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.

Kaya's Smoked Salmon Scrambled Eggs

The star of this Kaya inspired breakfast!

Kaya is one of my favorite historical dolls. That may sound silly because I genuinely love all of AG's historical characters, but Kaya has always had a special place in my heart. Her books are great, and she goes through a real journey, learning how to become less selfish and what makes a good leader. Her collection enchanted me from the second I saw her in the catalog for the first time, especially because I'd had to do a major research project on the Nez Perce a few years before she was released! Seeing so much of what I'd studied come to life in doll form was really exciting, and even though I was starting to feel a little too old for dolls (if only middle school me could see me now!), I asked for her for Christmas. 

But something that's always disappointed me is that despite how well researched and crafted her stories and collections were, she missed out on the neat supplemental material the Pleasant Company produced for their historical characters like craft books... and cook books! I'm still slowly working through making the recipes from the Pleasant Company cook books, but had the idea that I'd try my hand at making a Kaya inspired breakfast the way it might have appeared in an official American Girl cook book. 

The main course? Smoked salmon scrambled eggs, of course!

Lily's Chicken Ramen Bowl

A cross cultural favorite with some interesting connections to World War II!

I love ramen. For a carb lover like me, it’s hard not to be excited about a massive bowl of hot noodles swimming in salty or spicy broth. The meat and veggies are good too of course, but for me, it’s definitely all about the carbs. 

As it turns out, those carbs – and more specifically, what kind of carbs – are responsible for why ramen enjoys such international fame. Although this dish originated in Korea, it became intensely popular in post war Japan because the noodles were made of wheat flour, not rice. Read on to find out why that was so crucial, and how to make a yummy bowl of ramen in your own home.

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!

Ivy's Egg Drop Soup

A centuries old soup that's perfect for beating that winter chill!

Winter has officially hit the Mid-Atlantic, and last weekend I decided we were in need of some soup. Not just any soup: egg drop soup. 

This light but filling dish has been on my to do list for a super long time, and now I wish I'd tackled it sooner. It's extremely easy to make, with only a few ingredients and is ready to eat in about fifteen minutes max at the absolute most. Read on to find out how you can give this a shot yourself!

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!

Emily's Scrambled Eggs "James Bond"

Who knew that the real question wasn't shaken or stirred, but scrambled or over easy?

Sometimes I feel a little funny saying I'm a James Bond fan. I'm very well aware of how the various incarnations of the character are problematic from a number of angles, and some of the movies are pretty bad, and I haven't seen every single one of them, so labeling myself as yes, I am a huge James Bond fan has always felt a little weird.

That being said, I have seen many of the movies, read all of the Young Bond books, which are very good, and I own and have read all of the original novels written by Ian Fleming. It started on a whim, because I was curious about how similar Casino Royale was to the film version, and then I realized the books are both entertaining and a really interesting piece of literary history, even if they're never going to be held up as an example of great British literature.

The thing is, I went in expecting the books to be a lot like the movies, full of action and Bond seducing extremely attractive women and narrowly escaping increasingly elaborate death traps. And all of that's in there! But that's not what Bond seems to spend most of his time doing.

The international man of mystery actually spends a ton of time eating food.

Kit's Goldenrod Eggs

An interesting way to use up leftovers or just change up breakfast!

Despite being the most important meal of the day, I often skip breakfast. I'm rarely up early enough on the weekends to make breakfast at a reasonable hour, and I don't have enough time in the morning on weekdays to whip together anything more complicated than some fruit and yogurt... which Chobani has helpfully mixed together for me. That's more or less as crazy as I'm ever likely to get with breakfast during the week, especially because I'm trying to eat healthier, and most of the breakfast items I really like tend to be more dessert than breakfast.

But I'm still definitely interested in breakfast food, and I find myself flipping through cookbooks fantasizing about enjoying delicious pancakes, waffles and bacon. Sometimes, the promise of some tasty scrambled eggs is more than enough to make my mouth water, and I do enjoy a good hard boiled egg sometimes, too.

Goldenrod eggs are basically souped up hard boiled eggs and toast, both of which are things I definitely enjoy on their own, so I thought hey, this might be great! This didn't exactly live up to my personal fantasy of a delicious breakfast treat, but if you're a fan of hard boiled eggs and toast, this might be an interesting twist if you're ever looking to feed a crowd or try something a little different one morning.

Samantha's Deviled Eggs

Spoilers: they're labor intensive, but an incredibly pretty, tasty way to make an elegant looking treat to eat!

My sister was home on break from college a week ago, and while she was home, I asked if she'd be interested in taste testing some recipes for the blog, and mentioned that I had been wanting to do deviled eggs. She very enthusiastically supported that idea, and a few days before she had to go home, our schedules finally aligned and I was able to make good on that promise with what were pretty tasty results, if I can get away with saying that.

Deviled eggs have a surprisingly long history. They're a dish I'd never really spent much time pondering the origins of, but in doing my usual poking around for information, I discovered that while they weren't called deviled eggs, a boiled, stuffed egg has been appearing on people's tables at least since the time of Ancient Rome! The Greeks and Romans were some of the first Europeans to domesticate chickens, and apparently they started getting creative with egg preparation not long after they had a steady supply of them. The "deviled" name caught on in the 1700's, and versions of the dish are enjoyed by people around the world. Since they have been and still are so popular for so long, there's nothing necessarily specifically linking them to people of the Victorian Age (or Edwardian, as Samantha was more properly a member of), but I think we can all agree that a dish that takes a lot of time and effort to prepare and looks so elegant that they'd be right at home in that era.