There are two national holidays today, and I would like to show examples of both. First, for National Wicker Day I have “Basketry, Weaving and Design’ by Mrs. Edwin Lang, 1926. This book goes right into “reed weaving; the use of wood beads with reeds; reed and raffia basketry; and pine-needle basketry.” The author also states that “it is not the object to touch on the history of basketry. Neither is it intended to present many of the elementary steps in reed weaving.” She did not mess around, and wants you to get to designs right away. That was the opposite of those in college who would state “Oh, you got a class on basket weaving. Must be easy…” Mrs Lang has put together a very nice book. She photographs wonderful designs, how they are made, and how they work in different size baskets, and for different uses. If you need a book on basket weaving in your library-just because you want one book on basket weaving, or want one book to read, this is it.
National homemade soup day. is also today. While I have a lot of cook books, I wanted to highlight these two today. The first is a redone book of “Quick Soups” by Mrs. S T Rorer, 1894. Mrs. Rorer was famous in the late 1800’s for her cookbooks. There was a science to her methods of cooking. She believed that “Clear soups are dinner soups; cream soups should be used for luncheon where the dishes following are of a lighter nature. The object of a clear soup is to stimulate the stomach for the food that is to follow; while a luncheon soup may be nutritious. She did not mess around either.
There are some good recipes here, one being ‘Indian Soup’. It is a vegetable soup with onions, carrots, turnip, celery, and parsely, all browned in butter. Add stock, bay leaf, red pepper, white pepper, and thyme. Simmer 1/2 hour. Add curry and strain. Should have an almost transparent soup with “brilliant yellow color”. Skim top, and add some cooked rice.
She also liked Cream soups, with recipes including; Spinach, celery, asparagus, corn, lettuce, beets, cheese, and even chestnut, walnut, and peanut soups. I want to try her shrimp soup; her okra and oyster soup, not so much.
The other soup book is “Is it Soup yet? a Cookbook for Soup Lovers” by Dot Vartan, 1998. It is a relatively new cookbook. I like it because it was the most recent cookbook that my mom had bought. My mom was a lot of things, but a great cook she was not. I could give her that-I survived childhood (and became a not half-bad cook). How our lives might have changed if she had cook books like this one. It is simply the best soup book I have seen. I still have her page markers, tagged for soups for her to cook for her husband. Tasty ones too, “chicken gumbo, celery (used a pear), southwestern corn chowder, southern vegetable, and ham and vegetable. I like the looks of those, but am drawn also to the short rib soup and oxtail soup.
Reading can go in lots of directions. Sometime the books one reads are a ‘one and done’ book. Others can be a constant resource, that you go back and back to. Keep searching out good reads.
Librarytomes 