Whaddya Think, Doctor Fink?

  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 machines making cream-filled strawberry shortcake were left idle after the season was over. Dewar came up with the idea of making a mini-snack cake filled with readily available banana cream. On his way to a marketing meeting, Dewar

Fingers and chopsticks are traditional. 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, with over 4,000 sushi shops around the country. A sushi chef is highly skilled – those individuals go through up to ten years of rigorous training to become a master itamae. Where did this

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    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 bread is considered the “staff of life.” Baking bread is a vital part of human history. Before 1928, everyone sliced their bread with knives. People couldn’t even imagine pre-sliced bread.

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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 French have patate douce. Israelis eat sweet potato latkes; Thais sip sweet potato soup; and Koreans adore sweet potato noodles. Americans love everything sweet potato – especially on Thanksgiving. How did sweet potatoes

Absolutely not. 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. Dr. Joe Masabni maintains in Agrilife Today, that pumpkins, whether blue, red, yellow, orange, or white are actually berries – fruit – “because anything that starts from a flower is botanically a fruit.” Pumpkins have varieties

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