Second Meeting Featured Title: Can She Bake a Cherry Pie

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie: American Women and the Kitchen in the 20th Century
by Mary Drake McFeely

Reported by Linda d'Avignon
Report Highlights:

• The book is a social history of women cooking in the 20th Century and documents not only how shifts have occurred in the types of food served, but also in the lives of women preparing the food. 
• Some of the recipes from the 1950s sound completely foreign to us today (an appetizer consisted of shrimp in a mold); others, like green bean casserole, have stood the test of time.
• Primarily, cooking meals has fallen on women, with various improvements in technology greatly improving their lives.  In the 20s and 30s, the radio emerged as a source of companionship as women worked in the kitchen.