Bookish Cook

Bookish Cook Books and cooking, by researcher, novelist—and soon to be cookbook author—K.P. Cecala

New Englanders take their chowder very seriously, or did, as evidenced by this 1940s cartoon by Boston Herald cartoonist...
01/03/2025

New Englanders take their chowder very seriously, or did, as evidenced by this 1940s cartoon by Boston Herald cartoonist Francis Dahl

Even a native New Englander has to leave New England sometime, in a culinary sense. So tonight’s New Year’s Eve dinner, ...
01/01/2025

Even a native New Englander has to leave New England sometime, in a culinary sense. So tonight’s New Year’s Eve dinner, cooked at home for my husband and myself, is good ol’ Southern shrimp and grits, reminiscent of our one year as snowbirds in South Carolina. Looking on is Mr. Larry Meowski, aka “Worst Research Assistant Ever” who is only mildly interested in my cooking adventures. And yes, we let our cat sit on the kitchen counter, but only for photos. Happy 2025 🎉

12/22/2024

Thank you for all your support this year!!!!

I’ve been so busy working on the book that I haven’t had time for my usual holiday baking bonanza, so I stuck to an old ...
12/22/2024

I’ve been so busy working on the book that I haven’t had time for my usual holiday baking bonanza, so I stuck to an old stand-by: These oatmeal scotchies, which are my daughter’s favorite. I’d hoped to include these in my book, but they’re too “late”—invented in the late 1950s, while my book is set in the 1930s (it’s a cookbook with a storyline, and an interesting setting as well). I simply used the recipe right off the package of Nestle’s butterscotch chips, which is identical to the recipe on the Quaker Oats website; but with two caveats: I mixed up the dough last night and refrigerated it until it was time to bake; and set the oven temp at 360 rather than 375, baking them for exactly 9 minutes. Even so, I still had a few “spread-ies” but they’re still delicious!
Happy holidays and happy baking!

Happy Holidays! Sharing this beautiful photo I found online, taken in Winthrop, MA, which seems to match my mood this se...
12/17/2024

Happy Holidays! Sharing this beautiful photo I found online, taken in Winthrop, MA, which seems to match my mood this season

As I enter the home stretch with my coming cookbook (hoping to have it completed next year—actually, next month, lol! In...
12/14/2024

As I enter the home stretch with my coming cookbook (hoping to have it completed next year—actually, next month, lol! In any case, before I jet off to California to visit my mom in late January) I know I’m being very vague about the details and even the subject, but only because there are so many idea-snatchers and copycats out there on the Web. 😡But I’m going to loosen up for the holidays and share some of my research and books I’ve found helpful and/or inspiring, and see if you can guess where it’s all heading. Here’s a book I just found today and already love: it was found serendipitously at the Historic Deerfield (MA) museum store. I went to Deerfield to participate in the Wreath Walk, posted my favorite wreath online ( ) and got a 30% discount in the shop, which I used to buy this book. Was extra delighted when the volunteer at the store told me he’d known the author, who was involved with special collections at UMass Amherst and would bring doughnuts whenever he came to Deerfield! And how can you not love a book about pie?!

Happy Hallow’s Eve from the Bookish Cook! Cookbook still in progress but almost done! Hope you like fish…😘
10/30/2024

Happy Hallow’s Eve from the Bookish Cook! Cookbook still in progress but almost done! Hope you like fish…😘

I’ll try to keep this post short, since it’s about strawberry shortcake…the best way, in my opinion, to use this month’s...
06/12/2024

I’ll try to keep this post short, since it’s about strawberry shortcake…the best way, in my opinion, to use this month’s fresh strawberries. The recipe attached is what I believe is my mother’s original recipe for the shortcake—I think she got it from good old Fannie Farmer, and I copied the recipe from the original 1896 edition of the Boston Cooking School cookbook. Super simple and not too sweet: Forget cooking the strawberries, just cut them up and mix them with a little white sugar and let them sit in the fridge for a while. Also forget “Cream Sauce 1” and buttering the split cakes after baking. My tip is to spread whipped cream on top of the split shortcake, then pile the strawberries on, so you avoid the dreaded soggy/disintegrated biscuit syndrome! Also, you can make individual cakes, just as you’d make biscuits

Last weekend we drove by the Rhubarb Festival in neighboring Bennington (NH), and can you believe I couldn’t get my husb...
06/04/2024

Last weekend we drove by the Rhubarb Festival in neighboring Bennington (NH), and can you believe I couldn’t get my husband to stop?! He says he hates rhubarb! I have great memories of eating strawberry-rhubarb pie as a kid and I think we had a little backyard patch of rhubarb when we lived on Francis Avenue in Hartford. I wondered if I’d ever had rhubarb straight up, without additional flavors added. So I may try this recipe from the 1908 Good Housekeeping cookbook, when I have some true rhubarb lovers to share it with!

Now that the last hard freeze of winter is (hopefully) behind us (only 29 degrees F last night here in NH) the Bookish C...
04/27/2024

Now that the last hard freeze of winter is (hopefully) behind us (only 29 degrees F last night here in NH) the Bookish Cook has come out of winter writing hibernation, with a pressing concern: Are brown eggs better than white eggs? And why do New Englanders prefer brown? This week, on my weekly trip to the supermarket, all the brown eggs were GONE and I was reduced to buying bland white eggs. I too have a marked preference for brown—somehow they seem like they will be more delicious and nutritious.

But according to science, I’m wrong: there is no nutritional difference between the two colors, and no difference in taste. The color of an egg is determined by the breed of its mama chicken. And here in New England, where Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire Reds and Plymouth Rocks abound, most local chickens (chicks bred to withstand our harsh winters) lay brown eggs; white eggs largely come from other (warmer) parts of the US. And don’t get me started on the Aurucana and their gorgeous mint-green eggs, which some farmers up here keep. I’ve had some of those and they are just as delicious…as brown eggs, ha ha!

Like many of my readers, the Bookish Cook has been stuck a bit in the winter doldrums. Here’s a possible quick-cure, fou...
02/22/2024

Like many of my readers, the Bookish Cook has been stuck a bit in the winter doldrums. Here’s a possible quick-cure, found scribbled onto a blank page in one of my favorite cookbooks

Happy 2024 everyone! Haven’t posted in a while but only because of the holidays and family, and working HARD on that coo...
01/02/2024

Happy 2024 everyone! Haven’t posted in a while but only because of the holidays and family, and working HARD on that cookbook I’ve been promising since forever. Closing in on the finish but not going to release the title just yet, though if you’ve been following, you’ve probably guessed it will have a New England theme. I’ve decided to try and find a publisher for it, rather than self-publish, so it might take a while. But it’s coming.

Meanwhile I will try to continue my stream of foodie tidbits and fun photos…Below two of my assistants: My very own Larry, who is actually a very poor research assistant but great source of distraction; and the little sweetie (in the chair) I met at the Noank/Mystic (CT) public library while researching shoreline cuisine; she kept me in line with stern stares and made me get my work done!

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