Stephanie Kate Strohm's Blog, page 8

One of my favorite childhood ladies-from-history obsessions was Joan of Arc.

girl, you best do something about that hair
My family is not particularly religious so I found the whole hearing-voices-from-Saints part vaguely confusing, but what I DID understand was girl + armor + sword = awesome.  I thought Joan of Arc was just the coolest, BAMFiest BAMF, just a simple peasant teenager who led the French armies to victory.  And then met a tragic demise.  (boo, ecclesiastical authori...

Like most kids who grew up to be writers, during various periods of my childhood I was a big journaler.  The middle and high school years chronicle cringe-inducing accounts of crushes and lists ranking the boys I'd slow danced with (criteria included height, sweatiness of palms, and pleasingness of scent), but a bit farther back into the past, there are some real gems.

Home at my parents' house for Memorial Day Weekend, I unearthed my first journal.  Back from before I could write, i...

Hi friends!  Sorry I've been away for so long - things have been busy since Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink came out on May 8th!  So I thought I'd share some photos from the launch party at the Fairfield University Bookstore.  It was a great night, the bookstore was beyond awesome, and I am so grateful to everyone who came out to hear my first reading!  

Signing with a pink pen, natch
You can kinda see the shoes in this shot - I bought them in Geneva when I was studying abroad, an...

I love this so much I need to share it on every form of social media I have access to.

Cinderella, by Claire Hummel
I awoke this morning to a link on my facebook page reading "Disney Princesses In Accurate Period Costume", so I knew immediately it was going to be a great day.  Two of my favorite things!
Artist Claire Hummel gave the girls new (old?) looks based on various eras - a 16th century Snow White, Ariel in a gown that would make Worth burn with envy, a truly medieval Sleeping Beauty.  ...

Back in 1790, Benjamin Franklin passed away at the age of 84.

Ol' Benj
My sister is about to graduate from Franklin and Marshall College, and I figured, who better to tell us about Benjamin Franklin than those who study at his college namesake?
"well ben franklin did love the ladies. and he started the first bilingual and coed college (marshall got rid of the biddies). he really liked beer. and syphillis. people like to pee on a statue of him. and he invented bifocals. and everyone loves him mor...

I've got a cast iron skillet, and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rapunzel from Disney's Tangled
No, not as a weapon!  I mean I'm not afraid to bake with it.  Libby, the MC in Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink, spends the summer open-hearth cooking at a living history museum.  Well, one summer I did that too, so I am very familiar with cast-iron cookery!  Things I learned about cooking with cast iron:
1. It is even heavier than it looks2. When you clean it, little black flecks will fly off...

Historical hottie alert - fictional division:

Ioan Gruffudd as Horatio HornblowerHave you ever loved something that you knew was amazing, and yet couldn't convince any of your friends it was awesome?  And this only made you love it MORE, in the weird, protective way you might care for the tiniest puppy in the litter?  Well this kind of love, my friends, characterizes my feelings for the amazing A&E miniseries, Horatio Hornblower.  

ahoy! First of all, the name is wo...

So after I posted about Jefferson's big cheese, someone tweeted at me asking if it was actually Jackson who had the giant cheese.  In fact, THEY BOTH HAD GIANT CHEESES!

Andrew Jackson, my nemesisI could not love history any more than I do right now.  Two giant White House cheeses.  I am so proud to be an American.  
So, yes, Andrew Jackson also had a giant cheese party.  (In fact, that engraving in the post on Jefferson is actually of the Jackson cheese party, in c...

Is there anything better than baking plus 19th century history?

A bread of modern times
In yet another weird chapter in American history, today in 1804 President Thomas Jefferson was presented with a mammoth loaf of bread.  Like a really, really giant loaf of bread.
Why, you ask?  Well, it was a very If You Give A Mouse A Cookie situation, and it all started with a giant wheel of cheese.  
A group of Baptist women in Cheshire, MA made Tommy Jeff a giant wheel of cheese to say...