Here is the original recipe: Two pints of flour, butter the size of an egg, three heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder and one teaspoonful of salt; make a soft dough of sweet milk, knead as little as possible, cut out with the usual biscuit-cutter and bake in rather a quick oven. (I love that last part: ‘bake in a rather quick oven’!) Here’s the modern translation: Serves: 6 Prep time: One hour
I love old recipe books. When I was 17, I bought a 1905 version of “The White House Cookbook, a Comprehensive Cyclopedia of Information for the Home” in an antique shop. It was so much more than a cookbook: it had a listing of the menus of the (Teddy) Roosevelt White House, proper etiquette, rules of dinner-giving, menus for the sick and – the best part – “health suggestions and facts worth knowing”. This was from a time when a […]
Serves: 6 Prep time: one hour
“Merry, merry, take a cherry, mine are sounder, mine are rounder, Mine are sweeter for the eater, when the dews fall, and you’ll be fairies all.” -Emily Dickinson Before the cherry season passes us by, I want to put up my mom’s cherry torte recipe. It has a chewy, meringue-y crust that is not too sweet. If you use canned cherry filling you can make this in about half the time, but it will be a much sweeter dessert. […]
There are some very fine calligraphers in Washington, possibly because there is a steady demand for formal invitations, menu cards, place cards, programs, and official certificates. My friend Lee Ann Clark lives on a farm in Stevenson, Maryland and produces beautiful calligraphy for the Vice President’s Residence, the National Gallery, the Department of State, embassies, weddings, and private parties. Lee Ann does the calligraphy work for our formal parties at home as well as making our holiday cards. And she’s […]
