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Chef James

“The duty of a good Cuisinier is to transmit to the next generation everything he has learned and experienced.”
 
Fernand Point, 1941

FEATURED FOR NOVEMBER

Updated: Over 9,000 Food Festivals

Football Food

Recipes for Leftover Turkey

Thanksgiving Facts & Trivia

Thanksgiving Articles

Thanksgiving Recipes    • Turkey Tips

Turkey Trivia   • Turkey Quotes

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FEATURED RECIPES & TIPS

· Guacamole & Avocado Dips

· Original Frank's Redhot Wings

· Ultimate Party Wings

· More Appetizer Recipes

· Deep Fried Turkey

· White Castle Turkey Stuffing

· Turkey Stuffings & Dressings

· Classic Green Bean Casserole

· Fresh Cranberry Relish

· Turducken Recipe

· Candied Sweet Potatoes

· Christmas Wreath Cake

· English Mince Meat (1896)

· Cranberry Cheese Bars

· Perfect Gingerbread Men

· Gingerbread Whoopie Pies

· Pfeffernusse Cookies

· Texas State Fair Pecan Pie

· Florida Pecan Pie

· Pumpkin Pie

· Southern Sweet Potato Pie

· Virginia Sweet Potato Pie

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November Food Holidays:

For Details, History and more DAY, WEEK and MONTH Food Holiday designations, including LINKS to Holiday Origins and Additional Information:
SEE Detailed NOVEMBER Food Calendar

NOVEMBER is:

• American Diabetes Month

• Eat Smart Month

• Grains of the Month: Millet and Teff

• International Thank a Farmer Month

• National Bison Month
  America's National Mammal
  · Bison Facts and Trivia

• National Georgia Pecan Month
  · Pecan Facts and Trivia
  · Pecan Tips

• National Peanut Butter Lovers' Month
  · Peanut Butter Trivia

• National Pepper Month (the vegetable)
  · Peppers Facts and Trivia
  · Sweet Pepper Tips

• National Pomegranate Month
  · Pomegranate Facts & Trivia
  · Pomegranate Tips

• National Roasting Month
  · Roasting Articles

• National Raisin Bread Month
  · Bread Trivia and Facts

• Sweet Potato Awareness Month
  · Sweet Potato Trivia
  · Sweet Potato Recipes
  · Sweet Potato Nutrition
  · Sweet Potato Articles
  · Sweet Potato Tips
  · Stringy Sweet Potatoes

• World Vegan Month
  · Vegan Recipes

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DID YOU KNOW?

The onion is believed to have originated in Asia, though it is likely that onions may have been growing wild on every continent. Dating back to 3500 BC, onions were one of the few foods that did not spoil during the winter months. Our ancestors must have recognized the vegetable's durability and began growing onions for food.

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Friday, November 28, 2025

Daily Trivia Questions are below

TODAY’S FOOD QUOTE

“She was so wild that when she made French toast she got her tongue caught in the toaster.”
Rodney Dangerfield
 

FOOD HOLIDAYS - TODAY IS:

• Maize Day (Nov 28, 2025 - Day after Thanksgiving)
Celebrates the significant role that maize (corn) has played in food history.  (Corn Recipes  --  Corn Trivia)
  (Corn Quotes)

• National French Toast Day
  (French Toast Origin  --  French Toast Recipes)

• Alice’s Restaurant Massacree Day (see 1965 below)

• National Family Week in U.S. (Nov 23-29, 2025 - Thanksgiving Week)  Organizations have promoted National Family Week for more than 40 years.  An annual celebration observed during the week of Thanksgiving, designed to build community connections and honor those who strengthen families

 UK: [National Tree Week]  (Nov 22-30, 2025)
 

TODAY IN FOOD HISTORY

1520 Three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed from the Atlantic Ocean through the passage now known as the Straits of Magellan, and entered the "Sea of the South" on November 28, 1520. This sailing was the first westward crossing of the Pacific Ocean.  Magellan was killed in fighting with the natives in the Philippines on April 27, 1521. The following September, one of the fleet's ships returned to Spain laden with spices, thereby completing the first circumnavigation of the globe and vindicating Magellan's vision of an alternate route to the Spice Islands.

1837 John Wesley Hyatt was born. He developed the process for making celluloid, the first synthetic plastic. He also invented a water purifying system and a sugar cane mill.

1863 Thanksgiving was first celebrated as a regular American Holiday.

1869 W.F. Semple of Mount Vernon, Ohio, was issued the first chewing gum patent in 1869.
(Chewing Gum Trivia & Facts)

1930 After a sandstorm in Morocco, there was a rain of mud in Paris and yellow sand fell in Spain.

1942 Fire destroyed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts killing nearly 500 people.

1948 The first Polaroid Land Camera went on sale in Boston. This was the first successful self-developing camera; it took a photo about 1 minute to develop.

1965 Folk singer/songwriter Arlo Guthrie (son of Woody Guthrie) was convicted of littering in the Berkshire County town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and the song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" was born  (YouTube).  (see also Nov 22, 1967)

1967 All horse racing in Britain has been cancelled indefinitely to help prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

2006 Texas Republican state Rep. Betty Brown filed a bill (HCR 15) in the Texas legislature which would declare Athens, Texas as the "original home of the hamburger.”  Residents of New Haven, Connecticut strongly objected.
(See also Louis Lunch  ---  Hamburger Trivia & Facts)

 

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A FEW FEATURED FOOD FESTIVALS
(See All 9,000 Food, Wine & Beer Festivals)

Nov 18, 2025-Jan 4, 2026  National Gingerbread House Competition & Display - Asheville, N. Carolina

November 27-28, 2025  Thanksgiving at Plimoth Plantation - Plymouth, Massachusetts

November 28-29, 2025  Foods & Feasts of Colonial Virginia - Williamsburg, Virginia

November 29, 2025  Old Mission Peninsula Wine Trail Mac & Cheese Bake-Off - Traverse City, Michigan

November 29-30, 2025  A Family Thanksgiving 2025
Woodstock, Vermont

November 29 & Dec 6, 2025  Winter Wonderland
Franklin, North Carolina

(SEE ALL FOOD FESTIVALS and OTHER FOOD EVENTS)
 

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FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ    (new DAILY questions)

(Click Here for 40 Question Thanksgiving Quiz)

1) All of the following events took place in the same year.  What year is it?
· New York deli owner Richard Hellmann introduces Hellmann's Blue Ribbon Mayonnaise, packed in individual glass jars.
· National Biscuit Co. (Nabisco) introduces Oreo Biscuits, renamed Oreo Cream Sandwich in 1958.
· Lorna Doone cookies are introduced by National Biscuit Co. (Nabisco)
· Morton's Table Salt is introduced.
· The U.S. prohibites the sale of Absinthe liqueur.

2) Any of various herbs in the parsley family, having small white or greenish flowers in compound umbels, whose roots and fruits are used in flavoring liqueurs and whose stems are candied and eaten.

3) What city of northwest Italy, southeast of Turin is noted for its sparkling wines?

4) An English dish originally from India, it will contain rice, lentil, and hard cooked eggs, with a rich cream sauce (bechamel), sometimes with curry. The English version usually contains smoked fish, or cooked fish.

Click Here for Today’s Quiz Answers

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Read an article about Chef James and the FoodReference.com website published in the Winona Daily News, Minneapolis StarTribune, and numerous other newspapers: Click here for the Article
 

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Dedication
This website is dedicated to:
· Gladys Ehler, my mother, who taught me patience and how to make Sauerbraten (it is still my favorite)
· Edward Ehler, my father, who taught me a love of books and history.
· Barbara Saba, my sister, who taught me how to dance.
· Cpl. Thomas E. Saba, my nephew.  Died in action on Feb. 7, 2007 in Iraq.  He was 30 yrs. young.

          Chef James
 

TOP

COOKING TIPS

Cranberry Tips
Sweet Potato Tips
Pecan Tips
Walnut Tips
Goose Tips

DID YOU KNOW?

When Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin sat down to eat their first meal on the moon, their foil food packets contained roasted turkey and all of the trimmings.

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A FOOD LIFE

"There are those who say that a life devoted to food -- cooking it, eating it, writing about it, even dreaming about it -- is a frivolous life, an indulgent life.  I would disagree.  If we do not care what we eat, we do not care for ourselves, and if we do not care for ourselves, how can we care for others?"
Fictional cookery writer Hilary Small, in episode 6, series 2 of 'Pie In the Sky'

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Click Here for
Food Emergency
Websites, Phone #s, E-mails, etc.

 

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Classic Fish and Seafood Recipes
 

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DID YOU KNOW?

Turkey's scientific name is Meleagris gallopava from Latin gallus, meaning cock, and pavo, meaning chickenlike. Meleagris is the Roman name for guineafowl, suggestive of the early confusion of the turkey with guineafowl.

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IN SEASON FOR AUTUMN

VEGETABLES
(Recipes  --  Tips)
Beets
Bell Peppers
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Collard Greens
Cranberries
Garlic
Ginger
Green Beans
Herbs
Kale
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Okra
Onions
Parsnips
Peas
Plantains
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Radishes
Rutabagas
Spinach
Sweet Potatoes & Yams
Swiss Chard
Turnips
Winter Squash

FRUITS (Tips)
Apples
Bananas
Grapes
Kiwifruit
Lemons
Limes
Mangos
Pears
Pomegranates
Raspberries

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DID YOU KNOW?

Only tom turkeys gobble. Hen turkeys make a clicking noise.

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Website last updated on Friday, November 28, 2025