Founding Foodies

Founding Foodies
Author: Dave DeWitt
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 140222771X

Who Were the Original Foodies? Beyond their legacy as revolutionaries and politicians, the Founding Fathers of America were first and foremost a group of farmers. Passionate about the land and the bounty it produced, their love of food and the art of eating created what would ultimately become America's diverse food culture. Like many of today's foodies, the Founding Fathers were ardent supporters of sustainable farming and ranching, exotic imported foods, brewing, distilling, and wine appreciation. Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin penned original recipes, encouraged local production of beer and wine, and shared their delight in food with friends and fellow politicians. In The Founding Foodies, food writer Dave DeWitt entertainingly describes how some of America's most famous colonial leaders not only established America's political destiny, but also revolutionized the very foods we eat. Features over thirty authentic colonial recipes, including: Thomas Jefferson's ice cream A recipe for beer by George Washington Martha Washington's fruitcake Medford rum punch Terrapin soup

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Author: Jack Weatherford
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2005-03-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 0609809644

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The startling true history of how one extraordinary man from a remote corner of the world created an empire that led the world into the modern age—by the author featured in Echoes of the Empire: Beyond Genghis Khan. The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. Vastly more progressive than his European or Asian counterparts, Genghis Khan abolished torture, granted universal religious freedom, and smashed feudal systems of aristocratic privilege. From the story of his rise through the tribal culture to the explosion of civilization that the Mongol Empire unleashed, this brilliant work of revisionist history is nothing less than the epic story of how the modern world was made.

The Dreamers

The Dreamers
Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2019-01-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0812994175

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • An ordinary town is transformed by a mysterious illness that triggers perpetual sleep in this mesmerizing novel from the bestselling author of The Age of Miracles. “Stunning.”—Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven • “A startling, beautiful portrait of a community in peril.”—Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Glamour • Real Simple • Good Housekeeping One night in an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a first-year student stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep—and doesn’t wake up. She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. When a second girl falls asleep, and then a third, Mei finds herself thrust together with an eccentric classmate as panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. A young couple tries to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. Two sisters turn to each other for comfort as their survivalist father prepares for disaster. Those affected by the illness, doctors discover, are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, higher than has ever been recorded before. They are dreaming heightened dreams—but of what? Written in luminous prose, The Dreamers is a breathtaking and beautiful novel, startling and provocative, about the possibilities contained within a human life—if only we are awakened to them. Praise for The Dreamers “Walker’s roving fictive eye by turns probes characters’ innermost feelings and zooms out to coolly parse topics like reality versus delusion. . . . [It has] the perfect ambiguous frame for a tense and layered plot.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “[Walker’s] gripping, provocative novel should come with a warning: may cause insomnia.”—People (Book of the Week) “Powerful and moving . . . written with symphonic sweep.”—The New York Times Book Review “2019’s first must-read novel . . . Alternately terrifying and moving . . . The Dreamers is overflowing with humanity.”—Jezebel “This is an exquisite work of intimacy. Walker’s sentences are smooth, emotionally arresting—of a true, ethereal beauty. . . . This book achieves [a] dazzling, aching humanity.”—Entertainment Weekly

Bound to the Fire

Bound to the Fire
Author: Kelley Fanto Deetz
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2017-11-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0813174740

For decades, smiling images of "Aunt Jemima" and other historical and fictional black cooks could be found on various food products and in advertising. Although these images were sanitized and romanticized in American popular culture, they represented the untold stories of enslaved men and women who had a significant impact on the nation's culinary and hospitality traditions, even as they were forced to prepare food for their oppressors. Kelley Fanto Deetz draws upon archaeological evidence, cookbooks, plantation records, and folklore to present a nuanced study of the lives of enslaved plantation cooks from colonial times through emancipation and beyond. She reveals how these men and women were literally "bound to the fire" as they lived and worked in the sweltering and often fetid conditions of plantation house kitchens. These highly skilled cooks drew upon knowledge and ingredients brought with them from their African homelands to create complex, labor-intensive dishes. However, their white owners overwhelmingly received the credit for their creations. Deetz restores these forgotten figures to their rightful place in American and Southern history by uncovering their rich and intricate stories and celebrating their living legacy with the recipes that they created and passed down to future generations.

Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin

Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin
Author: Rae Katherine Eighmey
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2018-01-16
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1588345998

In this remarkable work, Rae Katherine Eighmey presents Franklin's delight and experimentation with food throughout his life. At age sixteen, he began dabbling in vegetarianism. In his early twenties, citing the health benefits of water over alcohol, he convinced his printing-press colleagues to abandon their traditional breakfast of beer and bread for "water gruel," a kind of tasty porridge he enjoyed. Franklin is known for his scientific discoveries, including electricity and the lightning rod, and his curiosity and logical mind extended to the kitchen. He even conducted an electrical experiment to try to cook a turkey and installed a state-of-the-art oven for his beloved wife Deborah. Later in life, on his diplomatic missions--he lived fifteen years in England and nine in France--Franklin ate like a local. Eighmey discovers the meals served at his London home-away-from-home and analyzes his account books from Passy, France, for insights to his farm-to-fork diet there. Yet he also longed for American foods; Deborah, sent over favorites including cranberries, which amazed his London kitchen staff. He saw food as key to understanding the developing culture of the United States, penning essays presenting maize as the defining grain of America. Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin conveys all of Franklin's culinary adventures, demonstrating that Franklin's love of food shaped not only his life but also the character of the young nation he helped build.

Black Patriots and Loyalists

Black Patriots and Loyalists
Author: Alan Gilbert
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2012-04-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0226293076

In this thought-provoking history, Gilbert illuminates how the fight for abolition and equality - not just for the independence of the few but for the freedom and self-government of the many - has been central to the American story from its inception."--Pub. desc.

The General's Cook

The General's Cook
Author: Ramin Ganeshram
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2018-11-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1628729813

** Library Journal's Editor's Pick! ** Philadelphia 1793. Hercules, President George Washington’s chef, is a fixture on the Philadelphia scene. He is famous for both his culinary prowess and for ruling his kitchen like a commanding general. He has his run of the city and earns twice the salary of an average American workingman. He wears beautiful clothes and attends the theater. But while valued by the Washingtons for his prowess in the kitchen and rewarded far over and above even white servants, Hercules is enslaved in a city where most black Americans are free. Even while he masterfully manages his kitchen and the lives of those in and around it, Hercules harbors secrets-- including the fact that he is learning to read and that he is involved in a dangerous affair with Thelma, a mixed-race woman, who, passing as white, works as a companion to the daughter of one of Philadelphia's most prestigious families. Eventually Hercules’ carefully crafted intrigues fall apart and he finds himself trapped by his circumstance and the will of George Washington. Based on actual historical events and people, The General's Cook, will thrill fans of The Hamilton Affair, as they follow Hercules' precarious and terrifying bid for freedom.

In Pursuit of Jefferson

In Pursuit of Jefferson
Author: Derek Baxter
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2022-03-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1728225396

A debut that combines historical nonfiction with travel books, for fans of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, In Pursuit of Jefferson is the story of an American on a journey through Europe, following the epic trail of Thomas Jefferson. A controversial founding father. A man ready for a change. And a completely unique trip through Europe. In 1784, Thomas Jefferson was a broken man. Reeling from the loss of his wife and stung from a political scandal during the Revolutionary war, he needed to remake himself. To do that, he traveled. Wandering through Europe, Jefferson saw and learned as much as he could, ultimately bringing his knowledge home to a young America. There, he would rise to power and shape a nation. More than two hundred years later, Derek Baxter, a devotee of American history, stumbles on an obscure travel guide written by Jefferson—Hints for Americans Traveling Through Europe—as he's going through his own personal crisis. Who better to offer advice than a founding father himself? Using Hints as his roadmap, Baxter follows Jefferson through six countries and countless lessons. But what Baxter learns isn't always what Jefferson had in mind, and as he comes to understand Jefferson better, he doesn't always like what he finds. In Pursuit of Jefferson is at once the story of a life-changing trip through Europe, an unflinching look at a founding father, and a moving personal journey. With rich historical detail, a sense of humor, and boundless heart, Baxter explores how we can be better moving forward only by first looking back.

Jefferson's Chef - James Hemings From Slavery to Freedom

Jefferson's Chef - James Hemings From Slavery to Freedom
Author: Sharon O Lightholder
Publisher:
Total Pages: 494
Release: 2020-06-06
Genre:
ISBN: 9780578233024

When Thomas Jefferson travels to Paris in 1784 to negotiate trade treaties for America, he takes the enslaved James Hemings with him as his manservant. Living in Paris, where the French had abolished slavery, Hemings discovers an independence, a skill, and a romance beyond his imagination. Torn between family and freedom as the French Revolution erupts, Hemings makes a choice that changes Jefferson and America. Sharon O. Lightholder's imagined biography, Jefferson's Chef: James Hemings--From Slavery to Freedom, is based on extensive legal, culinary, and historical research into Hemings's life and times, including primary materials from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. Combining the political and the personal, Jefferson's Chef: James Hemings--From Slavery to Freedom creates a unique and intimate portrait of two exceptional men and discloses why Hemings was the only one of Jefferson's hundreds of slaves who was unconditionally freed during Jefferson's lifetime. Lightholder uses fiction to expose the astounding story of James Hemings and how his fierce desire for freedom changed his world and ours.

Black Girl Baking

Black Girl Baking
Author: Jerrelle Guy
Publisher: Page Street Publishing
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2018-02-06
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1624145132

**As seen on Netflix’s High on the Hog** **2019 James Beard Foundation Book Award Nominee** "Black Girl Baking has a rhythm and a realness to it." - Carla Hall, Chef and television personality Invigorating and Creative Recipes to Ignite Your Senses For Jerrelle Guy, food has always been what has shaped her—her body, her character, her experiences and her palate. Growing up as the sensitive, slightly awkward child of three in a race-conscious space, she decided early on that she’d rather spend her time eating cookies and honey buns than taking on the weight of worldly issues. It helped her see that good food is the most powerful way to connect, understand and heal. Inspired by this realization, each one of her recipes tells a story. Orange Peel Pound Cake brings back memories of summer days eating Florida oranges at Big Ma’s house, Rosketti cookies reimagine the treats her mother ate growing up in Guam, and Plaited Dukkah Bread parallels the braids worked into her hair as a child. Jerrelle leads you on a sensual baking journey using the five senses, retelling and reinventing food memories while using ingredients that make her feel more in control and more connected to the world and the person she has become. Whole flours, less refined sugar and vegan alternatives make it easier to celebrate those sweet moments that made her who she is today. Escape everyday life and get lost in the aromas, sounds, sights, textures and tastes of Black Girl Baking.