A very British announcement!

It's no secret that I'm a bit of an Anglophile. This, combined with my love of history, made me fall utterly and irrevocably in love with Downton Abbey.

For those of you not in the know, Downton Abbey is a PBS historical drama (ITV in the UK) chronicling the secrets, romances, and tragedies of the aristocratic Crawleys and their staff on the eve of World War I. Sounds like your typical stuffy English period drama, right? Well, for some reason, we Americans have gone absolutely batty for it. It has everything we love in a TV show: scandalous rendezvous, British accents, backstabbing, murder charges...and Maggie Smith.

The second season follows the Crawleys through the devastation of WWI, and the third season, which debuts in January, promises new intrigue. But January is oh-so-far-away, and I can't give up an excuse to try out new historical recipes. So I'm extremely excited to introduce a new series for the blog:

Dining at Downton will feature all the recipe testing and historical tidbits you've come to expect from regular posts, plus fanciful speculations as to what Lady Mary might have eaten before, say, going out on a hunt with her future paramour. Of course, this is meant only to be a fun experiment, unauthorized and all (with apologies to Julian Fellowes). It's a leap across the pond from what we've been talking about so far, but hopefully it will be a fruitful and fun adventure.

Don't worry, the regular recipes aren't going away. You'll still find stories, photos, and American history here, just a bit more spread out.

I'm thrilled about this new series, and I hope you will be, too. Special thanks to Josh for creating the beautiful banner. Now, let's talk! Are there any British recipes you'd like to see on the blog? Certain Downton episodes we should discuss? I'm always up for a good dish on the Crawley sisters...