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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 DECEMBER

Updated: Over 9,000 Food Festivals

Football Food

Christmas Articles

Christmas Food Trivia

Christmas Tree Trivia

Other Christmas Trivia

Holiday Recipes

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

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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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December Food Holidays:

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

DECEMBER is:

• Grain of the Month: Buckwheat
  · Buckwheat Trivia & Facts

• National Egg Nog Month
  · Eggnog Trivia & Facts
  · Egg Nog Recipes

• National Fruit Cake Month
  · Holiday Fruit Cake Recipe
  · Fruitcake Trivia

• Root Vegetables Month
  · Root Vegetable Articles

• National Pear Month: Many fruits are out of season during the winter months. Pears are available fresh during this time.  · Pear Trivia    · Pear Quotes

•  Worldwide Food Service Safety Month
created in 1994 by the National Restaurant Association

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DID YOU KNOW?

In Australia, Father Christmas uses six white boomers (male kangaroos).
In the Louisiana swamps he travels in a pirogue drawn by alligators and a red nosed werewolf.
In the Netherlands St. Nicholas rides on a tall white horse.
Other modes of transportation for Santa Claus are a donkey (Switzerland), a broom (Italy), a dugout canoe, (Hawaii)
 

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Sunday, December 7, 2025

Daily Trivia Questions are below

TODAY’S FOOD QUOTE

“There is no such thing as a little garlic.”
Arthur Baer
 

FOOD HOLIDAYS - TODAY IS:

• National Cotton Candy Day (also July 31)
  (Cotton Candy Trivia)

• Feast of St. Ambrose of Milan, patron of beekeepers

• Cookie Cutter Week: (Dec 1-7 ?)

• [National Handwashing Awareness Week]
  (Dec 7-13, 2025)
 

TODAY IN FOOD HISTORY

1787 Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. (Delaware Food Trivia)

1863 Richard Warren Sears was born.  He developed his mail-order jewelry business (1886) into the Sears Roebuck & Company. By 1894 the Sears catalog was 507 pages.

1879 Charles Lavelle Broley was born (died May 4, 1959). A Canadian banker and ornithologist, he was one of the first to implicate DDT in the declining hatching success of bald eagles, and the environmental dangers of pesticides.

1901 Andre Tchelistcheff born (died April 5, 1994).  Tchelistcheff was a Russian-born U.S. enologist, was a pivotal figure in the revitalization of the California wine industry following Prohibition (1919-33) and used his Paris training in viticulture and wine making to pioneer such techniques as cold fermentation and the use of American oak barrels for aging. He was also an authority on the types of soil suitable for growing various grape varieties. Known as the "dean of American winemakers"

1904 Clarence Nash was born. The original voice of Donald Duck.

1909 Leo Hendrik Baekeland of Yonkers, N.Y. received U.S. patent No. 942,699 for ‘Bakelite,' the first plastic that did not soften when heated. Those black plastic knobs on stoves, and distributor caps for car engines are examples.

1913 Aaron Montgomery Ward died (born Feb 17, 1844). Founder of Montgomery Ward & Co. to sell general merchandise by mail order.

1926 The Electrolux Servel Corp. received the first U.S. patent for a household refrigerator cooled by a sealed gas refrigerant. (Refrigerator Trivia)

1942 Harry Chapin was born (died July 16, 1981). American singer-songwriter ('Taxi,' 'Cat's in the Cradle,' etc.). A dedicated humanitarian, a co-founder of the organization World Hunger Year in 1975 and influential in President Jimmy Carter's establishment of the Presidential Commission  on World Hunger in 1977. Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1987 for his humanitarian work.

2006 The Hard Rock Cafes and Casinos were purchased by Florida's Seminole American Indian Tribe.

2009 British TV channel ITV apologized for the death of a rat on its reality show 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!' in Australia. Two contestants, Gino D’Acampo and Stuart Manning skinned, cooked and ate the rat during filming, and were later convicted of animal cruelty.

2020 Coronavirus: Global cases total more than 67 million with over 1,540,000 deaths; U.S. cases total more than 15 million with more than 288,000 deaths.

2021 Coronavirus: Global cases total more than 266,628,000 with over 5,276,000 deaths; U.S. cases total more than 50,104,000 with more than 809,600 deaths.
 

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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

December 1-31, 2025  55th Annual Christmas in Newport - Newport, Rhode Island

December 10, 2025 - Kosher Food and Wine Experience - Miami, Florida

December 10-22, 2025  The Bracebridge Dinner
Yosemite National Park, California

December 12-14, 2025  Annual Woodstock Winter Wassail Weekend - Woodstock, Vermont

December 13, 2025  Hudson Valley Pizza Festival
Poughkeepsie, New York

December 13-14, 2025  28th Annual Inn to Inn Holiday Cookie & Candy Tour
Mt. Washington Valley, New Hampshire

(SEE ALL FOOD FESTIVALS and OTHER FOOD EVENTS)
 

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FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ    (new DAILY questions)

1) All of the following events took place in the same year.  What year is it?
· In West Virginia drivers may now keep their roadkill and cook it for dinner, as long as you report it.
· Smoking is banned in California restaurants and bars.
· Bill Gates was hit with a cream pie in Brussels.
· The 3,000 room Bellagio Hotel and Casino opened in Las Vegas, Nevada.

2) Shark attacks kill fewer then 20 people each year. 
How many sharks are killed by humans each year?

3) The reddish orange flesh of this tropical plant root has been used in cooking since 600 B.C. It is native to the Orient and now can be found in India and the Caribbean. It was used in biblical times as a perfume but now it is commonly used to flavor and color food. The root is typically boiled or steamed and then dried and ground into a powder. 
Name this plant.

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

DID YOU KNOW

· Turkey Tips

· Cranberry Tips

· Sweet Potato Tips

· Pecan Tips

· Mashed Potato Tips

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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?

Granny Smith is an all-purpose apple with green skin, firm, crisp flesh, and a pleasantly tart flavor. Named after its discoverer Maria (or Mary) Ann Smith (died 1870), an Australian gardener. Smith had found the seedling growing where she had thrown out some apples, she began using the fruit for cooking, and was soon marketing the fruit. It is believed to have originally come from the seed of a French Crab apple.

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IN SEASON FOR AUTUMN

VEGETABLES
(Recipes  --  Tips)
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower
Celery
Collard Greens
Cranberries
Green Beans
Kale
Mushrooms
Okra
Onions
Parsnips
Peas
Potatoes
Pumpkin
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?

Most turkeys are raised on a vegetarian diet and without hormones and antibiotics.

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Website last updated on Sunday, December 7, 2025