Synopses & Reviews
Recently, while moving into a new house, Elizabeth Gilbert unpacked some boxes of family books that had been sitting in her mother's attic for decades. Among the old, dusty hardcovers was a book called
At Home on the Range (or, How To Make Friends with Your Stove) by Gilbert's great-grandmother, Margaret Yardley Potter. Having only been peripherally aware of the volume, Gilbert dug in with some curiosity, and soon found that she had stumbled upon a book far ahead of its time. In her workaday cookbook, Potter espoused the importance of farmer's markets and ethnic food (Italian, Jewish, and German), derided preservatives and culinary shortcuts, and generally celebrated a devotion to seeking out new epicurean adventures. Potter takes car trips out to Pennsylvania Dutch country to eat pickled pork products, and during World War II she cajoles local poultry farmers into saving buckets of coxcombs for her so she can try to cook them in the French manner. She takes trips to the eastern shore of Maryland, where she learns to catch and prepare eels so delicious, she says, they must be "devoured in a silence almost devout." Part scholar — she includes a great recipe from 1848 for boiled sheep head — and part crusader for a more open food conversation than currently existed, it's not hard to see from where Elizabeth Gilbert inherited both her love of food, and her warm, infectious prose.
Featuring a comprehensive and moving introduction from Potter's great-granddaughter, Elizabeth Gilbert, At Home on the Range is an eminently usable and humorous cookbook. But it's also more than that: it's an heirloom, an into-the-wee-hours dinner with relatives and ancestors, a perfect gift for anybody with a stove or a mother.
Review
"This book is a beautiful time capsule that looks back to the roots of American gastronomy, when the values of gardening and fresh ingredients were the primary inspiration. Margaret Yardley Potter's warm, witty stories and recipes show us that our great-grandmothers instinctually understood that food is central to a life well-lived." Alice Waters
Review
"When first published in 1947, At Home on the Range, by Margaret Yardley Potter, must have seemed a shockingly non-girly truth-talking cookbook and life guide. Read today — as introduced in a McSweeney's edition by Potter's great-granddaughter, Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert — it is both artifact and artfully useful. Choice bit: Potter who died in 1955 at age 62, liked to invite guests not for dinner but rather for breakfast — 'en neglige.' We're not surprised that Gilbert, who celebrates her 'Gima' throughout, comes from such feisty stock." Sara Nelson, Oprah magazine
Review
"When first published in 1947,
At Home on the Range, by Margaret Yardley Potter, must have seemed a shockingly non-girly truth-talking cookbook and life guide. Read today--as introduced in a McSweeney's edition by Potter's great-granddaughter, Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert--it is both artifact and artfully useful. Choice bit: Potter who died in 1955 at age 62, liked to invite guests not for dinner but rather for breakfast--'en neglige.' We're not surprised that Gilbert, who celebrates her 'Gima' throughout, comes from such feisty stock."
and#151;Sara Nelson, Oprah Magazine
"This book is a beautiful time capsule that looks back to the roots of American gastronomy, when the values of gardening and fresh ingredients were the primary inspiration. Margaret Yardley Potterand#8217;s warm, witty stories and recipes show us that our great-grandmothers instinctually understood that food is central to a life well-lived."
and#151;Alice Waters
"Author Elizabeth Gilbert (A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage) does a wonderful service by bringing back the opinionated, modern-for-its-time cookbook of her eccentric great-grandmother and#147;Gimaand#8221; Yardley Potter, first published in 1947... Chapters are devoted lovingly to what foods best to bring hospitalized friends, mastering cocktails, and organizing emergency meals and effortless entertaining. In her bright, determined tone (and#147;Is your cigarette finished? Letand#8217;s goand#8221;), Yardley Potter assures us a generation before Julia Child that we can tackle bouillabaisse, preserves, bread, and grandmotherand#8217;s sacred sponge cake."
and#151;Publisher's Weekly
"This is a cookbook for modern times and modern cooks, full of sassy jokes and smartly written recipes."
and#151;Bon Appetit
"Delightfully humorous and remarkably insightful."
and#151;LA Times
"A precious find."
and#151;Boston Globe
and#147;'At Home on the Range' is, in fact, a cookbook. But it is so much, much more than a cookbook. It is a memoir of one womanand#8217;s life, her marriage, and her full and happy years taking care of a family. It is also the encapsulation of the spirit of this particular womanand#151;Margaret Yardley Potter of Philadelphia, who died in 1955and#151;on the page, in such full-flowered glory that she seems by the close of the volume to be someone that we know intimately."
and#151;Buffalo News
"This is not just a book of recipes (though it has plenty of those, a perfect recipe for pressed chicken among them), but also a cookbook for life."
and#151;GQ
"[Potter] is a wonderful, entertaining writer and a keen observer."
and#151;The Kitchn
"For pure reading pleasure, try Margaret Yardley Potter, otherwise knowns as the memoirist Elizabeth Gilbert's great-grandmother... Adventurous and funny, she could have drunk and smoked Elizabeth David, M.F.K. Fisher and probably even Dorothy Parker under the table."
and#151;New York Times Book Review
"Yardley Potter's prose is laced with literary references and is as much fun to read as her dinner parties must have been to attend."
and#151;The New Yorker
and#147;A beautiful, moving, often funny collection of essays and instructions from a very eloquent writer.and#8221;
and#151;Village Voice
and#147;Bracketed by Gilbert's affectionate commentary, At Home is a warm and witty memoir that captures Potter's spirited approach to cooking and just about everything elseand#133; A book for all ages. What a gem.and#8221;
and#151;The Philadelphia Inquirer
Synopsis
While unpacking boxes of old family books recently, Elizabeth Gilbert rediscovered a dusty, yellowed hardcover called
At Home on the Range, originally written by her great-grandmother, Margaret Yardley Potter. Having only been peripherally aware of the volume, Gilbert dug in with some curiosity, and soon found that she had stumbled upon a book far ahead of its time. Part scholar and part crusader for a more open food conversation, Potter espoused the importance of farmers markets and ethnic food (Italian, Jewish, and German), derided preservatives and culinary shortcuts, and generally celebrated a devotion to epicurean adventures. Reading this practical and humorous cookbook, its not hard to see that Gilbert inherited her great-grandmothers love of food and her warm, infectious prose.
Proceeds from this book benefit ScholarMatch (scholarmatch.org).
About the Author
Margaret Yardley Potter's book is culled from a lifetime of cooking and entertaining in her home, from the 1920s through World War II. In addition to being a cooking columnist for the
Wilmington Star, she also painted, sold dresses, assisted in the birth of four grandchildren, and took up swing piano.
Elizabeth Gilbert is the bestselling author of numerous books, including Eat, Pray, Love, now a major motion picture. In 2008, Time magazine named Elizabeth as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.