Food Friday: Woman's Glory, Slovenian Women, and Pink Tea

A friend  recently picked up this  community cookbook in Indiana for me that illustrates some of the great content found in these cookbooks.

Woman's Glory The Kitchen by the Slovenian Women's Union of America is 275 pages of everything from introductions, recipes, and kitchen tips to  photos, some street addresses and information about the Slovenian Women's Union. This cookbook published in 1953 is in honor of the organization's silver anniversary. From the Preface by the cookbook's editor Albina Novak, the reader learns that she had wanted to compile a cookbook that   "would serve as an instructor to the Slovenian women of today who wish to include in their homemaking dishes for which their mothers have always been famous." Four pages in the beginning of the book provide information and names about members of the Slovenian Women's Union

The cookbook states that the Slovenian Women's Union had a membership of 13,000 in 1951 with branches in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and California. Founded in December 1926, today the group is known as the Slovenian Union of America. According to the website the first president of the Slovenian Women's Union, Marie Prisland founded the group after watching other groups that addressed women's social condition. The website quotes her as saying, “What we needed most was an organization which would foster our ambitions and serve as an open forum for all women of Slovenian birth; where they could freely express their opinions and at the same time, learn the lesson their more fortunate sisters had gathered while living in this country."

For those with Slovenian ancestry, the Slovenian Union of America website does have a page of genealogy links.

The downside to this cookbook is that not all recipes are attributed. However, there are plenty of names in this cookbook and in some cases even street addresses.

So had a bad week? Feel free to make this "adult beverage" found at the bottom of this page, after all it's just tea. (Notice that the recipe is submitted by the founder of the organization).