February 21, 2025 • 30 mins
Some Virginians grow up in the commonwealth and don't take notice of the depth of history available around every corner. But others, like Coleen Dixon, who grew up in Arlington, find themselves mezmerized by the richness of American history at every turn. Ms. Dixon calls herself the historical homemaker and believes it is important to cherish and share the memories of those that have gone before us and made our country so great.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Virginia Focus. I'm Rebecca Hughes of the Virginia
News Network. Some Virginians grow up in the Commonwealth and
don't take notice of the depth of history available around
every corner, but others, like Colleen Dixon, who grew up
in Arlington, find themselves mesmerized by the richness of American
history at every turn. Miss Dixon calls herself the historical
(00:26):
homemaker and believes it's important to cherish and share the
memories of those that have gone before us and made
our country so great. Welcome to the show, Miss Dixon.
I'm so glad we could have you on today. I
discovered your YouTube channel and I was very excited about
the opportunity to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, thanks for reaching out to me. It's such a
pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
So why don't we start by you telling the audience
who you are. You know, explain what makes you a
fellow Virginian and what may you fall in love with
the history of our country?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Oh my gosh, Well, I mean since childhood, I've always
loved American history and been fascinated by it, and growing
up in Arlington, which is right next to Washington, d C.
Of course. I was grew up in that area where
you know, we took school trips to Mount Vernon and
(01:23):
Arlingtoln Cemetery where Lee's Robert E. Lee's house is, and
it was just always fascinating to me. And when my
children were young, I would take them on field trips
all around the area to the battlefields and into Washington
of course, and just to you know, make them learn
(01:44):
about history too, because I think it's important that everyone
knows the parts about American history and everything that's so
great about it. And you know there's things that not
great too, but you know, it's all of our history,
so it's it's great.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I love that. And as I understand it, you are
the daughter of a veteran and maybe several that served
in the military and your family. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh yeah, I mean my dad is that I retired
d C Washington, d C. Police officer, and he was
in the army, and matter of fact, that's how he
met my mother. He's originally from Vermont and he was
stationed in the Arlington area and my mom, you know,
they met to some square day on so I don't
know for servicemen, and so yeah, he was in the
(02:37):
army for a few years. He was a medic. My
mom's father was. Then he was in World War Two,
so he was sorry as my dogs he was. He
was a submariner, so he was over in the Pacific
for about four years or so. And I have cousins
(02:58):
that have served, and it's just, you know, an honor
to be part of a military family. And I'm just
very proud that.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I love that. Now, do you think that that military
history may have been a part of why you fell
in love with American history, just because I'm sitting here thinking,
you know, a lot of kids go through history class
and they go to historical things and it just doesn't
make an impression on them. But obviously for you that
wasn't the case.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh yeah, I mean it's just my dad. Well, I
really have to attribute to my dad's father, who they're
from Vermont, and he would always tell, you know, the
grandchildren all these wonderful stories about Ethan Allen and Theodore Roosevelt,
and it was very important to him. So he always
(03:51):
told us these wonderful stories, you know, of just these
historical figures, and he made it very interesting and you
just in with that, you know, it made me want
to read up on everything, and in school I was
really good, of course in American history, not so much
in world history, but it's yeah, but in American history especially,
(04:17):
like I said, with growing up in Arlington and being
so close to Mount Vernon, and you know, the Lee
family is still in that area, it's just I fell
in love with it. And when you know, I became
a mom and my kids were growing up, I really
wanted them to learn about it and be fascinated with
it as well. So I would take them on field
(04:39):
trips and then just to make sure, you know, afterwards
that they're paying attention, I wou'dt even give them little quizzes,
you know, prizes, just to make sure I know that
they're so I would take them all over the place.
And I'm really proud that my sons love history too,
now you know they're.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
So where's your favorite place to go?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Probably used to you know. I love Mount Vernon, of
course because I've been there so many times, and of
course Lee's mansion. But I really have a fascination with
Gettysburg because of Abraham Lincoln, you know, was there and
did the Gettysburg Address, and a lot of the Civil
War places like Manassas, the battlefields. I think I've been
(05:26):
to every single one in Virginia and it's like that
era and of course the American Revolution. I've just found
it just very intriguing and fascinating and how they lived
and how they survived, and with the American Revolution, of course,
you know, they were just normal people. They were farmers,
(05:46):
and some of them were British citizens and just the
stories of how they had to give up you know,
their's citizenship to the crown and they fought, you know,
to have a part of this country and to make
this country so great, and it was really challenging for them,
but you know, they did it. And I just think
(06:08):
that's really cool because you know, they could have easily
folded and just you know, bent to the king, but
oh yeah, they you know, and without them, we wouldn't
be where we are today. And even George Washington and
Robert E. Lee they had to make choices you know
that were hard, but they wanted to be here and
(06:31):
they believed in the United States and they wanted to
make this country into what it is now today.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So thanks to them, yeah, definitely, thanks to them. So
is that kind of what led you to become the
historical homemaker.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Well, that part I started because I loved a bake.
I mean even since childhood, I've loved to make cookies
and cakes. And you know, I had an easy bake
up in my mom gave me and you know, it
was just all it. So that and with history, I
just acquired some cookbooks and I thought, oh my gosh,
(07:11):
it's so fascinating. You know, how they cooked back then.
I mean they didn't have the modern appliances of course
that we have now, but just the cakes and the
cookies and the different ingredients, and so I just thought
it was really neat, how you know, like some of
the cakes that like Mary Todd Lincoln made for Abraham Lincoln,
(07:35):
and it was just really neat to taste, you know,
something that people long ago, you know, enjoyed too. And
so just to eat a cake, you know, like that
that Abraham Lincoln once enjoyed, I thought that was really cool.
And so that's how I started that and doing research
on you know, the first ladies and their favorite recipes,
(07:57):
and the presidents and all these other women and men
part part of our history too.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
So what they do decide to start sharing that on
the various social medias and making videos.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It just, you know, one day, it's just it just
started off like it just came to me. I was bored.
It actually was a snow day, and I thought, and
I'm a creative person, so I thought, I need to
do something. So it just started off with my blog
and researching the recipes and making them at home and
(08:34):
sharing it in that way, and having my poor husband,
you know, being my official taste tester, and some things
were not that great, you know, him eating hard tack,
which is horrible, but you know it's.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Just yeah, but that's how that survived. I mean, I
know it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Coffee, you know, like during the Civil War, they didn't
have coffee like coffee things that we have today, like
you could just make coffee in a pot or espressos.
You know, they had to do whatever they had to
do when they were you know, during the war years
when they were on the road and then battles anything
like us chickery or every different thing just to have
(09:17):
a pot of coffee.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Right, and you had to do some foraging, you know,
to get things like that too, which we don't have
to do anymore.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Leave I can't imagine making coffee. You're trying to make
it out of leaves and tree branches, but they just,
you know, they did it, and I just think it's
really really neat.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Okay, So I saw that you have a lot of
videos too, So you've been doing this for a while.
When did you get started?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Well with the blog and then I started with the
Facebook page, and then I just started doing the videos.
I had a bakery for two and a half years
in Strasburg, so I started doing videos, you know, of
the bakery and you know, us cooking and all of
those fun things in there. But then I started, you know,
(10:06):
just deciding to make videos of how these different recipes
are made, and you just want to I just wanted
to share my love of it with people and share
how they, you know, too, can make these recipes as well.
And I've got a little following on TikTok and you know,
(10:27):
a woman always writes in and she says she looks
forward to my videos because she likes to use them
to teach her grandchildren, you know, how to make these
recipes and to teach them history lessons. And it's just
really fascinating and I'm glad that I can, you know,
reach out to people like that that can share it
(10:49):
with their children and grandchildren.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, and I think it's important that we don't lose
those recipes to you know, the animals of time, because
that's quite possible. There's a lot of things that we
just don't know about the way things were done because
those methods, you know, I guess they were never written
down or whatever, and so we don't know how to
replicate something. So I'm glad that you're taking these recipes
(11:15):
and making sure you know, through the videos and through
your on the other social media that those don't get lost.
You know, that's I think that's important.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So what did you do before you decided to do
this big project?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Oh? Well, I was a government employee for nearly thirty years,
so I worked at the Pentagon. I was there for
most of those years, you know, from very young at
the age of twenty one, I was there, and I
just I was worked for the Secretary of Defense, So
(11:53):
I was there for a long time and that was
my career, you know, until I left and then move
to Strasburg.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Okay, And how often do you put your different recipes out?
Like if somebody was listening and they wanted to start
following you, what could they expect.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I usually try to have a recipe out once a
week or sometimes twice a week. It all depends on
how my life is, because you know, I'm a normal
person with a lot of things on sometimes with kids
and grandkids and life. So but I try to work
on it once or twice a week and have a
video out.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Okay, And where do you find your recipes? I know
you said cookbooks, but do you have to kind of
dig for things that are this old or I mean,
if I wanted to go find my own cookbooks with
old recipes, where would I go?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, that's kind of hard sometimes to find the really
old old ones. I mean, there are a few that
you can purchase on Amazon that are from the seventeen hundreds,
and those are fascinating. But it's also the recipes are different,
of course than what we have today, so you have
(13:05):
to decipher and try to figure out, like what do
they mean by measuring by a goose egg? You know?
Oh wow? So it's interesting to read. But I also
find a lot online and they have modernized some of
the cookbooks a little bit. Roberty Lee's great granddaughter had
(13:29):
a fascinating cookbook out years ago that I'm luckily I
have it at home. But she had a coffee of
her great grandmother Mary Lee's recipes, so she used those
old recipes and she had like a test kitchen of
her friends and they made the recipes and then they
(13:50):
modernized them a little bit. So in the book it
was the old written down recipe and then also the
modern version, which we could, you know, to figure out today.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Now, how long did it take you to learn how
to translate, like you said, the old way of the
way they spoke and the measurements to modern day? How
was that difficult?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
A little bit? But it's a lot of you know,
trying different ways and experimenting, and some things fail and
some things are successful. So I'll write it down you
know what has worked and what definitely doesn't work. And
you know, there's a lot of them. Back in those days,
they ate a lot of squirrel and that's not me.
(14:36):
I'm a city girl, So I'm going no offense to
people that want to go out and eat work. But
I've never had a squirrel. I've never eaten one. My
husband has, but I just, yeah, I'm not going to
make anything like that, but a lot of like Teddy
roosevelts and that he loves squirrel sew and Abraham Lincoln
loves turtle soup. I'm not going to do that because
(14:59):
I wouldn't even know how to go out and hunt
a turtle and you know, do what I have to
do to make turtle soup. So I tried to. I
try to stay with things that I'm familiar with, like
the baking and you know, the chicken and Eisenhower he
had a wonderful recipe for vegetable soup and beef stew,
(15:21):
and yeah, those are much more my style.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Okay, I would imagine if I had to guess hardtack
was probably your least favorite thing to make or eat, Really,
would you agree with that? Or is there something worse?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Now? I mean, hard tack was actually surprisingly it was
pretty tasty and it kind of tasted like you know
the crackers that the saltines. I guess, just a little
bit harder. They're not too. It wasn't hard to make
it all. It was just basically flour and salt and
(16:00):
it for a long time. And I learned that hardtack
can stay for like hundreds of years in some museums,
that I've visited. They've actually still have hardtack on display.
You know that are that's from the Civil War. Wow?
And it's yeah, it doesn't go, it doesn't fade, it
(16:21):
doesn't I don't know if it's edible, but maybe.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Right when you're just trying to survive, I guess you
just that's as good as anything else, right, right, So
what would be your favorite recipe?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Probably Mary Todd Lincoln's white cake. I used to make
that a lot at the bakery, and it's a bunt
cake and it had a really neat story behind it
because she made it apparently while they were recording, and
they say that, you know, it won his heart. You know,
I don't know about that. I mean, it could have
(16:56):
been made up. But the cake was also on display
at their home in Springfield, Illinois, and it was on
the table of the night that he won his first election.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Wow. That's that's interesting. I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, and you know it was made for birthdays and yeah,
it was just just a wonderful family recipe.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So it actually tastes really good too.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Okay, So is it pretty basic or is it involved
in complicated?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
It's pretty basic. I mean there's a lot of steps,
but yeah, it's not too hard to make at all.
It has a lot of egg whites, so you have
to really go through a lot of eggs, which nowadays,
you know, with the cost of eggs, I don't know
if anybody would want to even do that, but it's yeah,
it's it's not too hard at all.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Okay, And I know you were talking talking about squirrel
and turtle. Is there any recipe that's even more unusual
or what would you say is the most unusual that
you have actually tried.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I you know, I haven't tried those, so I hid
away from them. I mean, yeah, I haven't made them
and I haven't tried them.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Okay, would you say there is something you've tried that
would that you were a little surprised and thought, well,
I wouldn't think I would like that, but it was
really good.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Probably I made a recipe for George Washington's soup, his
vegetable soup, and I didn't think that I would like that,
and it was actually pretty tasty. And also probably the
least favorite of the cakes that ever made was Martha
Washington's Great cake. That was really that's really complicated, and
(18:54):
it had I can't remember exactly what it had in it,
but it just had rum and just a lot of stuff.
And then made it and I was just like, oh,
I'm not going to do this again. You know, maybe
you know back then it came out really wonderful, but yeah,
it's difficult to make and it wasn't very tasty.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Now, are most of these things you can make like
our regular modern day things within you know, a certain
amount of time in one day or are there things
that have to take multiple days to be able to
come up with a final product?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Oh? No, No, I try to make whatever I'm going
to make, I try to make it in one day.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Okay, So you said you started with a blog. What
came next when you decided to expand out of your blog?
What did you do next?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Well? After the blog, I mean I was still well,
I was doing that while I was working, and then
I started researching recipes and write them all down. And
then I.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Opened a bakery, and I thought I would love because
it's just my I just love to share, you know,
history and these types of baking and historical recipes with people.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
So I always wanted to open a bakery because I
just thought it would be great. So I opened a
bakery called the Historical Homemaker Bakery and Cafe in Strasburg, Virginia,
and I would always have like one or two of
the historical recipes on the bakery shelves and people really
(20:39):
seemed to find that fascinating and loved it. And Mary
Todd Lincoln's cake was one of the cakes that I
always had, you know, so people could always enjoy and
taste and they And also another favorite was Laura Bush's
Cowboy Cookies. I have that recipe, so that was like
(21:01):
the number one cookie that was sold at the bakery.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Oh wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, and I still get asked by the people in town,
you know, could you make me some cowboy cookies? Awesome?
And I will, but yeah, they really enjoyed them.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, that'd be an easy way to make extra money
at Christmas, you know. Or yeah. So about how many
people do you think follow you in general?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
How many people? Mm? Hm, well there's over six thousand
on the Facebook page, I know, there's like sixty one
sixty two hundred, and on the blog there's a couple hundred,
and on the YouTube channel there's about the same and
(21:54):
TikTok I'm just you know, I've just got into really
doing TikTok and learning about that. And I have a
few thousand people on there, okay, And I'm on instagrae.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Too, okay, on Instagram. So what does that feel like
to know that there are six thousand people on Facebook
who are, you know, interested in what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I think it's pretty cool. And you know, some you know,
I get a lot of feedback, you know, good feedback
on TikTok. Sometimes you never know some people are really weird.
Sometimes you never know who you're dealing with on there.
It could be different because I made George Washington's home
(22:39):
cakes one day and I put it on TikTok and
that's probably the most viral video that I've put on there,
and I don't you know, and it just got a
lot of feedback, and I was like, wow for homecakes.
But you know, with some people, they took it it
(23:01):
was interesting, they took it the wrong way. Yeah, But
I learned also on TikTok, the more people that comment,
the more follow you. So I'm like, at first I
was a little worried, like this is a good thing,
but then my girlfriend's reminded me you know, like, oh, no,
that's great because you've gone viral and that more people
(23:22):
will follow you. And I'm like, yeah, but I don't
want them to follow me because of you know, these
people's weird misunderstanding. Yeah, I mean, these are hocakes. They're
not you know, something bad.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Right now, what is a hoe cake? I've heard of
that before, but I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
It's actually just a cornmeal pancake, okay, I mean basically
the same thing instead of well, you put a little
flour in it, but you mix with cornmeal and it
tastes kind of like you make it the same way
that you make pancakes. And George Washington loved them, so,
you know, once again, I thought it'd be really neat
(24:05):
to blog about it and write about it and make
them and eat them and know that he enjoyed them,
and a lot of you know, reading about it, people
that would visit the Washingtons there were hocakes were always
on the table for breakfast, and he enjoyed eating at
(24:26):
or drinking a hot chocolate beverage, which is probably kind
of like hot chocolate that we have today. And yeah,
I just and it was. Hocakes were very popular back then.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I guess right right now, I know you have your
own cookbooks, right, Is this where you've compiled things that
you have found.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah. Now, I'm I'm starting or I'm actually I'm working
with a publisher and I'm just finishing up on doing
my first cookbook. So just all all of the things
that I've made and recipes of course that I've adapted
from historical you know, people, and things that I've made
(25:10):
in my kitchen, I'm putting into a cookbook and I've
been working on that and we'll see. I'm at the
end now where I'm almost done editing. It's been a
long process and I've grabbed my friends and they've helped
me out too by baking, taking pictures and helping me edit.
And so it's going to I think it'll be really great.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, sounds awesome. Are you going to be able to
offer that on your website or will it be through Amazon?
Do you know yet?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I'll be putting it on my website and it will
be on Amazon, and once it's published, and it's going
to be a hardcover soft cover and also through Kindle,
It's going to be on Barnes and Noble website. And
I've been told that, you know, of a certain amount cells,
(26:02):
then Barnes and Noble will pick it up and buy
thousands of copies and you know, put it on their
shelves and their stores. So I'm hoping, hoping to get
to that point. But I'm just really excited about just
having a cookbook published.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, that is exciting. Are there any other recipes that
have unique backstories like the one you told us earlier?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, there's like there's Lady Bird Johnson's lemon cake, which
is delicious and I've made a few times. It was
used in the White House. That is that her daughter's
wedding reception, So I've made that a few times. Dolly
Madison's Woodbury tea cakes. Dolly Madison was like just a
(26:54):
woman of society and everyone like you know, kissed her
ring and she was like the grand Dame of Washington,
and she would, you know, have these big events even
after she went to after she left the White House.
She was a very social bug and the woodberry tea
cakes were part of you know, her tea parties with
(27:15):
her friends. And so I've made those and those are
really yummy.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
That sounds good, That sounds really good. Did anybody have
a particularly strong sweet tooth.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
For the presidents or the first ladies? I yeah, I
would say, well, they all kind of liked something sweet,
all of them. You know. Ronald Reagan, of course, you know,
he loved jelly beans, but that was his and there's
a famous quote that he said something about a man
(27:50):
who doesn't like jelly beans can't be trusted. But he
really loved comfort food and he'd be surprised, you know,
like someone like Ronald Reagan, you didn't think he would
be more into eating, you know, fancy foods, especially with
Nancy Reagan, who you know, was very seemed very high class,
(28:13):
but they were very down to earth people. It's one
of his favorite foods was homemade macaroni and cheese. Oh
that sounds good too, yea, and brownies.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Okay, yeah, all right, Well we're coming up to the
end of our time. I wanted to give you a
chance to plug all your different social media's and tell
people how to find you, so maybe we can get
you some more followers.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Oh well, thank you so much. Yeah. I can be
found on Facebook with the Historical Homemaker and my website
blog is Thehistorical Homemaker dot com. I'm also on Instagram
with the same name and also on TikTok so and
(28:58):
those are the and I also have a YouTube channel
which I put all of my videos there as well.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Awesome. Well, I really appreciate your time today and for
you sharing, you know, your experiences and what led you
down this path and what you've learned about a bunch
of these recipes has been very fascinating.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, it really has. I've learned a lot and I
just enjoy it. It's my passion, and you know, I
think everyone has to have a passion in life, and
it's mine. Definitely.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I love it. Well, thank you for coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Thanks for Rebecca, thanks for asking me to be on.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I hope you've enjoyed today's show. Thanks for tuning into
the show on your favorite local radio station. You can
now listen to this show or past shows through the
iheartapp or on iHeart dot com. Just search for Virginia
Focus under podcasts. I'm Rebecca Hughes with the Virginia News
Network and I'll be here next week on Virginia Focus.
Welcome to Virginia Focus. I'm Rebecca Hughes of the Virginia
News Network. Some Virginians grow up in the Commonwealth and
don't take notice of the depth of history available around
every corner, but others, like Colleen Dixon, who grew up
in Arlington, find themselves mesmerized by the richness of American
history at every turn. Miss Dixon calls herself the historical
(00:26):
homemaker and believes it's important to cherish and share the
memories of those that have gone before us and made
our country so great. Welcome to the show, Miss Dixon.
I'm so glad we could have you on today. I
discovered your YouTube channel and I was very excited about
the opportunity to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, thanks for reaching out to me. It's such a
pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
So why don't we start by you telling the audience
who you are. You know, explain what makes you a
fellow Virginian and what may you fall in love with
the history of our country?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Oh my gosh, Well, I mean since childhood, I've always
loved American history and been fascinated by it, and growing
up in Arlington, which is right next to Washington, d C.
Of course. I was grew up in that area where
you know, we took school trips to Mount Vernon and
(01:23):
Arlingtoln Cemetery where Lee's Robert E. Lee's house is, and
it was just always fascinating to me. And when my
children were young, I would take them on field trips
all around the area to the battlefields and into Washington
of course, and just to you know, make them learn
(01:44):
about history too, because I think it's important that everyone
knows the parts about American history and everything that's so
great about it. And you know there's things that not
great too, but you know, it's all of our history,
so it's it's great.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I love that. And as I understand it, you are
the daughter of a veteran and maybe several that served
in the military and your family. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh yeah, I mean my dad is that I retired
d C Washington, d C. Police officer, and he was
in the army, and matter of fact, that's how he
met my mother. He's originally from Vermont and he was
stationed in the Arlington area and my mom, you know,
they met to some square day on so I don't
know for servicemen, and so yeah, he was in the
(02:37):
army for a few years. He was a medic. My
mom's father was. Then he was in World War Two,
so he was sorry as my dogs he was. He
was a submariner, so he was over in the Pacific
for about four years or so. And I have cousins
(02:58):
that have served, and it's just, you know, an honor
to be part of a military family. And I'm just
very proud that.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I love that. Now, do you think that that military
history may have been a part of why you fell
in love with American history, just because I'm sitting here thinking,
you know, a lot of kids go through history class
and they go to historical things and it just doesn't
make an impression on them. But obviously for you that
wasn't the case.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh yeah, I mean it's just my dad. Well, I
really have to attribute to my dad's father, who they're
from Vermont, and he would always tell, you know, the
grandchildren all these wonderful stories about Ethan Allen and Theodore Roosevelt,
and it was very important to him. So he always
(03:51):
told us these wonderful stories, you know, of just these
historical figures, and he made it very interesting and you
just in with that, you know, it made me want
to read up on everything, and in school I was
really good, of course in American history, not so much
in world history, but it's yeah, but in American history especially,
(04:17):
like I said, with growing up in Arlington and being
so close to Mount Vernon, and you know, the Lee
family is still in that area, it's just I fell
in love with it. And when you know, I became
a mom and my kids were growing up, I really
wanted them to learn about it and be fascinated with
it as well. So I would take them on field
(04:39):
trips and then just to make sure, you know, afterwards
that they're paying attention, I wou'dt even give them little quizzes,
you know, prizes, just to make sure I know that
they're so I would take them all over the place.
And I'm really proud that my sons love history too,
now you know they're.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
So where's your favorite place to go?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Probably used to you know. I love Mount Vernon, of
course because I've been there so many times, and of
course Lee's mansion. But I really have a fascination with
Gettysburg because of Abraham Lincoln, you know, was there and
did the Gettysburg Address, and a lot of the Civil
War places like Manassas, the battlefields. I think I've been
(05:26):
to every single one in Virginia and it's like that
era and of course the American Revolution. I've just found
it just very intriguing and fascinating and how they lived
and how they survived, and with the American Revolution, of course,
you know, they were just normal people. They were farmers,
(05:46):
and some of them were British citizens and just the
stories of how they had to give up you know,
their's citizenship to the crown and they fought, you know,
to have a part of this country and to make
this country so great, and it was really challenging for them,
but you know, they did it. And I just think
(06:08):
that's really cool because you know, they could have easily
folded and just you know, bent to the king, but
oh yeah, they you know, and without them, we wouldn't
be where we are today. And even George Washington and
Robert E. Lee they had to make choices you know
that were hard, but they wanted to be here and
(06:31):
they believed in the United States and they wanted to
make this country into what it is now today.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So thanks to them, yeah, definitely, thanks to them. So
is that kind of what led you to become the
historical homemaker.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Well, that part I started because I loved a bake.
I mean even since childhood, I've loved to make cookies
and cakes. And you know, I had an easy bake
up in my mom gave me and you know, it
was just all it. So that and with history, I
just acquired some cookbooks and I thought, oh my gosh,
(07:11):
it's so fascinating. You know, how they cooked back then.
I mean they didn't have the modern appliances of course
that we have now, but just the cakes and the
cookies and the different ingredients, and so I just thought
it was really neat, how you know, like some of
the cakes that like Mary Todd Lincoln made for Abraham Lincoln,
(07:35):
and it was just really neat to taste, you know,
something that people long ago, you know, enjoyed too. And
so just to eat a cake, you know, like that
that Abraham Lincoln once enjoyed, I thought that was really cool.
And so that's how I started that and doing research
on you know, the first ladies and their favorite recipes,
(07:57):
and the presidents and all these other women and men
part part of our history too.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
So what they do decide to start sharing that on
the various social medias and making videos.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It just, you know, one day, it's just it just
started off like it just came to me. I was bored.
It actually was a snow day, and I thought, and
I'm a creative person, so I thought, I need to
do something. So it just started off with my blog
and researching the recipes and making them at home and
(08:34):
sharing it in that way, and having my poor husband,
you know, being my official taste tester, and some things
were not that great, you know, him eating hard tack,
which is horrible, but you know it's.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Just yeah, but that's how that survived. I mean, I
know it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Coffee, you know, like during the Civil War, they didn't
have coffee like coffee things that we have today, like
you could just make coffee in a pot or espressos.
You know, they had to do whatever they had to
do when they were you know, during the war years
when they were on the road and then battles anything
like us chickery or every different thing just to have
(09:17):
a pot of coffee.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Right, and you had to do some foraging, you know,
to get things like that too, which we don't have
to do anymore.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Leave I can't imagine making coffee. You're trying to make
it out of leaves and tree branches, but they just,
you know, they did it, and I just think it's
really really neat.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Okay, So I saw that you have a lot of
videos too, So you've been doing this for a while.
When did you get started?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Well with the blog and then I started with the
Facebook page, and then I just started doing the videos.
I had a bakery for two and a half years
in Strasburg, so I started doing videos, you know, of
the bakery and you know, us cooking and all of
those fun things in there. But then I started, you know,
(10:06):
just deciding to make videos of how these different recipes
are made, and you just want to I just wanted
to share my love of it with people and share
how they, you know, too, can make these recipes as well.
And I've got a little following on TikTok and you know,
(10:27):
a woman always writes in and she says she looks
forward to my videos because she likes to use them
to teach her grandchildren, you know, how to make these
recipes and to teach them history lessons. And it's just
really fascinating and I'm glad that I can, you know,
reach out to people like that that can share it
(10:49):
with their children and grandchildren.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, and I think it's important that we don't lose
those recipes to you know, the animals of time, because
that's quite possible. There's a lot of things that we
just don't know about the way things were done because
those methods, you know, I guess they were never written
down or whatever, and so we don't know how to
replicate something. So I'm glad that you're taking these recipes
(11:15):
and making sure you know, through the videos and through
your on the other social media that those don't get lost.
You know, that's I think that's important.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So what did you do before you decided to do
this big project?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Oh? Well, I was a government employee for nearly thirty years,
so I worked at the Pentagon. I was there for
most of those years, you know, from very young at
the age of twenty one, I was there, and I
just I was worked for the Secretary of Defense, So
(11:53):
I was there for a long time and that was
my career, you know, until I left and then move
to Strasburg.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Okay, And how often do you put your different recipes out?
Like if somebody was listening and they wanted to start
following you, what could they expect.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I usually try to have a recipe out once a
week or sometimes twice a week. It all depends on
how my life is, because you know, I'm a normal
person with a lot of things on sometimes with kids
and grandkids and life. So but I try to work
on it once or twice a week and have a
video out.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Okay, And where do you find your recipes? I know
you said cookbooks, but do you have to kind of
dig for things that are this old or I mean,
if I wanted to go find my own cookbooks with
old recipes, where would I go?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, that's kind of hard sometimes to find the really
old old ones. I mean, there are a few that
you can purchase on Amazon that are from the seventeen hundreds,
and those are fascinating. But it's also the recipes are different,
of course than what we have today, so you have
(13:05):
to decipher and try to figure out, like what do
they mean by measuring by a goose egg? You know?
Oh wow? So it's interesting to read. But I also
find a lot online and they have modernized some of
the cookbooks a little bit. Roberty Lee's great granddaughter had
(13:29):
a fascinating cookbook out years ago that I'm luckily I
have it at home. But she had a coffee of
her great grandmother Mary Lee's recipes, so she used those
old recipes and she had like a test kitchen of
her friends and they made the recipes and then they
(13:50):
modernized them a little bit. So in the book it
was the old written down recipe and then also the
modern version, which we could, you know, to figure out today.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Now, how long did it take you to learn how
to translate, like you said, the old way of the
way they spoke and the measurements to modern day? How
was that difficult?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
A little bit? But it's a lot of you know,
trying different ways and experimenting, and some things fail and
some things are successful. So I'll write it down you
know what has worked and what definitely doesn't work. And
you know, there's a lot of them. Back in those days,
they ate a lot of squirrel and that's not me.
(14:36):
I'm a city girl, So I'm going no offense to
people that want to go out and eat work. But
I've never had a squirrel. I've never eaten one. My
husband has, but I just, yeah, I'm not going to
make anything like that, but a lot of like Teddy
roosevelts and that he loves squirrel sew and Abraham Lincoln
loves turtle soup. I'm not going to do that because
(14:59):
I wouldn't even know how to go out and hunt
a turtle and you know, do what I have to
do to make turtle soup. So I tried to. I
try to stay with things that I'm familiar with, like
the baking and you know, the chicken and Eisenhower he
had a wonderful recipe for vegetable soup and beef stew,
(15:21):
and yeah, those are much more my style.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Okay, I would imagine if I had to guess hardtack
was probably your least favorite thing to make or eat, Really,
would you agree with that? Or is there something worse?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Now? I mean, hard tack was actually surprisingly it was
pretty tasty and it kind of tasted like you know
the crackers that the saltines. I guess, just a little
bit harder. They're not too. It wasn't hard to make
it all. It was just basically flour and salt and
(16:00):
it for a long time. And I learned that hardtack
can stay for like hundreds of years in some museums,
that I've visited. They've actually still have hardtack on display.
You know that are that's from the Civil War. Wow?
And it's yeah, it doesn't go, it doesn't fade, it
(16:21):
doesn't I don't know if it's edible, but maybe.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Right when you're just trying to survive, I guess you
just that's as good as anything else, right, right, So
what would be your favorite recipe?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Probably Mary Todd Lincoln's white cake. I used to make
that a lot at the bakery, and it's a bunt
cake and it had a really neat story behind it
because she made it apparently while they were recording, and
they say that, you know, it won his heart. You know,
I don't know about that. I mean, it could have
(16:56):
been made up. But the cake was also on display
at their home in Springfield, Illinois, and it was on
the table of the night that he won his first election.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Wow. That's that's interesting. I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, and you know it was made for birthdays and yeah,
it was just just a wonderful family recipe.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So it actually tastes really good too.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Okay, So is it pretty basic or is it involved
in complicated?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
It's pretty basic. I mean there's a lot of steps,
but yeah, it's not too hard to make at all.
It has a lot of egg whites, so you have
to really go through a lot of eggs, which nowadays,
you know, with the cost of eggs, I don't know
if anybody would want to even do that, but it's yeah,
it's it's not too hard at all.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Okay, And I know you were talking talking about squirrel
and turtle. Is there any recipe that's even more unusual
or what would you say is the most unusual that
you have actually tried.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I you know, I haven't tried those, so I hid
away from them. I mean, yeah, I haven't made them
and I haven't tried them.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Okay, would you say there is something you've tried that
would that you were a little surprised and thought, well,
I wouldn't think I would like that, but it was
really good.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Probably I made a recipe for George Washington's soup, his
vegetable soup, and I didn't think that I would like that,
and it was actually pretty tasty. And also probably the
least favorite of the cakes that ever made was Martha
Washington's Great cake. That was really that's really complicated, and
(18:54):
it had I can't remember exactly what it had in it,
but it just had rum and just a lot of stuff.
And then made it and I was just like, oh,
I'm not going to do this again. You know, maybe
you know back then it came out really wonderful, but yeah,
it's difficult to make and it wasn't very tasty.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Now, are most of these things you can make like
our regular modern day things within you know, a certain
amount of time in one day or are there things
that have to take multiple days to be able to
come up with a final product?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Oh? No, No, I try to make whatever I'm going
to make, I try to make it in one day.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Okay, So you said you started with a blog. What
came next when you decided to expand out of your blog?
What did you do next?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Well? After the blog, I mean I was still well,
I was doing that while I was working, and then
I started researching recipes and write them all down. And
then I.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Opened a bakery, and I thought I would love because
it's just my I just love to share, you know,
history and these types of baking and historical recipes with people.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
So I always wanted to open a bakery because I
just thought it would be great. So I opened a
bakery called the Historical Homemaker Bakery and Cafe in Strasburg, Virginia,
and I would always have like one or two of
the historical recipes on the bakery shelves and people really
(20:39):
seemed to find that fascinating and loved it. And Mary
Todd Lincoln's cake was one of the cakes that I
always had, you know, so people could always enjoy and
taste and they And also another favorite was Laura Bush's
Cowboy Cookies. I have that recipe, so that was like
(21:01):
the number one cookie that was sold at the bakery.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Oh wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, and I still get asked by the people in town,
you know, could you make me some cowboy cookies? Awesome?
And I will, but yeah, they really enjoyed them.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, that'd be an easy way to make extra money
at Christmas, you know. Or yeah. So about how many
people do you think follow you in general?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
How many people? Mm? Hm, well there's over six thousand
on the Facebook page, I know, there's like sixty one
sixty two hundred, and on the blog there's a couple hundred,
and on the YouTube channel there's about the same and
(21:54):
TikTok I'm just you know, I've just got into really
doing TikTok and learning about that. And I have a
few thousand people on there, okay, And I'm on instagrae.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Too, okay, on Instagram. So what does that feel like
to know that there are six thousand people on Facebook
who are, you know, interested in what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I think it's pretty cool. And you know, some you know,
I get a lot of feedback, you know, good feedback
on TikTok. Sometimes you never know some people are really weird.
Sometimes you never know who you're dealing with on there.
It could be different because I made George Washington's home
(22:39):
cakes one day and I put it on TikTok and
that's probably the most viral video that I've put on there,
and I don't you know, and it just got a
lot of feedback, and I was like, wow for homecakes.
But you know, with some people, they took it it
(23:01):
was interesting, they took it the wrong way. Yeah, But
I learned also on TikTok, the more people that comment,
the more follow you. So I'm like, at first I
was a little worried, like this is a good thing,
but then my girlfriend's reminded me you know, like, oh, no,
that's great because you've gone viral and that more people
(23:22):
will follow you. And I'm like, yeah, but I don't
want them to follow me because of you know, these
people's weird misunderstanding. Yeah, I mean, these are hocakes. They're
not you know, something bad.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Right now, what is a hoe cake? I've heard of
that before, but I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
It's actually just a cornmeal pancake, okay, I mean basically
the same thing instead of well, you put a little
flour in it, but you mix with cornmeal and it
tastes kind of like you make it the same way
that you make pancakes. And George Washington loved them, so,
you know, once again, I thought it'd be really neat
(24:05):
to blog about it and write about it and make
them and eat them and know that he enjoyed them,
and a lot of you know, reading about it, people
that would visit the Washingtons there were hocakes were always
on the table for breakfast, and he enjoyed eating at
(24:26):
or drinking a hot chocolate beverage, which is probably kind
of like hot chocolate that we have today. And yeah,
I just and it was. Hocakes were very popular back then.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I guess right right now, I know you have your
own cookbooks, right, Is this where you've compiled things that
you have found.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah. Now, I'm I'm starting or I'm actually I'm working
with a publisher and I'm just finishing up on doing
my first cookbook. So just all all of the things
that I've made and recipes of course that I've adapted
from historical you know, people, and things that I've made
(25:10):
in my kitchen, I'm putting into a cookbook and I've
been working on that and we'll see. I'm at the
end now where I'm almost done editing. It's been a
long process and I've grabbed my friends and they've helped
me out too by baking, taking pictures and helping me edit.
And so it's going to I think it'll be really great.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, sounds awesome. Are you going to be able to
offer that on your website or will it be through Amazon?
Do you know yet?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I'll be putting it on my website and it will
be on Amazon, and once it's published, and it's going
to be a hardcover soft cover and also through Kindle,
It's going to be on Barnes and Noble website. And
I've been told that, you know, of a certain amount cells,
(26:02):
then Barnes and Noble will pick it up and buy
thousands of copies and you know, put it on their
shelves and their stores. So I'm hoping, hoping to get
to that point. But I'm just really excited about just
having a cookbook published.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, that is exciting. Are there any other recipes that
have unique backstories like the one you told us earlier?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, there's like there's Lady Bird Johnson's lemon cake, which
is delicious and I've made a few times. It was
used in the White House. That is that her daughter's
wedding reception, So I've made that a few times. Dolly
Madison's Woodbury tea cakes. Dolly Madison was like just a
(26:54):
woman of society and everyone like you know, kissed her
ring and she was like the grand Dame of Washington,
and she would, you know, have these big events even
after she went to after she left the White House.
She was a very social bug and the woodberry tea
cakes were part of you know, her tea parties with
(27:15):
her friends. And so I've made those and those are
really yummy.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
That sounds good, That sounds really good. Did anybody have
a particularly strong sweet tooth.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
For the presidents or the first ladies? I yeah, I
would say, well, they all kind of liked something sweet,
all of them. You know. Ronald Reagan, of course, you know,
he loved jelly beans, but that was his and there's
a famous quote that he said something about a man
(27:50):
who doesn't like jelly beans can't be trusted. But he
really loved comfort food and he'd be surprised, you know,
like someone like Ronald Reagan, you didn't think he would
be more into eating, you know, fancy foods, especially with
Nancy Reagan, who you know, was very seemed very high class,
(28:13):
but they were very down to earth people. It's one
of his favorite foods was homemade macaroni and cheese. Oh
that sounds good too, yea, and brownies.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Okay, yeah, all right, Well we're coming up to the
end of our time. I wanted to give you a
chance to plug all your different social media's and tell
people how to find you, so maybe we can get
you some more followers.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Oh well, thank you so much. Yeah. I can be
found on Facebook with the Historical Homemaker and my website
blog is Thehistorical Homemaker dot com. I'm also on Instagram
with the same name and also on TikTok so and
(28:58):
those are the and I also have a YouTube channel
which I put all of my videos there as well.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Awesome. Well, I really appreciate your time today and for
you sharing, you know, your experiences and what led you
down this path and what you've learned about a bunch
of these recipes has been very fascinating.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, it really has. I've learned a lot and I
just enjoy it. It's my passion, and you know, I
think everyone has to have a passion in life, and
it's mine. Definitely.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I love it. Well, thank you for coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Thanks for Rebecca, thanks for asking me to be on.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I hope you've enjoyed today's show. Thanks for tuning into
the show on your favorite local radio station. You can
now listen to this show or past shows through the
iheartapp or on iHeart dot com. Just search for Virginia
Focus under podcasts. I'm Rebecca Hughes with the Virginia News
Network and I'll be here next week on Virginia Focus.
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