Author and historian Jessica B. Harris '68 is among the writers
The New York Times asked to share their story of the Thanksgiving holiday.
From the article:
For me, the highlight was the rutabaga purée. I’m not sure where my mother got the recipe, but the orange turnips sometimes known as Swedes were cooked with potatoes to soften some of their harshness. They were seasoned with a drizzle of bacon fat from the coffee can that sat on the back of the stove, and then mashed through a sieve. I delighted in them, savoring their creamy texture and smoky, bacon-infused taste.
The article ends with a link to the recipe.
Harris' latest book is the memoir My Soul Looks Back.
She has spent much of her career researching, preserving, and promoting African and African-American contributions to the culinary field. Her book High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, with a foreword by Maya Angelou, won the International Association of Culinary Professionals' Food History Award in 2012.
A professor at Queens College-CUNY, Harris has more than a dozen cookbooks to her name and has consulted for the cafeteria of the Smithsonian African American Museum of History and Culture and for the Ray Charles Programs in African American Food Studies at Dillard University in New Orleans. Currently, Harris hosts “My Welcome Table,” a monthly radio show on Heritage Radio Network about food, travel, music, and memory. Harris was a French major at Bryn Mawr.
