Watkins Cook Book Report

In doing this Rebecca shows her kindness, and that her true motive is to share Henrietta's story. Teaching one another and sharing food is a wonderful way to bring people together and ensure understanding between one another. The short story, “Food & Spirits,” by Beth Brant, also conveys similar ideas about connecting people. This story follows Elijah Powless, an elderly Mohawk Indian man, who is on a trip to visit his granddaughters. On his trip, he carries with him a bag of fried bread and other food to gift them.

The website, thepioneerwoman.com by Ree Drummond, consists of many different components. It is separated into chapters, including confessions, pioneer woman cooks, food and friends, life and style, fun and learning, products, and giveaways. This website seems to be revolved around food, but does incorporate different aspects to engross the readers. In the food and friends section she uses many different authors that each share a recipe. These author’s include background information to the recipes, and try to relate to the readers on a personal level by telling brief stories involving the dish. In the pioneer woman cooks segment, it contains a number of delicious recipes written by her. She writes about the food in a captivating way that will

Dorothy Allison, well-known author and essayist, begins her essay by discussing how she remembers her mother’s gravy and the process of making it, including the pounding of the meat in order to flatten it out. She adds pathos by saying gravy is the “most memory-laden dish” she has learned how to cook and the comfort it brings. Instead of calling it country-fried steak as others normally do, Allison’s mother calls the savory dish cube steak, a more underprivileged name. Allison says, “It was not until I was grown that I understood

She uses food and memories to keep her anchored. “Food nourishes the soul. I believe that everyone deserves a hand prepared meal. People need to slow down and eat. Food is a blessing that helps build community in the sharing of well prepared food.”

Marshall stresses the importance of food traditions and how they help us as readers understand the different

Food became comfort during slavery and because they could control cooking, it was one of their few real pleasures and a way to feel free. The history of “soul food” is seen in the traditions that were passed down from generation to generation.

The documentary shows how Puerto Ricans and African Americans began to inter mingle with themselves. The mixing of African and Caribbean roots formed a new community that defined what the Bronx was. After WWII Puerto Ricans migrated to New York moved into the Bronx and Manhattan’s Harlem district from this there was live music everywhere. In the documentary many musicians born in that period recall their childhood roaming those streets. Hearing mambo music everywhere and wanting to become like Machito and playing at clubs all night.

This week materials are mainly focusing on food. The readings are about how food, especially dinner, has an important role in the family, how the way we live affects the way we eat and the regional of our food. As in Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he was explaining how corn is in all of our diets. How it moved from the farm to the feeding lot, to the food lab and into our food. Further analysis of food, and of the sources that describes the food we eat, suggests that it requires a lot of work in the agriculture farm before our ingredients can come together and that mealtime is a great time for a family bonding but the bonding varies with each family due to the different in every families’ culture.

Some say food is an exploration of culture, and taste evokes lush memories of the past. “ In An Island Passover” by Ethel G. Hofman, she described her life in the Shetland Islands. Every year, Hofman’s family celebrates Passover- a traditional Jewish holiday where time and effort to prepare a meal is like painting, and it takes months to reveal a masterpiece. While Hofman had a positive recollection of her family’s traditional cuisine, author of “Fish Cheeks”, Amy Tan did not share the same experience. Tan felt ashamed of sharing her traditional cuisine with a pastor's son whom she was in love with. Tan strived for her crush’s approval because she did not want to be deemed strange. Hofman and Tan had striking differences in

In Jessica Harris’s “The Culinary Season of my Childhood” she peels away at the layers of how food and a food based atmosphere affected her life in a positive way. Food to her represented an extension of culture along with gatherings of family which built the basis for her cultural identity throughout her life. Harris shares various anecdotes that exemplify how certain memories regarding food as well as the varied characteristics of her cultures’ cuisine left a lasting imprint on how she began to view food and continued to proceeding forward. she stats “My family, like many others long separated from the south, raised me in ways that continued their eating traditions, so now I can head south and sop biscuits in gravy, suck chewy bits of fat from a pigs foot spattered with hot sauce, and yes’m and no’m with the best of ‘em,.” (Pg. 109 Para). Similarly, since I am Jamaican, food remains something that holds high importance in my life due to how my family prepared, flavored, and built a food-based atmosphere. They extended the same traditions from their country of origin within the new society they were thrusted into. The impact of food and how it has factors to comfort, heal, and bring people together holds high relevance in how my self-identity was shaped regarding food.

Dorothy Allison’s essay, Panacea, recalls the fond childhood memories about her favorite dish, gravy. Allison uses vivid imagery to cook up a warm feeling about family meals to those who may be a poor family or a young mother. Appeal to the senses shows this warm feeling, along with a peaceful diction.

Food is particularly powerful as a symbol because of the relationship that it helps build in this story. It brings together two people that usually wouldn’t be together and helps make their relationship stronger. Every Saturday, the father and daughter would get together to have any meal that they would be craving the week before. This gave them a reason to go out and spend quality time together. It also became a routine each week to go out together and eat. She started to look forward to each outing she had with her dad, which instantly brightened up her day. Food allowed him to take her out and not loose touch with her since he didn’t live with

When the assignment was first presented to me, I was really excited because I love to cook even though I am not the best at it. Some dishes I am planning to make for my family are based on Vietnamese dishes my father and relatives have cooked for my family in the past. The stir fried noodles would be my dad’s recipe that he would always make for a party when he needs something quick and easy. The dessert would be this colorful jelly cake that my aunt would always make for my birthday whenever I am in Florida. This connects to my faith journey by giving back to my family for all they have done for me and through that, I am giving back to God, making my relationship with Him and my family stronger.

One of the hardest things about moving to Little Rock for college is knowing that I will not get to enjoy southern home cooked meals everyday. My grandma’s crispy pork chops with fried potatoes, and creamy macaroni and cheese and freshly picked green beans, from the garden in the backyard, or her homemade vegetable soup and buttered cornbread really screams my name as I stand in line for a standard cafeteria meal. Not having her cooking available to me everyday is definitely a struggle. Food is the center of my whole family. Food is what brings us together. Not just ordinary food though, no. It is southern home cooked food.

Thinking about the importance and significance of food respective to our health, ethnic culture and society can cause cavernous, profound, and even questionable thoughts such as: “Is food taken for granted?”, “Is specialty foods just a fad or a change in lifestyle?”, and even “Is food becoming the enemy.” Mark Bittman, an established food journalist, wrote an article called “Why take food seriously?” In this article, Bittman enlightens the reader with a brief history lesson of America’s appreciation of food over the past decades. This history lesson leads to where the social standing of food is today and how it is affecting not only the people of America, but also the rest of the world.