Whether you choose to use a kit or make your own coloring system, there are steps you can take to make sure you have some bold and beautiful Easter eggs this year to make your baskets and your egg hunts shine. You can start off with an egg dye kit and enhance that. The nice thing about a kit is that it comes with all the extras you need — cups, egg holders, crayons, stickers — that can boost your... Read more
You probably have a brunch planned for Easter and/or a dinner, and since it’s America, there’s a high probability that ham will be involved. Americans purchase on average about 246 million pounds of ham every month and 110 million pounds for Easter alone. I’m not discouraging you from having ham (mostly out of fear from the powerful spiral-slicing lobby), but why not make this a year to add a little international flair to the meal? Here are some popular Easter... Read more
The confectionery world lost an icon in early February with the passing of Ira “Bob” Born. If you don’t know his name, you most certainly know his creations. Born was the man who brought us Mike & Ike’s and Hot Tamales. He also unleashed Peeps, one of the country’s most loved or most reviled Easter candies, depending on where you stand on marshmallow blobs coated in sugar. While Peeps is well-known, it’s not the most popular Easter candy. Nor are... Read more
Faith is just as much about what we don’t eat as it is about what we do eat. Several religions impose some form of dietary restrictions, some as part of daily life, some as part of the holidays, and some as a complete sacrifice of all food for a period of reverence. Lent, which begins on February 22 this year and ends on April 3, is a recognition of the 40 days Jesus fasted in the desert and endured temptation... Read more
It’s a little over two weeks before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins, as do the accompanying sacrifices (this will be covered in the future when we’ll discuss faith and no food). However, before that happens, there’s Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday. The holiday is celebrated in different ways around the world, and I’ll be focusing on the U.S. celebration as well as the food aspect. However, before we get into that, I’d like to talk about some of the traditional foods... Read more
I was raised in the Roman Catholic church, choosing to find a new path for my faith a few years after confirmation. One of the things I wondered about while I grew up but never explored was the body and blood of Christ, which is represented in the Catholic church by a thin communion wafer that was unleavened bread. It may be used by others but the ones I’ve explored in the last few decades served regular bread. I didn’t... Read more
Food is a great opportunity to bring friends, family, and community together, but it’s about more than just getting together, talking, and eating. Jewish young adults who attend a Shabbat dinner are more likely to feel fulfilled and accepted when compared to those who do not attend, according to a recent study by the OneTable Research Advisory Board and Benenson Research Group released in June 2022. Before we go further into the study, for the unfamiliar, Shabbat is a... Read more
It’s not the first food mentioned in the Bible, but it may be one of the most famous foods in history — the forbidden fruit. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was [a]pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. — Genesis 3:6 (KJV) Nobody can say for sure what... Read more
The world of religion is filled with so many foods. Apples, bread, honey, fish, wine, horseradish, hot-crossed buns, pancakes, pretzels, and much, much more. Food, or in some cases the absence of food, has always played an important role in faith, worship, and religious celebrations. That’s what we’ll be exploring in this blog. We’re going on a journey looking at the importance of food in spirituality, the joy it brings in celebrations, and the different foods related to religion in... Read more
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