{"id":2242,"date":"2010-11-22T09:33:18","date_gmt":"2010-11-22T17:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/?p=2242"},"modified":"2011-11-16T09:40:51","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T17:40:51","slug":"gertrude-and-alice-and-fritz-and-tom-and-turkey-makes-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/22\/gertrude-and-alice-and-fritz-and-tom-and-turkey-makes-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Gertrude and Alice and Fritz and Tom and Turkey Makes 5!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Thanksgiving time and time to talk “food,” as if many of us need a holiday as an excuse to talk food!<\/p>\n

In the annual food issue of The New Yorker <\/em>magazine this past week, there is an article by Laura Shapiro, “The First Kitchen,” \u00a0about the cuisine in the White House during the tenure of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. \u00a0Apparently the food was quite horrible, but not because of the Depression or World War II, but because of the cook that Mrs, Roosevelt had hired, a Mrs. Henrietta Nesbitt.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t help but wonder if during their visit to the White House for tea in December, 1934, GertrudeandAlice encountered any of Mrs. Nesbitt’s culinary curiosities. \u00a0And if they did, were they the perfect guests NOT whispering in Eleanor’s ear that “This Mrs. N. has got to go, for the health of the country!”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

FDR carving the Bird!<\/p><\/div>\n

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, let’s turn to tastier things.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Alice mentions Thanksgiving in her cookbook, so the most-American of holidays was celebrated at rue de Fleurus and rue Christine over the years:<\/p>\n

“…at Thanksgiving we had a turkey which Helene the cook roasted but for which I prepared the dressing. \u00a0Gertrude Stein not being able to decide whether she preferred mushrooms, chestnuts or oysters in the dressing, all three were included. \u00a0The experiment was successful and frequently repeated; it gradually entered into my repertoire, which expanded as I grew experimental and adventurous.”<\/em><\/p>\n

In my children’s picture book Gertrude and Alice and Fritz and Tom<\/strong>, which will be coming out this spring, Thanksgiving is a key part of the story which is based on a chapter in the 1964 memoir,\u00a0Boyhood with Gurdjieff, <\/strong>by Fritz Peters. <\/strong>Peters recalls Alice’s Thanksgiving feast \u00a0in 1925. (Fritz and Tom were the nephews of Margaret Anderson who with Jane Heap founded \u00a0The Little Review. <\/em>The boys\u00a0were studying at the Gurdjieff boarding school outside of Paris.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jane Heap with Fritz and Tom circa 1925<\/p><\/div>\n

When I originally wrote the story I wrote it in rhyme. Here is a part of it with an illustration by Tom Hachtman which will be in the book:<\/p>\n

“The boys arrived shortly and soon found their own spots,<\/em><\/p>\n

Each had his own bed with plump pillows, oh lots!!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know Tom, we\u2019re in an unusual place,<\/em><\/p>\n

That painting there, now where the heck is the face?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

*<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a real face,\u201d a soft voice soon replied,<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat Pablo saw on the day that he tried<\/em><\/p>\n

To capture the spirit and the feelings he saw,<\/em><\/p>\n

Do view history and art with the same sense of awe.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

*<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Thanksgiving meal was a special delight<\/em><\/p>\n

With turkey and stuffing and three pies made just right.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMiss Stein and Miss Toklas, this home-cooking is swell,\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Fritz and Tom said together, it was almost a yell.”<\/em><\/p>\n

*<\/em><\/p>\n

Happy Thanksgiving!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Thanksgiving time and time to talk “food,” as if many of us need a holiday as an excuse to talk food! In the annual food issue of The New Yorker magazine this past week, there is an article by Laura Shapiro, “The First Kitchen,” \u00a0about the cuisine in the White House during the tenure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15,33,64,76,77,89,109,129,143,224],"class_list":["post-2242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historic-facts","tag-alice-b-toklas","tag-boyhood-with-gurdjieff","tag-eleanor-roosevelt","tag-franklin-roosevelt","tag-fritz-peters","tag-gertrude-stein","tag-jane-heap","tag-laura-shapiro","tag-margaret-anderson","tag-tom-hachtman"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2242"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3444,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242\/revisions\/3444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}