{"id":2424,"date":"2014-01-28T02:49:54","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T06:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=2424"},"modified":"2019-02-06T20:11:10","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T00:11:10","slug":"mississippi-mud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/mississippi-mud\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi Mud"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A limited number of copies of Anna’s Cookbook are available for a contribution of $10.00. Please contact the Archives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This post originated in a recent exchange on Facebook.\u00a0 Certain Northampton School for Girls alumnae were reminiscing about favorite ‘Hamp meals \u2014 perhaps with an emphasis on ‘Hamp desserts.\u00a0 Happily, some of these delights were collected in Anna’s Cookbook<\/em>, compiled by Ruth Jeffers Wellington ’41 in 1967 to honor cook Anna Kowalski on the occasion of her retirement, after 40 years managing Northampton School’s kitchen.<\/p>\n

Anna’s assistant, Ceil Desmarais, succeeded her, so the transition was seamless.\u00a0 And Ceil made the not-entirely-seamless pilgrimage to Easthampton when ‘Hamp and Williston joined forces in 1971.<\/p>\n

A personal note.\u00a0 I was a Williston Academy student with the unique privilege \u2014 and privilege it was \u2014 of having a parent on the Northampton School for Girls faculty.\u00a0 Among the perks of being a faculty brat was the ability to show up at the Montgomery House dining room and get fed.\u00a0 Now I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence by suggesting that having lunch with Mom was a major incentive in bicycling six miles after Saturday class.\u00a0 There were other attractions.\u00a0 Only one of them was the food.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Ceil<\/a>
Anna’s successor, Ceil Desmarais<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But oh, my, it was good food\u00a0\u2014 with all due respect to my late friend Alphonse Barry, who styled himself Williston’s “chef” and got something at least edible, if occasionally unidentifiable, on our plates three times a day.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Northampton School meals came as close to home cooking as anything I’ve ever seen in a school or college dining hall.\u00a0 I think I remember (someone please set me straight) that there were always white tablecloths and decent china, as well.\u00a0 Those were rare commodities at Williston meals; tablecloths appeared only on special occasions and we ate off green Bakelite plates whose principal virtue was that they didn’t shatter when a waiter dropped a tray.\u00a0 In aesthetic fairness, the green matched the walls.<\/p>\n

Mississippi Mud is frequently cited as the best ‘Hamp dessert ever.\u00a0 To this day it appears every so often in the Williston Northampton dining commons.\u00a0 (Click recipe images to enlarge.)\"mud\"<\/a>That’s 6 – 8 tiny<\/em> servings.\u00a0 In my house, 4.\u00a0 Four.<\/em>\u00a0 I strongly suggest you make a double batch.\u00a0 Note that Baker’s Breakfast Cocoa is no longer manufactured; any good-quality unsweetened cocoa powder will work.<\/p>\n

\"Mississippi<\/a>
Mississippi Mud, in the author’s kitchen (but not for long)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following rivals Mississippi Mud for chocolate overdose.\u00a0 I confess; I’ve made this, too.\u00a0 It takes all afternoon, but it’s worth it.\"steamed\"<\/a>Someone cited cheese souffl\u00e9 as one of the great ‘Hamp meals.\u00a0 Alas, it’s not in Anna’s Cookbook.\u00a0 But a couple of people mentioned Yorkshire pudding.\u00a0 That we can provide, along with a roast beef that is simplicity itself.\u00a0 (At Williston, “rare” beef was obtained by basting it with beet juice.\u00a0 Seriously.)<\/p>\n

\"beef\"<\/a>There is, of course, much more.\u00a0 And to whet your appetite, we have other recipe collections, including a Northampton School cookbook compiled in 1948 by, believe it or not, founder Dorothy Bement herself.\u00a0 (Who knew?)<\/p>\n

As always, we welcome your questions and comments!\u00a0 Please use the form below.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originated in a recent exchange on Facebook.\u00a0 Certain Northampton School for Girls alumnae were reminiscing about favorite ‘Hamp meals \u2014 perhaps with an emphasis on ‘Hamp desserts.\u00a0 Happily, some of these delights were collected in Anna’s Cookbook, compiled by Ruth Jeffers Wellington ’41 in 1967 to honor cook Anna Kowalski on the occasion … Continue reading Mississippi Mud<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,9],"tags":[301,304,306,309,282,303,305,307,308],"class_list":["post-2424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archivists-bookshelf","category-northampton-school-for-girls","tag-anna-kowalski","tag-ceil-desmarais","tag-chocolate-steamed-pudding","tag-cookbooks","tag-food-service","tag-mississippi-mud","tag-recipes","tag-roast-beef","tag-yorkshire-pudding"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2424"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3207,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424\/revisions\/3207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}