Food Friday: Woman's Glory, Slovenian Women, and Pink Tea

A friend  recently picked up this  community cookbook in Indiana for me that illustrates some of the great content found in these cookbooks.

Woman's Glory The Kitchen by the Slovenian Women's Union of America is 275 pages of everything from introductions, recipes, and kitchen tips to  photos, some street addresses and information about the Slovenian Women's Union. This cookbook published in 1953 is in honor of the organization's silver anniversary. From the Preface by the cookbook's editor Albina Novak, the reader learns that she had wanted to compile a cookbook that   "would serve as an instructor to the Slovenian women of today who wish to include in their homemaking dishes for which their mothers have always been famous." Four pages in the beginning of the book provide information and names about members of the Slovenian Women's Union

The cookbook states that the Slovenian Women's Union had a membership of 13,000 in 1951 with branches in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and California. Founded in December 1926, today the group is known as the Slovenian Union of America. According to the website the first president of the Slovenian Women's Union, Marie Prisland founded the group after watching other groups that addressed women's social condition. The website quotes her as saying, “What we needed most was an organization which would foster our ambitions and serve as an open forum for all women of Slovenian birth; where they could freely express their opinions and at the same time, learn the lesson their more fortunate sisters had gathered while living in this country."

For those with Slovenian ancestry, the Slovenian Union of America website does have a page of genealogy links.

The downside to this cookbook is that not all recipes are attributed. However, there are plenty of names in this cookbook and in some cases even street addresses.

So had a bad week? Feel free to make this "adult beverage" found at the bottom of this page, after all it's just tea. (Notice that the recipe is submitted by the founder of the organization).

Read More

From the Family Kitchen Virtual Book Tour

Next week I will be guest posting on some of my favorite  genealogy blogs as part of a virtual book tour for my new book, From the Family Kitchen. Discover Your Food Heritage and Preserve Family Recipes.

Join me as we explore food, family and genealogy. Comment on any of these blog posts and be entered for a chance to win a signed copy of the book. I will draw the name of a lucky winner on Monday, May 29th.

The following are the blogs, blog authors and the dates:

Monday, May 21. Renee Zamora of Renee’s Genealogy Blog . Guest Blog Post: Why Combine Food History with FamilyHistory?



Tuesday, May 22. Gayle Gresham from Colorado Reflections. Guest Blog Post: Finding Cookbooks in the West.



Wednesday, May 23. Ruby Coleman of Genealogy Lines. Guest Blog Post: Preserving Food Heritage.



Thursday, May 24. Ruth Blair of the Passionate Genealogist.  Guest Blog Post: Your Family’s Food History: Questions to Ask.



Friday, May 25.Food.Family.Ephemera.  Special Edition of Food Friday: Woman's Glory, Slovenian Women, and Pink Tea.


Saturday, May 26.  Missy Corley of Bayside Research Services. Guest Blog Post: Finding Community Cookbook Collections.

Read More

Food Friday: Pickles for a Thousand of Your Closest Friends

I like pickles. I think that's probably obvious by now since I have spotlighted quite a few  pickled recipes. It's not unusual in community cookbooks to see recipes that are meant to serve a crowd. That makes sense if you think about it because many of these books are published  by church groups and they would have occasion for serving large groups at weddings, funerals and other events.

Now in today's Food Friday recipe, the crowd gets a little on the ridiculous side. This recipe is for one thousand. Yep, that's a lot of pickles. Now the author doesn't specify if this is a thousand people (which I assume) or a thousand pickles. She (I'm assuming it's a woman but we only have the initials) also doesn't say how many cucumbers to use.

But if you ever have a need to make a mess of pickles, this might be the recipe for you. This is from the Mother Hubbard's Cupboard. Published by The Young Ladies' Society First Baptist Church. Rochester, New York. 1880. Page 68.

Read More

Press Release for My Book From the Family Kitchen

For Immediate Release

Contact:

Gena Philibert-Ortega

genaortega@gmail.com

Explore the Food Your Ancestors Ate in New Book by Gena Philibert-Ortega

What do suet pudding, turtle soup and roast squirrel have in common? They are all foods our ancestors ate. In From the Family Kitchen: Discover Your Food Heritage and Preserve Favorite Recipes, a new book by author Gena Philibert-Ortega published by Family Tree Magazine, readers can learn more about food history and how to blend foodways and traditions into their family histories.

“Learning about our ancestors is so much more than just finding out when and where they were born or died,” says Philibert-Ortega. “Food history helps bring our ancestors to life and gives us a better understanding of their day-to-day lives.”

From the Family Kitchen: Discover Your Food Heritage and Preserve Favorite Recipesexplores food history and explains how to incorporate those stories, images and recipes into family history. Divided into three sections, this social history begins by looking at the food history of immigrants and the regional differences of food throughout the United States. It explores the history of cookbooks in the United States and gives step-by-step instructions on locating and researching recipes that ancestors would have cooked. Part 2 features a glossary or historical cooking terms and measurements, plus a collection of historical recipes from the turn of the 20th century. Part 3 is a beautiful recipe journal where readers can record their favorite family recipes along with memories of the dish, making this book a keepsake that will be enjoyed years to come.

“This book spans generations,” says Allison Dolan, publisher/editorial director of Family Tree Magazine. “I can’t think of a better way to introduce younger generations to their heritage then by preparing a meal their ancestors would have eaten and then spend the meal sharing family history stories.”           

From the Family Kitchenalso includes:

§  Methods for gathering family recipes

§  Interview questions to help loved ones record their food memories

§  Places to search for historical recipes

§  An explanation of how immigrants influenced the American diet

§  A look at how technology changed the way people eat

§  A glossary of historical cooking terms

§  Modern equivalents to historical units of measure

From the Family Kitchen is available in a hardback keepsake edition from ShopFamilyTree.com and other online booksellers. It’s also available as an ebook for the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes&Noble Nook.

About the author

Gena Philibert-Ortega holds a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and a Master’s degree in Religion. Presenting on various subjects involving genealogy, women’s studies and social history, Gena has spoken to groups throughout the United States and virtually to audiences worldwide. Gena is the author of hundreds of articles published in genealogy newsletters and magazines including Internet Genealogy, Family Chronicle, GenWeekly and the WorldVitalRecords newsletter. She is the author of the books Putting the Pieces Together and Cemeteries of the Eastern Sierra (Arcadia Publishing, 2007) and From the Family Kitchen. Discover Your Food Heritage and Preserve Favorite Recipes (F+W Media, 2012). Gena is editor of the Utah Genealogical Association’s journal Crossroads. An instructor for the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, Gena has written courses about social media and Google. She serves as Vice-President for the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists, a Director for the California State Genealogical Alliance and on the board of the Utah Genealogical Association. Her current research interests include social history, community cookbooks, signature quilts and researching women’s lives.

AboutFamily Tree Magazine

Family Tree Magazine is part of the Genealogy Community at F+W Media,Inc. which also encompasses Family Tree Universityonline courses and webinars, genealogy books and the ShopFamilyTree.com  online store. These publications and products are devoted to providing engaging, easy-to-understand instruction that makes genealogy a hobby anyone can do.

Read More

Food Friday: Cinco de Mayo Edition

In honor of Cinco de Mayo I thought it appropriate to share a "Spanish" recipe. As you look at old community cookbooks they often have various versions of "ethnic" recipes. Of course it appears that typically there is  one ingredient in the recipe that for some reason makes it ethnic. In the recipes I find that are "Spanish" it's usually the inclusion of onion and/or tomato sauce.



In this recipe from The Women's Society of the First Presbyterian Church in Winfield, Kansas Cook Book one of the many "Spanish" recipes is for Spanish Pork Chops.

This early 1930s cookbook actually has a bunch of "Spanish and/or Mexican" recipes like Mexican Tomato Sauce, Spanish Meat Balls, Tamale Pie and Spanish Beans.

But if you really want some Mexican recipes for Cinco de Mayo you may want to check out something from an "authentic" Mexican cookbook like El Concinero Espanol by Encarnacion Pinedo (1898) or the El Paso Cook Book by the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Y.M.C.A. (1898).

Read More