Marcia was trying to help her mama.  So maybe balancing on top of a tower of chairs to dip candles wasn't such a good idea.  And perhaps her biscuits worked better as doorstops than dessert.  Still, does her mama really need to hire a mother's helper?

Then Fannie Farmer steps into their kitchen, and all of a sudden the biscuits are dainty and the griddle cakes aren't quite so...al dente.  As Fannie teaches Marcia all about cooking, from how to flip a griddle cake at precisely the right moment to how to determine the freshness of eggs, Marcia makes a wonderful friend.

Here's the story "from soup to nuts"—delightfully embellished by Deborah Hopkinson—of how Fannie Farmer invented the modern recipe and created one of the first and best-loved American cookbooks.  Nancy Carpenter seamlessly incorporates vintage engravings into her pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations, deliciously evoking the feeling of a time gone by.

From the dust jacket