Gone With the Wind Recipes

How many times have you read the book Gone With the Wind? How many times have you watched the Gone With the Wind movie? If the answer to these questions is more than once, twice or three times, join me in celebrating a few recipes from the Gone With the Wind Cookbook.

Margaret Mitchell

It wouldn't be "proper" to reveal the recipes in the Gone With the Wind Cookbook without an introduction to author, Margaret Mitchell. Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was born on November 8, 1900 in Atlanta, Georgia. Her mother was a suffragist and father a prominent lawyer and president of the Atlanta Historical Society.

As a child Margaret Mitchell was saturated with stories of the Civil War told to her by family members who had lived through it. They indoctrinated her so effectively that Mitchell was ten years old before she learned that the South had lost the war. Her venturesomeness as a young woman, which included a year at Smith College and a subsequent career in Atlanta journalism, reflected the influence of her mother, Maybelle, an ardent supporter of woman suffrage. After her mother's death of influenza during the epidemic of 1918 Mitchell returned to Atlanta. Four years later she married Berrien Kinnard Upshaw, an attractive, romantic, but violent and unstable man who is often regarded as the prototype of Gone With the Wind's Rhett Butler. Their marriage lasted only three months, although they were not divorced until 1924. The following year Mitchell wedded John Marsh, a union that would last her lifetime. source

Margaret Mitchell is reported to have begun writing Gone With the Wind while bedridden with a broken ankle. Her husband, John Marsh, brought home historical books from the public library to amuse her while she recuperated. After she supposedly read all the historical books in the library, he told her, "Peggy, if you want another book, why don't you write your own?" She drew upon her encyclopedic knowledge of the Civil War and dramatic moments from her own life, and typed her epic novel on an old Remington typewriter. She originally called the heroine "Pansy O'Hara", and Tara was "Fontenoy Hall". She considered naming the novel Tote The Weary Load or Tomorrow Is Another Day. wikipedia

Margaret Mitchell spent three years working on Gone With the Wind. Her only published novel was presented on June 30, 1936, it sold more copies than any other American novel in history. Margaret "Peggy" Mitchell won both of the United States's two highest honors for fiction - the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The house where she lived while writing her manuscript is known today as "The Margaret Mitchell House." It is Located in Midtown Atlanta.

Margaret Mitchell was the author of Gone With the Wind, one of the most popular books of all time. The novel was published in 1936 and sold more than a million copies in the first six months, a phenomenal feat considering it was the Great Depression era. More than 30 million copies of this Civil War–era masterpiece have been sold worldwide in thirty-eight countries. It has been translated into twenty-seven languages. Approximately 250,000 copies are still sold each year. Shortly after the book's publication the movie rights were sold to David O. Selznick for $50,000, the highest amount ever paid for a manuscript up to that time. In 1937 Margaret Mitchell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. source

Possibly one of the reasons that Mitchell never wrote another novel was that she spent so much time working with her brother and her husband to protect the copyright of her book abroad. Up until the publication of Gone With the Wind, international copyright laws were ambiguous and varied from country to country. Correspondence also took much of her time. During the years following publication, she personally answered every letter she received about her book. With the outbreak of World War II in 1941, she worked tirelessly for the American Red Cross, even outfitting a hospital ship. She also set up scholarships for black medical students.

The Gone With the Wind Cookbook

Originally published by Pebeco Tooth Paste in 1939, the Gone With The Wind Cookbook; Famous Southern Cooking Recipes was issued as just another advertising campaign to capture the public's attention. Pebeco Tooth Paste had been around for as early as 1908. (perhaps earlier) There was actually much controversy over the brand including the ingredients which were proven to be deadly! I was so surprised by the accusations I encountered while researching this post, that I was almost going to skip the Margaret Mitchell introduction and enlighten you on what I discovered. To be quite honest, the post would not have seemed as appetizing as I would have liked. I have provided a few resources below if you are curious. On to the recipes!

I like to do a quick search before I post a recipe. The way I figure it, the internet is the cookbook library of the world so, there is no absolute need to repost recipes that have already been entered. Once again, I was ecstatic not to find this recipe for Coffeecake Wheels anywhere. Well, that's not totally true. I did find the named recipe at google books but it was included as a recipe in Cleora's Kitchens: The Memoir of a Cook and Eight Decades of Great American Food by Cleora Butler. There's no doubt in my mind that recipes from Cleora Kitchens will be shared on this blog at some point in time. The recipes in both books are almost exact with the exception of the amount of raisins and walnuts. In the Gone With the Wind Cookbook, the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of each where Cleroa's Kitchen calls for 1/4 of each.

Coffee Cake Wheels

1 C. butter 1/2 C. granulated sugar 1/2 tea. salt 2 tbs. grated lemon rind 2 eggs, well beaten 1 compressed yeast cake 1 C. sour cream

4-1/2 C. flour, sifted 1/4 C. butter, melted 1/4 C. brown sugar 3/4 C. seedless raisins 3/4 C. chopped walnut meats 6 tbs. granulated sugar 1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Cream butter gradually; add granulated sugar, and cream thoroughly. Add salt, lemon rind, eggs, and yeast cake, which has been dissolved in the sour cream. Blend well. Add flour and mix thoroughly. Cover, and chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours. Remove from refrigerator and let rise for 1-1/2 hours. Then roll dough on a lightly floured board to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cover bottom of 9" x 12" pan with melted butter and brown sugar. Spread the surface of the dough with the remaining ingredients, which have been mixed together. Cut crosswise into slices 3/4 inch thick. Arrange slices on top of butter and brown sugar mixture. Cover with clean cloth and let rise in warm place (75 to 85 degrees F.) about 1/2 hour, or until light. Bake in moderately hot oven (375 degrees F) 35 minutes. Serve warm. Makes 20 coffeecake wheels.

I suppose I should have discussed the introduction to the book before posting the above recipe but I got all caught up in the Pebeco revelation.

"Perhaps, too, you may have seen, in your mind's eye, that polished mahogany dining table at Tara, reflecting a juicy baked ham at one end, a veritable mountain of fried chicken at the other, and crowding in between corn muffins, hot biscuits, and waffles oozing with butter; heaping dishes of fried squash, stewed okra, and collards swimming in rich liquor; pecan pie , rich, steaming plum pudding, pound cake topped with sweetened whipped cream, and fluffy, white Syllabub fragrant of the wine cellar."

Actually, there are just a few southern recipes included in the book. The recipes posted here are from a facsimile edition "inspired by the picture" copyright 1991 Turner Entertainment Co. and published by Abbeyville Press. Since we will soon be entering July which happens to be National Peach Month, as proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982, I thought I would scan (click to enlarge) a page which includes Georgia Peach Trifle, Kentucky Strawberry Shortcake, and Lemon Souffle. Just in case you're interested, in 1984, President Ronald Reagan also proclaimed July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday in July as National Ice Cream Day. Enjoy!

"With the spirit of her people who would not know defeat, even when it stared them in the face, she raised her chin. She could get Rhett back. She knew she could. There had never been a man she couldn't get, once she set her mind upon him.
I'll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day."
Gone with the Wind pg. 1037, August 1936 edition, editor's copy

Resources

• 1. Margaret Mitchell @ Gone With the Wind Org.
  
• 2. Margaret Mitchell @ New Georgia Encyclopedia (very informative)
• 3. Margaret Mitchell @ Georgia Women of Achievement
• 4. A personal Website (a bit difficult to read) dedicated to Margaret Mitchell (in depth)
• 5. Journal of Dental Science PDF
• 6. Teeth (1940 publication)

Rose O'Neill's Birthday

Today, in honor of the birthday of Rose O'Neill, I would like to share a beautifully illustrated recipe booklet titled The Jell-O Girl Gives A Party. Undated (resources indicate 1914) this charming booklet is graced page after page with shimmering dishes of Jell-O and enchanting illustrations of the Jell-O Girl as she prepares to give a party for her little friends. Before we begin our journey, I would like to introduce you to the International Rose O'Neill Club and their namesake Rose O'Neill.

Rose O'Neill

Although many noted artists such as Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell and Angus MacDonald made Jell-O a household word with their colored illustrations, IMHO, none had the effect and long lasting delight as those created by Rose O'Neill. Rose Cecil O’Neill was born on June 25, 1874, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. There are many resources available online (see below) that highlight the life and career of Rose O'Neill. Below, I have chosen a biographical sketch prepared by Brady Smith for the Literary and Cultural Heritage Map of Pennsylvania.

Rose Cecil O'Neill was born June 25, 1874 to Asenath Smith and William O'Neill; her father, a book seller and mother a former school teacher. Throughout the early stages of her life, O'Neill possessed a divine interest in the arts. Her father encouraged her to be an actress and through both her parent's influences, she learned to appreciate Shakespeare, Chopin and others that significantly stood out among the arts. She absorbed the love of poetry from her father, who encouraged her to read books to retain knowledge that would benefit her especially as a young woman.

O'Neill began expressing herself through paintings in her adolescent years. While she attended Sacred Heart Convent, she won a prize awarded by the Omaha World-Herald, for an illustration she drew. Her family then moved to Ozark, Missouri. She stayed in Ozark for only a short time before opting to move to New York to pursue her dreams of being an artist. O'Neill enjoyed painting but could not escape her fascination with classical literature on Greek myths which later inspired her idea for the Kewpies.

In her later years, O'Neill began to sell illustrations to many of the prominent periodicals and her work appeared in such magazines as Collier's, Truth, McClure's and Harper's. Because the field was dominated by men at this time, she signed her work with her initials “C.R.O.” In 1896, O'Neill married Virginia aristocrat, Gray Latham. They lived in New York where she worked as a staff artist for Puck. While at Puck, she signed over 700 drawings with the signature O'Neill-Latham. However, the two divorced in 1901 and she left her job with Puck and returned to her home, “Bonniebrook” in Ozark, where she wrote and illustrated for several magazines.

O'Neill felt safe at BonnieBrook and while she stayed there, she received letters from longtime admirer Harry Leon Wilson who was the literary editor for Puck. When news of her divorce reached New York, Wilson traveled to BonnieBrook to ask for O'Neill's hand. In 1902, the two were married. They moved from Ozark to Connecticut each to pursue careers in writing. O'Neill wrote her first book 1904 entitled The Loves of Edwy. O'Neill wrote a total of four novels. source

BonnieBrook was Rose's home bound retreat. It was her "favorite place in the world." "In 1967, a week was dedicated to Rose O'Neill and a group of Kewpie collectors met in Branson, the closest town to BonnieBrook. This week was named "Kewpiesta" and evolved into a yearly convention. Every year the International Rose O'Neill Club (IROC) continues to hold a convention in Branson, Missouri. In April of 2009, the Kewpiesta will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Kewpies in print. (Ladies Home Journal, December 1909)

It has been said Rose O'Neill's life reads like a fairy tale and yet, I find this difficult to comprehend.

A few months later, Rose began receiving anonymous letters and gifts in the mail. It turned out that the wonderful letters were coming from a man that was an assistant editor at Puck magazine. Rose and Harry Leon Wilson had never been formally introduced, but they had seen each other. Rose remembered Harry as a 'surly man', but was so taken with his heartfelt letters that she married him in 1902. After a honeymoon in Colorado (where Harry would go for days without speaking to Rose) they moved to BonnieBrook where they lived for the next several winters. While they were together Harry wrote a novel for the first three years they were married and Rose drew the illustrations. One of Harry's later novels became a great success, Ruggles of Red Gap being made into several motion pictures: a silent movie; a 'talkie' with Charles Laughton, and then a remake--"Fancy Pants" with Lucille Ball and Bob Hope. With Harry's sullen moods and Rose's bubbly personality, her marriage to Wilson was slowly coming to an end. They stayed friends until Harry's death.

Rose came home to BonnieBrook, once again to heal her heart. She decided that marriage did not agree with her and concentrated on her artwork. She was in high demand in a field dominated by men. In 1909, in her 'treetop studio' Rose took an afternoon nap. While sleeping, she dreamt that small “myth-like-elf” creatures that were greatly influenced by the Greek god of love, Cupid were bouncing on her coverlet, one even sitting on her hand. When she awoke, she went immediately to her drawing board and developed the tiny images hidden in her dreams into sketches and illustrations which would form her characters. They became known as “Kewpies.”source

In December 1909, the "mother" of the Kewpie characters introduced readers of Ladies' Home Journal to "The Kewpies" in her illustrated poems. The fanciful, elf-like babies with a top-knot head, wide smile, and sidelong eyes soon became a national craze. She described them as "a sort of little round fairy whose one idea is to teach people to be merry and kind at the same time." Around 1913 Rose O’Neill patented a doll based on her Kewpie character.

From 1912 to 1914, the Kewpie doll was an absolute craze. People were buying Kewpie books and Kewpie rattles, Kewpie soap and Kewpie dishes, Kewpie pianos and Kewpie salt-and-pepper shakers. Women began plucking their eyebrows to mimic the surprised dot brows of the little porcelain cherubs. Poet/artist Rose Cecil O'Neill made $1.5 million from the munchkin dolls, which she first invented as magazine illustrations and patented in 1913. source

The cartoon was instantly famous. In 1912 a German porcelain manufacturer started making Kewpie dolls, and that year she and her sister went to Germany to show the porcelain artists how to make the dolls the way she wanted them. The dolls were sold all over the world along with a vast array of Kewpie merchandise such as tableware, fabrics, and trinkets.

Becoming known as the "Queen of Bohemian Society" O'Neill became a women's rights advocate. Her properties included Bonniebrook; an apartment in Washington Square in Greenwich Village that inspired the song Rose of Washington Square; Castle Carabas in Connecticut; and Villa Narcissus on the Isle of Capri, Italy. Considered one of the world's five most beautiful women, O'Neill made a fortune of $1.4 million, approximately $15 million).

O'Neill continued working, even at her wealthiest. Perhaps driven by the unfortunate circumstances in her life to express herself, along with the needs of her family, she delved into different types of art. She learned sculpture at the hand of Rodin (The Thinker), and had several exhibitions of her "Sweet Monsters" in Paris and the United States. She held open salons in her Washington Square apartment where poets, actors, dancers and the 'great thinkers' of her day would gather. O'Neill often continued her drawing until early morning. wikipedia

Rose O'Neill's talent did not end as an illustrator. She was also an author, poet, sculptor, actress, inventor and suffragette. She was one of the few women to achieve extraordinary financial success and professional independence in early twentieth-century American cartooning. Such wealth enabled O'Neill, with her sister, Callista, to hold salons in her Greenwich Village studio and create experimental drawings unlike the work for which she is usually known.

She also wrote and illustrated eight children's books featuring Kewpies from 1912 to 1936. Kewpie comics appeared in newspapers during those years, and O'Neill became one of the first female cartoonists in America. Ignoring publicized criticism of her association with the Women's Movement, O'Neill utilized the immense popularity of the Kewpie character to endorse and garner attention to her favorite political causes which included woman suffrage. The National Woman Suffrage Association distributed postcards and posters that utilized her Kewpie and artistic illustrations. A Los Angeles Tribune article reported, "The most celebrated of America's black-and-white artists, Rose O'Neill, creator of ‘The Kewpies,’ is an ardent suffragist and an active member of the Press and Publicity Council of New York City. source

The Great Depression hurt O'Neill's fortune. During that period she was dismayed to find that her work was no longer in demand. The Kewpie character phenomena, after 30 years of popularity, faded, and photography was replacing illustrating as a commercial vehicle. In 1937, Rose O'Neill returned to BonnieBrook permanently. By the 1940s she had lost most of her money and her beautiful homes. She continued to donate her time and pieces of artwork to the School of the Ozarks at Point Lookout, Missouri. She lectured at artist's workshops and continued to address women's groups. She remained a prominent personality in the Branson, Missouri community.

O’Neill worked industriously and financially supported her family and many fellow artists throughout her career. In the 1930s, her fortunes dwindled due to her generosity and the financial stress of a worldwide economic depression. Also, after thirty years of popularity, interest in the Kewpie character started to wane. O’Neill’s artwork—and the Kewpies—were no longer in high demand as realistic photographs replaced fanciful illustrations in magazines and newspapers.

In 1937 O’Neill retreated permanently to Missouri to live at Bonniebrook. There she wrote her memoirs with the help of her friend, the Ozark folklorist Vance Randolph. Her autobiography, published many years after her death, reveals her personal philosophy: “Do good deeds in a funny way. The world needs to laugh or at least smile more than it does.” She died on April 6, 1944, at the age of 70. She was buried at Bonniebrook. source

The Jell-O Girl Gives A Party

In 1899, Orator Francis Woodward, owner of the successful Genesee Pure Food Company, purchased the failing Jell-O product from Pearl B. Wait for $450 dollars. After two years of trying to persuade grocery store owners and their customers to stock and purchase his new four flavored gelatins, Woodward realized the American public was not ready for a dessert that didn't offer decadence such as the rich cakes and pies of the time. He tried to give free samples but to no avail. He tried to sell the Jell-O portion of the company to other salemen but could not get any buyers. With no choice but to push on, Woodward placed an advertisement in The Ladies' Home Journal featuring fashionably dressed ladies wearing clean white aprons and enthusiastic smiles, with the slogan "America's Most Famous Dessert." He offered a massive postal distribution of free samples, along with beautifully illustrated recipe booklets. The translucent, jiggly gelatin began to see a glimmer of success. In 1904, Woodward hired artist Franklin King to design a trademark for Jell-O. Elizabeth, his four-year old blonde daughter became the model. King's rendition of Elizabeth was visible on all magazine ads and recipe booklets until 1908. In 1908, Rose O'Neill, who was in high demand, was employed by Jell-O to revise the drawings of Elizabeth to the now famous Jell-O Girl. The company issued an untold number of booklets based on the Jell-O Girl's travels and cooking adventures. The Jell-O Girl became a famous symbol of "America's Favorite Dessert. The popularity of the Jell-O Girl helped elevate Jell-O's success by promoting a product which was easy to prepare and pleasing to children.

I wasn't quite sure how to approach sharing the glistening recipes offered in this book. So, what I decided to do was not include too many of the recipes but instead, show the illustrations. After all, we aren't actually celebrating Jell-O, (I did that during Jell-O Week) we're celebrating Rose O'Neill's birthdate. There are quite a few pages to the story of how the Jell-O Girl prepares for her party and each one has a short narrative added. I have left the story to your imagination. I hope you find the illustrations as enchanting as they appear in the booklet.

"Do good deeds in a funny way.
The world needs to laugh or at least smile more than it does."
Rose O'Neill

Resources

• 1. Rose O'Neill Biography
• 2. Rose @ National Women's History Project
  
• 3. Rose O'Neill's Biography
• 4. Rose O'Neill Inventor
• 5. Library of Congress Online Exhibition (has an image of her work published in Puck, April 15, 1903)
• 6. "Kewpiesta"
  
• 7. History of lovely BonnieBrook
• 8. Other Rose O'Neill Ads
  
• 9. Rose of Washington Square lyrics
  
• 10. Jell-O Week (this is a previous post of mine, kinda long:) but, more images

  Additional Resources
  Some of the Jell-O Girl information was cited from one of my favorite advertising leaflets reference books Vintage Cookbooks and Advertising Recipe Leaflets by Sandra J. Norman & Karrie K. Andes (pages 53-58)

St. John's Eve Dinner a la Brazil

In celebration of Midsummer's Eve and the eve of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, I thought I would post a Brazilian menu I unveiled in the book Festival Menus 'Round the World (1957) by Sula Benet. You may remember this book from a previous post I did back in January for Little Christmas.

I was intrigued by the thought of celebrating the summer solstice with Brazilian recipes because the seasons in Brazil are the reverse of those in the United States. If I read my web visits correctly, it's winter in Brazil from June 21 until September 21. I suppose that explains the Cauliflower Soup recipe (Sopa De Couve-Flor) offered in the menu. Although, I am a fan of cauliflower soup, today is not a day I would even dream about preparing it unless, of course, it was chilled and spiced with curry. I'm in New York today and if I do say so quite bluntly, it is HUMID! Nope, no soup today. St. John's Day is an especially important celebration day in Brazil. It is believed to have been brought to the New World by Portuguese settlers. From wikipedia:

The Portuguese Midsummer Day (St John's Day) brought to Brazil during colonial times has become a very important popular event that is celebrated during a period that starts one week before St John's Day and ends one week after. As this nationwide festival, called "Festa Junina" (Saint John Festival), happens during the European midsummer, it takes place in the Brazilian midwinter and is most associated with Northeastern Brazil, but today celebrated in the whole country...As Saint John festivities also coincide with the corn harvest, dishes served during this period are commonly made with corn, such as canjica and pamonha; dishes also include peanuts, potatoes sausages and also sweet rice. The celebrations are very colorful and festive and include amazing pyrotechnics. Bonfires and fire in general are thus one of the most important features of these festivities, a feature that is among the remnants of midsummer pagan rituals in the Iberian Peninsula.

From Festival Menus 'Round the World

...the Fogueira de são João which is set off in villages and throughout the countryside. Families and friends gather around the fires to eat sweets, roasted sweet potatoes, manioc cake, and other traditional Brazilian delicacies. Firecrackers are exploded, young folks jump across the fire, and children send into the air multi-shaped paper balloons, heated from within by candle or an oil wig...Since Saint John is also the protectors of lovers, young girls in the country will try to ascertain their marital prospects by consulting all kinds of oracles. Rolled up scraps of paper, each one bearing the name of a girl, are placed in a bowl of water. The first one which unfolds indicates the girl who will get a husband first. Fortunes are also told by incisions made in banana trees.

TWAS in that mellow season of the year.

When the hot Sun singes the yellow leaves

Till they be gold, — and with a broader sphere

The Moon looks down on Ceres and her sheaves;

When more abundantly the spider weaves,

And the cold wind breathes from a chillier clime;

That forth I fared, on one of those still eves,

Touch'd with the dewy sadness of the time,

To think how the bright months had spent their prime.

Thomas Hood

On the eve of St. John's birth, many countries have celebrated with bonfires on Bonfire Night. This is especially true in Ireland,, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, and Lithuania. In Florence, Italy, the fireworks are ignited on the day of Saint John's birth, June 24th. In the Catholic religion, it is unusual to celebrate a saint's feast day on the day of their birth. Don't quote me on this but I think St. John's Day may be the only exception. A traditional drink in Florence is Nocino or Italian Walnut Liqueur. This blog has a bit of information about the festivities in Florence and also a Nocino recipe. In Finland, picnics are a popular way to celebrate Midsummer's Day. Finnish Pancakes or Pannukakku are the proper traditional supper for the eve of the Birth of St. John the Baptist. The batter is sometimes brought to the bonfire and cooked over the glowing flames. Of course, they can also be prepared at home like crepes. Swedish strawberries are "completely mandatory for Midsummer." Midsummer is possibly the most sacred holiday in Sweden as Anne so eloquently tells us.

Celebration of this holiday traditionally began the night before, since in ancient times days were reckoned from evening to evening, rather than from midnight to midnight as we do now (hence the prominence of "eve's", as in Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, Halloween, etc). St. John's Eve, June 23, was sometimes known as Bonfire Night in Ireland. Up to the mid-20th century, Irish Catholics lit large communal bonfires at sunset on this day, or small family fires outside their houses. source

St John's wort doth charm all Witches away
If gathered at midnight on the Saint's holy day 
Any Devils and Witches have no power to harm 
Those that gather the plant for a charm 
Rub the lintels with that red juicy flower
No thunder nor tempest will then have the power
 To hurt or hinder your house; and bind 
Round your neck a charm of similar kind source

There are many folk tales and lore surrounding the Eve of Saint John's Day. Legend has it asparagus disappear in the bonfires of St. John the Baptist's Day. In Britain and Europe, St. John's Eve was the time to gather mystical herbs believed to have magical powers. St. John's Wort, fennel, vervain, trefoil and rue were a few of the herbs gathered. St. John's Wort, which is usually in full bloom on St. John's Day, and Fennel were hung over doorways to protect homes from evil spirits. At the School of Seasons, you can find a Victorian divination which is supposed to be performed on the eve of St. John's Day. Such spiritual practices are not unusual for a season so rich in folklore. Midsummer's day is probably the most celebrated of Pagan festivals. The traditions and symbols of this bountiful celebration includes all the plants animals and insects of summer. Midsummer's full moon is known as the "Honey Moon." Prepared days in advance, mead is the divine solar drink of the festivities.

St. Johnswort: The flowers, infused in oil, ease pain and swellings, and help close wounds. At one time they were soaked in wine or brandy and drunk for melancholy and madness, or applied externally for bruises and contusions...If you pick the plant on the night of St. John and hang it on the bedroom wall, you will dream of your future husband. Hang the plant in your windows on St. John's birthday to keep away ghosts, devils, and familiars for a year. Herbs & Things by Jeanne Rose (1976) p.104

Since St. John was supposed to subsist on honey and locusts, they too are associated with Saint John's Day. Now, don't get too excited, I'm not talking about those winged insects that fill the air with that deafening mate screech. Boy, was it bad my last trip up to PA a few weeks ago. I forgot how loud that noise can be. Anyway, in this case, I'm talking about carob bean. Carob bean grows in long, dark brown pods. It is also known as St. John's Bread. Carob is successfully used as a substitute for chocolate. I know this to be true. When my kids were small, I made many, many "chocolate chip cookies" using carob chips. Locust pods have long been eaten as food so, it is no surprise to believe that St. John the Baptist is said to have eaten them. There's more, carob doesn't contain cholesterol, caffeine, theobromine, or oxalic acid, like chocolate. Here's a recipe for Carob Cake And Frosting which also uses honey. Now isn't that a befitting recipe for St. John's Day?

If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended.

That you have but slumb'red here

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream (V, i, ll. 412-417)

Midsummer Night's Dream Essay: Fairies

I was delighted to discover Maria's Brazilian recipes website. I had planned on scanning all the recipes on the menu for you to use in case you wanted to celebrate Midsummer's festival Brazilian style. I found the recipe for the Empadinhas (Brazilian Shrimp Pies) and Mother-in-law's Eyes there. I was also "lucky" enough to find this recipe for Okra Salad which is almost identical to the one on the menu. The marinated roast beef is similar to sauerbraten. If you would like me to add it, just leave a comment. I'm more interested in the Apricot Floating Pudding (Pudim De Claras Com Damascos) I can just imagine Shakespeare's fairies dancing their moonlight dances upon Apricot Floating Pudding.

The addition of apricots to the "pudding clear" will let your guests "taste" peach colored clouds. You can imagine my glee when I approached Ana's blog and found this Eggwhite Pudding. After a quick search on google, I was ecstatic not to find the recipe enclosed in this book. I really enjoy sharing recipes that aren't readily available online so, here goes.

Pudim De Clara's Com Damascos
Apricot Floating Pudding

1 cup dried apricots 4 egg whites 5 tsp. sugar	Sugar Syrup 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup boiling water
Wash apricots and cut into small pieces. Cook until tender. Cool. Beat whites of eggs until very stiff. Add 5 teaspoons of sugar and beat some more. Mix with apricots. Meanwhile, melt 1/2 cup sugar in a heavy skillet over a low flame until light brown. Remove from heat and slowly add boiling water. Place skillet back on low flame and simmer 10 minutes more. Spread mixture over bottom and sides of an angel food mold. Cool. After the mold has cooled, pour the apricot mixture into it. Bake for 25-30 minutes in 300 degree oven in a pan of water until done. Cool. Remove from mold and cover with sauce below.
Sauce: 4 egg yolks 2 tbs. sugar 1-1/2 cups milk 1 tsp. vanilla Beat egg yolks and sugar. Blend in milk and vanilla. Cook over hot water in double broiler several minutes. Stir frequently.

Resources

• 1. St. John’s Eve – A Study in Folklore 
  
• 2. Chiresaye (Cherry Pudding Decorated with Flowers)
  
• 3. Carob Definition & Recipes