News in Sarasota Florida

Flavors And More Online Magazine Celebrates the Many Food Holidays of February

This month at FLAVORS AND MORE Magazine, we celebrate the fact that February may be the shortest month of the year, but it's long in the tradition of food holidays both major and somewhat obscure. Mardi Gras, Valentine's Day and Presidents Day are the ones most of us are familiar with but how about Chocolate Month, National Fiber Focus Month, Cherry Month and National Hot Breakfast Month. The last week of the month is National Pancake Week. February 18 is Drink Wine Day, the 20th signifies National Margarita Day, while the 27th is Kahlua Day. February 23 is Dog Biscuit
Appreciation Day.

Any inspiration here for home entertaining? If so, Editor Marsha Fottler has a review of a book you'll want to keep on your bedside table and refer to often. It's the Entertaining Encyclopedia written by Los Angeles caterer Denise Vivaldo. Within its covers is everything you need to know if you want to successfully organize an intimate gathering or host a huge party. Vivaldo has got your back whether you need theme menus and recipes, want to know how to set a table and fold napkins or if you're in a quandary about how much ice to buy. Apparently, hosts never buy enough. We include three of her short no-fail recipes.

Chef Judi Gallagher says February is definitely the month to bake a cherry pie. In fact, she's got several easy (and spectacular) cherry recipes just for you. Try one on February 15 to commemorate Presidents Day, the day that Americans pause to honor George Washington our first president (born Feb. 22, 1732)
and Abraham Lincoln our 16th president (born Feb. 15, 1809).

Acclaimed food/wine writer Doc Lawrence travels down his Gourmet Highway, to Burgundy, Paris, Savannah, and recounts dinner at the James Beard House in NYC, with a remembrance of a meal in the Garden District of New Orleans with some great wines made near Thomason Jefferson's Monticello. He always makes culinary travel seem like the best reason in the world to bother with the trouble of airline travel today.

Senior staff writer Herb Gardener is fascinated by the foods and culinary techniques of China and is getting ready to host a Chinese New Year party (it's the Year of the Tiger) by studying the comprehensive tome The Chinese Kitchen by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo. Chinese New Year is the longest and most significant observance in the Chinese calendar. The year of 4708 officially begins on Feb. 14. Did you know that in China green tea is the suggested beverage for seafood and that black fermented tea is the right choice for game?

Finally, Marsha Fottler (who was born and raised in New Orleans) talks about the King Cake and what it means to revelers in the Crescent City at Mardi Gras time.
Every Mardi Gras menu needs a King Cake. Flavors And More is a monthly online magazine dedicated to the pleasures of the table realized through recipes, libations, travel, books, entertaining and features that celebrate food and all those who gather together to share meals and memories.

When you have an appetite for a bountiful buffet of useful stories and photographs devoted to the pleasures of the table, we have what it takes to satisfy that hunger. Read, enjoy, subscribe and post a comment.