Boo! Beer and Babies

Boo! Beer and Babies scares up creep, holidays, Oktoberfest brews, great reads, seasonal health help, and a great recipe for fish and chips

Good ale is meat, drink, and cloth. A Compleat Collection of English Proverbsby JOHN RAYEnglish naturalist and collector of proverbs1628—1705 from Ian Makay’s Food for Thought: The Pleasures of the Table: Primi Piatti   Boo! Beer and Babies Musings For those parts of the world influenced by European conquest and culture, the calendar’s final three months are […]

Election Cake

From “Party Like a Puritan!” to the more recent #MakeAmericaBakeAgain, politics and pastry may be a perfect pairing!

Election Cake of Days Gone By Three cups milk, two cups sugar, one cup yeast; stir to a batter and let stand over night; in the morning add two cups sugar, two cups butter, three eggs, half a nutmeg, one tablespoonful cinnamon, one pound raisins, a gill of brandy. Brown sugar is much better than […]

Lunch, Lattes, and a Touch of Tartrazine

Tartrazine, Doritos, pumpkins, coffee, great books and more

When in doubt, eat your neighbor’s lunch. KEVIN HEARNEAmerican fantasy author1970—Trapped: The Iron Druid Chronicles from Ian Makay’s Food for Thought: The Pleasures of the Table: Primi Piatti As the school year and autumn begin in the northern hemisphere, monthly musings keeps step with the season. This edition looks at school lunches around the world. […]

Blowin’ Smoke—The Art of Trading Cards

The Art of Trading Cards: Nineteenth century tobacco companies used cigarette cards to sell their product

Blowin’ Smoke and Brushing Up on History It’s 1885 and you’re sitting in a marketing meeting at the Richmond, Virginia, offices of Allen & Ginter. The tobacco company needs to stand out from its U.S. competitors. But those Brits!—They are the real competition for you and your fellow American tobacconists. Allen & Ginter has already […]

Winner! Winner! Sunday Dinner!

Winner! Winner! Sunday Dinner! French baguette-scented stamps and Danish tax unlike any other

A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner. SAMUEL JOHNSONEnglish poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic,biographer,editor, lexicographer, and author1709—1784The Life of Samuel Johnson from Ian Makay’s Food for Thought: The Pleasures of the Table: Primi Piatti  Apparently Google agrees! Monthly musings starts this edition with a look bread and […]

Let Them Eat Cake!

Marie or Not Marie? Let them eat cake! Marie Antoinette never said. So why does she get credited with the quote?

Let them eat cake! MARIE ANTOINETTEAustrian archduchess and last queen of France1755—1793 Marie or Not Marie? That is the Question! To answer the question: Not Marie. First, there’s the questionable translation of what was a quote attributed to a variety of royals long before Marie Antoinette ascended to the throne: Qu’ils mangent de la brioche! Throw […]

One More Drink …

Dorothy Parker and her legendary drinking buddies spawned many urban legends including her "One more drink" quote

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker, American poet, writer, critic, and satirist (1893—1967), was renowned for her sharp wit and often acerbic jibes—sometimes self-deprecating. Given the era and places in which she lived, the social dinner and party circuits were part of the package. Parker’s penchant for drinking in excess was not a secret. Her biographer, Marion […]

No Cleaner Than a Kitchen

How clean is your kitchen and the food you eat?

Such is life. It is no cleaner than a kitchen; it reeks of a kitchen; and if you mean to cook your dinner, you must expect to soil your hands; the real art is in getting them clean again, and therein lies the whole morality of our epoch. HONORÉ DE BALZACFrench novelist and playwright1799—1850Father Goriot […]

Coffee

Coffee—You Going Qahway? Legend has it that the first of God’s creatures to know the pleasures of “qahway” (or as we know it, coffee) was a goat. A young Arab goatherder, Kaldi, after tending his herd for some time, took note of the strange dancing behavior his goats exhibited after eating the crimson berries from […]

Hard-Boiled

hard-boiled: adj devoid of sentimentality; hardheaded; tough; practical

The Hard-Boiled Truth Whether it’s the remnants of Easter or other eggs-acting holiday celebrations, suddenly you are left with an overabundance of hard-boiled eggs. So, no surprise then that the Monday after Easter is National Egg Sandwich Day. In addition, it kicks off National Egg Salad Week, marking the seven days following the Paschal celebrations. […]