We're battening down the hatches here in Rhode Island: there's a blizzard on the way! Josh and I both have a snow day (it never gets old), and we're planning on waiting out the storm with movies, books, and cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven.Winter storms always make me think of Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long… Continue reading Scarlet fever and other Little House stories
Category: books
Planning the garden
Today I taught my first session with a new group of students: little guys (to me, anyway), 4th - 6th graders. We talked about reading and books and the program we'll be starting tomorrow. The kids were fun, energetic, and so genuine. I always maintained that I could never teach anyone younger than 7th grade,… Continue reading Planning the garden
Luisa Weiss’ My Berlin Kitchen
You know how there are books that grab you from the first page? You think to yourself, This is me. I see myself in this story. This was my experience with Luisa Weiss' memoir My Berlin Kitchen. I was so enthralled that I actually read the book as slowly as possible rather than zipping through it,… Continue reading Luisa Weiss’ My Berlin Kitchen
This meal brought to you by Christopher Columbus
Ah, Columbus Day. I'm not sure there's any other secular holiday more filled with angst and mixed feelings than this one.When I was little, we learned the basics of Columbus Day. We sang that catchy song, the one that goes, "In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-Two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue..." and read picture books about… Continue reading This meal brought to you by Christopher Columbus
Canning fruit (II)
Yesterday I recounted how my friend Nina and I decided to can 40 lbs of tomatoes. When I left off, we had just realized how much time (and patience) this project required.Nevertheless, we persevered. Once the crushed tomatoes had boiled, we started ladling them into our sterilized Mason jars (prepped with lemon juice to prevent… Continue reading Canning fruit (II)
Canning fruit (I)
Last Sunday, over dinner at our local Ethiopian restaurant, my friend Nina said, "When can we can?" And thus began a rather silly and ultimately fruitful (heh) endeavor of canning 40 lbs of tomatoes. And making lots of canning jokes. ("Yes, we can" is Nina's favorite.)Canning is a fascinating process. Before refrigeration, it was one… Continue reading Canning fruit (I)
To make ice cream
It's been a busy summer, one full of transitions: family milestones, a move ten minutes down the road, exotic travel, a new school. This week I've been focusing on that last one, a new school, as we get ready for classes to start next week. There's a new commute to learn, a new curriculum to… Continue reading To make ice cream
Supposedly delicious (II)
As I mentioned earlier, I love perusing the old cookbooks at the cottage to see what earlier generations enjoyed eating. People of my great-grandparents’ generation apparently cooked with quite a lot of lard in the 1930s, while those of my grandparents’ generation liked to cook entire meals in casserole dishes. (The 1950s and 1960s were… Continue reading Supposedly delicious (II)
Nutrition, 1903 style (II)
Yesterday I posted some of my fan-girl thoughts on Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food and presented a nutritional table from The "Settlement" Cook Book. Now I'd like to think about what this 1903 table has to do with our eating habits today.The interesting thing about The "Settlement" Cook Book is that it's just the beginning of nutritionism,… Continue reading Nutrition, 1903 style (II)
Nutrition, 1903 style (I)
Now that we've gotten comfortable with the sorts of recipes available in The "Settlement" Cook Book, I'd like to take a look at the book's attitude towards food. Before this project (and before I did some serious thinking about food and health), I hadn't thought much about the different ways a person could view food.… Continue reading Nutrition, 1903 style (I)
Abby Murphy 