If like me you think of Christmas as a time for cookies, you ought to be grateful to the Germans because they invented that custom. German lebkuchen the Cadillac, or should I say the Mercedes Benz of spice cookies, was probably the first cookie traditionally associated with Christmas. Lebkuchen may also very well be the oldest form of cookie know to human kind. The first recorded reference to it appears in an 11th century manuscript at a German monastery, and if that's not old enough for you,

Archeologists have discovered evidence in tombs as old as 8000 B.C. that pancakes were a significant component of the ancient Egyptian diet. In fact, the cakes of the Old Testament were really pancakes. The basic pancake recipe in use today can be traced back to a Roman gourmet. Though an ancient IHOP has yet to be discovered, it's clear that pancakes are one of the oldest forms of bread known to human kind. And consequently, as food writer Dorian Leigh Parker reminds us, "they are steeped in

Recently the leader of the choir in a small church learned firsthand how much difference one letter in a word can make when he spotted in the church bulletin this notice: "The choir director invites any members of the congregation who enjoy sinning to join the choir." In the culinary world one letter can also make a big difference. Take, for example, the distinction between macaroon and macaron . Though identical words except for one extra letter "o," the confections they refer to couldn't be

Most of us have an image of the first thanksgiving that we learned in grade school: of the Pilgrims sitting with the Indians at a large table with a white tablecloth celebrating the harvest together over a meal of turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. But research shows that the traditional depiction of the first Thanksgiving may not be altogether accurate. In fact, whatever happened at Plymouth 388 years ago, it may not have been the first Thanksgiving at all. There are no less than twelve

Ready for a fish story? While cruising through Alaska's Inside Passage, I visited a salmon hatchery in Ketchikan - the salmon capital of the world - and renewed my respect for these persistent and tasty creatures. Though easy to prepare and extraordinary to taste, what is truly remarkable about salmon, I've discovered, is its life cycle. Completed against overwhelming odds by means not yet fully understood. Salmon start out in fresh water, migrate to salt water, and return to fresh water to

An old Spanish proverb says "Of soup and love, the first is best." It's an obvious overstatement, but it is true that soup can be alluring. And few things make a meal more elegant than a soup course -- especially if the soup is served in style! Say in a crystal or silver cup, a hollowed out squash (or other vegetable), or a bowl-shaped loaf of bread. I won't soon forget the cream-of-cilantro soup I had at a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco a few years ago. It was served in a brilliant, blue

Just about every major holiday in America is associated with its own signature version of what Jonathan Bartlett, author of The Cook’s Dictionary and Culinary Reference, calls “those sugary confections that feed our ‘sweet tooth,’ rot our teeth, and lift our spirits.” At Christmas it’s the candy cane. On Valentine’s Day it’s the chocolate heart. For Easter it’s marshmallow Peeps. And come Halloween it’s candy corn. Though candy corn is available year round, 75 percent of its annual sales occur

"On every breakfast plate in the South, there always appears a little white mound of food. Sometimes it's ignored. Sometimes insulted. But without it, the sun wouldn't come up, the crops wouldn't grow, and most of us would lose our drawl." That's what Bill Neal and David Perry said in a little cookbook published a few years ago. They were talking, of course, about grits. And, at least from a Southerner's point of view, they didn't overstate the case by much. The standing which grits have in the

Perhaps you've noticed the recent newspaper ads for something called the "vinegar diet," which promises that you can lose weight without cutting calories or going hungry. The hitch is you have to drink vinegar several times daily. I haven't tried the regimen but I suspect it would sour me even further on dieting. Unless, however, I could substitute that most un-vinegar-like of vinegars, the balsamic variety. Authentic balsamic vinegar, a conspicuous exception to the old adage that you can catch

I remember well the first time I went to Paris, more than 30 years ago. What impressed me most was not the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre. No, it was the bread. Crusty, chewy and full of flavor, there was simply nothing like it available at home at the time. Since then, American bakers have all but caught up with their counterparts in France. Nowadays here in the United States so-called artisanal bread is everywhere, even in the supermarket. But as one who fully appreciates the virtues of artisanal