DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

   The attractions of snakes seems to be a huge pull factor, and seemingly the whole world's major  ophidiophillaccs  (snake lovers) often accompanied by their snakes, alongside keen photographers, descend on the small medieval town of  Cocullo , in the  Abruzzo Majella Mountains , ready to take part in this festival which has been re-enacted in its current Christian format each year, apart from 2009.    There are three supposed origins to the  Cocullo Snake Festival ....In the 11th century, apparently  Saint Dominic  cleared the local fields which were being overrun by snakes, and as a sign of thanks, since 1392, the locals parade his statue and snakes around the streets.  The second version dates to 700 B.C., locals experienced the same problems in tending to their field and  Apollo  ordered the village to entwine the snakes around his statue so that they would become tame and be able to farm once m...

  The first of April isn't just another ordinary day.  Also known as  April Fool's Day  or  All Fool's Day .  It is celebrated in a number of countries including America, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.    The origin of April Fool's Day is actually any body's guess, but it is known that it came to England from France or Germany in the mid 17th century.  At one time April 1st coincided with the New Year and was celebrated as such until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII ordered the new Gregorian Calendar to replace the Julian Calendar.  With there being no computers, telephones and other speedy forms of communicating, word did not travel very fast in those days and therefore many people continued to celebrate New Years Day on April 1st, while some rebelled against this change in their old traditions.    With some embracing a new system and others fighting progress it is thought that those following the new system mock...

The Times recipe is adapted from  Jacques Torres  and some people refer to these cookies as ‘The Jacques Torres Recipe’ instead of the New York Times Recipe. Whatever title it’s given, the recipe has been discussed, dissected, and now I’m tossing my thoughts into the ring, too. The recipe is full of nuances and uniquities, making it unlike any other chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve tried. The full recipe yields 18 five-inch diameter cookies that use a whopping 3.5 ounces of raw dough each. That’s two to three times the size of most homemade cookies and puts these squarely into the jumbo-bakery-sized cookie realm. We didn’t need 18 whoppers all at once, fearing they would go stale before we’d eat them all, and so I halved the recipe, yielding nine jumbo cookies and one slightly smaller cookie. You could likely make the full batch of dough and either freeze the pre-baked balls of dough or freeze the finished cookies. I’m sure either freeze similarly well to other doughs ...