Food date: 2018.077 I was late to the avocado bandwagon. Don’t get me wrong, I loved guacamole, but I was a late bloomer when it came to eating avocados in any other form. My recent favorite is a simply delicious recipe from Alison Roman’s Dining In. Fun Food Facts: According to Joel S. Denker’s The … Continue reading The Midshipman’s Butter —The avocado

Food date: 2017.351 ’Tis the busy time of year. And wow did this year fly by. There are so many sweets and treats during the various holidays this time of year. I explored other ideas to write about but I kept coming back to candy canes. Which was odd because they are not my favorite … Continue reading 12 FFF’s of Candy Canes

It looks like winter is coming in the Northeast (if you are a GoT fan, you will get the reference). So it makes no sense to be thinking about the cold, frosty milkshakes I loved as a kid. But I am. For a little trip down my memory lane, here is a (slightly edited) post … Continue reading Awful Awfuls: A History

Food date: 2017.043 It’s a beautiful snowy day in the Northeast. Annoyingly, the flu season caught up with me  this month, which took time away from writing and researching. In honor of Valentine’s Day, here are some “Fun Food Facts” to tie us over.  (For those just joining us, I like to add fun facts … Continue reading Valentine’s Day

Food date:  2017.017 The mastermind behind chocolate chip cookies? Drum roll please…Mrs. Ruth Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts. In 1930’s, Mrs. Wakefield decided to cut up her bar of chocolate and add the pieces to her drop cookie recipe—and behold, an American classic was born. She displayed some savvy business sense when she … Continue reading The “Inn” Cookie —aka the Chocolate Chip Cookie

Food date: 2016.339 Noggin. Noggin. Noggin. I had a lot of fun saying that word while researching the history of eggnog. As it turns out, there is debate among the experts on the origin of eggnog. One thing is for certain, there are a lot of fun words associated with it, such as caudle, posset, … Continue reading Eggnog and how it relates to pirates

Food date: 2016.332 Most Americans love the day after Thanksgiving for the leftovers (and the Black Friday sales). How leftovers are consumed varies as much as what people serve with their turkey or tofurkey. Many cooks purposely make more food to ensure there are leftovers for their guests and their exhausted selves. So I wondered, … Continue reading Leftovers

Food date: 2016.311 One of my favorite breakfast foods is muffins. The food history world references two basic kinds of muffins — English and American. English muffins are made with yeast, while American muffins are in the quick bread category. This week I am focusing on American muffins, or what we Americans like to call…muffins. … Continue reading The Quick Muffin

Food date: 2016.305 Not surprisingly, I can’t think of Halloween without conjuring crazy costumes, trick or treaters, and CANDY! Some may know that Halloween is associated with All Hallow’s Eve, the evening before the Catholic celebration of All Saint’s Day. But how did candy become popular for this eve of a ghosts and goblins? Apples … Continue reading Happy Halloween

Food date: 2016.297 I'll admit; I have an obsession with cookbooks, especially ones with history and personal stories included. One of my more recent purchases is “My Kitchen Year” by Ruth Reichl, where she discusses the first cookbook with actual measurements (versus instructions like a dash of salt). That cookbook was “The Boston Cooking School … Continue reading A Betty Crocker Girl Am I