about the Dangers and Fallacies of Presentism

July 14, 2022

pres·ent·ism /ˈprezenËŒtizÉ™m/ noun uncritical adherence to present-day attitudes, especially the tendency to interpret past events in terms of modern values and concepts. Many years ago, David Hackett Fischer published Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. Despite the many years since its publication – 1970 – and the now somewhat dated examples he provides … More Writing about History: A Few Words about the Dangers and Fallacies of Presentism

The Natchez Trace: A Journey into the Past (and the Present)

June 10, 2022

Whatever happened, it happened in extraordinary times, in a season of dreams, and in Natchez, it was the bitterest winter of them all. ~ Eudora Welty, “First Love” Hernando de Soto and Meriwether Lewis and Aaron Burr trudged its red dirt paths, knew its mysteries and its misfortunes, canebrakes and swamps coupled with a river … More The Natchez Trace: A Journey into the Past (and the Present)

“Take a Goose or Duck” Now Available!

May 17, 2022

Take a Goose or a Duck is full of culinary stories about old friends like Markham and Mrs. Beeton and essays that give fresh insight. It proves that British food is intriguing and wonderful. It will be my favourite bedtime reading for the foreseeable future. ~ Regula Ysewijn, author of Pride and Pudding and The Official Downton Abbey Christmas … More “Take a Goose or Duck” Now Available!