From a full-course Christmas dinner to the daily bread they ate, here are over 100 recipes which introduce the foods and cooking of Laura Ingalls Wilder's pioneer childhood and that of her husband's boyhood on a dairy farm.

Cooking for Laura was both a social experience and an apprenticeship. By cooking with Ma, Laura learned something about the preparation of food and the deep pleasures of a family working together. Today cooking remains one of the few essential household activities that children and adults can share.

Carefully researched by the author— and tested in her own kitchen—these authentic recipes of dishes described in the "Little House" books range from pancake men to an exotic starling pie and include pioneer methods for butter churning, blackberry drying, and ice cream making. Practical in its adaptations to modern measurements, kitchen equipment, and food availability, this unique book still reminds us of the connection between the food on the table and the grain in the field, and of the rich communion of a family working, cooking, and sharing the joys of eating together.

From the dust jacket