ARE BLUE PUMPKINS SAD?

  No way! Blue pumpkins come from a big family rich in colors and types – way beyond the familiar orange. According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, pumpkins are part of a large and diverse plant family, Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash, gourds, watermelons, and cucumbers. D
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DEEP ROOTS: Meet the Sweet Potato

Casseroles and pies. Slow cooked or air fried. Baked or ice cream. The sweet potato goes everywhere. Consider this: it’s hard to keep track of sweet potatoes’ many names. In Puerto Rico, Columbia, and Brazil they’re batata; Japan calls them satsumaimo; Mexicans love el camote; and the
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CHICKEN FEED FOR PEOPLE

It’s something worth crowing for. That’s how it was described in the 1880s when there were no cell phones or televisions. City people traveled by horseback, horse-drawn streetcars, and steam-hauled commuter trains. Nearly half of the population lived on farms and in rural areas. Meet
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SLICED IN CHILLICOTHE

What was the best thing before sliced bread? You probably never heard of Chillicothe, Missouri. A 1928 ad called Chillicothe the home of an invention that was “the greatest forward step in baking . . .” Humans began baking bread long before recorded history. It’s no surprise that brea
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SUNDAE WARS

It was my birthday and all I wanted was Jahn’s Kitchen Sink. The Kitchen Sink was a massive sundae for over 6 people. It came in a sink-like bowl with 30 scoops of ice cream, topped with gooey nuts, sweet cherries, sprinkles, hot fudge, marshmallows, bananas, caramel, flags, sparklers
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SUSHI TONIGHT?

Fingers and chopsticks are welcome. Forks and knives are not. Sushi has names and customs that challenge the imagination. Creative sushi chefs (Itamae) are always coming up with something new and different. People love it. In the U.S. alone, the sushi industry is worth $22 billion, wi
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TWINKIE – The Gourmet Junk food

  April, 1930. There were no home microwaves or McDonald’s. Herbert Hoover was President, and everyone was listening to Duke Ellington, Judy Garland, and Cole Porter. A Canadian-born baker, James Dewar, worked at the Continental Baking Company in Illinois. He noticed that machine
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HOT DIGGETY DOGS: Chow Down on Tasty Tales

Is there a Kentucky Cordon Bleu in your future? How about a Coney Filet or Pigs in a Poncho? Twenty billion hot dogs are eaten every year in the U.S. They are the stuff of movies, music, baseball, barbecues, and busy street vendors. Basically, a hot dog is a thin sausage. It’s hard to
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ARE YOU A COOKIE MONSTER?

  Do you shout or just think, “Me want cookie!” when you pass a bakery or stroll down the cookie aisle? We’re all secret cookie monsters. And it’s been going on for over 1,400 years. According to Wikipedia, “cookies appear to have their origins in seventh century AD Persia, short
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TWISTED BILLIONS

Do you love pretzels? You’re in good company – over $7.2 billion are sold each year. Soft or hard, flavored, baldie, dipped, or salted – the world adores pretzels. In Israel you might eat pretzel beigales; Icelanders snack on kringla; and the Dutch have krakeling. The aver
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