The “Fromajardis Serenade” still continues in St. These Minorcan fromajardis (fried cheese tarts) were traditionally handed out to singers serenading the old neighborhoods on a spring night each year to celebrate the anniversary of the Minorcans’ arrival in Florida. Hall was so captivated by the pepper that she created a community cookbook, researching and collecting recipes from the descendants of the original settlers. Their dishes were united by at least one ingredient: the tiny, hot datil peppers that are still grown in window boxes and kitchen gardens in St. Augustine into a pan-Mediterranean settlement. Hall, a former high school teacher, who created the vibrant Florida port, but it was the Minorcans-people brought from Greece, Italy, and the island of Minorca in 1768 and indentured to nearby indigo plantations-who turned St. She relates tales of the Spanish explorers who landed here in the early 1500s, carrying the cattle that would become longhorns, and the missionaries who would attempt to create New Spain in the American Southwest. Augustine for four generations and is happiest when working to preserve the city’s Old-World churches, stores, homes, and history. Maggi Smith Hall’s family has lived in St. Maggi Smith Hall’s Minorcan Fromajardis ( pdf) St. One Big Table: Molly O'Neill's recipe for Tarte Tartin.We've also reproduced the Tuna Casserole recipe from Here & Now host Robin Young's mother. She's tested and published 600 in her new book, ' One Big Table: A Portrait Of American Cooking.'īelow, see recipes from Molly's book, including: Minorcan Fromajardis, the Original Deviled Egg, Truffle Potato, Josie Rea-Tomlinson’s Superior Cupcakes, Hilda Minter’s Spicy Escarole and Cinnamon Halibut. In the process, she collected some 10,000 recipes.

Molly went to food festivals, she talked to foodies, and she read through troves of family recipes to discover that home cooking is alive and well in the United States. Ten years ago, former New York Times food columnist and PBS host Molly O'Neill set out to see if it was true that Americans didn't cook anymore. (from “One Big Table: A Portrait Of American Cooking,' by Molly O' Neill) Facebook Email This article is more than 12 years old.

One Big Table by Molly O'Neill