Nicki and Isabel's "Jelly Filled Doughnuts"

 

Happy Pokémon Day! February 27th is the anniversary of the first two Pokémon games’ release in Japan, and it’s a minor holiday in my house, as a fun excuse to make Pokémon inspired food, watch some Pokémon shows or movies (we’re going to watch Netflix’s new Pokémon Concierge this year!), and get excited about upcoming games and releases. This year, we’re making a Pokémon Sword and Shield inspired burger-steak curry and I’m making a dessert from the Pokémon Cookbook by Victoria Rosenthal. It’s one of my favorite fandom cookbooks – all the recipes are vegetarian or vegan, to get around the awkward question of where does the meat in the Pokémon universe come from? 

But that’s not all we’re making! Ever since Nicki and Isabel were released, I’ve been dying to do a post about them and Pokémon’s infamous “Jelly Filled Doughnuts”, better – and more accurately! – known as onigiri.

Nicki and Isabel's Unofficial Simpsons Feast

Long time, no see! To put it bluntly (and to get some of the where have you been, and where are you going? Out of the way), Covid really did a number on my enthusiasm for continuing this blog. Between needing to cut down on trips to – sometimes multiple – grocery stores for specialty ingredients and being locked inside with only Jess to help me eat stuff, not to mention a truly awful apartment and everything else that came along with the pandemic years, any enthusiasm I had for exploring food history pretty much shriveled and died.

And then we – finally! – moved back to New England so I could take a job as a museum curator at a small institution on Cape Cod, so that obviously took up quite a bit of our collective brainspace.

 

I didn’t do much with my doll collection during the last few years either, even with the introduction of the 1980’s Courtney Moore and 1920’s Claudie Wells, but an announcement about some even more recent historical characters got me excited about firing up my stove in a way I hadn’t really felt in years.

 

I’m talking, of course, about fellow Millennials Isabel and Nicki Hoffman.

Caroline's Hasty Cornmeal Pudding

The breakfast of choice for most of your favorite historical characters!

Some recipes are so incredibly simple that they can stick around as a staple on family tables for generations. Take hasty pudding for example: this simple hot breakfast would've been an easy option for Caroline's mother or grandmother to whip up for breakfast, and it's something Caroline could learn to make herself as soon as she was old enough to be trusted near an open fire. 

But this dish has a much longer history, and is an appropriate breakfast for characters well beyond Caroline's time. Read on to find out more about the history of this breakfast staple!

Emily's Wartime Berry Shortbread & VE Day Tea Party

It's the 75th Anniversary of the end of the war in Europe!

Happy VE Day! Today marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe, and I've been looking forward to this day literally all year. Longer than a year, because what a good opportunity to revisit some of my favorite wartime recipes with a celebratory party with historian friends! 

Unfortunately, the party turned into me, my wife, and our cat (and Molly and Emily), but I think we still managed to make it a nice occasion. Read on to see more pictures, and learn how to make this simple, ration friendly twist on shortbread.

Addy's Cherry Pie

You weren't the only one who had to celebrate their birthday in quarantine this year...

Alright, so, my plans for this post are definitely not what they originally were. Actually, my plans for this entire month (and the rest of the foreseeable future!) have been really thrown off, and I bet we all can guess why. 

(COVID-19, for anyone who's reading this years in the future, or jumping forward in time to 2020 and wondering where everyone is.) 

I had grand plans for this month, with lots of cool historical recipes to share, and then grocery stores started emptying of the supplies I needed, my job was threatened by closures of repositories and libraries we use to conduct research for our clients, and everyone got a little worried about going outside for any reason, meaning last minute trips out to get one or two niche ingredients seemed ill advised at best and generally really, really irresponsible. Needless to say, I've also been pretty bummed out, and mental health struggles makes doing stuff that requires a lot of energy - like making content for this blog! - hard. 

But I'm lucky that I'm still healthy right now, currently still (fingers crossed) employed, and am quarantined with my awesome wife, who made Addy this awesome birthday pie I'm going to take a minute to share with you. Read on to see some more pictures and some pie facts.

Nellie's Corned Beef and Cabbage

Name a more iconic March dinner. I'll wait.

This is probably one of the stranger St. Patrick's Day I've ever celebrated, but fortunately I managed to get out and get my hands on a brisket to share this traditional favorite with all of you well in advance of panic buying and social distancing. 

Corned beef and cabbage is one of the most iconic holiday dishes, but many people are quick to claim it's not "authentic" Irish cuisine. Much like spaghetti and meatballs and chop suey, corned beef and cabbage is rather an American spin on a traditional Irish dish. That doesn't make it less authentic, just that it's a staple of a community that isn't centered in Ireland itself. Read on to find out more about this tasty dinner I wish I got to enjoy more than once a year!

Gabby makes President Obama's Favorite Chili

An unusual but tasty spin on chili!

Our final entry in our Black History Month series comes from the personal archive of the Obamas! To share it with you, I brought out Gabriela McBride, AG's first Black Girl of the Year character. Gabby runs for student body president in her third book, so besides being a modern girl who would have grown up during the Obama administration and probably been incredibly excited to see girls like her living in the White House, she felt like a good fit to share this unique but tasty recipe for one of my personal favorite foods. Read on to see what's for dinner with Barack and Michelle!

Melody's Pecan Pie

Enjoying a classic Civil Rights era treat!

Pecan pies have always been something of a mystery to me, as they're completely not my family's tradition when it comes to baked goods. Admittedly, maybe that shouldn't come as a shock: they are, after all, pretty iconically a southern food, and my family has lived in different parts of New England since they immigrated here. 

But because pecan pie is such a staple of southern comfort food, it shouldn't come as a surprise that it would have been a popular treat among Civil Rights leaders and activists. Soul food was an important part of the movement, as African Americans encouraged members of their community to embrace and celebrate their heritage by cooking things like collared greens. Martin Luther King Jr.'s favorite dessert was reportedly pecan pie, and so it seemed like a perfect choice for our Melody recipe this February. Read on to find out how to make a historic version of the pie in your own kitchen!

Addy's Alphabet Cookies

Bringing the books to life!

I've talked before about how Addy's mom is one of my favorite American Girl characters. Ruth Walker is an extraordinarily brave woman who always seems to make the best of a bad situation in a way I - an eternal worrier and pessimist - really admire. Her embarrassment about not knowing how to read and Addy offering to teach her by shaping dough into letters in their small room over Ford's Dress Shop is one of my favorite scenes in the series, and Ruth tucking specially made cookies that spell "love" in Addy's lunch pail as a treat on the day of her spelling bee is a really sweet (literally and figuratively) end to Addy Learns a Lesson. 

To recreate this moment, I wanted to find the perfect period recipe, and finally tracked down a good one that's great for leaving creative notes to friends and family. Read on to find out how to make them yourself!

Cécile's Chicory Coffee

Bringing New Orleans to your kitchen!

Happy Black History Month! Ever since I started the blog, I wanted to try and do a Black History month feature, but AG's less than perfect track record when it comes to spotlighting Black characters meant for a long time, that would mean just Cécile and Addy themed recipes all month. Not a lot of period diversity there. 

After Melody came out, things looked a little better, but the plan still didn't happen for various reasons (namely, grad school), and we're off to a slow start this month for reasons I won't bore you with. But I promise I have a recipe lined up and ready to go for Cécile, Addy, and Melody, plus a surprise character whose tastes are a little more modern. Any guesses as to who it might be? 

Today we're going to be looking at something I've been wanting to feature on the blog for a long time, but wasn't sure I'd be able to get my paws on it without a trip down south or paying ridiculous shipping for something I don't actually like drinking: coffee. More specifically, chicory coffee, a New Orleans specialty that can be hard to find outside of Louisiana. 

The combination of having a coffee drinking wife and stumbling upon the real deal in our very own grocery store meant I could finally justify sharing the interesting history of this regional favorite with all of you. Read on to discover why people decided to pair coffee with this unusual root.

Felicity's Hot Chocolate, or "The American Nectar"

An adaptation of one of the oldest recorded recipes for hot chocolate!

We've done a lot of talking about hot chocolate on this blog, as well as chocolate in general. I've provided a review of American Heritage chocolate, tried out the official Josefina approved recipe for New Mexican hot chocolate, toasted marshmallows on top of hot chocolate, and even tried out champurrado, a recipe with links to some of the earliest ways human beings have enjoyed chocolate. 

The recipe we're trying out today is one of the recipes featured as part of the Folger Shakespear Library's First Chefs exhibit, which I've also shared with you guys before. All the recipes featured online and as handouts at the exhibit were adapted from historical recipes by Marissa Nicosia, a food historian who experiments with recipes from the 1600's through the 1800's. You can read more about her work on her website Rare Cooking. 

So, what makes this recipe different from the ones we've tried before?

Mrs. Ling's Special Ginger Pancakes

A treat straight from Ivy's family cookbook! Sort of...

In Julie's stories, it's mentioned that Mrs. Ling is famous for making ginger pancakes, and often treats Julie to them when she stays over at their house. I've been trying to make more historical recipes mentioned in the books themselves, and decided I needed to give these a whirl. 

There was just one problem: my favorite (and currently only) 1970's cookbook with breakfast recipes in it told me to just make my pancakes with Bisquick, and that wasn't good enough for me. So I had to turn to a slightly unconventional source to find my base recipe for ginger pancakes. Read on to see how Alice's Brady Bunch Cookbook came to my rescue!

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! 

Florence's Pavlova

An airy treat as delicate as a ballet superstar!

Our last holiday treat of 2019 is the pavlova, a signature dessert of my wife's homeland. Most people who have seen pictures of the "pavs" Jess has made for our family and friends ask if it's a cake, whipped cream, or some other strange concoction, maybe an unbaked Alaska? An ice cream cake? Something else entirely? And the answer is simple: it's a meringue topped with a lot of whipped cream and fruit. 

You can have big pavs, little pavs, in the medium pavs... doesn't matter. When done right, this is a really delicious, refreshing dessert, perfect for celebrating Christmas in Australia because - as many of you know - Australia (and the rest of the southern hemisphere) is actually experiencing summer right now. Australians still enjoy traditional Christmas treats like Christmas puddings and gingerbread, but the high temperatures make things like this an appealing alternative to "traditional" Christmas fare, which is often quite heavy or spiced. 

The pavlova can trace its history back to the 1920's, when Russian ballet superstar Anna Pavolva toured Australia and New Zealand. Both countries claim to be the first to create this dessert in her honor, but as I've married an Australian, I think you know which country I need to support in the debate. Australia also has the slightly stronger argument - in my opinion - because similar dishes spotlighting meringues and whipped cream date back to the early 1900's, meaning my Florrie Girl Florence might have enjoyed a treat similar to a pavlova in her childhood known by a different name. Other similar Australian recipes appear in the early 1920's, still under a different name, and the first known dish to bear the name Pavolva comes from an Australian cookbook published in 1926. 

Sorry, New Zealand.

Molly's Sticky Buns

Celebrate Christmas like the McIntires!

In a sharp contrast to Maryellen's Christmas story, Molly's Surprise is all about how traditions have changed for the McIntires because of the war. With Dad overseas - and no letters from him in weeks! - things were always going to be different, but Mom doesn't have time to decorate, and Molly's grandparents can't come thanks to a flat tire. With a little help from her siblings - and a surprise from Dad - Molly manages to find a way to make the holidays special even with things so different. 

A traditional holiday snack for the McIntires are sticky buns, a cinnamony treat usually smothered in caramel and pecans. As this Christmas was apparently the year I wanted to practice baking with yeast, and I wanted to revisit some of the American Girl books for baking inspiration, I thought these would be a fun thing to try.

Maryellen's Coffee Cake

A recipe straight from the mid 20th century with a long, long history.

Although American Girl has snipped Maryellen's Christmas story from the most recent edition of her books, they sure do seem to like giving her a lot of winter and holiday releases. For those not in the know, Maryellen's Christmas adventure focused on how Maryellen is growing frustrated with her non-traditional Christmas in Florida. Every movie and holiday card depicts Christmas as a day full of snow, with an evergreen tree, sledding, ice skating... you get the idea. She gets it in her head that she wants to have a "real" Christmas, and ends up going to visit her grandparents in slightly colder Georgia. 

After enjoying some of her solo adventure, and getting an opportunity to ice skate, she realizes she misses her family's traditions and wants to go home. The whole story is meant to tie into one of the major themes of Maryellen's series: the 1950's was a period of conformity, but you should follow your heart instead of the crowd. 

One of the traditions the Larkins enjoy is eating a coffee cake on Christmas morning, and I've been contemplating trying my hand at making my own pretty much since her books were released. The recipe I'm going to share with you might not be exactly what you're thinking a good coffee cake should be - and very well might not be the exact kind of coffee cake the Larkins cut into while opening presents - but it is an authentic recipe from the period that made a very tasty final product, and got me doing some research into the history of coffee cake. Read on to see what we discovered!

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!

Jane's Cranberry Cornbread

A cornbread that could have been served at the first Thanksgiving!

I swear I intended to have Jane represent the experience of settlers in Jamestown, but let's be honest: it's hard to ignore Plymouth as a source for early colonization and interactions between Europeans and Native communities, particularly when it comes to exchanging food. 

This corn bread is very different from the corn bread you've probably enjoyed alongside chili and fried chicken, but if you're looking for something that can pass as authentic for your Thanksgiving table, this really fits the bill. Read on to find out how to make this yourself!

Caroline's Molasses Pie

A pie that's really more of a cake, but tasty either way!

Molasses is one of my favorite ingredients to use in dessert. I'm a big fan of chocolate and boring old vanilla (which really isn't that boring) as well, but anything with molasses and spice in it tends to win my heart pretty quickly. 

This unusual pie might not be entirely authentic to Caroline's time period - and actually has its roots in the 1870's, and you may know it as shoofly pie - but molasses would have been so much a part of her life that it just felt fitting to give this one to her. Besides, American Girl doesn't seem that inspired by the 19th century these days, so if you want something done at all, let alone right, I guess I'd better do it myself.

Felicity's Raleigh Tavern Cookies

A trip down memory lane via the oven!

A fun part of starting this blog has meant I've discovered how easy it is to find recipes replicating treats you might have thought you could only enjoy on vacation to places like Disney World or Colonial Williamsburg. These might not always be authentically historic, but I still like giving them a shot because whipping up a batch of Brunswick stew in your kitchen is a lot cheaper than driving all the way to Williamsburg... or hopping on a plane to enjoy Le Cellier's beer cheese soup in Epcot. 

The recipe I'm going to share with you today is a staple of Colonial Williamsburg, and a treat that I always eat at least one or two of on my visits to the museum: Raleigh Tavern ginger cookies. You can smell these fluffy cookies whenever you walk by the bake shop, and Williamsburg even offers to ship them to you via their online store. But if you're hoping to make your own, look no further.