Honey is honey. It's just that simple. A bottle of pure honey contains a natural sweet substance, produced by honey bees, from nectar of plants or secretions of living parts of plants. Honey is made by bees in one of the world's most efficient facilities, the beehive. The 60,000 or so bees in a beehive may collectively travel as much as 55,000 miles and visit more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just one pound of honey! Honey has been found to have medicinal qualities. Local honey is well known to assist in allergy relief and is a rich source of antioxidants. 

Last month, on the internet of all places, there was a wicked rumor that my all-time favorite childhood cereal was being taken off the market. The reason the cereal was being removed from supermarket shelves was because it contains a mere 12 grams of sugar per serving. Seriously?! What would Cap'n Crunch be without sugar!? The good news is that the Captain isn't being forced to walk the plank and that Cap'n Crunch is still available. In celebration of this happy news I decided to look for recipes that used Cap'n Crunch cereal as an ingredient. Does anyone else remember the yummy chicken tenders from Planet Hollywood that were rolled in crushed cereal and then deep fried?

(In loving memory of Patricia DuPree Baker, February 11, 1936 – March 23, 2011. Reprinted from September 2009.)

When visiting family and friends in North Carolina last week, I had the opportunity to see the new movie, “Julie and Julia” with my mother, the woman responsible for nurturing my love of cooking. While I savored the time with Mama, the movie almost hit too close to home for me! It made me remember Coq Au Vin (also known in our house as Purple Panic Chicken) spilled in the oven and across the kitchen floor. I had flashbacks of Vince suffering through some of my kitchen experiments (that weren't suitable for serving, much less eating) while diplomatically explaining to me that the dish was “good, but just not my taste.”