The Perfect Pantry®

Red pepper flakes (Recipe: pasta puttanesca)

Peter Piper picked a peck of pizza pepper.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pizza pepper.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pizza pepper.

Wait a minute....pizza pepper?

Yes, pizza pepper -- that's what we call the crushed red pepper flakes that sit on the table in every pizzeria in the northeast United States. Call us crazy, but no matter what topping we choose, we like the option of bringing in some heat. When a server asks if you'd like pepper, he or she will produce not a terrifyingly large pepper mill, but a shaker jar of red pepper flakes.

By the way, red pepper flakes are a popular table condiment in Hungary, Turkey, Korea, Japan, and the Mideast, too.

Walnuts (Recipe: white chocolate brownies)

Updated July 2010.

Two things I did not learn by watching Jennifer Lopez pretend to be a wedding planner:

In ancient Rome, a groom would throw walnuts to the wedding guests, much as we toss rice today, as a sign of his transition to manhood, and to bring good health and increased fertility.

In Romania, on the other hand, a bride would place one roasted walnut in her bodice for every year she wished to remain childless.

Walnuts -- Viagra or birth control?

Maple syrup (Recipe: maple glazed salmon salad)

Updated June 2011.

In the 31 years that Ted and I have shared a life and a home, I have put up with a lot.

Fanatic devotion to the Montreal Canadiens, who've won the Stanley Cup six times and gone to the playoffs in all but five of the remaining years. Celebration of Thanksgiving in October. The occasional "Canada" or maple-leaf-emblazoned t-shirt wandering around the house. The appending of "eh?" to ends of sentences at the most unlikely times, eh?

But the worst, the absolute worst, thing about living with a Canadian is this:

Maple syrup on matzoh brei.

Talk about a clash of cultures. More than three decades, and I still shudder every time he pours syrup on my salt-sprinkled egg-and-matzoh masterpiece.

Another great Bookworm

Cooking is easy and oh-so-democratic, as in anyone can do it, according to Shannon of Simply Cooking, this week's Bookworm in the Pantry. Shannon writes her fun-loving, recipe-oriented blog in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. She's an enthusiastic home cook by night, and an information systems development manager for a nonprofit organization by day. And, like all Bookworms, she's an avid reader!

UPDATE. Shannon recommended:

• Blue Jelly: Love Lost and the Lessons of Canning
• The Soul of a Chef
• Pot on the Fire
• The Botany of Desire
• The Tummy Trilogy

Browse through the eclectic library of previous Bookworm recommendations here.

We'll have a new Bookworm every Saturday, at least through mid-June. If you've already been a Bookworm but would like to share another reading list of five books, please do!

Want to be a Bookworm in the Pantry? Start here.