A Sweet Taste of History: More than 100 Elegant Dessert Recipes from America's Earliest Days by Chef Walter Staib

A Sweet Taste of History: More than 100 Elegant Dessert Recipes from America's Earliest Days by Chef Walter Staib published in 2013 236 pages

Chef Staib is the proprietor of the Philadelphia City Tavern, a faithful reproduction of the original tavern established in 1773.

I love desserts. I mean I REALLY love desserts. As I read through this book I could see the founding fathers sitting around a table and feasting on these wonderful foods. It makes one realize that our ancestors really knew how to cook and how to eat.

All most all of these recipes can be cooked and enjoyed at home. I personally prefer my wife's gingerbread, but the one in this book looks good also.

One doesn't think of Ice Cream and Sorbet as being colonial. But it was. Though I would love to try Thomas Jefferson's Vanilla Bean Ice Cream recipe, I am afraid it may be along time before I have the courage to try Dolly Madison's Oyster Ice Cream (one cup of Chesapeake oysters in one and a half quarts of ice cream)! Maybe Oyster Ice Cream is very good, maybe I am being silly. Maybe not...

Miss Julia Stirs Up Trouble by Ann B. Ross

Miss Julia Stirs Up Trouble by Ann B. Ross --- 354 pages

Thirteenth entry in the Miss Julia series, set in the fictitious small town of Abbotsville, North Carolina.

When Hazel Marie and Mr. Pickens' houseman, James, falls down the stairs, breaking his wrist and spraining his ankle, Miss Julia goes into crisis mode. How on earth will Hazel Marie manage to take care of her husband, teenage son and twin baby daughters, and look after James, when she has only the haziest notions of housekeeping and can't boil water without setting the stove on fire?

Miss Julia's solution is to call on the ladies of Abbotsville to help Hazel Marie learn how to cook. Each one will provide some easy recipes that Miss Julia will compile in a book, and come to the house to show Hazel Marie just how to prepare them. Miss Julia considers that if Hazel Marie can keep her family --- especially her husband --- well fed, the rest will follow. She's a little concerned that Mr. Pickens is already spending a lot of time away from home on his job, and he doesn't need an excuse to stay away even more.

All seems to be going according to plan until Hazel Marie's ne'er do well uncle, Brother Vernon, shows up on her doorstep, claiming ill health, and adding his tithe to the chaos in the Pickens household. Time for Miss Julia to roll up her sleeves and go to work!

John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk

John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk --- 410 pages

John and his mother Susan have returned to live in the small village of Buckland after Susan, pregnant and unmarried, leaves her place at Buckland Manor, ancestral home of Sir William Freemantle. But their refuge is threatened as intolerant religious reformers seek to drive out every vestige of the old country beliefs. Inevitably a mob drives them from the village with accusations of witchcraft.

Taking refuge in the depths of Buccla's Wood, John's mother shows him how to forage for food and shelter in the forest. She teaches him from an ancient book that tells of an older Eden, where men and women lived and loved and kept a Feast of harmony and plenty. That Feast, she tells him, is his birthright and his destiny is to restore it. But the cold of winter is too much for Susan and she does not survive.

The orphaned John is sent to Sir William at Buckland Manor and given a place in the kitchens where he rises from scullery boy to Master Cook, renowned for his culinary arts, until even the King of England himself comes to dine at Sir William's table. So pleased is the King that he grants Sir William's petition to approve the marriage of his only child Lucretia to her cousin Lord Piers Callock, thus reuniting the family lineage and preserving the lordship of the Manor. But unfortunately Piers is a fop and a braggart and a bully. Lucretia refuses the match and vows to fast until her father breaks the betrothal. John is ordered to tempt her appetite   and coax her to eat. But John sympathizes with Lucretia's resolve and smuggles in food to help her resist the marriage.

Events conspire to throw them together in a struggle to survive when the English Civil War intervenes. They become co-conspirators in the effort to hold the Manor secure against the attacks and depredations of Cromwell's fanatical followers, Yet even in the worst days of misery and want, John makes the Feast in secret for Lucretia. A fascinating tale weaving history, folklore, life and love together in a Feast for all the senses.