In Rustic Speech and Folk-lore (1913, p. 300), Elizabeth Mary Wright wrote: In parts of Ireland a dish called colcannon, made of potatoes and cabbage mashed together with butter, used to form part of the Halloween dinner. In it was concealed a ring, the finder whereof would be the first of the company to be … More Saints, Souls, and Haints: Cabbages and Rings
From Memoirs of the American Folk-lore Society, Volume 4, published in 1896, by the American Folklore Society, folk beliefs about Halloween from early America. Most U.S. Halloween practices came from Scotland. 311. On Halloween put an egg to roast before the fire and leave the doors and windows open. When it begins to sweat a … More Saints, Souls, and Haints: Eggs
Corn. Beans. Squash. The Three Sisters. Many Native American groups tell very different creation stories about these New World crops, which – as “sustainers of life” – meant deep sacredness. According to Shelia Wilson of the Sappony Tribe in North Carolina: The legend of “Three Sisters” originated when a woman of medicine who could no … More The Three Sisters: A Celebration
Thankfully, the Millennium Bridge across the River Thames didn’t sway under my feet that day, giving lie to its other name, the Wobbly Bridge. But the chilling wind whipped at everything not tied down, painting a disagreeable redness on my nose and a deep-seated hunger in my belly. The aroma of roasting sugary peanuts floated … More A Dearth of Pleasure: The Curse of Modern Food Writing
Once you have mastered a technique, you barely have to look at a recipe again. ~ Julia Child Everybody says it happens, yes. Love at first sight. It happens. I must concur―it was true, at least for me, when it came to cookbooks. The summer I turned fourteen, I fell hopelessly in love with the … More Discovering Cookbooks, a Memory
You can have strong emotional reactions when you eat a food that arouses those deep unconscious memories. ~ Susan Krauss Whitbourne Even if I stood on my tiptoes, I still couldn’t see over the counter at Ferdinand’s Bar. But I could smell the waffled sugar cones cooking in the waffle irons and hear the Washington … More The Magic of Ferdinand’s Bar
The origin of the dressing is disputed. The Olympic Club in Seattle, The Davenport Hotel in Spokane, Washington, Solari’s Restaurant, Bergez-Frank’s Old Poodle Dog Restaurant and the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, and the Bohemian in Portland all claim to be the home of the dressing, with the invention in either the 1900s or … More Crab Louie
I turn the calendar page and the tiny print at the bottom of the little square reminds me: Thanksgiving, November 26, 2020. After nearly a year of increasing horrors, many deaths, travel restrictions, and just plain fear of a still-mysterious virus, I find myself wondering just what Thanksgiving means to me now. This year, it … More Thanksgiving, in the Time of COVID-19
CYNTHIA D. BERTELSEN 
You must be logged in to post a comment.