Fall has always been my favorite season. I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that it contains both my birthday and my favorite holiday, Halloween. More than at any other time of year, the transition from summer to fall brings the back-to-school season, a perfect time for a fresh start, then soon… Read More “Life starts over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
Summer in Virginia is a time for festivals, and the best festivals celebrate the foods the Commonwealth is known for. Here are some of the best: *Gordonsville’s Famous Fried Chicken Festival – Saturday, May 20, 11 AM-5 PM, Gordonsville Fire Company Fairgrounds – Celebrate the “chicken-leg center of the universe” and Gordonsville’s long history of… Read More Summer Food Events in Virginia
It’s fall! My favorite season of the year means it’s time for hearty soups and big flavors. Chowders are the type of thick, rich stews that have long been important in American cooking. Most settlers, whether they were in the northern Massachusetts or southern Virginia colony, had easy access to the main ingredients for a… Read More Corn Chowder and Old Bay Potato Chips
I was flipping through the channels the other day and came across a show that has quickly become my new favorite – “A Taste of History” on RLTV. On each 30-minute long episode, Chef Walter Staib, an international restaurant consultant, visits historic sites and uses their kitchens to prepare dishes of their time period. Many… Read More “A Taste of History” showcases historical cooking techniques and recipes
Mary Randolph, a relative of Thomas Jefferson, published her cookbook, The Virginia Housewife in 1838. The volume is notable for its use of items native to the colonies, such as pumpkins, squash, shellfish and venison, and preparations familiar to English cooks. In honor of Thanksgiving, I whipped up a batch of individual pumpkin puddings to take… Read More Colonial Thanksgiving recipe – Mary Randolph’s Pumpkin Pudding
As any Virginian worth his or her salt can tell you, Thanksgiving started right here in the Old Dominion. In 1619, a full two years before the famous “first Thanksgiving” of the New England pilgrims, English settlers at Berkeley Hundred (what would later become Berkeley Plantation) held a “day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.” One… Read More Roundup of Virginia Thanksgiving food history events
Dogwood Dispatches 