At Willa Cather's Tables: The Cather Foundation Cookbook

At Willa Cather's Tables: The Cather Foundation Cookbook
by Ann Romines [813 CatYr]

Willa Cather told her tales, in part through the kitchens of her characters. Characters such Antonia who baked kolaches filled with spiced plums. And Father Vaillant who prepared onion soup for the first Christmas that he and Father Latour celebrated in New Mexico. As a young girl, Cather spent many hours in kitchens. First in Virginia with her grandmother where she learned family stories. Then in the pioneer kitchens of her immigrant neighbors. Those conversations were the fuel for her writing career. To honor Cather's love of good cooking, The Cather Foundation has written this book. It is divided into four sections. The first section is filled with excerpts from many of Cather's novels along with recipes that could have been prepared by the characters. Cookies that Bohemian Mary could have baked. Or gooseberry preserves that Cecile may have made for her father. Cather's family and friends contributed the recipes for the second section. The Foundation has some cookbooks that the Cather family donated. Tucked inside these books were handwritten recipes such as the lemon pie recipe from Jessie, Willa's sister. Willa's good friend from childhood, Carrie Miner Sherwood, sent Willa Christmas gifts after she moved to New York. In 1921, Willa sent Carrie a note thanking her for the steamed pudding. The Sherwood family searched Carrie's papers and found a recipe for steamed Christmas Plum Pudding, probably the recipe for the pudding she sent Cather that long ago Christmas. Along with the recipes are photos and stories of Willa?s friends from her Red Cloud days. Women such as Annie Sadilck Pavelka, who was the model for the title character in My Antonia. When Willa Cather died, Annie told her children that she had lost of her best friends. The third section is recipes from places that were important to Cather. The berry cobbler and blackberry buckle recipes pay homage to Willa Cather's Virginia roots. Webster County, Nebraska is represented by recipes from cookbooks published by local groups or in area newspapers. The last section is comprised of recipes from members of the hard-working Cather Foundation staff. Some are recipes from the annual Spring Conference Banquet such as Pork Loin Roast and Plum Cake. The foundation has made Willa Cather come back to life in these pages. Turning pages I reminisce about these novels that I read in high school. -- recommended by Donna G. - Virtual Services Department
[ official Willa Cather Foundation web site ]

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.