America's Founding Food by Keith Stavely

Fitzgerald worked for five years as a college chaplain and for eight years as a coordinator of a soup kitchen. He has been a Guggenheim and American Council of Learned Societies fellow and a winner of the Modern Language Association Prize for Independent Scholars.

Stavely is a writer and scholar whose interest in the Puritan influence on American and English culture has resulted in a number of critically-esteemed books and articles. Through lively presentations and sprightly give-and-take with their audiences, they bring the hidden history of New England foodways to light, along the way showing how a region's food practices can illuminate its broader social and cultural history. T he author team has a wealth of experience as speakers, having presented at international conferences, at numerous historical societies, libraries, and museums, and to a variety of community and professional groups.

Their talk will be illustrated with images of some of the foods they have prepared and served in their home. Kathleen Fitzgerald and Keith Stavely will relate the tale of 'Pressed Heads, Pottages, and Pippin Tarts: The Surprising Story Behind a Typical Diner Meal.' Authors of Northern Hospitality: Cooking by the Book in New England (2011) and America’s Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking (2004), Stavely and Fitzgerald will treat us to a culinary tour that traces the precursors of franks and beans and apple pie, as well as other traditional New England foods. On Saturday, May 28, at 2 PM there will be a really fun Lowell Lecture that you won't want to miss. However, we have the next best thing in store for you. Titles abound.Don't break out your lobster bibs quite yet! No, we are not offering a grand buffet of New England cooking classics. Since just about everything (including pretzels and potato chips) comes chocolatized, fill a basket for your chocolate-lover, starting with flavored chocolate bars (salt, chipotle, fancy nuts and fruits) and ending with a dainty bottle of chocolate liqueur – maybe an all-chocolate cookbook. This means fewer products at higher prices.

The frightening news is out: the world’s chocolate supply, dependent on Africa, is dwindling.

When is a gift card not a copout? When issued by a local pizza parlor or the Vermont Country Store, that magnet for old-timers who remember “back in the day…” edibles and implements.

Order food gifts to arrive a week before Christmas, for party consumption. Look online at Great Alaska Seafood, which does smoked salmon every which way, including delectable, hard-to-find salmon collars. Smoked turkey, another excellent choice, as is smoked salmon.

Given the supermarket price, however, fewer steaks appear on family menus, which elevate them to the gift category. Mail-order steaks and other prime meats have, for years, been a cliché.Cute things not everybody has: basket or shopping bag filled with unusual ethnic sauces and seasonings from T.J.

America's Founding Food by Keith Stavely