Cookbooks, A Love Story

Words Across the Centuries

[cynthiabertelsen]

Moving on to "Joy of Reading"

I will no longer be writing on WordPress. Instead, I will be wordsmithing on Substack, at “Joy of Reading.” Please join me there.

View On WordPress

[cynthiabertelsen]

Cooks, the Forgotten Characters in Fiction

The Aftermath (Adobe Stock Image) A few days ago, I spent an hour in the local Barnes & Noble. There’s only one other bookstore in town, indie, focused on banned books and so on. Nothing wrong with that, but their inventory isn’t as large as B&N, and I was looking for mass market paperback crime novels. Yeah, I do read those at night, so large, heavy novels don’t make the cut, as they’re hard to…

Cooks, the Forgotten Characters in Fiction

[cynthiabertelsen]

Pilgrymes, Passing to and Fro: Chaucer Got it Right

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) on engraving from the 1800s. English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Engraved by J. Thomson and published in London by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street & Pall Mall East. By God, if women had written stories,As clerks had within here oratories,They would have written of men more wickednessThan all the mark of Adam may redress. ~ Geoffrey…

Pilgrymes, Passing to and Fro: Chaucer Got it Right

[cynthiabertelsen]

"A Hastiness of Cooks": A Practical Handbook for Deciphering the Mysteries of Historic Recipes and Cookbooks*

Food is Life. I once stood on a busy street corner in Puebla, Mexico. A market day, a late October morning, battleship-gray skies overhead. I watched women – young, old, rich, poor―lugging string bags or baskets laden with food, hurrying home to cook almuerzo, lunch. I couldn’t get the thought out of my head: Food is life. Life revolves around the growing of food, the eating of it, the cooking…

"A Hastiness of Cooks": A Practical Handbook for Deciphering the Mysteries of Historic Recipes and Cookbooks*

[cynthiabertelsen]

They Called it Callaloo

Callaloo leaves (Adobe Stock images) A fully grown up tree cannot be bent into a walking stick. ~ African proverb Stuck off the beaten track but surrounded by the heavy traffic of a congested city, the Grand Market in Virginia Beach, Virginia is not an easy place to pinpoint, even with GPS tracking technology. But “Sam’s” voice droned, “Turn right, then left,” and, somehow, I managed to avoid…

They Called it Callaloo

[cynthiabertelsen]

I hope you are enjoying my latest posts. Please let me know what you think in the comments! Thank you so much for reading my writing.

Palm Oil, a Gift from Africa

[cynthiabertelsen]

Manioc is Chipa

Chipa (Adobe Stock images) Cassava originated in Brazil and the tropical areas of the Americas. ~ Hector Rodríguez “Chipa, chipa!” The small Paraguayan girl, all of maybe eight years-old, thrust an enormous flat basket draped with a smudged white cloth against the open window of the bus. I smelled the warm cassava bread even before she flicked off the cloth with a flourish, much as a…

Manioc is Chipa

[cynthiabertelsen]

A Village in Africa*

When you befriend a chief remember that he sits on a rope. Adobe Stock image It didn’t take long for the red dust to coat the white Nissan Patrol 4WD like the sugar crust on a crème brulée. Thick. Crunchy. Slightly gritty. “Look like we here,” said Moussa our driver, his Moré accent glossing the familiar English words. The Land Rover turned off the long straight highway at Koudougou. Two…

A Village in Africa*

[cynthiabertelsen]

Red Beans & Rice

The Peace Corps is a sort of Howard Johnson’s on the main drag into maturity. ~ Paul Theroux Red beans and rice (AI-generated, Adobe Stock images) After all the negative comments and downright ridiculous outrage about Bad Bunny’s superb NFL halftime show at Super Bowl LX (2026), I thought it appropriate to share one of the most amazing experiences of my life – in Puerto Rico. Read on,…

View On WordPress

[cynthiabertelsen]

Daddy's Vegetable Beef Soup*

Adobe Stock image Soup is a dish common in nearly all culinary cultures, but, as I’ve said many times, in my childhood home in Pullman, Campbell’s took pride of place. The options seemed endless: Tomato Soup. Chicken Noodle Soup. Chicken with Rice Soup. Bean with Bacon Soup. Manhattan Clam Chowder. New England-Style Clam Chowder. Vegetable Beef Soup. I seemed satisfied with this fare,…

Daddy's Vegetable Beef Soup*

[cynthiabertelsen]

Ham and Beans

Ham and beans (Adobe Stock image) Pinto Beans (Adobe Stock image) I grew up in Washington State, kind of far from the Deep South. But my paternal grandmother came from a long line of Southerners, dating all the way back to Jamestown, Virginia. After much journeying – from Virginia to North Carolina to Georgia to Missouri to Texas – her family ended up in Globe, Arizona, mining copper. Grandma…

Ham and Beans

[cynthiabertelsen]

The End of a Terrible Year: Quilting My Way Out of Darkness

Normally, I am a very positive person, always ready for something new to do or see or learn or experience. Those qualities sustained me this past year. Just so you know, I became very independent at an early age, as my childhood was devoid of unconditional maternal love. Fortunately, my father and paternal grandmother filled the void, as did two maternal figures, one my high school history…

The End of a Terrible Year: Quilting My Way Out of Darkness

[cynthiabertelsen]

"Reading George Orwell": My New Substack Page

I am writing on a new website over on Substack: “Reading George Orwell.” Please subscribe – it’s free and will remain so. What’s it about? “Reading George Orwell” presents brief commentaries and analyses about Orwell’s work and life. Not only was he a prescient and prolific writer, but also one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century. Orwell Studies is vast; it boggles the mind…

"Reading George Orwell": My New Substack Page

[cynthiabertelsen]

In a Kitchen Library: Reflections on Reading

My newest book is now available on Amazon. And it soon will be listed on other online locations as well. I’ve loved to read since that eureka moment when I cracked the code and made sense of the squiggles on the page. Since then, I’ve read thousands of books. And that’s one of the reasons why I wrote In a Kitchen Library. I wanted to share some of the more influential and magical books…

In a Kitchen Library: Reflections on Reading

[cynthiabertelsen]

The Storm is Gathering Once Again

Surviving the Current Apocalypse Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister who led Britain to victory in World War II, was quite a wordsmith. As a witness to the rise of tyranny in Fascist Hitlerian Germany, he was well equipped to write The Gathering Storm. Members of Parliament at the time ignored him as he repeated over and over, “Germany is arming – she is rapidly arming – and no one…

The Storm is Gathering Once Again

[cynthiabertelsen]

A Bite of Germany

A Trip Down Memory Lane, and a New Cookbook to Savor As with any country, food habits change from region to region. Germany is no different in that regard. Most of the so-called German food familiar to Americans originated in southern Germany, particularly Bavaria. The Nazi movement first gained a foothold in Munich, in Bavaria. World War II then ensued, bringing devastating destruction and…

A Bite of Germany

[cynthiabertelsen]

Climbing Back on the Horse

Yes, I am still here. It’s been a rough summer, with a cancer diagnosis (very treatable) and some post-surgical complications. But I am not done with writing. Not yet! So, for my first canter, I’m going to share a few book titles that may be of interest to you, books I read while coming to grips with incessant reminders of the human body’s fragility and resiliency. The Invincible Miss Cust…

Climbing Back on the Horse