It's National White Chocolate Day

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Today is White Chocolate Day. White chocolate enjoyed a vogue in the 1980s, largely by dint of the then-new idea of white chocolate mousse. The strawberry inevitably served on top was the big payoff, I always thought. White chocolate is not chocolate at all, lacking as it does the chocolate liquor that is the essence of the flavor. It's cocoa butter blended with the other ingredients used to make milk chocolate. Really, it would be better called white vanilla.Because of that vanilla aspect, white chocolate got another boost in 1991, when the Palace Cafe created white chocolate bread pudding. It is extremely rich--a bit too rich for my palate. Perhaps because of that, the idea has been widely imitated in other restaurants around town. But the Palace Cafe is the undisputed originator of the idea.

In 1903 on this date, one Italo Marchiony applied for a patent (which he received a few months later) for a mold that would make ice cream cones. He had been making waffles and rolling them up to hold ice cream, but the combination was so popular that he wanted to make the cones faster. His invention made ten at a time, using a two-piece mold. The same basic concept is used today.

Today in 1699, the citizens of Rotterdam--the largest port in the Netherlands at the time--went on strike because their cattle-raising countrymen inland raised the price of butter too much. Which proved once again that when you mess with people's food, you really make them angry.

ladyfinger, n.--A long, oval-shaped sponge cake with a light, loose texture, a bit drier than other kinds of sponge cake. Lady fingers are rarely eaten by themselves. They're made specifically to be used in more complicated desserts. These days, its most frequent appearances are in the Italian dessert tiramisu. It is also found in charlotte russe, a dessert we don't see often anymore. They have been around for at least three centuries, and may be one of the earliest examples of a pastry used as a building block for bigger pastries.

Lemon is a small dairy farming community in the hilly countryside of northeast Pennsylvania, thirty miles northwest of Scranton. It's a short walk from the central intersection across a field to Creamery Pond. Nomenclaturally speaking, therefore, we have the elements of a tart pie. Now the bad news. There's a big junkyard in Lemon. We'll escape two miles south to Lake Carey Inn, where we may have a lunch to go before the pie.

When the only finfish on a menu is tilapia or orange roughy, order a steak or a chicken dish.

Today in 2010, the world's record for the largest sweet bread ever baked was set when a king cake was built big enough to encircle the plaza level of the Superdome in New Orleans. Baked and strung together by Haydel's Bakery--a major producer of the Carnival season confection, it weighed over 4,000 pounds. Big pieces of it were sold to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The whole cake was sold, as well as a second, slightly smaller one built at the same time.

Today in 2000, there was stir when it was discovered that a batch of taco shells made by Kraft Foods had been made using a biologically engineered variety of corn that had not yet been approved for human consumption.

Today is the feast day of St. Maurice, who lived in the third century in what is now Switzerland. He is the patron saint to call on if you have cramps. He is also the patron saint of knife sharpeners. In his honor, here is one important datum about sharpening your knives: you do not have to do it often. Every couple of years will do it if it's a good knife, and you run it over a steel once in awhile.

Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Lemon was born today in 1920. . . General Hospital actress Lynn Herring was born today in 1957. . . Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte woke up and smelled the coffee today in 1952. . . Choreographer and director of music videos Toni Basil moved her feet for the first time today in 1943. . . Eric Baker, one of the founders of Amnesty International, was born today in 1920.

"Do not arouse disdainful mind when you prepare a broth of wild grasses; do not arouse joyful mind when you prepare a fine cream soup."--Dogen, a religious leader in Japan in the twelfth century, who died on this date in 1200.

"A house where neither wine nor welcome is served to friends, soon will have none."--Rob Hutchison, Canadian politician.