Community cookbooks have a special place in my heart. Long before home cooks turned to Pinterest boards and food blogs for ideas, these collections offered the inside scoop on must-have recipes from friends and neighbors.
The really good compilations, though, are about more than food: They embrace the charm and quirks of family traditions and reveal tantalizing bits of history.
Beginning in the 1860s, these cookbooks proved an effective way to fundraise and reach women at home with messages of inspiration and motivation — something suffragists put to use more than a century ago as part of their voting-rights campaign.
(Artwork by Kudra Migliaccio. Cookbook courtesy of the ABA Commission on the 19th Amendment and Hon. M. Margaret McKeown.)
In a nod to that history, and in celebration of 100 years since the 19th Amendment was ratified — giving women the right to vote — the American Bar Association Commission on the Nineteenth Amendment has assembled a free, downloadable cookbook with recipes from Supreme Court justices, judges, lawyers, scholars and others involved in the legal field.
“The Nineteenth Amendment Centennial Cookbook: 100 Recipes for 100 Years” applauds the courage of the suffragists. Artwork, quotes and archival images provide key historical context.
“Cookbooks have deep roots with the suffragists, who used them as their ‘messenger’ to promote women’s right to vote,” said Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in an email. McKeown, a La Jolla resident, is chair of the ABA Commission on the 19th Amendment and co-editor of the cookbook, along with Kelsey Matevish.
“These women overcame the challenges of the 1918 pandemic and went on to achieve ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920,” McKeown said. “In this 100th anniversary year, the ABA Commission on the 19th Amendment gathered recipes from legal luminaries as a way to celebrate this milestone and a special way to bring family, friends, and communities together during COVID-19. In the spirit of the suffragists, the digital cookbook is free to download as an ebook or pdf.”
Sign, “A Woman Living Here Has Registered to Vote,” ca 1920.
(Courtesy of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution)
Well-organized chapters cover breakfast to dessert, with one section devoted to comfort food. Contributors include some familiar names: Janet Napolitano, Judge Merrick Garland, Nina Totenberg, Amal Clooney, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (whose Quick Ratatouille recipe is below) and her daughter, Jane Ginsburg. Hillary Clinton adds chocolate chip cookies. Justice Neil Gorsuch reveals kitchen expertise with a Colorado green chile stew.
Some submissions are quick hits; others, long and detailed. Personal recollections of these preparations, always one of the best parts of such cookbooks, make page-flipping a pleasure. Among them is Garland’s addendum to his great-grandmother’s Gefilte Fish recipe, which states: “Place live fish in half-filled bathtub until ready to begin.”
“No one in my generation has followed the first paragraph,” he says.
Whether you favor old-school Green Marshmallow Salad or Peach-Tarragon Shortcake or envision a kitchen battle between Salvadorean Chile Rellenos and Guatemalan Chile Rellenos, it’s all in there.
And one hundred years later, in divisive times, food is still the great unifier.
“The Nineteenth Amendment Centennial Cookbook: 100 Recipes for 100 Years,” is available for free download in PDF form. For more information, see the American Bar Association’s website.
Quick Ratatouille
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C.
All ingredients in this dish are approximate. Variations are entirely appropriate, indeed welcome.
Recipe from the Chef Supreme: Martin Ginsburg.
Olive oil (start with 2 tablespoons — in the end you may need 6 or more)
2 cups zucchini cut in ¾ inch (or a bit larger) cubes
1 ½ cups coarsely chopped onions
1 ½ cups coarsely chopped bell peppers (a mixture of green and red is nice)
2 cups unpeeled eggplant in ¾ inch (or a little bit larger) cubes
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
½ teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
4 tomatoes, large and ripe, cut in large cubes (do not peel and do not throw away the seeds)
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoons of very good olive oil until very hot. Throw in the zucchini and sauté over high heat, stirring and flipping constantly, for 2 minutes. With a slotted spoon, immediately remove the zucchini to a separate bowl leaving as much oil as possible in the pot.
Add more olive oil to the pot so that you have a good 2 tablespoons. Over high heat, sauté together the onions and peppers, stirring and flipping constantly, for 3 minutes. With a slotted spoon, immediately remove the onions and peppers and add them to the bowl with the zucchini.
Start a third time. Add more olive oil to the pot and this time do the job with the eggplant, stirring and flipping over high heat for a little less than 3 minutes. Again remove the vegetable to the bowl with the zucchini and onions and peppers.
Add a bit more olive oil to the pot. Over medium heat, throw in the garlic. Sauté about 5 seconds and throw in the thyme and bay leaf. Flip once, and add the tomatoes. Turn the heat to high, stir 10 seconds or so, and then throw back into the pot all of those vegetables that are sitting in the bowl. Turn and stir the whole vegetable mess over high heat simmering for not more than 3 minutes.
Turn off the heat, add salt and pepper to taste, flip in the parsley, and you are done. Can be served either hot or at room temperature.
Excerpted with permission from “The Nineteenth Amendment Centennial Cookbook: 100 Recipes for 100 Years” (American Bar Association).
