Everyone has obsessions. Mine is cookbooks. My collection spans an unreasonable number of shelves in our house, spilling out of my office into kitchen cupboards.
It stands to reason that someone with so many cookbooks would love to cook. Guilty as charged. That doesn't mean I want to cook every day or spend hours compiling complex ingredients into exotic six-course meals. I'd rather find a recipe that I can learn to make with my eyes closed, one that allows me to innovate or make substitutions when I'm missing an ingredient.
Let's take cookies, for example. Easy to make, endless varieties, just grab and go. An almost universal crowd pleaser.
The act of cooking, baking and sharing food has defined my relationship with family and friends since I was a child begging my mother to buy The Pastry Chef (yes, it's still on my bookshelf). Some unlucky family members will remember my first attempt at blueberry turnovers, which doubled nicely as hockey pucks.
When I launched into the writing of my historical novel, If the Sea Must Be Your Home, I wanted to get personal with the food eaten by a small-town Massachusetts family in the 1830s. To appreciate how they lived, I needed to experience at a visceral level how they cooked, what flavors they enjoyed, which foods they ate each day and which they prepared for special occasions.
Earlier in my career, I served as director of Coggeshall Farm Museum, a living history farm museum in Bristol, RI, set in the 1790s. The old farmhouse features a beehive oven and a massive hearth where we tackled just about every "receipt" from American Cookery by Amelia Simmons (1796). We typically focused on everyday staples: breads, stews, beans and the everlasting johnnycakes.
What I lacked was an understanding of feast foods, those dishes reserved for weddings and holidays. Where better to turn than Old Sturbridge Village, the largest outdoor history museum in the Northeast, depicting a rural New England town in the early 19th century? I've sprinkled references to recipes preserved by Old Sturbridge Village throughout the novel. Their collection includes the original receipts (with ingredients often measured in pounds) along with easy-to-follow modern translations, some with YouTube instructions.
With Thanksgiving around the corner, I'm getting ready to welcome a large gathering to our house again. We'll pull out the same dishes, and with few exceptions, we'll cook the same meal we've been having for years. The faces around the table change, but the feeling I experience when we gather remains the same. Gratitude.
As my gift to you this season, enjoy this traditional recipe from my family, handed down to me by my mother, Barbara Hail. Try throwing a couple handfuls of blueberry on top of the apples before you bake for an extra-special burst of flavor and color.
Mom's Apple Crisp
Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
4-6 apples (depending on size) - peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup blueberries (optional)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Using a fork, mix in egg until dry mixture is crumbly. Arrange apples (and blueberries, if using) in an 8" x 8" (or similar) baking dish and spread flour/egg mixture on top. Melt the butter and drizzle evenly in thin streams over the flour mixture. Bake for one hour or until apples are bubbling and the crisp is lightly browned. Serve warm with milk, ice cream or whipped cream.
I am currently seeking a publisher for If the Sea Must Be Your Home, a historical novel about a seafaring family during the final chapter of the Great Age of Sail and the tumultuous years of the Civil War. All inquiries welcome at cynthia@cynthiaelder.com.
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