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Chef James

“The duty of a good Cuisinier is to transmit to the next generation everything he has learned and experienced.”
 
Fernand Point, 1941

FEATURED FOR DECEMBER

Updated: Over 9,000 Food Festivals

Football: Game Day Food & Recipes

Christmas Articles

Christmas Food Trivia and Facts

Christmas Tree Trivia

Christmas Food Customs

Christmas Recipes

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

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FEATURED RECIPES & TIPS

· Goose Recipes

· Turkey Cooking Tips

· Turkey Recipes

· Classic Green Bean Casserole

· White Castle Turkey Stuffing

· Award Winning Bundt Cake Recipe

· Fresh Cranberry Relish

· Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie

· Tropical Pumpkin Pie

· Classic Pecan Pie

· Pecan Pie with Bourbon Sauce

· Florida Pecan Pie

· Pumpkin Pie

· Sweet Potato Pie

· Virginia Sweet Potato Pie

· Maple Walnut Squares

· Pumpkin Mac and Cheese

· Pumpkin Fritters

· Stuffed Pumpkins

· Candied Sweet Potatoes

· Baked Sweet Potato Fries

· Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes

· Roasted Sweet Potatoes w/Pecans

· Skillet Sweet Potatoes
 

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FREE Magazines and
other Publications

An extensive selection of free food, beverage & agricultural magazines, e-books, etc.

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DID YOU KNOW?

98 percent of all Christmas trees are grown on farms, while only 2% are cut from the wild.  To ensure enough trees for harvest, growers plant one to three seedlings for every tree harvested.  There are more than 15,000 Christmas tree farms in the U.S.
 

December Food Holidays:

For Details, History and more DAY, WEEK and MONTH Food Holiday designations, including LINKS to Holiday Origins and Additional Information:
SEE Detailed DECEMBER Food Calendar

DECEMBER is:

• Grain of the Month: Buckwheat
  [Whole Grains Council]
  (Buckwheat Trivia and Facts)

• National Egg Nog Month
  (Eggnog Trivia  ---  Egg Nog Recipes)

• National Fruit Cake Month
  (Holiday Fruit Cake Recipe)
  (Fruitcake Trivia)

• Root Vegetables Month
  (Root Vegetable Articles)

• National Pear Month: Many fruits are out of season during the winter months. Pears are available fresh during this time. (Pear Trivia  ---  Pear Quotes)

•  [Worldwide Food Service Safety Month] (created in 1994 by the National Restaurant Association)
 

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DID YOU KNOW?

In Australia, Father Christmas uses six white boomers (male kangaroos).  In the Louisiana swamps he travels in a pirogue drawn by alligators and a red nosed werewolf and in the Netherlands St. Nicholas rides on a tall white horse.  Other modes of transportation for Santa Claus are a donkey (Switzerland), a broom (Italy), a dugout canoe, (Hawaii).
 

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Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Daily Trivia Questions are below

TODAY’S FOOD QUOTE

“Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.”
M. F. K. Fisher (1908-1992)
 

FOOD HOLIDAYS - TODAY IS:

• National Gazpacho Day
  (Gazpacho Recipes  ---  Gazpacho Trivia)

• Microwave Oven Day (see also Jan 24, 1950)
  (Microwave Oven Trivia)

• Feast of Nicholas of Myra, patron of bakers, barrel makers, brewers, coopers.

• [National Handwashing Awareness Week]
  (Dec 3-9, 2023)

• Cookie Cutter Week: (Dec 1-7 ?)
 

TODAY IN FOOD HISTORY

1492 Columbus sighted the island he names Hispaniola (Now consisting of Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

1866 The 2 mile long, 5 foot diameter Chicago ‘Lake Tunnel’ was completed. It was the first water supply tunnel for a U.S. city. (Chicago Food Trivia)

1872 Felix Archimede Pouchet died. A French naturalist, he was one of those who believed that life was created from nonliving matter in processes such as fermentation and putrefaction. Those flies and maggots, fungi, yeast and bacteria just appeared from nowhere. (He was wrong.)

1877 Thomas A. Edison made the first sound recording "Mary had a little lamb"

1879 Erastus Brigham Bigelow died (born April 2, 1814). Inventor of manufacturing machinery for making gingham cloth. The red & white checked tablecloths used in restaurants is a classic example of gingham.

1883 The 'Ladies’ Home Journal and Practical Housekeeper' began publication.

1917 Irv Robbins was born (died May 5, 2008). Co-founder, with Burt Baskin, of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain in 1946 in Glendale, California.
(Baskin Robbins Trivia)

1931 Catharine Furbish died. An American botanist, she spent almost 40 years traveling and painting very accurate watercolors of the flora of the state of Maine.  (Maine Food Trivia)

1964 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' Christmas special first aired on NBC TV.

1968 'Beggar's Banquet' album by the Rolling Stones was released.

1994 Orange County, California filed for bankruptcy due to investment losses.

1994 The play 'Lamb Chop On Broadway' opened in New York.

2006 An outbreak of illness from the dangerous E. Coli 0157:H7 was reported, with green onions as the suspected cause.  Cases were reported in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, and Utah.

2014 A record 4.16 pound (1.89 kg) White Alba Truffle from the Umbrian region of Italy sold at auction for $61,250 to a Taiwanese buyer.
(Truffle Trivia)

 

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UPCOMING FEATURED FOOD FESTIVALS

December 7, 2023  Kosher Food and Wine Experience
Miami, Florida

December 9, 2023  Annual Christmas on the Bayou
Gulfport, Mississippi

December 9, 2023-January 6, 2024  Holiday Tours & Annual Gingerbread House Display
Oxnard, California

November 27-January 2, 2024, 2023  31st Annual National Gingerbread House Competition & Display
Asheville, North Carolina

(SEE ALL FOOD FESTIVALS and OTHER FOOD EVENTS)
 

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FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ    (new DAILY questions)

1) All of the following events took place in the same year.  What year is it?
· Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
· James Harvey Logan of Santa Cruz, California developed the Loganberry, a cross between a red raspberry and a wild blackberry.
· Dr. Satori Kato of Japan introduced the first instant coffee at the Pan American World Fair.
· The first U.S. made margarine is produced in New York City by Community Manufacturing Co.

2) These were created in 1886 in his candy store by Leo Hirschfield. Initially he would make them for his daughter, but he soon began to make them for sale to other children in the neighborhood. He named the candy for his daughter. 20 to 30 million of these are made each day, still under the same name and with the same formula as the original. The company that makes them also makes 50% of the lollipops in the U.S.   Name this candy.

3) This is an ancient dish mentioned in Greek and Roman literature, but the modern version from Spain contains 2 ingredients from the New World which did not arrive in Spain until the 16th century. It's classified as a salad in Andalusian cookbooks, but Americans call it a soup. What is this confusing dish, AND what are the 2 New World ingredients?

Click Here for Quiz Answers
 

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Read an article about Chef James and the FoodReference.com website published in the Winona Daily News, Minneapolis StarTribune, and numerous other newspapers: Click here for the Article
 

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Dedication
This website is dedicated to:
· Gladys Ehler, my mother, who taught me patience and how to make Sauerbraten (it is still my favorite)
· Edward Ehler, my father, who taught me a love of books and history.
· Barbara Saba, my sister, who taught me how to dance.
· Cpl. Thomas E. Saba, my nephew.  Died in action on Feb. 7, 2007 in Iraq.  He was 30 yrs. young.

          Chef James
 

TOP

NEW YEAR’S EVE DROPS:  Moon Pie, Pinecone, Pelican, Possum, Muskrat, Pickle, Bologna and other odd things that cities drop to mark the countdown to the New Year.

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· Turkey Trivia
· Turkey History
· Turkey Quotes
· Turkey Tips
· Cranberry Trivia
· Cranberry Tips
· Pumpkin Trivia
· Walnut Trivia
· Pecan Trivia

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A FOOD LIFE

"There are those who say that a life devoted to food -- cooking it, eating it, writing about it, even dreaming about it -- is a frivolous life, an indulgent life.  I would disagree.  If we do not care what we eat, we do not care for ourselves, and if we do not care for ourselves, how can we care for others?"
Fictional cookery writer Hilary Small, in episode 6, series 2 of 'Pie In the Sky'

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Click Here for
Food Emergency
Websites, Phone #s, E-mails, etc.

 

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Classic Fish and Seafood Recipes
 

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DID YOU KNOW?

The Lorna Doone shortbread cookie was introduced in 1912. No one, even at Nabisco, is quite sure of exactly how the name was chosen.  All that can be said is that R.D. Blackmore, a British novelist, was the author of a popular book titled 'Lorna Doone,' the lead character, Lorna Doone of course, was of Scottish heritage, and shortbread was considered Scottish. Hence, a shortbread cookie named Lorna Doone.
 

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IN SEASON FOR AUTUMN

APPLES
  Trivia  ---  Tips

MANGOS - Tips
  Trivia

RASPBERRIES
  Trivia  ---  Tips

BEETS - Trivia | Tips
  Recipes  |  Quotes

BROCCOLI - Trivia
  Tips  ---  Recipes

BRUSSELS SPROUTS
  Trivia  ---  Recipes

CAULIFLOWER - Tips
  Trivia  ---  Recipes

COLLARD GREENS
  Trivia  ---  Recipes

CRANBERRIES
  Trivia  ---  Tips

KALE - Trivia
  Tips  ---  Recipes

PARSNIPS - Trivia
  Tips  ---  Recipes

PUMPKINS - Trivia
  Recipes

RUTABAGAS - Trivia
  Tips  ---  Recipes

SWEET POTATOES and YAMS - Trivia
  Tips  ---  Recipes

SWISS CHARD
  Trivia  ---  Recipes

TURNIPS - Trivia
  Recipes

WINTER SQUASH
  Tips  ---  Recipes

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DID YOU KNOW?

Most turkeys are raised on a vegetarian diet and without hormones and antibiotics.
 

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Website last updated on Tuesday, December 5, 2023