Lounging on a chaise in the garden on Mother's Day Foodie read a review 
in the Sunday NYTimes of a new book on Dolley Madison. ( A Perfect Union by Catherine Allgor.) Most of us know about Dolley's safeguarding of Washington's portrait during the Brit invasion in 1814. The reviewer, Mary Beth Norton, Pitt Professor of American history at Cambridge, writes this: " ...perhaps it was more significant that Dolley also left behind a meal ready to be consumed by 40 guests." She goes on to say that Dolley's "indispensable contribution to the nation, according to Allgor, consisted of providing spaces in which men and women of the early Republic could socialize, gossip and learn to deal with one another outside the formal halls of government." And eat fine food. ( Dolley was reknowned for her peppermint ice cream.)
Foodie began to wonder if Dolley was hoping to soften the malicious intent of the invaders by deliberately leaving them a delicious meal OR if she and her guests simply abandoned their dinners.
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