Lattie Coor supporter of Tastes & Treasures Volume II

 Creating Tastes & Treasures Volume II Storytelling Cookbook in 2015 featuring stories and favorite recipes from historic destinations, Arizona Historymakers, Historical League families, and supporters was a labor of love.
The Historical League was so pleased to receive this memory and recipe about Lattie Coor from Elva Coor, Lattie's wife. 

It is with sadness we relate that Lattie Coor (1936-2026) has now passed. 

ASU West Campus gives out Tastes & Treasures II to incoming Freshman

Over 1,000 ASU West freshmen received Tastes & Treasures II book in fall 2024 as part of the Common Read program.

From ASU: The Common Read is a book selected by committee that the entire first year students at ASU West Valley campus read. The intent is to engage and stir the minds of our students. With all the students reading the same book it fosters student growth. The books may require students to question their belief system, relate to others and build community.

Not only is Tastes & Treasures II a wonderful public relations tool, a documentation of historic Arizona, a method of raising funds but it was a chance for students to share personal stories about their family, culture and community through food. Food is such a common thread in our lives.

Thank you to all Historical League members for working on this worthwhile project!

Here's a follow up letter from Carolyn Starr, ASU West Events Team:

We were thrilled to share Tastes & Treasures II: A Storytelling Cookbook of Historic Arizona with all of our first-year students as part of our Common Read program last fall. While we, unfortunately, don’t have any photos from the events or class activities to share, the impact of the book was still deeply felt across campus.

Our students were incredibly engaged in their ASU 101 classes. One of the key assignments asked them to select a meaningful recipe from their childhood and write a story about its significance. It was powerful to see them reflect on the role food plays in connecting us to our families, cultures, and communities.

All first-year students received the book during the first week of school in August 2024. Faculty incorporated it in a variety of ways—some invited students to bring in cultural snacks and share their stories, while others led discussions about the loss of family traditions in the digital age and the declining use of handwritten recipes.

Throughout the semester, our Verde Dining Hall featured a recipe from the cookbook each week. Aramark prepared the dish for all students—from freshmen to seniors—and highlighted it with signage above the serving station, including the story excerpt and origin from the book.

The culminating event was a community dinner where five recipes from the cookbook and five student-submitted recipes were selected and served. More than 500 students attended. The student recipes were kept a surprise until the event—it was such a joy to witness their reactions as they saw their family dishes prepared and shared with the campus.

Thanks again for checking in—it was a meaningful experience for our students, and we’re so grateful to have had the chance to highlight Arizona’s rich culinary and storytelling traditions.

Sincerely, Carolyn Starr     Events Team   

New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences

Arizona State University

Ajo Museum visit with Norma Jean Coulter and Pat Grogg

 Food and history come together at the Ajo Historical Society museum. Thanks to Norma Jean Coulter and Pat Grogg for delivering Arizona Recollections and Reflections and the last box of Tastes & Treasures volume II: A Storytelling Cookbook of Historic Arizona committed to affiliated museums. Norma Jean writes, "We spent the night and also toured Organ Pipe National Monument down on the border." Pictures show the border wall, amazing giant sahuaros, and New Cornelia Open Pit Mine.

Norma Jean Coulter presents books to Ajo Museum

Museum housed in old mission church

Border Wall

Organ Pipe Monument

New Cornelia open mining pit

ASU West selects Tastes & Treasures II for their Valley Common Read Initiative

The League is honored that ASU West has selected our cookbook for their Valley Common Read Initiative with incoming freshmen this fall. The school is purchasing 1,150 books. Along with donating books to AHS Certified Historical Institutions CHIs, it means that we are nearing a complete sell-out of Tastes & Treasures II.

ASU website describes Common Read:

The Common Read is a book selected by committee that the entire first year students at ASU West Valley campus read. The intent is to engage and stir the minds of our students. With all the students reading the same book it fosters student growth. The books may require students to question their belief system, relate to others and build community.

Pleasant Valley Historical Society Museum

Vacationing in the Rim Country, Tom and Cathy Shumard delivered Tastes & Treasures II to the Pleasant Valley Museum in Young, AZ. Cathy thanked Barbi Richards, spokesperson and President of the Pleasant Valley Historical Society, for the fascinating tour. "It was great to see that history is being preserved to allow future generations to know a little better how their ancestors lived.

We especially enjoyed stories about:

The Stinson brand of T being slightly altered and placed on rustled cattle hides

The Pleasant Valley War

Your family jewelry

Your friendship with Norma Jean Coulter in the 1980s at the Heard Museum

Your maternal and paternal grandparents settling in Young."

Historical League member Emily Burns visits Cottonwood and Sedona with Tastes & Treasures II

 Emily Burns has visited two more museums, distributing Tastes & Treasures II: A Storytelling Cookbook of Historic Arizona. And she had fun doing it.

Historical League members are the BEST!! Thank you Emily.

Emily Burns in Cottonwood

Road trip to distribute Tastes & Treasures Volume II

 Reporting from the road in Nogales, Norma Jean says, "Both of the directors and their volunteers were delighted to see us. They were impressed we traveled all the way to Pima, Bisbee, etc to bring Tastes & Treasures II. At Tubac in the fall they are planning a display of cookbooks featuring foods of the Sonoran Desert and will feature our book."

Thanks to www.pimeriaaltamuseum.org for these great photos of the area.

Tastes & Treasures II now in Show Low and Snowflake, AZ

Thanks to Zona and Tom Lorig, Tastes & Treasures II: A Storytelling Cookbook of Historic Arizona is now available in ShowLow and Snowflake, AZ.  With Tom as the chauffeur, Zona delivered books to these Historical Society Affiliates. Published in 2015, the book is now almost sold out.

Snowflake Heritage Foundation director with Zona Lorig

Zona Lorig, Claire Thomas and volunteers

Zona Lorig with Clair Thomas, Director of the Show Low Historical Museum
 showing the wonderful train exhibit.

Tastes & Treasures II has recipe for Morning Glory Muffins. The cookbook is now in Clarkdale, AZ Historical Society

Storytelling Cookbooks are more than just recipes and pretty pictures. Tastes & Treasures II: A Storytelling Cookbook of Historic Arizona is filled with history, Arizona Historymakers, family photos and memories. 

The book is now in Clarkdale Historical Society thanks to Historical League member Emily Burns.

We enjoy Morning Glory Muffins: a favorite recipe in the Cherished Legacy section on page 163.

MORNING GLORY MUFFINS

Tastes & Treasures II: A Storytelling  Cookbook of Historic Arizona

www.HistoricalLeague.org/shop

SECTION: Cherished Legacy Recipes page 163

MILDRED DROVER OAKE
CONTRIBUTED BY GRANDDAUGHTER, CANDICE FEDELE-MCLEOD
Born and raised on a farm in Newfoundland, Grandma Oake learned to cook with whatever the farm produced. Even though cod fishing dominated the region, the family ate salt pork with root vegetables, cabbage rolls, and steamed puddings. Hardtack, a cracker made to survive handling and extreme  temperatures on long sea voyages, is still produced in Newfoundland. Served with cod, the dish is a local delicacy called “fish and brews.” 

Hardtack never made it to the table at Grandma's house, but its simplicity was transmitted in her baking: a cold loaf of sweet-tart cranberry bread wrapped in foil, buttery yeast rolls, or chewy date squares. In an era of Crisco, she was ahead of her time, using healthy alternatives, like applesauce for oil. My favorite were her Morning Glory Muffins, which, at my request, became the substitute for my birthday cake each year. 

INGREDIENTS 

4 cups all-purpose flour 

1 1⁄2 cups brown sugar (agave syrup may be used and lower amount of sugar and oil) 

4 teaspoons baking soda 

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups grated carrots 

2 cups apples, peeled, cored and shredded 

2 cups raisins

1 cup shredded coconut

1⁄2 cup nuts, chopped (walnuts or pecans)

2 eggs 

1 cup canola oil (if using agave syrup, reduce oil to 3⁄4 cup) 

1 cup applesauce or drained crushed pineapple

4 teaspoons vanilla 

METHOD 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and generously grease 1-2 muffin tins. In large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, mixing together well. Stir in the carrots, apples, raisins, coconut and nuts. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, oil, applesauce and vanilla. 

Combine the egg mixture with dry ingredients. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling them up to the top. 

Bake for 22-25 minutes. 

Remove from the oven and allow muffins to rest for 5 minutes. Then remove from the tin and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Repeat until all muffins are baked. 

This recipe makes about 40 muffins, and they freeze beautifully. 

CHERISHED LEGACIES          HISTORICAL LEAGUE, INC. • 163 

Note: Silicone mini muffin pans are an easy way to bake these. Spray PAM in the muffin pan before filling. Adjust baking time accordingly. 
Variations include using zucchini. orange zest, nutmeg. 

Tastes & Treasures delivered to Bryce, AZ

 Keeping history lovers happy . . . Zona and Norma Jean visited Bryce, AZ north of Pima to deliver the Historical League's Tastes & Treasures II to the Ebenezer Bryce Foundation. Founded by his descendants in 2021, the Bryce Foundation began when the 1897 home went on the market and the family decided to rally for its preservation.

“In April 2021, we had heard the home might be up for sale,” said Jim Bryce. According to records, the 714-square-foot home on 2.3 acres sold for $65,000 on Jan. 3, 2022.

The foundation’s board consists of Jim Bryce, Kyle Kempton, Brooks Bryce, Norma Pollock Brown and Leeann Bryce Thygerson — all descendants of Ebenezer Bryce.

Jim Bryce is Ebenezer Bryce’s great-great grandson. He says he spoke to his own grandfather about Ebenezer. “My grandfather said Ebenezer was a kind, gentle man. He’d keep candies in his pockets to give to his grandchildren,” Jim Bryce said. “He was an ordinary, humble, hardworking man who created a powerful legacy.”

From "A love for family: Bryce descendants restoring 1897 house" By Lillian Boyd, Eastern Arizona Courier.

Bisbee Mining and Mineral Museum welcomes Zona Lorig and Norma Jean Coulter

 Rock Star Travelers: Zona Lorig and Norma Jean Coulter drove all over S.E. Arizona blending history and food with Tastes & Treasures II. They delivered the Historical League's cookbook to 10 different museums. Pictured here is Brenda Morales from the Bisbee Mining and Mineral Museum.

Zona commented, "Brenda was thrilled to receive the box of our cookbooks. She clasped one to her chest and said she had sold the last one. Visitors asked for an interesting cookbook and she loved to share our storytelling cookbook!"

Zona Lorig and Norma Jean Coulter deliver Tastes & Treasures II

 The journey to deliver Tastes & Treasures II to Certified Historical Institutions took Norma Jean Coulter and Zona Lorig to Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society. The museum was closed when they arrived but a volunteer came to their aid. Zona commented, "He was a wonderful guide who opened the museum and gave us a great tour."

Tastes & Treasures II at Navajo County Historical Society

 1895-1897. The early years of Navajo County courthouse. Check out pictures Historical League Mary Perona took of the courthouse and the jail when she delivered a box of Tastes & Treasures II: A Storytelling Cookbook of Historic Arizona to them. Navajo Co. Historical Society Administrator Dawn Sawyer was very pleased to receive the books filled with AZ history, recipes, memories.

We are grateful to Mary for delivering books and taking photos.