No, not my ample 1-year-old daughter, I mean of course fruitcake. It’s the 12th century and newfangled dried fruit, plus spices of all kinds, are pouring into Europe by the (ox)cartload. Suddenly the continent can’t get enough of fruitcake — and everyone’s getting into the act. The English are making their cakes and puddings, the Scots […]
READ ONMore than a few food scribes will tell you that fruitcakes date to the Greeks and Romans (doesn’t everything in a newspaper food column?). But that’s only true if what you mean by a fruitcake is a cake with fruit in it. It’s sort of like trying to put a fixed date on, oh, let’s […]
READ ONYou mean what sort of spirit should you use in a fruitcake? It all depends on the cake really, since they can obviously vary in style quite a bit. But as long as the liquor is hard, you can’t go too wrong. I’d say for a lighter cake, one that’s more yellow and buttery, I’d […]
READ ONI ran into this once again this year: turkey dinner leftover pizza, made by a pizzeria by the name of Pluto’s in the town of French Lick, Indiana (no off-color jokes please, I haven’t had my morning coffee yet). As you can see, this monster features a “crust” of turkey dressing, on top of which […]
READ ONReader Barbara supplies a more contemporary recipe, which, judging from the ingredient proportions, is more like a pound cake with lots of good stuff added in. It’s not the dark, chewy stuff I’ll be making next week, but never let it be said I was dogmatic about fruitcake! She writes: I usually don’t like fruitcake, […]
READ ON…is how most of us imagine the first Thanksgiving, though in fact that’s mostly just a romantic image. The national holiday was actually conceived during the American Revolution. A terrific article on that subject in today’s Wall Street Journal. Go here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122765806822958269.html.
READ ONThere’s been so much wild speculation, it’s nice to have a little real-word perspective. This article from the News & Observer, at last, provides it. Read it and you’ll see why cooking at the White House ain’t no celebrity gig.
READ ONAs if you didn’t have enough to do with all your Thanksgiving preparations, this is the time of year to start thinking about your Christmas fruitcake. I know, I know, but good fruitcakes are well-aged beasts. They require at least 3-4 weeks to ripen. So add some candied fruit to your last-minute Thanksgiving shopping list […]
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