Hungry?

 
In celebration of our new exhibit America’s Kitchens, we are delighted to host a cooking demonstration and book signing by Mary Ann Esposito on Saturday, May 21.  Mary Ann is the star of America's longest-running cooking program, "Ciao Italia with Mary Ann Esposito.” For more than 21 years, she’s shown home cooks how to prepare authentic Italian cuisine. Join us and learn some tasty tricks of the trade! 

Like Mary Ann, America’s Kitchens really cooks! It looks at kitchens—the heart and soul of the home—and their changing roles through our nation’s history. What do wooden iceboxes, Crock-Pots and Easy-Bake Ovens tell us about ourselves? Come by and find out!

Interest in kitchens and cooking is hardly new. One thing you can see in the exhibit is  an original copy of American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, the first truly American cookbook, which was first published in Hartford, Connecticut in 1796.  English cookbooks had been in use in the colonies from the early 1600s, but this was the first to be written by an American for an American audience.  More than that, it combined Old World cooking techniques with distinctly New World ingredients like maize and cranberries.

Amelia Simmon’s American Cookery, the 1815 edition.

Simmons billed herself as “an American orphan,” and the book mentions the disadvantages of late 18^th century orphanhood probably more than any other cookbook before or since.  But Simmons’s underprivileged working life gave her a mastery in everyday cooking, and she instructs her readers in such basics as how to roast meats and bake cakes. Some of the fare is familiar; she gives a simple recipe for pumpkin pie, which she calls “pompkin pudding,” (“One quart of milk, 1 pint pompkin, 4 eggs, molasses, alspice and ginger in a crust, bake 1 hour.” Hhm.  Anyone want to give it a go?), but she also provides extensive instruction on how to “dress a Turtle.” (You’re wondering what flavors go well with turtle? Try thyme, nutmeg and Madeira wine.) A facsimile edition of American Cookery can be found among the cookbooks to peruse in the exhibit, so if any of these ideas makes your mouth water, stop on by and get the inside scoop from Amelia herself.   

And if you’d rather tempt your tastebuds with fare that’s sure to please, tickets are still available to see Mary Ann Esposito on May 21.  Click here for more info!