Nanea's Pineapple Mint Julep

A refreshing, fruity must have for any summer celebration!

Happy VJ Day! Today marks one of the many days the Allies celebrated as the end to the war in the Pacific. Nanea and her friends would have been young teenagers by the end of the war, and would be celebrating the end of the conflict and hoping for a speedy return of their friends and family who had gone off to war. Or maybe their celebrations were more subdued as they remembered the lives that had been lost in the conflict. Victory Days were fun, spontaneous holidays, but they also marked a very somber moment for families who had lost loved ones in the conflict. 

To celebrate, I decided to continue the summer of the mocktail at our apartment, and when I was looking around for something VJ Day inspired, I knew this was the treat that was meant to be featured. 

This tropical twist on the classic mint julep is appropriate for all ages, and comes straight from my 1943 copy of the Women's Home Companion Cookbook. Read on to see how you can bring this refreshing taste of history to life yourself!

A Trip to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's WWII Weekend

Three whole days of living history, air shows, and flea markets!

Three years ago, when my sister was graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, I got my paws on a flyer for an event: World War II Weekend at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania. The flyer boasted that it was a three day event filled with an air show, rides in vintage warbirds, reenactors, a swing dance, and much, much more. 

Anyone who's been reading this blog for more than a few weeks - or who knows me in real life! - knows that my favorite era to study and teach others about is World War II, so of course I immediately wanted to go. Unfortunately, Reading is just far enough away from my parent's house, DC, and where I now live post-grad school that it was always a hard sell to folks to hike out that way with me. Fortunately, my wife is also very into World War II history and doesn't mind long car rides, so this year, we packed up our bags (and Molly and Nanea) to go check out the 29th Annual WWII Weekend!

Nanea's Pineapple Nut Cake

Authentically Hawaiian, starring some of the most famous imports to the islands!

If you guessed pineapple after reading my last post, you'd be right! There was no way to avoid the pineapple in this little month long feature I'm running, and really, why would you want to? They're delicious, and extremely versatile in dessert, drinks, and much more. They're a great source of Vitamin C, although if you eat too much of it in one sitting, you can end up burning your mouth thanks to the bromelain enzyme, which digests protein. 

That's right: your pineapple is taking a bite out of you while you eat it! 

This very dense cake also guest stars a second famous "Hawaiian" ingredient, and it comes from my favorite Hawaiian cookbook. I bet some of my readers remember which one that is! Read on to find out how to make it yourself.

Nanea's Lomi Lomi Salmon

A classic luau side dish that's easy to make no matter where you live!

Last year, I told you all about my research project about the history and influence of tiki bars. In that whole long, exhausting, fun, frustrating process, I ended up finding out quite a lot about the history of how Americans have interpreted and interacted with Hawaiian food over the years. Something I found very interesting - although not necessarily surprising - was that at the height of the tiki culture craze in the 50's and 60's, there tons of recipes and cookbooks being published saying they were examples of authentic Hawaiian recipes, but most of them were written by white Americans, most of whom had very little interaction with Hawaii themselves. 

The recipe I'm about to share with you today is one of the major exceptions to that rule: Hawaii Cookbook & Backyard Luau by Elizabeth Ahn Toupin. It's one of the many vintage cookbooks I acquired to write my article, and I've been dying to crack it open and try out some of the recipes. This past weekend, I finally had the time to do just that and I'm very excited to share the results with you guys!

Nanea's Wartime White Fruitcake

The fruitcake people actually want to eat!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the giveaway! It was a lot of fun reading about everyone's favorite holiday recipes. And congratulations again to Shannon! I hope you and your dolls enjoy your set of rum balls from Pippaloo. 

Today, we're going to be tackling a classic but controversial holiday treat: fruitcake. When I told people I was going to be giving this a shot, almost everyone's reaction was instinctively very negative. I've met very few people in my life who have genuinely liked fruitcake, or who are even willing to give it a try, although funnily enough my wife fits both categories and was genuinely excited to see how this came out. 

Part of the reason why it's such a hard sell to people is because the perception is that they're very artificial, stale, or just generally old and bad. Countless people have joked about having a crazy great-aunt who gifts everyone the same fruitcake year after year, or using it as a door stopper instead of eating it. I must be crazy for giving this a shot, right? 

Wrong! Spoilers, but this 1940's recipe for fruitcake was a lot tastier than I was expecting. It's also got some really cool history, and I'm very pleased to be sharing it with you guys.

Nanea's Hawaiian Macaroni Salad

A crucial part of a Hawaiian plate lunch!

Summer has officially come and gone in the Mid-Atlantic, and while I don't miss it, the sharp downturn into super cold winds and rain (and possibly snow!) has been a little too sharp this year. The sudden change has definitely made me a little wistful for milder weather, and so this weekend, I turned to Nanea for inspiration for my next blog post. 

This recipe might not be what you're expecting from an authentically Hawaiian dish, but this pasta salad is very much the real deal, especially if you keep it simple and let the ingredients speak for themselves. Read on to find out more about how this side dish has come to define a Hawaiian classic!

Nanea's Guava Bread

Just like Mrs. Mitchell used to make… more or less!

I really can’t gush enough about how hungry I was reading Nanea’s books. It seemed like her mother was always taking the time to make some delicious treat for special occasions, average weekend mornings, or to bring comfort to friends in need. One treat that came up over and over again was her guava bread, which the Mitchell family would often enjoy for breakfast. 

I’m going to say right off the bat that it didn’t live up to my expectations as a fruit bread. However, as a nut bread? I think we have a winner. Read on to find out what went in to making this Mitchell family favorite!

Nanea's Hawaiian Care Package

Direct from Hawaii to DC!

Last up on our trip around the world is somewhere a little closer to home… for some of us, anyway: Hawaii! 

I’ve mentioned before that my Aunt Diane and Uncle Greg lived in Hawaii for several years while my uncle was stationed at Pearl Harbor. I was complaining about how it was hard to find guava products and macadamia nuts in my neighborhood because I’ve really been wanting to make guava bread, and Diane surprised me with a care package filled with Hawaiian goodies to try out, or get reacquainted with! 

They’ve since moved back to the northeast (hopefully for good!), but it was a lot of fun to get to sample these treats and remember the fun times I had visiting them while they lived in Hawaii.

A Peek into the Pantry Saves Thanksgiving!

Swooping in to go where few people want to tread!

Well, helped save Thanksgiving anyway. I don’t want to take all the credit! 

The semester is rapidly cycloning to a close (which is why this post is over a week delayed…), and amidst all our final projects and fretting about our research seminars, my cohort and I got to celebrate Thanksgiving. I’m lucky enough to live close enough to home to get to visit family for the holiday, so I packed everything up, threw Nanea in my backpack just in case there were any good photo opportunities for Instagram, and headed home anticipating a nice, unfortunately blog post free weekend. 

Little did I suspect that I was going to end up providing something a little bigger than the cookies I wanted to bake.

The National Museum of American History's 3rd Annual Food History Festival!

Many Flavors, One Nation!

Hey, Happy Halloween! 

Whew, it has been a semester! Sorry for falling off the face of the earth again. I think at this point I just need to make peace with the fact that this is going to end up taking the back burner until after grad school. All my free time and writing energy has been going towards my big research project, which I'll tell you guys about once I have time to do it justice. 

I'm catching up with comments and emails right now. Sorry for taking so long to get back to you all. I've also got a couple posts on the back burner which will probably start seeing the light of day sometime around December... if I'm lucky! (Including a super cool trip to Williamsburg!) 

Until then, here's a short update about an event I got to attend with some friends last weekend: the Smithsonian Food History Festival! Read on to hear about our experience this year with Many Flavors, One Nation at the National Museum of American History.

Nanea's Carrot and Pineapple Muffins

A World War II era favorite with a tropical twist!

Everyone, meet Nanea Mitchell! She’s American Girl’s newest historical character, and comes from 1941 Honolulu, Hawaii. I plowed through her books as soon as I had them out of the box, and can safely say as someone who specializes in Pacific War history, they are pretty darn great. Besides covering the attack on Pearl Harbor and the resulting changes in Hawaii very well as well as age appropriately, Kirby Larson has done an exceptional job showing how 1941 Hawaii was an extremely diverse community where neighbors participated in cultural exchange every single day. 

Often involving food. Lots and lots of food. 

Picking what Nanea’s first recipe on the blog should be was a tough one, but these muffins are a tasty snack for just about any time of day, even if I can’t exactly in good faith call these health foods.