In the Provence region of France, Christmas Eve dinner quite often ends with thirteen different desserts, symbolizing Jesus and the twelve apostles.  When we hear the phrase, “….and visions of sugar plums danced in their heads,” we are told by food historians that it derives from the custom, originating during Queen Victoria’s reign in the [...]

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Recently, I got a membership application from AARP. It was a scary letter, after all it came as a wake-up call telling me that my days of youth are numbered. I talked to my mother about menopause and she warned me that I will start to have solid evidence that gravity do exists.  She told [...]

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On my father’s farm, he has a greenhouse full of strawberry plants. My father always loses money on his strawberries.  The secret of my father’s lack of success was recently revealed when he confessed publicly (within the family) that he believed that his clients were no better than he was, so he always chooses the best [...]

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Although I was born in Damascus, I spent a lot of time growing up in the small Syrian village of Safsafi. Where my father works a farm that grows peanuts, vegetables, olives and citrus.  Whenever I close my eyes I can smell the wonderful aroma of citrus blossoms–oranges, lemons and grapefruit–that bloom in April. Food [...]

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