Pioneer Days: The Works of Laura Ingalls Wilder

[Deleted]

I'm so glad I looked here and learned about the cookbook! I have to put together some kind of theme menu for a library fundraiser dinner, and I think I'm going to do a Little House menu.

[tabby]

I read The Wilder Life and really enjoyed it. The author, Wendy McClure, does a tour of the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites and museums. There is a funny bit about making butter, and a funny/scary bit about a "pioneer skills" get-away weekend she and her boyfriend go to. I haven't read any of the Laura Ingalls Wilder bios, so I found all information about the facts of Laura's life vs. what's in the books very interesting.

After I got the book from the library, I thought Wendy's name sounded familiar, so I looked at the author blurb. Turns out she's the author of the old website Poundy.com, the memoir I'm Not the New Me, and the hilarious website and book about the 70s-era Weight Watchers recipe cards. I used to read Poundy and I read the books (I own the recipe-card one), so it was really embarrassing not to realize right away it was the same person.

[dwanollah]

Aug 14, 2011 19:00:48 GMT -4 @killershrew said:

I'm so glad I looked here and learned about the cookbook! I have to put together some kind of theme menu for a library fundraiser dinner, and I think I'm going to do a Little House menu.

I've done a few myself, killershrew, so if you'd like suggestions, I'll be more than happy to butt in!

[Deleted]

Yes, butt away!

[Auroranorth]

I'd love to know what you'd suggest, Dwan!

[dwanollah]

We've done a couple in my write-in group, and one year, we had Little Thanksgiving on the Prairie. For LTOTP, we put slices of salt pork on the turkey instead of the usual bacon, so the gravy was REALLY salty. Also did the mashed potatoes, creamed carrots, cornbread, baked beans (YUM!) and stuffing, plus ginger water and poundcake for dessert. The smaller scale meals are usually fried salt pork, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade butter and bread, and the poundcake for dessert Ahhhh, carbohydrates! As I've said, fried salt pork goes a LONG way, and you have to fry it for a while so it gets crispy, not chewy. The recipes for poundcake and baked beans are both fantastic ones, although with the beans, you have to keep adding the water as it bakes so they don't dry out.

The book that a friend and I are putting together also will include menus for Almanzo's Lunch Pail and Ben Woodworth's Birthday Party. I've never actually made doughnuts yet, and really want to, but I'm askeereded....

[SGleason]

Ooo, make some of those oranges with the peels all manipulated to look like flowers. Fancy!

[Deleted]

Thanks for the suggestions, Dwanollah! I have to be careful when I read the cookbook because the recipes and background descriptions make me so hungry.

[Smee]

I want some Vanity Cakes. They are all puffed up like vanity -- get it?

Seriously - they sound good, but are they sweet like doughnuts or savory? They kind of sound like Krispy Kremes, but I'm not entirely sure.

[chitowngirl]

There was an article in my newspaper yesterday about how Mary Ingalls really lost her sight. It was probably not from Scarlet Fever. Most likely it was from something that was known back then as "brain fever", which would cause swelling in the brain and upper spinal cord. Today it would be known as meningoencephalitis. It was probably viral and caused by mosquitoes and ticks. The doctor who did the research was a fan of the Little House books and has wanted to research Mary's illness ever since she asked a teacher in med school if scarlet fever could make someone go blind.