“Love and joy come to you, and to you your wassail too…” Wassail (Old Norse “ves heil”, Old English was hál, literally ‘be you healthy’) is a beverage of hot mulled cider, traditionally drunk as an integral part of wassailing, a Medieval southern English drinking ritual intended to ensure a good cider apple harvest the following year….
Category: Fun Facts
The World’s Best Waldorf Salad & a little history
The Word’s Best Waldorf Salad The Waldorf salad was first created between 1893 and 1896 at the Waldorf Hotel in New York City (the precursor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which came into being with the merger of the Waldorf with the adjacent Astoria Hotel, opened in 1897). Oscar Tschirky, who was the Waldorf’s maître d’hôtel…
“All Gave Some–Some Gave All…”
Once Upon a Spice Wishes to Thank All Veterans That Have So Willingly Served. You Are Our True Heroes!!
Dia de los Muertos & All Souls All Saints Celebrations
Day of the Dead is an interesting holiday celebrated in central and southern Mexico during the chilly days of November 1 & 2. Even though this coincides with the Catholic holiday called All Soul’s & All Saint’s Day, the indigenous people have combined this with their own ancient beliefs of honoring their deceased loved ones….
Haunted Ginger Bread House with Template! Do You Dare??
While grave-digging recently, I came across this stunning, spooky beauty from Oh Sugar Events. Oh sure I could make one in time for Halloween and post it on Once Upon a Spice 😉 RIGHT! So instead, I decided to post the lovely images along with the template (at the bottom) for you–I dug long and deep…
Birthday Girls Don’t Cook…Unless They Want To :-) Just For Today The Kitchen is Closed
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of my wonderful friends in the blogosphere and social media forums for your amazing warmth, gracious likes, faithful follows and cherished comments. You are appreciated beyond words! Also, I am enormously humbled and grateful to the extreme talents who have nominated “Once Upon a Spice” for…
France: Food, Wine, Culture & Cooking
We are dedicating this week to enchanting, romantic and mesmerizing France. While my concentration will be on food and recipes, I found it fitting to first offer some interesting facts about “la République française.” Also known informally as “l’hexagone” (the hexagon) because of the general form of the country. To not only whet the palate,…
Southern Smothered Chicken Breasts with Onion Gravy & Food Facts of the Old South
This week’s recipes will be dedicated to the Rich South where regional cuisine developed local food supplies and blended with the varied cultural backgrounds of its cooks. The rural agricultural South produced vegetables, fruits, nuts, rice and corn. Game was plentiful: deer, rabbits, squirrels, birds and ducks of all kinds. Oysters, crabs, shrimp, saltwater and…
Vino! Some Ancient Medicinal Mysteries
Wine: The Spirit of the Vine…
CinniBird: 2015’s Most Noteworthy Kitchen Gadgets
No matter how many times we study our bestie barista artfully pour milk into a rich double shot of espresso, we just can’t recreate the foamy graphic as gracefully at home. (It’s a wrist thing, right?). Now this hand-held kitchen gadget is about to erase our latte art envy for good and help us up…
Once Upon a Spice 