NOVEL THOUGHTS
………
SIMON & SCHUSTER, 1994
(available in paperback from Simon & Schuster, 1995)
IN FIVE YEARS President Franklin D. Roosevelt transformed a weak, isolationist United States into the most powerful military force in the world, ready to take up arms in defense of democracy. Although his wife, Eleanor, advised and supported him in this effort, she also championed causes of her own. During her husband’s presidency, Eleanor became a model of independence, intelligence, and compassion for women throughout the world.
No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s engrossing history of the home front during World War II, sheds light on the personal and political lives of these two remarkable leaders, while depicting the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in the United States during the war years and the determination of a country united in its resolve to defend its way of life.
Goodwin links the story of America’s mobilization for war with the personal stories of Franklin and Eleanor. The First Couple, and the welcoming, chaotic White House they presided over, inspired hope in Americans struggling through the Great Depression and World War II.
With world peace to consider, food should have been a source of pleasure and distraction for the president. Roosevelt loved good food, being “especially fond of quail and pheasant cooked so rare as to be bloody. He loved oyster crabs, out-of-the-way country cheeses, and peach cobbler.”
But Mrs. Henrietta Nesbitt, head housekeeper at the Roosevelt White House, refused to indulge the president’s taste for fine cuisine. A former Hyde Park neighbor of the Roosevelts, Nesbitt had never worked outside her home before coming to the White House at age fifty-nine. She was overwhelmed. Eleanor hired her to plan meals and oversee a staff of thirty-two, but Mrs. Nesbitt’s cooking proved bland and uninspired. She served the president chicken—and then sweetbreads—so relentlessly that, in a memo to Eleanor, Franklin complained, “I am getting to the point where my stomach positively rebels and this does not help my relations with foreign powers. I bit two of them today.”
Academics have long speculated about why Eleanor could not bring herself to fire the headstrong Mrs. Nesbitt. In From Hardtack to Homefries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals (Penguin, 2002), culinary historian Barbara Haber suggests that Mrs. Nesbitt and Eleanor hoped to set an example for the nation by practicing frugality in the White House. Mrs. Nesbitt’s White House Diary (Doubleday, 1948) offers some support for this theory. In an early entry, she writes: “Mrs. Roosevelt and I had our economy program all mapped out and we were going to stick to it. With so many Americans hungry, it was up to the head house of the nation to serve economy meals and act as an example.”
In contrast to her cooking skills, Mrs. Nesbitt’s baking was excellent. Eleanor and Franklin had bought Mrs. Nesbitt’s pies and strudels to serve at large parties in Hyde Park. When Roosevelt was running for governor of New York, Mrs. Nesbitt supplied his campaign with baked goods. After examining Mrs. Nesbitt’s collection of recipes in The Presidential Cookbook: Feeding the Roosevelts and Their Guests (Doubleday, 1951), Haber concludes that Mrs. Nesbitt’s cooking was, at its best, “uninspired, but at its worst … downright bad,” whereas “almost all of her recipes for cookies, cakes, and pies are appealing, and some are unusual.”
Henrietta Nesbitt’s recipe for angel food cake, Eleanor’s favorite, falls into the latter category. The addition of almond extract gives this cake a distinctively delicious flavor and smell, and distinguishes it from most other angel food cakes, which commonly call for vanilla extract. If you prefer vanilla, though, feel free to substitute. Just don’t forget to add a dollop of our Lemon Cream, which turns an old-fashioned favorite into a delicious new deal.
1¼ cups egg whites (10–12 eggs) 1½ teaspoons cream of tartar 1½ cups granulated sugar Lemon Cream for topping (see below) |
½ teaspoon almond extract 1 cup sifted cake flour ¼ teaspoon salt |
Preheat oven to 375° F. Beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar, then gradually add 1 cup of the sugar, beating continually, until the whites stand up in peaks. Beat in the almond extract. Sift flour a second time. Sift together the remaining ½ cup sugar, flour, and salt. Gently fold flour mixture into egg whites, ½ cup at a time, just until flour is moistened.
Pour the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan and bake 30–35 minutes, until the top feels springy to the touch. Invert the cake pan and stand it on a bottle to cool.
When the cake is completely cooled, loosen its edges by running a spatula or thin knife around the edge of the pan. Gently shake the cake onto a serving plate. Top with Lemon Cream and garnish with strawberries.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
½ cup heavy cream ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar |
½ cup low-fat lemon yogurt |
Beat the whipping cream and confectioners’ sugar until soft peaks form.
Fold in the lemon yogurt. Serve immediately.
NOVEL THOUGHTS
Dedicated to promoting women in careers in history, the Institute for Research in History launched a variety of initiatives in New York City in the 1970s. One of those initiatives—helping women to organize book clubs around their interests in history—spawned the Urban and Women’s History Book Club, which meets monthly in homes and apartments in and around New York City to discuss historical nonfiction.
Members of the Urban and Women’s History Book Club are middle-class women in their forties through seventies who share “a liberal outlook.” Many teach or are retired from teaching at city colleges. Their professional backgrounds and interest in history make them discriminating readers. “We pay a lot of attention to footnotes,” says Edith Gordon. “We look for whether quotes are attributed to primary sources, and we are very critical of secondary source attributions.” Their interest in footnotes came in handy when they read No Ordinary Time, a book they characterize as “extraordinary.” “We looked closely at the footnotes and felt she had done a good job,” reports Gordon.
Group members who had lived through World War II found a special thrill in reading the detailed information about the period supplied by Doris Kearns Goodwin. “This book gave us insight into what was going on during those years beyond our personal experience,” says Gordon.
The club has read other texts about the period, including Blanche Wiesen Cook’s volumes on Eleanor Roosevelt, so their discussion has often returned to No Ordinary Time. “Other readings have been more critical of FDR,” says Gordon. “If we read No Ordinary Time today, maybe we would be more critical of the work. But we found that we could push beyond Goodwin’s personal opinions about FDR and appreciate the book for its wealth of information.”
