Four (Grocery) Shopping Days Left

One of this year's happy book finds was "Jennie June's American Cookery Book," copyright 1878. It's the only book I own that can teach me how to carve a prairie hen or make a cheap barn paint (six pounds of melted pitch, 1 pint of linseed oil and 1 pound of brick dust or yellow ochre).

That Jennie--she's a Martha Stewart for the 1880s. So it's no suprise that when she does Christmas dinner, she really does it. (Spelling and punctuation as in the original.)

Christmas Dinner. Mock turtle soup, salmon, or baked trout, with anchovy sauce. Roast turkey with necklace of sausages, cranberry sauce, boiled fowls stuffed, with mushrooms, bread sauce. Boiled ham, apple sauce, mashed potatoes, potato balls, boiled onions, egg plant fried in batter, Lima beans, and stewed tomatoes; oyster fritters, oysters vol a vent, celery and pickles.

Dessert. Christmas plum pudding, lemon cheese cakes, tipsy cake, champagne jelly, apples, nuts, raisins, and grapes.

I haven't even looked at the recipes for all these. I don't have to, as I am lucky enough to date a good Italian cook. We're having lasagna, with all the trimmings.

I wonder what Jennie would think.