Major Moments in U.S. Food Law
On Monday, President Obama signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act into law, a $4.5 billion expansion of the existing federal school lunch program that has been feeding tots for decades. The new bill ensures that meals will have more whole grains, lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, and it inclu...
December 16, 2010 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Cooking With the Stars: Celebrity Cookbooks
There was a time when celebrity chefs were rare. When I was growing up, there was Julia Child and...umm...does Famous Amos count?Now celebrity chefdom is easier to achieve than ever. Cordon Bleu training is no longer a prerequisite—a perky (or, in some cases, cranky) personality and a knack for coi...
December 15, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Inviting Writing: First Tastes
For the next round of Inviting Writing, and to celebrate the impending new year, we're seeking your stories about "first taste" experiences.To be considered for publication, please e-mail your submissions to FoodandThink@gmail.com by this Friday (Dec. 17) morning. We'll read through all of them and...
December 13, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Lussekatter and Cuccia for St. Lucy's Day
Saint Lucy, or Santa Lucia, is the patron saint of the blind, but she could probably also qualify as the patron saint of people born in December. As every Sagittarius whose birthday song was drowned out by Christmas carols knows, there's no competing with the birth of roughly a third of the world's...
December 10, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Five Ways to Eat Leeks
All the hubbub about Wikileaks has me thinking about another kind of dish from an underground source...leeks!When my father-in-law sent us home from Thanksgiving with a bag full of fresh leeks from his garden, I thanked him (diplomatically, of course), but was secretly befuddled. Having seen leeks ...
December 09, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Pass the Posset: The Medieval Eggnog
When ye olde tavern keeper asked his patrons, "What's your poison?" their answer may very well have been, "Posset, please." The warm, creamy forerunner to eggnog was "all the rage in the late Middle Ages," according to The Glutton's Glossary, by John Ayto.In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the poison was mo...
December 08, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Unorthodox Potato Latkes for Hanukkah
In my half-Jewish family, latkes were a coveted once-a-year food. My health-conscious Catholic mother, who learned how to make potato pancakes from someone or other (certainly not my cooking-impaired Jewish father) made them on the first night of Hanukkah every year. We ate them just before lightin...
December 07, 2010 |
By Jess Righthand
Inviting Writing: An Italian-American Grandma’s Cooking
This is the final selection in our series of reader-penned posts about eating at Grandma's house. Many thanks to all who participated. Stay tuned for a new Inviting Writing theme next Monday!Today's featured writer is Jane Pellicciotto, a graphic designer in Portland, Oregon who keeps an illustrate...
December 06, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Holiday Gift Guide: Crafty Ideas From Recycled Food Packaging
Did you ever make your parents a pencil holder out of a soup can covered in construction paper? I did, and I'm sure my folks treasured it...for at least a week or two, before putting it in the garage alongside the macaroni mosaics and the ashtray paperweight. These days, talented craftspeople are t...
December 03, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
When Zits Meant Food: Learning from Culinary Ephemera
Have you ever eaten zits?Gross, right? But a century ago, the term didn't refer to hormonally-induced epidermal horrors. It was simply a brand of cheese-covered popcorn!According to the new book "Culinary Ephemera: An Illustrated History," by William Woys Weaver, a Philadelphia company called Tasse...
December 02, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Eight Cocktails of Hanukkah
Look up "holiday cocktails" and most of what you will find, understandably enough, is geared toward Christmas—eggnog and glogg and other names that require the entire Scrabble supply of Gs. Not that these drinks have anything to do with the birth of Jesus, but through tradition they have become ass...
December 01, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Holiday Gift Guide: New Children's Books About Food
Know a kid who's interested in food—eating, growing, or cooking it—or who you wish would be? With the holidays coming up, one of these food-related children's books could be the perfect gift idea.Unless otherwise noted, all titles were published this year. If I've missed something great, please add...
November 30, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Nutmeg: The Holiday Spice With a Glamorous Past
Forget turkey. The flavor I most associate with Thanksgiving, and the holiday season in general, is nutmeg. I like the sound of the word. I like the spice's warm, woody scent. I like the way it adds complexity to both sweet and savory dishes. And, unlike many foods people now associate with the Tha...
November 24, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Science Trivia on Your Thanksgiving Plate
When you need to change the subject at the Thanksgiving dinner table, these tidbits of food science trivia could help...
November 23, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Inviting Writing: Family Feasts at a Georgia Granny's House
We've received such wonderful stories from readers in response to our latest Inviting Writing theme about eating at Grandma's house—thank you! This one, a richly detailed recollection of Southern-style family dinners in the 1950s and early 1960s, seems perfect for Thanksgiving week because it's a v...
November 22, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
From Harold and Maude to Harry Potter: Making Fictional Foods Real
One blogger's quest to recreate the ginger pie from the movie Harold and Maude got us thinking about other fictional foods
November 19, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Maple Vodka: A Sweeter Spirit
Remember that alphabet of maple treats I posted earlier this year? I have a new "V": maple vodka from Vermont.On a trip home, I discovered Vermont Spirits, a small St. Johnsbury distillery that makes vodka from the fermented sugars of maple sap instead of potatoes or grain, the usual suspects."We'r...
November 18, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Soup for Breakfast
Years ago, during a three-week trip to Turkey (and after recovering from a bout with "sultan's revenge"), I went with some newfound Turkish and German friends to an outdoor café following an evening in the pub. (This was in a Mediterranean resort town that was far less conservative than the places ...
November 17, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Five Colorful Ways to Eat Fresh Cranberries
Fresh cranberries abound at this time of year, and you may even be ambitious enough to slog through a bog to pick your own, as my friend Bryn did in Massachusetts. (It was fun, but next time she'd prefer to try it without a 30-pound toddler on her back, she said.) After baking all afternoon, she st...
November 16, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Inviting Writing: Lefse Lessons With Grandma
Continuing our Inviting Writing theme about "eating at Grandma's house," today's story celebrates another Bestemor. Author Jenny Holm is a freelance writer who grew up in Minnesota, but has been all over the place since, from Russia to D.C. to an organic farm in Vermont. Currently, she's teaching E...
November 15, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
