A little "Taste" of history

I decided, on every Tuesday, I would write a little article about the history of food. We all love food; who doesn‘t love food. While walking on my beloved treadmill, I found a wonderful article I would like to share later. The truth is that food is not just food, without it, we would die. Wonderful family memories are recalled around the dinner table after a great meal. Family traditions are past on from generation to generation. Not everyone can cook. Many of us have had the "wonderful experience" of tasting a poorly cooked meal. Some of us can still taste that meal even when that horrible memory decides to seep out of our subconscious and attack us on a pleasant afternoon. I always feel the pain after paying good money for a poorly cooked meal. Watching a great chef at work is truly mesmerizing. The big word is ingredients. Each ingredient has its own bit of history. I find it very interesting. How much of our lives revolve around food? Think about how food is viewed in other countries. What are the origins of coffee? Who was the first person to make apple pie? I read a quote today I found delightful,

"Who dares deny the truth, There's poetry in pie?"

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

I have too many great cookbooks that I have not even skimmed the surface of the wonderful recipes found inside my collection. I will admit, on a tired evening, it is so much easier to open a box of macaroni instead of laboring over the stove; but that's life. We can choose to view cooking as work, expense and waste of time. Or, we can see it as a delightful experience that at the end of the day brings us all together. I love it when Samuel requests meals. He usually wants something that involves mashed potatoes: his favorite. I am so pleased when my Samuel tells me his meal was delicious.

"You may make houses enchantingly beautiful, hang them with airy picture, have them clean and airy and convenient; but if the stomach is fed with sour bread and burnt meats, it will raise such rebellions the eyes will see no beauty anywhere."

-Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Since I feel I have been a bit long winded on my introduction, I will make my first "Taste" of history short.

Peach History
" The peach has made a very successful journey from China to the New World. Actually, it went from China to Persia to Rome and then Spread throughout Europe. The fruit bore the name Persian apple, which in the Middle English became peche. The Spanish brought the peach to the New World in the seventeenth century."
-Andrea Chesman (Mom's best Desserts)

I will leave you with a wonderful quote, by a wonderful writer, Mark Twain.
" Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside."