Pickavance, R: Agnes Ayre's Notebook -

. .

Résumé :
In the early twentieth century, Newfoundland trailblazer Agnes Marion Miller Ayre became an outspoken advocate for allowing women to vote.She was also an avid botanist and an accomplished artist who published a book,Wild Flowers of Newfoundland. One overlooked aspect of Ayres remarkable life was a recipe collection she wrote in a small notebook, starting in 1917. She didnt bother with traditional recipesnot a boiled dinner or pan-fried cod to be foundbut collected out-of-the-ordinary dishes for the time, along with ingenious ways of being frugal with leftovers. Intrigued by this historical document and curious about what exactly the lady of a middle-class household in World War I St. Johns would feed her family, Roger Pickavance and Agnes Marion Murphy (Ayres granddaughter) set about cooking all 140 recipes in the century-old notebook. Most worked well, some did not, and many would make a welcome addition to a modern cooks repertoire. Pickavance and Murphy have reworked some recipes, filling in the blanks, simplifying steps, and offering ingredient substitutions where required. The result is a glimpse into the personal life of Agnes Ayreand a cookbook full of delicious surprises.