Tasha Tudor Cookbook Lecture and Brunch Nov. 18

The Tasha Tudor Cookbook Lecture and Brunch will be held Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 10 a.m. at Oddfellows Gallery in downtown Hattiesburg. Susan Haller will prepare Tasha's favorite Dundee cake and attendees will be able to taste more favorite recipes from Tasha Tudor's cookbooks.

The lecture and brunch is presented by the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection and University Libraries at Southern Miss and is held in conjunction with the exhibit, Tasha Tudor: Around the Year, currently on display at Oddfellows Gallery. 

Tudor, a beloved children's book author and illustrator, wrote numerous cookbooks where she shares the recipes she gathered over a lifetime - some that have been passed down for generations and some she created especially for her children and grandchildren. Her traditional recipes recall an old-fashioned New England lifestyle and summon up Tasha's own warm family memories, which she shares here with her readers.

Tudor's recipe collection includes treats like Great-Grandmother Tudor's Cornbread, Roast Chicken with tarragon and sage, vegetable-laden Beef Stew, and desserts such as a luscious dark chocolate torte. Her recipes are intended to bring family and friends together.

Tudor's Advent teas were also memorable and the Dundee cake was always the great attraction. Somewhat like a fruitcake, but white, they appeared on her tea table on this day all her life. The recipe came from her beloved Scottish nanny, Dady.

Advent was an important time in Tasha's Christmas celebration, her favorite time of the year. It officially began for the Tudor household on Dec. 6, the birthday of Saint Nicholas, and heralded the Christmas season for Tasha and her family.

Tasha Tudor: Around the Year features 130 original works of art by the award-winning illustrator. The exhibit is on display from October through December at Oddfellows Gallery in downtown Hattiesburg. The exhibit commemorates 100 years of Tasha Tudor and will include original paintings, books, cards and calendars, studies, manuscripts, doll cards and letters, and ephemera, artifacts including hand-painted goose eggs and hand-decorated floral box. These pieces are part of a traveling exhibit organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.

Susan Haller is a culinary historian with a bachelor of science in food science and nutrition from Ohio State University. She is former director of the Dorothy Lane Market School of Cooking and the Indiana Foodways Alliance, and has served as a culinary consultant with 4-H, museums and non-profits that include Colonial Williamsburg.

For more information, contact Dawn Smith at dawn.smithFREEMississippi.