Thousand Years over a Hot Stove or Growing Up Italian

Thousand Years over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances

Author: Laura Schenon

A stunningly illustrated book that celebrates the power of food throughout American history and in women's lives.Filled with classic recipes and inspirational stories, A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove will make you think twice about the food on your plate. Here is the first book to recount how American women have gathered, cooked, and prepared food for lovers, strangers, and family throughout the ages. We find native women who pried nourishment from the wilderness, mothers who sold biscuits to buy their children's freedom, immigrant wives who cooked old foods in new homes to provide comfort. From church bake sales to microwaving moms, this book is a celebration of women's lives, homes, and communities. Over fifty recipes, from Federal Pancakes to Sweet Potato Pie, are beautifully presented along with over one hundred images from artists, photographers, and rare sources. A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove is the shared history of all American women and the perfect gift for anyone who ever put food on the table. 2-color, 138 illustrations.

About the Author:
: Laura Schenone is a freelance writer living with her husband and two children in Montclair, New Jersey. This is her first book. and Meals)

Publishers Weekly

As the title implies, in her first book, freelance writer Schenone has attempted to cover more than a millennium in women's history, tossing in historically interesting recipes along the way. The results of this ambitious project, however, can't help but be broad, and the book is full of sweeping statements such as, "As cooks, Native American women lay the first claim to some of the greatest ingredients in the history of the world." A turgid introduction reaches even further back than 1,000 years to conjure a figure Schenone names "All Woman," whom she imagines as the first female on earth and imbues with all kinds of knowledge and curiosity. Later chapters are more fact-based and reliable. Indeed, when Schenone delves into the specific, her writing immediately improves. For example, a section in a chapter on the 19th century that details the development of urban peddlers and more specifically "hot corn women," is rich with description, evocative and offers information that is probably new to most readers. The author also does a commendable job of drawing the often-ignored connections among politics, women and food when describing events such as the 1917 food riots in New York City and lunch counter sit-ins in the 1960s. The book is chockablock with recipes (often for oddities such as Apple Crisp Pronto from 1943, a concoction of packaged bread, margarine, honey and apples meant to help Rosie the Riveter get dinner on the table), period illustrations and sidebars, including one on Sara Josepha Hale, who standardized the Thanksgiving holiday. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Fusion cooking is often defined as the blending of traditional preparation techniques with locally found ingredients to create new dishes or even cuisines (e.g., Tex-Mex and Creole). Without labeling it "fusion," this is the type of home cooking that freelance writer Schenone describes in her thoroughly researched and inviting history of how native and immigrant American women have fed their families from pre-European times to the 21st century. Sometimes, the food served from their kitchens and fires changed in response to inventions like the cast-iron stove and canned milk. In other eras, economic depressions and rationing programs determined which foods and how much of them ended up on the table. The many recipes, black-and-white photographs, anecdotes, and interviews included here amply illustrate how American cooking evolved and, indeed, how it continues to change. Highly recommended for most public libraries, especially those with culinary studies collections or a need for student report resources.-Andrea Dietze, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

New interesting book: Marketing: Echte Leute, Echte Wahlen

Growing Up Italian: A Book of Recipes and Memories: Annie's Cookbook

Author: Anne M Guarino

After the summer was over and we went back to Ozone Park, school started and I had to run back to Aunt Mary's for my meatballs and coffee. But then, we also had the holidays to look forward to. Thanksgiving would be coming and that could only mean one thing...
Mom was going to make lasagna!

Growing Up Italian is a cookbook of delicious recipes, humorous short stories, and treasured memories from author Anne Marie Guarino-Schrank. These hard-to-find Italian recipes are compiled into one great cookbook, perfect for the holidays and for family gatherings.

With each group of recipes, Guarino-Schrank shares heartwarming family stories about growing up in an Italian family. Included are such delectable dishes as strufoli (honey balls), Easter bread, Sunday sauce, artichokes, cardones, soups, an eggplant appetizer, pizza rustica, and more!

Let Growing Up Italian be your inspiration to collect your own family recipes and to pass them onto your children and grandchildren. With great cooking tips and recipes for every holiday of the year, you'll love Growing Up Italian!