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Showing posts from November, 2019

A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina's Best Recipes (1917)

  Here’s another history geek post for my friends into cooking: This is one of my favorite old cookbooks. It is from 1917, and tells the story of newlyweds Bettina and Bob and their friends over their first year of marriage. Unusually, the cookbook is made up of more than 100 little chapters that present some housekeeping situation with Bettina’s recipes and tips - everything from an unexpected luncheon for Bob’s boss to a Washington’s Birthday tea to Bob “manfully using his st rong right arm” to stir the breakfast popovers batter. I think Bettina hosted more to-do’s over the course of this book than I have in my entire life. She makes Martha Stewart look like a slacker!