A Year Of Cupcake Holidays & More Cupcake Fun

[1] Our favorite from Junior’s: the retro “Hostess cupcake” with a creme center (photo by Katharine Pollak | © THE NIBBLE). Here’s a recipe to make your own. [2] The first of numerous Hostess Brands snack cakes (photo © Hostess Cakes). [3] Something more conventional: a cupcake with blackberry frosting and a fresh blackberry (photo…
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CHEESE: Piave Vecchio

It’s Columbus Day, so let’s celebrate a great Italian cheese. Here’s a favorite cheese of professional cheese buyer and guest blogger Jeff Shearer, of Mandi Foods: As the long summer days turn over to the cooler nights of autumn, our food choices move away from the fresh cheeses and lighter dishes to more of the…
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FOOD HOLIDAY: National Pierogi Day & Pierogi Recipe

“Unstuffed cabbage” with pierogies. Photo courtesy Mrs. T’s.   Pierogi (pronounced PYEH-roe-gy and also spelled pierogy and a dozen other variations) is a stuffed dumpling, usually in a half-moon shape, that can be boiled, baked or fried. Although many Americans refer to “pierogies,“ the word “pierogi” is the plural form. The singular form is pieróg.…
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The History Of Carrots & The Invention Of Baby Carrots

What’s up, doc? Here’s a little history of one of our most popular veggies: carrots. According to the USDA, Americans consume 11.8 pounds a person per year. (Beyond raw carrots, this figure includes carrot cake, carrots in soups and stews, and so forth.) In the beginning, all plants and animals were wild. Over thousands of…
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FOOD HOLIDAY: National Pasta Month & Pasta History

Potstickers and other dumplings are types of pasta, a food invented by the Chinese 4,000 years ago (photo courtesy CBCrabcakes.com).   October is National Pasta Month; pasta is one of America’s favorite foods. Who invented it? The Chinese! While Thomas Jefferson introduced pasta to the U.S. in 1787, upon his return from Europe where he…
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