No inscription or date, but if you look carefully you'll see the turkey front and center. A Thanksgiving meal of a day gone by. {click image to view larger}
Let’s face it, there is little much besides food that I can think about this week. So I am delighted to tell you about a wonderful new cookbook, Dining with the Washingtons, which is sure to satisfy both your palate and delight your sense of historical curiosity. What did our forbearers really eat?
Pulling from Martha Washington’s own recipe box, as well as other traditional 18th-century sources such as Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery, this cook book presents some 90 historic recipes, adapted for the modern cook by culinary historian Nancy Carter Crump. The recipes are complimented with information exploring the menus, diet, and styles of entertaining enjoyed by those dining with the Washingtons at Mount Vernon. Included are all sorts of classic dishes, from hoe cakes and dressed crab to syllabub and cherry pie. And if Martha’s famous Great Cake isn’t enough to tempt you, perhaps the gorgeously-styled photographs of food and interiors will.
When I decided to write about this book, I asked the editor Stephen MacLeod if he would allow me to include a recipe to whet your appetite. And he graciously agreed. These stewed pears (pictured above left) are a simple, but elegant compliment to any holiday meal. Enjoy. . . and Happy Thanksgiving!
I knew from an early age there was adventure to be found at the museum. A place full of magnificent tales and amazing journeys. Indeed, today’s book confirms it ~ Belle: The Amazing, Astonishingly Magical Journey of an Artfully Painted Lady.
You really never know where she and Brimstone will land. . . 
. . . until they find themselves back where they belong.
All images courtesy of Bunker Hill Publishing, except: Jan Davidsz de Heem, A Vase of Flowers, c. 1660, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Fund, 1961.6.1. 
When a copy of the recent Vendome Press publication, Exotic Taste: Orientalist Interiors, by Emmanuelle Gaillard, principal photography by Marc Walter, landed in my mailbox earlier this fall, it was almost like Christmas in September. Pages packed with sumptuous full-color images of architectural interiors, wallpapers, textiles and pattern books.
My only hope is that someone will write a similarly luxurious book on the exotic in America, beginning with the “Chinese Room” room at Gunston Hall in Virginia (one of the earliest such expressions of Chinoiserie in the colonies), to Olana, the famous Persian-style home of Frederic Edwin Church in the Hudson Valley, and the now lost Iranistan of P.T. Barnum (pieces of which can be seen at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut).
All photographs courtesy of Vendome Press.
Well . . . it's that time of year again! Normally I ask some fellow bloggers (and friends) to contribute to book week, but there has been such a flurry of fabulous new publications this year that I thought I'd put together a holiday wish list of my top favorites. From kids to cooks to connoisseurs . . . I have a bunch of goodies in store! So bibliophiles, polish up those reading glasses and stay tuned. The party starts tomorrow.
On sunday the gentleman and I ventured out to Georgetown for an afternoon walk, stopping along the way to take photographs and admire the Halloween decorations. We ended up at Café Bonaparte, known for its crêpes and Belgian frites. An hour later, a "glass of beer" had somehow turned into dinner and we walked out with our tummies full. That wonderful golden autumnal light followed us home, lengthening our shadows with each step.
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