Beyond the North Wind: Exploring Russia through Food

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Book Cover

Presented by Darra Goldstein, PhD
Professor and award-winning author

No samples available at this virtual presentation, though feel free to try these recipes for Sour Cream Honey Cake and  Syrniki (Russian Cheese Pancakes) (Courtesy of 10 Speed Press &  Stefan Wettainen, Photographer)

We welcome you to join us as Russian scholar and award-winning culinary authority Dr. Darra Goldstein shares highlights from her latest book Beyond the North Wind: Exploring Russia through Food. Darra will take us on a journey above the Arctic Circle, to Russia’s northernmost reaches, where the extremes of climate have inspired an inventive, resilient, and earthy cuisine. Continue reading →

The Most Loved Room In The House: The Evolution of the American Kitchen

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Wednesday July 15, 2020

Book cover of John Ota’s book, The Kitchen

Presented by John Ota,
Author, The Kitchen

View Presentation on Facebook and YouTube

No samples available at this virtual presentation,
though feel free to try this recipe for Matzo Ball Soup.

John Ota was a man on a mission–to put together the perfect kitchen. He and his wife had been making do with a room that was frankly no great advertisement for John’s architectural expertise. It just about did the job.

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The Rule of Rum

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Presented by Cynthia Clampitt, Author
 
View Presentation on Facebook.
 
No samples available at this virtual presentation, though feel free to try these recipes.
 

Food historian Cynthia Clampitt shares the reason rum arose where it did and when it did, as well as how pirates got involved and who really said “yo, ho, ho” (not the pirates), but also explains how rum was involved in uniting the 13 Colonies, why it was one of the issues that led to the American Revolution, how it also led to a revolt in its next home after the Caribbean: Australia, and how it affected culture and history around the world after that. Continue reading →

16,000 years of Global Potato History

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Presented by Raghavan Iyer
Author, Teacher

View Presentation on  YouTube

No samples available at this virtual presentation, though feel free to try these recipes:

Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake
Hasselback Potatoes with Cardamon Butter
Potato Leek Pie
Ultimate French Fries

Our speaker, Raghavan Iyer, is the author of “Smashed, Mashed, Boiled, and Baked–and Fried, Too!: A Celebration of Potatoes in 75 Irresistible Recipes.” And he’s going to have one heck of a spudworthy program for us. Here’s his tater-tot preview:

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When Potato Fields were Prisons: Unfree Farm Labor in McHenry County during World War II

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Presented Samuel Klee, Ph.D. candidate
(Program in conjunction with the Highland Park Historical Society)

View presentation on YouTube

During World War II, some farmers in Marengo, Illinois negotiated with a large food corporation and federal agencies to make local farm fields into restricted, prison-like spaces. When the Curtiss Candy Company brought Japanese-Americans from the Tule Lake Internment Camp in California to cultivate and pick potatoes in 1943, the Marengo community struggled with the federal government and the candy company to eliminate the outsiders’ presence.

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