What would you do if you were lucky enough to live in the southern states in the summertime? You might complain about the heat as you fan yourself lazing about on the porch swing, but you also might pick nuts from the plentiful pecan trees growing in the region. And what do southern people do …
Cooking with kids can be great family fun! The kitchen is one of the best places to spend time together. While you try to get dinner on the table, turn your kids into kitchen helpers and introduce an interest in food (the sights and smells), nutrition and their way around the kitchen. Now is a …
The lychee nut is not a nut at all. It is a fruit containing sweet, vibrant flesh. The fruit itself is covered by a rough rind that has a reddish, strawberry-like color. Once peeled, inside holds the slightly translucent, juicy, white flesh of the seed. This is the edible portion. The lychee fruit has its …
Cinnamon has a warm, agreeably sweet, woody aroma that is delicate yet intense. The taste is fragrant with hints of clove and citrus. The presence of something called eugenol in the essential oil distinguishes cinnamon and gives it its note of clove. The quills of dried bark are rolled one into another to form long, …
Mushrooms are possibly the most mysterious of all plants, living on the dead bodies of plants and trees to help in the decaying process by breaking down the dead plants’ material as food. Many species of mushrooms flourish in autumn due to cooler, wetter weather. Growing in the October woods, mushrooms rule the forest. Mushrooms …
The earliest versions of gingerbread didn’t always contain ginger and weren’t always bread. The Romans prepared panis mellitus with German wheat flour, honey, pepper, and dried fruit. The Chinese mikong (honey bread) is mentioned as part of the rations of the horsemen of Genghis Khan. It is generally believed that gingerbread was introduced to Europe …
If you’re desirous of an interesting and delicious dessert for Thanksgiving and would like to get away from everything pumpkin, why not honor National Baklava Day, celebrated on November 17, by making this favorite from our Greek and Turkish friends? Baklava is a sweet pastry made with phyllo dough, chopped nuts (oftentimes with pistachios, but …
Pumpkins are everywhere at this time of year. Pumpkin spice drinks, pumpkin soups, pumpkin pies – or you can simply stick to your jack-o-lantern pumpkin. If none of those autumnal treats thrill you, why not consider putting two favorite foods together into a pumpkin cheesecake? Observed annually on October 21, National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day seems …
Lovely limes have their own distinct citrus taste, and they truly stand out among the grapefruits, oranges, mandarins, tangerines, and lemons of the world. They are the most prominent citrus fruits in tropical climates and have one and a half times as much acid, weight for weight, as a lemon. It is hard to judge …
Tex Mex cuisine is a little bit Texan, a little bit Mexican, and it makes for a kind of cross-breed of wonderful, salivating flavors. The nickname Tex Mex first initiated from the Texas Mexican railway in the late 1800s. It was the Tejanos, Texans of Mexican descent, though, who were the originators of Tex Mex …
