We've been reading the Little House books together for the first time, and I don't know who loves them more: me or the kids. Milly in particular. I think she wants to be Laura. Today she wanted to eat a Laura Ingalls lunch. I was out of Jiffy cornbread mix, but we decided that ham, baked beans, apple slices, and milk were all pioneer-approved foods.

A trip to the library later, and now I'm reading The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories by Barbara Walker, with illustrations (from the original Little House books) by Garth Williams (Harper and Row, 1979). I think it's fascinating: organized into chapters such as "Staples from the Country Store" and "Foods from the Woods, Wilds, and Waters", each recipe gets an excerpt from the text of one of the books, a well-researched essay, and detailed directions. Unfortunately, it's not particularly appetizing, but I've marked a few recipes to try; look for them in an upcoming special edition of Books that Cook.

In the meantime, you might want to try Laura's gingerbread recipe, which appeared in the Horn Book. We would have made some after lunch, but I was all out of lard. Milly was so disappointed!

[Nonfiction Monday is at Picture Book of the Day.]