These three cookbooks are the kind you take out thinking you’ll have a cup of tea and look for something to do with two pounds of cod. An hour later you’re still leaning on the counter with the tea kettle whistling dry.
Author P. Ann Pieroway knows New England history, facts, lore and foods. Dappled within the recipes she’s collected from coastal New England are stories and facts that make the books good bedtime as well as kitchen reading.
In Taste and Tales of Coastal New England, on the same page as “Plum Island Corn Chowder,” Pieroway charts the European settling of the New England coast, starting with the Vikings who called it Vineland because apparently grapes grew everywhere, and ending with Captan John Smith. (I didn’t know Smith Cove in East Gloucester is named for him.)
In Taste and Tales of Massachusetts, on the same page as Cranberry Crisp, Pieroway introduces The National Marine Sanctuary, Stellwagon Bank.
On the page with Rose Kennedy’s Sugar Cookies is a short biography of the beloved Massachusetts resident, President John F. Kennedy.
Tonight, the night before Thanksgiving, I’m making Scrambled Eggs with Lobster from A taste of lobster and some tales too… The eggs are from Hardy’s in Essex, and the lobster is from – where else? We’ll have warm cobbles from Alexandra’s Bread. That’s a pretty good taste of Coastal New England.
P. Ann Pieroway is signing books at Toad Hall Bookstore in Rockport this Saturday from 12 – 2:00.
