Hello all. Here is some information on actress spoons. It's from the Old and Sold website. Google the words "old sold article 872" to find the link to this article. It's an interesting read and some of you may find information on your spoons there as well. "One of Miss Garrett's old Gorham catalog pages shows a set of fifteen actress spoons made in a limited edition of 250 sets, for the 1892 Actor's Fund Fair held in New York City. Each spoon is tipped by a dimentional bust of an actress and carries a facsimile of her autograph. The signatures on the old catalog page cannot be read, and Gorham now has no record of the fifteen actresses portrayed. Of this set of spoons, Miss Garrett has six which show these signatures; Sarah Bernhardt, Rosina Vokes, Mary Anderson, Annie Russell, Fanny Davenport, and one which is illegible. These limited edition spoons were sold at the Actors Fund Fair, to raise money for indigent theatrical performers. For the same 1892 Fair, Gorham made the remarkable cream ladle showing five actresses on obverse handle and five actors on reverse."

claire, i'm so glad you liked that recipe, it's one of my absolute favorites. I love pear and I love maple, so it's a natural for me, I think ice cream could only make it better. The spoons have me kind of intrigued, I've never seen a special ice cream spoon. OK, post pictures! Annie

I think she means teaspoons. Demitasse spoons are smaller. I have ice cream spoons as well as teaspoons. Same size but the bowl is slightly rounder. When I have a tall ice cream treat I eat it with an iced tea spoon. We still use our original Oneida Community from 40 years ago. I have a newer set also that I bought probably 20 years ago or so using Betty Crocker coupons.

The only time I have encountered spoonbread was in 1968 at Boone Tavern at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. This is the version served then. http://www.cornbreadsuppers.com/2013/03/boone-tavern-spoon-bread-1950s-recipe.html SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 2013 Boone Tavern Spoon Bread, the 1950s recipe We have tried spoonbreads (soft, luscious, buttery—described by James Beard as a "heavy, dense soufflé") as Cornbread Supper mainstays before, and used great recipes, but the spoonbreads always did what spoonbreads (and soufflés) do: deflate. Through serendipity, and thanks to a Cornbread Supperian, I lucked into the old Boone Tavern(Berea College) recipe for spoonbread, and it is far less droopy. Perhaps Boone Tavern developed an approach to spoonbread that preserves all its goodness while still working for a busy restaurant. In any case, with thanks to Kentucky food and foodways author and guru John van Willigen, here's an excellent recipe for that can be doubled, tripled, and quadrupled to feed spoonbread to a crowd. It did just that on Monday, February 25, 2013. From Richard T. Hougen. Look No Further: A cookbook of favorite recipes from Boone Tavern Hotel, Berea College, Kentucky. New York: Abingdon Press. 1955. Southern Spoon Bread 1955 Ingredients 3 cups milk 1 1/4 cups cornmeal 3 eggs 2 tablespoons butter 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt Procedure 1. Stir meal into rapidly boiling milk. Cook until very thick, stirring constantly, to prevent scorching. 2. Remove from fire and allow to cool. The mixture will be cold and very stiff. 3. Add well-beaten egg, salt, baking powder and melted butter. Beat with electric beater for 15 minutes. If hand beating is used break the hardened cooked meal into the beaten eggs in small amounts until all is well mixed. Then beat thoroughly for 10 minutes using a wooden spoon. 4. Pour into well-greased casserole. Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees F. Serve from casserole by spoonfuls. Cooking note: I quadrupled the recipe, used Sunflower Sundriesheirloom organic Hickory King cornnmeal (available at Good Foods Market), and made the cornmeal/milk mixture in a crockpot. I mixed the cold milk and cornmeal together, and set the crockpot to cook on high for four hours. I checked it after 2.75 hours, and it was adequately cooked. I let the mixture cool completely and then made the recipe as written.