Chances are you will run into an occasion in life which requires you to give a toast. Perhaps the event is a wedding, or a birthday party, or an event recognizing some achievement. With more formal events, a more formal toast is appropriate, and unless you’re a naturally-gifted and golden-tongued speaker, you’ll need to do some practicing beforehand in order to get it right.

But before practicing it, you’ll have to make up the toast. It might be funny, or it might be more serious. When I had to create a toast recently, I turned to the movie, “The Count of Monte Cristo”, in which Jim Caviziel’s character delivers a gem of a toast to a an adolescent boy entering adulthood. The toast was so impressive in form and substance that I not only memor How To Create a Toast Recipe

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Alfredo, and Who on Earth Was He?

by Anna Maria Volpi

If you ask for pasta with Alfredo sauce at a restaurant in Italy all you get from your waiter is a stare. Why is one of the most famous “Italian sauces” for pasta unknown in its country of origin? The answer is simple: because in Italy an Alfredo “sauce” doesn’t exist.

Yes, Italians make a dish of pasta, fettuccine dressed with nothing else than good aged parmigiano cheese and a lot of butter, but is such a simple preparation that Italians don’t even consider it a “recipe”.

Waverly Root in his famous book “The Food of Italy” (New York, 1971) wrote: “FETTUCCINE AL BURRO is associated in every tourist’s mind with Rome, possibly because the original Alfredo succeeded in making its serving a spectacle reminiscent of grand opera. It is the s Alfredo, and Who on Earth Was He? Recipe

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Beware of Radical Mint Enthusiasts

by David Leonhardt

Some things are as boring as the dust that clings to your TV screen.

Take toothpaste, for example. If you happen to be a radical mint enthusiast, brushing your teeth might be the highlight of your day. You might have the shiniest teeth in town. You might not want to interrupt your brushing for dinner... unless the menu includes mint jelly pâté.

I remember one of my favorite comic strips, when Adam was trying so hard to diet. Of course, my memory is fading faster than my jeans, but here is roughly how it went:

FRAME ONE: Adam is sneaking back into bed, when his wife asks if he had been snacking.

FRAME TWO: She gives him a passionate kiss... or at least as passionate as a two-dimensional, black and white cartoon character can g Beware of Radical Mint Enthusiasts Recipe

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