Is a corn oyster REALLY an oyster? In their most self-indulgent and least food-related episode yet, Nicole and Julia take you inside the world of the popular historical doll series American Girl, and their much less popular series of cookbooks. In addition to learning about dolls and some specific American Girl characters, you’ll also learn what it was like to cook and dine on the Minnesota frontier in the 1850s and richy-rich upstate New York in the early 1900s. And, finally, maybe, you will learn what the heck fruit soup is. (We still don’t know either.)

Our theme song is “Red Onions” by Louie Zong, off of his album Vegetable Soul: https://louiezong.bandcamp.com/album/vegetable-soul

We’re on Twitter at @girlslunch and on Instagram @girlslunchpod. Nicole is on Twitter @nicoleh262 and her website is nicolehylton.com. Julia is smarter than all of us and not on social media. Have an episode suggestion or question? You can email us at girlslunchpodcast@gmail.com and we will add it to our chaotic list of future episode subjects.

Links to Sources:

• “Trying Meals from the American Girl Cookbooks,” Darling Dollz

• Samantha’s Cook Book: A Peek at Dining in the Past with Meals You Can Cook Today, ed. by Jodi Evert and Jeanne Thieme

• Kirsten’s Cook Book: A Peek at Dining in the Past with Meals You Can Cook Today, ed. by Jodi Evert and Jeanne Thieme

• “What Pioneers ate on the Oregon Trail,” Tasting History with Max Miller

• What Pioneers Ate, Notes From The Frontier. Dec 4, 2019

• Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America, by Susan Williams

• “Victorian Dinner Parties,” Shmanners Podcast