From Lobsters to Whole Wheat and Beyond: A Year of American Cooking with the Chamberlains

Welcome to 2021! Now that I'm done with the year of Martha Meade and her Modern Meal Maker, it's time for a new seasonal cookbook. How about The Chamberlain Calendar of American Cooking (Narcisse and Narcissa Chamberlain, 1957)? After a year of curtailed travel, maybe we're ready for a culinary tour of America. This book is both an engagement calendar for 1958 and a selection of recipes-- one for each week. The recipes are paired with a photo of the area they're supposed to represent, so no food pictures (except on the cover)-- just snapshots of life in mid-century America.

It's January, so I would love to be somewhere warmer. How about San Francisco?

What did the San Franciscans eat? Not Rice-A-Roni quite yet-- it was invented in 1958. 

Instead, they were serving lobster stuffed with pork-- perhaps reflecting the history of Chinese Americans in California as part of the gold rush and Transcontinental Railroad work. Note that this is not a midwestern rendition that supposes a can of crispy chow mein noodles and/or a teaspoon of soy sauce is enough to make a cheese-topped casserole "Chinese."

The midwest isn't ignored though, here represented by one of my favorite foods for a cold winter's day: fresh-from-the-oven homemade bread.

Few things exemplify the midwest better than a snow-covered church in the middle of nowhere. (And one of the many things that makes me feel better about living NOW is noticing that some public places apparently still had outhouses in the '50s.)

Another thing I like about now: I can just use the dough setting on my bread machine to do most of the work of making homemade bread! Another win for modern times, even if they are not always feeling magical right now. Let's hope the Chamberlains will keep us feeling good about living in the early 2020s!