Botticelli in a Bowl… A Bit of History: Whenever I hear the word primavera, my mind immediately visualizes a bowl of pasta and Botticelli. Of course, I always think of food first! Primavera, translated from its Italian origins, means spring. In the USA, pasta primavera consists simply of a pasta dish with fresh vegetables. Personally,…
It’s a One-Way Street… A Bit of History I live on a one-way street and am constantly driving past a black and white sign that is routinely ignored by most drivers. I never knew that edible pea pods contain fibers that only run in one direction; nature’s built in one-way street! Uni-directional fibers lends to…
Spy Berries… A Bit of History: Who would suspect that the delicious, beautiful strawberries featured in my Easy Strawberry Fruit Bars are steeped in cloak and dagger intrigues? Nonetheless, modern day strawberries owe their existence to a French spy. King Louis XIV sent Amédée-François Frézier to Chile in 1712, posing as a tourist, to spy…
Frankly Speaking… A Bit of History: A bit of a debate rages about the origins of sausages, which of course are a precursor to processed hot dogs. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council site credits Homer’s Odyssey with mentioning sausages, thus dating them back to the 9th BC. On the other hand, historians credit…