by B.L. Unkel | Oct 23, 2021 | Baking
As we approach Halloween, I thought I’d share historical myths and superstitions involving blackberries. There are more than you might imagine. Blackberries and the Devil The most well-known superstition is: Don’t eat fresh blackberries after “Michaelmas day.”...
by B.L. Unkel | Oct 16, 2021 | Baking
What, you ask, was chocolate cake if it wasn’t chocolate cake? Answer: In the late 1800s, the first chocolate cakes were usually yellow cakes with chocolate frosting. Cooks didn’t have smooth-melting chocolate like we have today. Until 1890-1900, the extent of...
by B.L. Unkel | Oct 9, 2021 | Baking
Tomorrow, October 10, is National Angel Food Cake Day. I discovered this nugget of information when I began researching how the cake got its name. I never learned exactly where the name came from, other than what else would you call such a tasty, cloudlike treat? This...
by B.L. Unkel | Jul 24, 2021 | Baking
Writing last week’s DYK made me think of the tomato chow-chow recipe I use and the story behind it . . . How It Began Several years ago, an older friend gave me a jar of her cousin’s tomato chow-chow. (More like a sweet tomato relish, really.) After tasting it,...
by B.L. Unkel | Jul 17, 2021 | Baking
Now that we’re well into summer, I hope you’re enjoying the benefits of a vegetable garden. There’s nothing tastier than a BLT with fresh-out-of-the-garden tomatoes. (Of course, with the high cost of bacon, maybe it’s just a fresh out-the-garden tomato sandwich.) How...
by B.L. Unkel | May 21, 2021 | Baking
Who doesn’t love Peanut Butter? Well, besides people with nut allergies, that is. As we discovered in last week’s Part 1, North Americans were some of the last people to get the peanut plant. So you shouldn’t be surprised to learn: We didn’t invent peanut...
