Tasting Home

Organized by decade and by the cookbooks that shaped her life, Tasting Home is the history of Judith Newton's emotional education—including her marriage to a gay man, and an exploration of the ways that cooking can lay the groundwork for personal healing, personal intimacy, and political community.

Judith Newton is Professor Emerita in Women and Gender Studies at U.C. Davis. While at U.C. Davis she directed the Women and Gender Studies program for eight years and the Consortium for Women and Research for four.
She is ; the author and co-editor of five works of non fiction on nineteenth-century British women writers, feminist criticism, women's history, and men's ; movements.
Her most current work has appeared in The Redwood Coast Review (Winter 2012), poetalk (Summer, 2011), and at http://tasting-home.com and at http://ipinion.us/columns/?cat=26. She is currently at work on a feminist mystery and lives in the East Bay of California where she tends her garden.

Contents

Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

I. Foods and Fashions of 1936:

The Thirties, Forties, and Fifties

Cry Babies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

The Queen of Pies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Death Valley Date Nut Bread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Sour Milk Biscuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

The Latinaires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Oatmeal Crispies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Sugar Smorgasbord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Loaves and Fishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Graduation Cake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

II. Mastering the Art of French Cooking:

The Sixties

Dry Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Berkeley Born Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The Jake Sandwich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Shortbread and Madeira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Tarte Normande Aux Pommes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

“If It Weren't For You…” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Our Vegetable Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Leaving Paradise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

III. Time-Life Foods of the World:

The Seventies

The Cooking of Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Whole Wheat Crackers, Cheddar Cheese, and Herbal Tea . 119

Pears in Red Wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Toasted Wheat Germ and Pepped-Up Milk . . . . . . . . . . 135

The Cooking of the British Isles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

The Cooking of Provincial France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Chicken Vall.e D'Auge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Dickens's Punch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

IV. Moosewood:

The Eighties

Spinach-Rice Casserole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Whole Wheat Croissant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

In Other Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Pasta Fantasies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Muffin Madness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Bread and Babies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Salmon Mousse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Carrot Cake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Hannah Banana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Even in Paradise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

V. Martha, Frida, Mark, and Lee:

The Nineties

Food and Wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Bibimbap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Entertaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Currant Scones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Coyote Cafe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

California Wine Country Cooking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Like Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Frida's Fiesta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Epilogue: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Index of Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303