From Jefferson's Table

by Sharon Stockwell

"From Jefferson's Table" is a collection of stories and recipes from eight fascinating generations descended directly from Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. The book covers American style cooking through the first 250 years of our country's remarkable evolution. A rare compilation of recipes, passed down from my Grandmothers and Mother, acted as impelling testimony to the value of culinary creativity as a comfort to family life through the inevitable crisis that challenge each generation. . It was my own personal disaster that opened the door to a venue for Star Chefs, a popular Foodie Blog and this Cook Book.There is a compelling quality about the enormous influence that Jefferson had on the style and function of the American experience. This cookbook brings forth the original source for many of our ideas about food direct from Monticello. The current captivation with healthy pure ingredients and vegetarian, even vegan, diets express a trend toward a more classical homemade style of eating. This new concentration on fresh vegetables and farm raised meat and poultry points right back to the hearty roots of American home cooking. "From Jefferson's Table" will supply answers to many questions about how to cope with economic downturns.

Amazing stories of survival through crisis, like moving thousands of miles away from home in covered wagons to establish a new life. An account of struggling through the Civil War, a husband fighting somewhere unknown, by one great, great grandmother, with many children while pregnant, can inspire and energize a new generation with extra courage and resourceful, delicious menus & recipes. Each generation is portrayed through a creative culinary event with superb menus and complete recipes. There is the quintessential dining experience at Monticello, an afternoon tea from Virginia's New Kent, an after the theatre supper, the ultimate country Christmas Dinner, the lavish Luau, a Brunch in an historic Montecito Adobe and more.

Conceived to be simply intoxicating with pleasures of the table the cookbook brings tasty evidence that "eating well is always the best revenge".

118 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2013

About the author

Sharon Howard Stockwell, author of "From Jefferson's Table". "The Hill Barons' Kitchen", and "The Hills are Talking", is the eighth generation of granddaughters directly descended from Thomas Jefferson. Born in Santa Barbara, California, she is notable as author of her grand scale family saga, "The Montecito Trilogy" and creator of cooking classes featuring Star Chefs & Premiere Cooks at her landmark Masini Adobe in Montecito where she also hosted many winemaker dinners and release parties offering famous vintages from Santa Ynez and the Central Coast.

Stockwell is also known for her top rated Foodie Blogs, "Jefferson's Table", http://jeffersonstable.typepad.com/, that receives thousands of visitors from over 130 countries worldwide and "Foodie Tramp", http://jeffersonstable.typepad.com/fo..., a Restaurant and Resort review format. The cookbook, "From Jefferson's Table", is a classic labor of love that evolved into a description of American style cooking through eight generations with the carefully preserved original recipes that span the first 250 years of our country's remarkable history.

A professional artist and designer with elite marketing expertise for over 35 years, Stockwell has performed assignments for many companies and institutions including, The J.Paul Getty Museum, L.A. County Museum of Art, Mattel, South Coast Plaza, William Sonoma, Geary's, The Wine Merchant, Princess Cruise Lines and The Century Plaza Hotel. An early expert in direct marketing and entrepreneurial business, she has worked as instructor and lecturer in education programs for USC and UCSB. In addition, Stockwell was a partner in the family firm, S. Stockwell & Sons, that created architecture, interior design and murals worldwide, since 1972. Presently residing in the Montecito hills, she is the mother of two artist-architect sons and four grandchildren.