Lucky foods for the new year
After waking up this New Year's Day (if you feel like eating, that is), you may celebrate with a traditional meal of ‘lucky’ foods meant to help bring good fortune for the coming year. Foods that have particular…
Holidays & Celebrations
How well do you know Christmas food traditions?
If you are sitting around in a food-induced stupor after consuming a huge holiday feast, here is a fun Christmas food (and drink) quiz to complete. I did okay, although I missed a few that I really should have known. I…
Taking holiday classics to a new level
While most of us struggle to create a passable bûche de Noël or galettes des rois, pastry chefs around the world are taking these creations to new heights this holiday season. Food and Wine brings us seven…
Holiday Gift Guide and Giveaways!
I am sorry for getting this gift guide up a bit late, we have been busy, busy, busy. Be sure to check out my roundup of holiday, entertaining, and baking cookbooks for gifting ideas. A few will be mentioned here again.…
Encouraging words on Thanksgiving Eve
I can't believe it has been six years since I wrote about the first Thanksgiving in a decade where I was not hosting. The main reason for that 2019 situation had to do with a health condition that I had hoped would be…
Book News Holidays & Celebrations
A roundup of holiday, entertaining, and baking cookbooks
Every year I am caught by surprise at how fast the holidays come around. I am working on a gift guide (with giveaways), but wanted to do a fast roundup of holiday books for our Members. This summary includes…
Celebrate National Cheesecake Day!
You may wonder if I only post about the food "holidays" of foods I really enjoy eating. Wonder no more, the answer is yes. That's why I am posting about National Cheesecake Day today, as it is one of my favorite…
Celebrate Bastille Day with French food
Spectacular firework displays in July aren’t limited to the United States. Ten days after America’s Independence Day, the French also have their own red, white and blue holiday. Called Bastille Day by English speakers,…
Fair food fever
State fairs in the US are filled with agricultural exhibits, carnival rides, crafts, concerts, and, of course, food. Oodles and oodles of food, with plenty of items "on a stick" for convenience as you squeeze your way…
Celebrate National Doughnut Day
This food holiday almost slipped past me. Today is National Doughnut Day, but it isn’t just another arbitrary food holiday cooked up by a commercial enterprise – this special day has roots that go back almost 100 years.…
Easter's most essential egg?
While the price of eggs has people scrambling to find alternative items to dye for Easter, those eggs are not really the most iconic ovoid harbingers of the holiday. That honor belongs to the Cadbury Creme Egg, that…
Celebrating Persian New Year
On the spring equinox every year, the festival of the traditional Persian New Year festival celebrated in Iran, Afghanistan, and the Kurdish regions of Iraq, Turkey and Syria, throughout Central Asia, and by members of…