Queen Anne Goes to the Kitchen

For those who enjoy reading cookbooks as well as using them, this delightful tidewater cookbook is an elegant feast. A blend of historic and modern recipes compiled by the Episcopal Church Women of St. Paul's Parish in Centreville, Maryland, in the county named for Queen Anne, the eighteenth-century British monarch. The book includes recipes inspired by regional ingredients, including saddle of venison, roast partridge, rabbit pie, shellfish, geese, ducks, and terrapin. Bakers will appreciate the selection of bread recipes, from the colonists' johnnycake to today's delicious brandied pumpkin bread and flavorful orange kuchen rolls. Beaten biscuits, once prepared with the blunt end of an axe, are a specialty still enjoyed on the Shore. Cakes, desserts, cookies, and pastries feature chocolate, nuts, rum, and ladyfingers, and fruits traditionally grown here.