A Peek into the Pantry on the American Girls Podcast!

Listen to us in the kitchen where the blog first got started!

As many of you probably know by now, Jess, Kirsten and I got to do something very special a few months ago, and I'm so excited to finally get a chance to share it all with you guys! 

Blaire's Hug in a Bowl

Or broccoli cheddar soup!

Blaire's time as Girl of the Year is coming to an end, and before she rides off, I wanted to try my hand at at least one more of the recipes American Girl released to celebrate her time in the sun. She might make the occasional appearance around these parts the same way Grace does, but the odds of American Girl producing any other Blaire content moving forward is pretty slim, and I have to admit, this recipe caught the interest of this cheese loving blogger from the moment I read her books. Read on to learn how to make Blaire's famous Hug in a Bowl yourself!

Blaire's Awesome Sauce

A sauce that's chock full of veggies and pretty easy to make!

In April, I shared the official recipe for Blaire's dairy-free chocolate chip brownies with you, and spoke about how this year's Girl of the Year has to deal with the frustration of developing lactose intolerance, which means a lot of adapting for this aspiring chef. In her second book, Blaire Cooks Up a Plan, her primary theme makes a pretty big shift, from adapting to food intolerance (and a sort of half hearted attempt at discussing screen addiction) to confronting food insecurity by helping those in need. 

This recipe is inspired by Blaire's community service project, and is featured as a recipe in the back of Blaire Cooks Up a Plan the same way the brownies were. Read on to find out more about this recipe, as well as how to make it yourself!

Julie's Sloppy Joes

The perfect hot sandwich to feed a crowd!

Some recipes last generations, and are passed down from family member to family member, or just stick around in public memory as being something tasty that's definitely worth the effort. Such is the sloppy joe, a classic sandwich with a long history that pre-dates the 1970's, but nevertheless appears in Julie's Cooking Studio as a favorite food of Julie's, noting that her new school serves them in the cafeteria for lunch. 

You all know by now that I love trying my hand at recipes American Girl released for their historical characters, and although this didn't make its way into any of Julie's school related accessory sets, I was still eager to give this one a shot.

Molly's Hawaiian Banana Bread

A banana bread recipe from 1943!

It's been a while since we turned to the book that inspired many a childhood fantasy of fancy themed parties with historically accurate games, crafts and food: The American Girl Party Book was something I frequently flipped through to admire all the fun party ideas as a kiddo. My mom and grandma helped organize and throw my really amazing ninth birthday party with lots of ideas straight from this book, and it's still provided a lot of inspiration for posts for the blog... as well as future themed parties once I finally have a living space (and paycheck) big enough to entertain and decorate the way I'd like to. 

One of the Molly parties is themed around Hawaii, offering suggestions for making your own leis, tropical themed drinks and snacks, as well as invitations and games. Just as Samantha's Nutting Party or Felicity's Twelfth Night Party are representative of actual parties people in the past celebrated, Molly's Hawaiian themed party is wholly authentic to the 1940's, and features recipes that are just as "faux Hawaii" as the recipes marketed in home magazines, advertisements, and cookbooks of the period were. Read on to find out more about this trend!

Blaire's Dairy-Free Chocolate Chip Brownies

Or more accurately, Eli's Dairy-Free Chocolate Chip Brownies!

I don’t often devote blog posts to the Girl of the Year dolls, mostly because this is meant to be a historical cooking blog, and current food history isn’t always as exciting as trying out Abraham Lincoln’s favorite cake. Sometimes exceptions are made, though, and so today’s recipe is inspired by and from Blaire’s second book Blaire Cooks Up a Plan. 

Blaire Wilson is the Girl of the Year for 2019. She’s from a fictional town in upstate New York, and lives on her family farm with her parents, younger brother, and grandfather. She’s recently discovered she’s lactose intolerant and trying to figure out how to cope with that, while also helping a family friend plan a wedding and learning about food insecurity, or when people are in the position of not being sure when, where, or what their next meal will be. 

It’s a lot to cover in two books, and I have some thoughts and opinions on how well it’s tackled. Read on to find out more, as well as a review of the dairy free brownie recipe featured in her books!

Breakfast from Addy's Cook Book

A peek into Ruth Walker's kitchen!

Next up in my slow, slow attempt at cooking everything in the original Pleasant Company historical character cookbooks are the breakfast offerings from Addy’s Cook Book. After 2017’s success at making everything on Samantha’s breakfast menu, I decided a long term goal for the blog would be making the full course meals included in these cookbooks. It’s quite an undertaking, and so I don’t think I’ll be churning out one every month, but it had been a while since I’d featured an Addy recipe and decided she seemed like a good candidate for the full course meal treatment. 

Like Samantha’s breakfast, Addy’s menu is filled with things that are both historically something the character might have eaten for a fancy, full breakfast, and are still largely familiar items to modern Americans: grits, sausages, gravy, biscuits, fried apples and scrambled eggs. I enlisted the help of my wife to help me prepare everything and we invited two of our neighbors over to enjoy this peek into dining in the past. Read on to see how it went!

Kirsten's Homemade Butter

Bringing a taste of frontier life into your own kitchen!

For my next step in my quest to eventually, at some point, make every single recipe in the official American Girl Cook Books and Cooking Studios (at least the historical ones, anyway), I decided to try something out that had caught my eye in Kirsten's cookbook a long, long time ago: homemade butter. It's something we totally take for granted as something we can just go to the store and buy, so seeing it featured in a cookbook is sort of an unusual thing, and it's something I can safely say I've never done before, so I've been eager to give it a shot for a long time. 

Originally, I had planned on it being a good way to kick off the new year, as it only requires one ingredient and equipment I've already got in my kitchen, but then life got in the way in the form of a very delayed flight back home from the holidays, and so I've been fighting burn out pretty hard this month and hoping to get back into the swing of things. Last weekend, I finally buckled up to get my taste of the pioneer life and see just how easy it is to make butter in a jar.

Josefina's New Mexican Hot Chocolate

Warm yourself up with Josefina’s favorite breakfast treat!

We’ve had a really weird winter down in the Mid Atlantic, and I can’t decide if this is just how it is, or if I’m getting an up close and personal look at Global Warming, but in either case, here we are. I never know how to dress before leaving for work in the morning. This means I often end up waiting on the metro platform after work for a train that never arrives wishing I’d thought to pack my scarf or wear tights, or slowly suffocating in my wool coat and gloves. 

Since it’s still technically winter no matter what the temperature might say, I figured it might be time to feature an official American Girl recipe I’ve been eying for some time. This treat definitely helps take the edge off the cold, while being tasty enough to enjoy no matter what the weather’s doing outside.

Breakfast from Samantha's Cook Book

A full course breakfast fit for any Turn of the Century enthusiast!

My fiancée was teasing me the other day about how I secretly want to be a 1920’s society wife a la Downton Abbey or something, and honestly? She might be right. I love thinking of different themed parties to throw, from tea parties, birthdays, holidays, historically themed potlucks… I think this is something that actually goes back to when I was a kid. I loved thumbing through the catalogs we used to get filled with birthday party props and themes. 

Of course, planning and executing these events often takes time, equipment, money, and manpower, plus people to eat whatever food you prepare and I just don’t always have that these days. But I was going home for the weekend last month, and decided I might as well try execute one of these historically themed food parties I’ve been dying to try my hand at. 

So, welcome to Samantha’s Turn of the Century Breakfast!

It's Our Fourth Anniversary!: Queen Cakes and a Giveaway!

Kicking off Year Five with a treat!

Hard to believe it’s really been four years, hasn’t it? I know it is for me! When I first started this blog, I had no idea how long I’d keep up with it, or if anyone would even be interested in what I was doing. I was worried about getting a job after college, and really starting to wonder if getting a history degree was a big mistake. 

Four years and over two hundred posts later, I think it’s safe to say this experiment has been pretty successful! Plus, I’m halfway through getting my MA in Public History and have a job I really enjoy, so that’s pretty cool too. 

As a special way of saying thanks to all my loyal readers, I’m hosting a giveaway of something that will hopefully inspire you to take a peek into the pantry too! Read on to find out how to enter.

Josefina's Apricot Sponge Cake

Sponge Cake Take 2!

And last but not least from last summer’s recipe vault, here’s Josefina’s apricot sponge cake! I’d been wanting to do a recipe for Josefina with apricots in it for a while. An apricot tree is an important plot point in her stories, and also apricots are in general pretty delicious, so it seemed like a perfect combination. 

Fortunately, the American Girl Party Handbook had a dessert suggestion that sounded pretty promising, and last summer I decided to break it out for a shot.

Julie's Zucchini Bread

The 70's health food craze that's turned into a difficult sell in my house!

When I was a kid, one of my favorite picture books was In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, because apparently I've always been obsessed with food. In it, a boy named Mickey winds up in the "Night Kitchen" and is almost baked into a cake by three bakers. He then constructs an airplane out of bread dough and flies off to retrieve milk for the baker's cake. After his successful return, he winds up back in bed again. It's a silly story - although there are apparently much darker themes in it than I realized when I was a kid - and I remember being so outraged that apparently in this universe, cake was an appropriate thing to eat for breakfast. I'd never heard of such a thing and was pretty resentful that I was apparently being denied this totally appropriate sweet start to the day.

Fittingly, it was first published in 1970, and the recipe I'm featuring today is also a 70's classic. It's also a cake that people ate and presumably still eat for breakfast, and was once considered a health food! Obviously I was just born in the wrong decade if things like zucchini, banana and carrot bread were being promoted as a healthy start to your day.

These days, I feel like zucchini bread has become tough to market to people, while banana and carrot cake still appear at bakeries and on family tables all over the world. I know I've definitely turned my nose up at it in the past! So how did this bread come to be such a well loved staple, and how has it fallen out of favor? Let's find out!

Addy's Potato Salad

A Memorial Day weekend staple, but perhaps not quite as 1860's as American Girl would have you believe.

Memorial Day weekend means a lot of things to a lot of people: cookouts, trips to the beach, eating out at their favorite fried fish stand, sales, a much needed day off from work, free shipping, parades, and 100% most importantly, honoring those who gave their lives while serving their country. Although I enjoy all of the less serious parts of this holiday, it's the last bit that's got the most weight for me. I spend a lot of time learning about America's military history and honestly know too many sad stories about young men and women (or older men and women) who gave everything to keep their friends, families and country safe. This year, I definitely wanted to take some time to talk about this holiday and why we celebrate it when we celebrate it, because I think the origin story is pretty interesting and not very well known.

Of course, I wasn't going to give you a history lesson without breaking out a dish to try! I bet most of you who had get togethers this weekend had some version of potato salad on your menu, so it seemed like a totally fitting selection. This recipe for potato salad comes directly from Addy's Cook Book, which means you'd think it's verified to be something she and her family definitely would have eaten, right? As it turns out, this might be an example of AG needing to do their homework a little more.

So, what makes this an Addy themed post, and why wouldn't she and her family have actually eaten this version of potato salad in 1865?

Julie's Watergate Cake

Served with Cover Up Icing and chock full of nuts!

I've never really been a huge fan of debating or trying to pinpoint the most important moment in history. How is that even something you can quantify? Even if you narrow it down to American history, or recent American history, or American history within the last fifty years, there are so many different candidates for the title that arguing about it has always felt a little pointless and silly to me, like the historian's version of "Could Superman beat Batman in a fight?"

That being said, I don't think anyone could ever question that the Watergate scandal is one of the biggest, most defining moments in American history, especially in terms of the world we live in today. It rocked the nation's trust in the presidency (and politicians in general) and let loose a runaway freight train of journalism and media frenzy that's mutated into the ratings hungry monsters we have to deal with in 2016.

(For the record, while I support what Woodward and Bernstein did, in most cases, I'm not a big fan of the media and what it's turned into.)

So, what does a cake have to do with the biggest scandal in our nation's history?

Nothing.

Bet you didn't see that coming, did you?

Julie's Granola

The favorite healthy snack from 1974!

My brother's basketball season is wrapping up, and March Madness will be starting soon. Or so I'm told - I don't really follow professional sports.

He's been trying to be more conscious of food choices he's been making this season, and it got me thinking about how the definition of health food has really grown and developed since people started recording what they were cooking for what. One thing that still often gets labeled a health food today is granola, whether as a snack or an accompaniment to breakfast, in bar form or not. It can be sort of a controversial health food depending on how you make it, but since it's something both my brother and another (fictional) blonde basketball player both enjoy, I decided I'd give making my own a shot. Can't be too hard, right?

Kirsten's Swedish Rice Porridge

Which might sound a little unusual, but is actually quite good!

Comfort food hits the spot any time of year, but warm porridge has been a winter favorite since we learned how to cook with fire. I've recently rediscovered the joys of oatmeal, but I'll fully admit, I'd never heard of someone making rice porridge for breakfast before. Cream of wheat, grits, sure, but not something that basically sounded kind of like a warm rice pudding.

Not that I've ever actually eaten a lot of rice pudding before.

Still, with the good luck I've been having recently with authentic American Girl recipes, I was hoping this would be a stress free, fun way to spend a snow day. A couple speedbumps later, and I'm ready to share the results with you! 

Kit's Cincinnati Chili

Is it chili? Is it sauce? Is it both?

Chili? What's this you say, Gwen? I thought we were doing an all chocolate spree for the next few weeks!

Don't worry, we still are! The chocolate's just a lot more subtle in this recipe than most of the other treats we've made on the blog. Cincinnati chili got its start in the 1920's, and it's definitely not the chili con carne you might be used to. I'd never had it before, but I'd heard of it, and it seemed like a really interesting addition to this line up of chocolate I've thrown together.

As an added bonus, the version we're making today isn't a dish that just shares its name with Kit's home town. It comes straight from Kit's Cooking Studio, so you can eat it knowing you're enjoying it the same way our favorite plucky girl reporter might have. If, you know. She wasn't fictional.

Addy's Hoppin' John

Starting off the New Year with some good luck!

Kicking off 2016, today we made Hoppin' John, a dish straight from Addy's Cook Book. Although it's a dish you can make and enjoy year round, the cook book's introduction to Addy's dinner specifically says that Addy's mother would make a big batch of it for everyone in the boarding house to enjoy on New Year's Day. Addy's Auntie Lula would make it for their family on the plantation, just like many other slaves did, as they believed that eating a humble meal on New Year's Day would bring them good luck in the coming year. This was a tradition that Addy and her family continued in freedom, and likely introduced to their Northern neighbors who weren't familiar with the custom.

Black eyed peas are originally from Africa, and it's believed that they were brought along with some of the first slave ships from Africa to the New World. Some food historians believe that Hoppin' John might be similar to food that was given to the slaves en route to America, or could just be based on recipes from several West African countries that people preserved when they were ripped from their homes and forced into enslavement on a new continent. Black eyed peas on their own are also considered symbols of good luck because they were one of the only foods Union soldiers didn't steal from Confederate food supplies during the Civil War, which was a huge help to starving troops and civilian populations when the Union Army used scorched earth tactics. This belief has crossed regional and ethnic boundaries, and has led many people to believe eating them on New Year's Day will bring you luck, just like Addy and her family did.

Hoppin' John is still enjoyed by many people in the south regardless of background, as former slaves brought the recipe with them when they moved to different parts of the country and introduced it to people who had never had it before. But who exactly is Hoppin' John?

Ivy's Chinese Almond Cookies

Crispy cookies with tasty almond flavor!

When I was a kid, I definitely fantasized about making some of the food my favorite AG characters talked about making and enjoying in their books. I know I've talked about this before, so it's probably not news or especially surprising to my readers, but it really was a big dream of mine. Now that I'm an adult who doesn't need supervision in the kitchen (most of the time), I get to actually put those plans in action, and it's always fun when I have an official AG recipe to go off of to help make these creations.

Of course, sometimes those recipes haven't worked out that well for me in the past, so I always go in with a little bit of informed risk. Considering the way these cookies are presented in the books, it actually might have been appropriate to run into a minor disaster while baking them!