The bag of vintage cookbooks sat on my office shelf for a year. Pat Ferraro Klos, local historian, author, and longtime friend, gave it to me. She was cleaning out her own shelves and thought the contents might be useful to me in my ongoing search for local food history.
Uncovering local food-growing efforts during World War II. Our country under stress. A clear danger. Efforts, on a personal and national level, to deal with the emergency. Do these phrases remind you of the recent Covid-19 pandemic? As a food historian, I go back further, to the 1940s and the crisis of World War II….
On a culinary-inspired trip to New Orleans, I first encountered the powerful and historic drink called the Sazerac, at the aptly named Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel. The memory lingered, and I discovered, to my surprise, that Nevada had numerous connections to this cocktail — or, at least, to its name, which appeared in almost a dozen saloons in Northern Nevada’s early days.
If you need a reason to renew your love of Nevada’s beauty, I suggest taking the winding route up Geiger Grade toward Virginia City. The colors of the hills, the roaming wild horses, and the views across the valley are awe-inspiring.
Inspiration for this column can come from unlikely places, even a summer hike. Near Truckee, almost by accident, my companion and I discovered Catfish Pond.