As cold and flu season always seems to creep up on us soon after the New Year. In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, the question we ask is: Can food be medicine?

Join Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely as they merge family remedies with old and new science and unpack how everyday foods make us feel better. Learn how chicken soup, honey, ginger, garlic, cabbage, peanut butter, and whiskey have been standby home remedies used by many of our parents and grandparents. These comfort foods have been used through the generations to help heal and restore everything from a sore throat to an upset stomach and aching body and spirit.

This episode does not offer medical advice (please consult your physician if you’re ill), it investigates some of the whys behind food remedies: how taste, smell, ritual, and care influence well-being, especially during illness, grief, aging, and emotional stress.

🌿 Key Takeaways

1. How some foods can heal more than the body: Taste, smell, and ritual can lift spirits, restore appetite, and create emotional comfort during illness, grief, and stress.
2. Old wives’ tales that offer wisdom: Remedies involving ginger, garlic, honey, bone broth, cabbage, and fermented foods reflect generations of observation and are now being used and tested in current research.
3. Food's role in aging care health, too: Enhancing flavor and texture can help older adults and chemotherapy patients maintain nutrition, dignity, and enjoyment of eating.
4. Cooking and baking for mental health: Baking, soup-making, and bread-making calm the mind, foster purpose, and allow people to care for others while healing themselves.

🎧 Listen now and rediscover the foods, stories, and traditions that made you feel cared for and loved just a bit more. Then share this episode with someone who might need a bowl of homemade chicken soup to make them feel better, or with someone who might just need an extra hug.

💬 We’d love to hear from you: send us a note here.

What food always made you feel better in your family—and why?

Additional Links ❤️

1. University of Michigan Study on how Peanut Butter can add to your life.
2. Lavender Tallow hand and body moisturizer by our friends at Sincore Homestead.
3. Book:

And it certainly wasn’t always American. So how did a seemingly simple immigrant street food become the most shared, argued-over, and emotionally loaded meal in the country? In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely uncover some surprising facts about the history of pizza in America, tracing its journey from Italian and ancient Mediterranean roots to our neighborhood pizza parlors, family tables, and regional loyalties that still divide and challenge us today.

This episode of Family Tree Food & Stories shares how pizza (the “slice”) became portable fuel for working families, how New York, Chicago, Detroit, and New Haven shaped distinct styles (and the pizza wars), and why pizza shows up at our most personal moments—birthdays, late nights, celebrations, and comfort meals. It’s not about toppings. It’s about memory, migration, and why pizza became one of America’s favorite tabletop foods.

🍕 Key Takeaways

1. How pizza evolved into an American food staple: from early immigrants to all-out national pizza wars and modern rivals today.
2. Weird and delicious regional differences: from New England to Chicago and elsewhere, the differences are often stark, very personal.
3. Pizza parlors shaped many early communities: they were family-owned establishments that brought back memories from when we were kids.
4. American reinvented pizza before it was exported worldwide: global pizza as we know it today might exist because of its American evolution. What do you think?

🎧 Listen now and rediscover how pizza memories you didn’t realize shaped your own childhood and life today.

Then share this episode with someone who still argues about what city or restaurant has the best slice—or remembers when pizza wasn’t “real food” in their house.

Leave a review, follow the show, and tell us:

What did pizza mean at your table?

Because every meal has a story—and this one built America.

Additional Links ❤️

1. Book: My Family Tree, Food & Stories Journal Awarded #1 New Release on Amazon
2. Instagram Story updates 📸

What stays, what goes, and what gets reinvented with style and taste? In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, your award-winning hosts Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely take on the post-holiday refrigerator—one container at a time, with how-to ideas and a recipe that will turn your holiday leftovers into a fancy homespun “gotta have.”

This episode isn’t just about food—it’s a look at what leftovers say about the way we live, how they reflect culture (in the US and elsewhere), resourcefulness, and a way to embrace tradition and move forward. From stuffing and cranberry sauce to black-eyed peas, collard greens, mashed potatoes, and bacon gravy, and even what to do with leftover champagne, Nancy and Sylvia share old and new strategies for recreating new foods from “old”after the holiday glitter is packed up and put away.

In this episode of Family Tree Food and Stories, you’ll also get practical ideas for how to save food, stretch your grocery budget, and reuse ingredients in ways that still taste good on day five. Providing they’re not fuzzy.

If you're aiming to start the new year with less waste, smarter meals, and better habits in the kitchen, then dig in and enjoy the show!

🔑 Key Takeaways:

1. Most families throw out 30–40% of holiday food: learn what to do with leftovers that make them taste even better than the first time around.
2. What’s in your fridge can help with New Year's financial management: Did you know that the price of groceries has increased nearly 28% over the last five years? This episode shares tips and ideas that even your mom would be proud to serve.
3. Leftovers have global traditions too: From Kentucky Bergue to Italian Arancini Balls and even French Toast, every culture has creative and delicious tips and tricks for making your holiday leftovers extra special and even more delicious.

Additional Links ❤️

1. Recipe for How to Make Champagne Vinaigrette made with leftover Champagne
2. Book: My Family Tree, Food & Stories Journal Awarded #1 New Release on Amazon

What do people in other countries leave for Santa on Christmas Eve, and why have those foods become part of the holiday?

In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Mrs. Claus and Rudolph step in for Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely to examine the origins of Christmas treats and food traditions around the world. How have history, economics, and cultural storytelling shaped what we now consider “traditional” holiday foods? Mrs. Claus and Rudolph share their stories and examples of such treats as milk and cookies in the United States, fried chicken and strawberry cake in Japan, buñuelos in Mexico, rice cakes in the Philippines, and oat-based Haggis cookies in Scotland.

Rather than just recipes, you'll learn at the forces behind some of the best Christmas traditions—wartime scarcity, post-war rebuilding, marketing influence, and the role of myth in preserving rituals across generations. These two also share how meals and simple food customs help families mark time, reinforce memory, and maintain continuity during the holidays across the generations.

This episode offers historical context, global perspective, and practical insight into why food traditions persist—and how understanding their origins changes the way we experience them today.

Join us:

If this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories made you think differently about the food on your holiday table, share it with someone who values tradition, history, or a good story.

Subscribe to Family Tree Food & Stories on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred platform, and leave a review—it helps these stories reach new listeners.

And if you want a place to record the meals and memories that matter in your own family, explore My Family Tree Food & Stories, available on Amazon.

Because food isn’t just what we eat—it’s how we remember.

Additional Links ❤️

1. Recipe for Santa's Secret Flying Sauce (and story)
2. Book: My Family Tree, Food & Stories Journal Awarded #1 New Release on Amazon

What makes a Christmas food gift unforgettable? In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy and Sylvia explore the best Christmas food gifts, sharing true stories behind fruitcake traditions, Hickory Farms boxes, homemade holiday drinks, and regional favorites that turn simple food into lasting memories.

What regional holiday traditions, family favorites, and even strange corporate food gifts have become long-running stories? Have you ever heard of Traveling Jack? Or received a food gift so simple—like a can of soup or an orange in a stocking—that you never forgot it (nor did anyone else)? These are often the gifts that become legends and stay with us year after year.

This episode also explains why food gifts matter more than other presents. They are personal and often connected to family history or a story. Whether it’s a homemade holiday drink, a box of sausage and cheese that arrives every year, or a shared dessert at the table, food gifts connect us to culture, memory, and each other.

If you’re looking for Christmas food gift ideas, want to understand holiday traditions, or enjoy stories about food and family, this episode shows why the best gifts are thoughtful, simple, and meant to be shared.

1. Food Gifts Always Tell a Story: Whether it’s fruitcake, soup, wine, a cheese box, or homemade cookies, they often last longer than that sweater you got and will only wear once.
2. Traditions Are Hidden in Holiday Food Treats: From the Feast of the Seven Fishes to Southern Hoppin’ John and German stollen, where you’re from often what foods you gift—and why.
3. Funny Food Gifts Become Great Stories: Giant chocolate boxes, traveling wine containers, and accidental potatoes prove to be the stories you'll likely never forget.
4. Homemade Gifts Feel (And Taste) Extra Special: Recipes like homemade holiday drinks or baked goods add a personal touch that store-bought gifts just can't replicate.
5. Simple Can Be Powerful: Did you ever get an orange in a stocking or a loaf of bread? It reminds us that thoughtful food gifts don’t need to be fancy to be special.

If you’re searching for Christmas food gift ideas, love holiday traditions, or love sharing stories that mix humor with heart, listen in and share Family Tree Food & Stories on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Facebook, or wherever you get your podcasts—and don't forget to share it with someone with your friends and family.

Because every meal has a story… and every story deserves a feast. (TM)

Additional Links ❤️

• Recipe for Santa's Secret Flying Sauce (and story)
• Book:

What happens when Jewish and Christian traditions come together in one kitchen? In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May talks with Magdalena Dryberg, a Swedish-born Jewish mom who blends Hanukkah, Christmas, and Scandinavian winter traditions into one fun and meaningful holiday season.

Magdalena shares easy ideas for blending faith, food, and family memories, and how anyone can create celebrations that feel special for everyone at the table. You’ll hear about tasty holiday foods like latkes, jelly-filled sufganiyot, Swedish ginger snaps, blue cheese, cured salmon, and warm mulled wine (glögg)—and learn how her family uses these dishes to celebrate the light of the season across different cultures and countries.

Through simple stories, family recipes, and a lot of laughter, this episode shows that it doesn’t matter if you’re lighting a menorah or decorating a tree. What matters most is the stories you share, the food you enjoy, and the people you love.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

Hanukkah, Christmas, and Scandinavian Yule can coexist beautifully. Magdalena shows how families can merge Jewish rituals, Christian symbolism, and Nordic winter customs into a meaningful, modern, multicultural celebration.

Traditional foods—latkes, jelly donuts (sufganiyot), Swedish ginger snaps, gravlax, Jansson’s Temptation, glögg—carry the history of each culture. Cooking them keeps heritage alive even as new family traditions grow.

From Swedish copper pots to handwritten recipe cards and menorahs, Magdalena’s kitchen reflects the layered histories of her mother, grandmother, and mother-in-law. Listeners learn how objects and ingredients preserve identity.

Unexpected pairings—ginger snaps with blue cheese, cured salmon with wasabi, Swedish molasses desserts—show how multicultural kitchens create new flavors, new rituals, and new memories without losing their roots.

🎧 What You Can Do Next:

If this episode made you rethink even one habit, hit follow, share it with a friend, and send us your funniest or most unforgettable etiquette story. Join us, Nancy and Sylvia, in future stories at Family Tree Food & Stories, where we explore the traditions, quirks, and conversations that shape how we eat, gather, and connect — because. . .

Additional Links ❤️

• Lawry's Lemon Pepper Spice
• Recipes shared in this episode: shared by our guest, Magdalena Jengroth-Dyberg
• IKEA

In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely uncover the surprising truths behind the rules we follow, the ones we break, and the embarrassing moments we all secretly Google.

From medieval knife etiquette and Victorian orange-cutting rules to restaurant dilemmas, awkward check battles, and the lesser-known rules of modern hosting, this episode reveals how manners have evolved — and why they’re more important today than ever.

A mix of cultural style, history, and real-life stories, Nancy and Sylvia share how etiquette shapes our relationships, our confidence, our friendships, and even tells others who we are at the table. If you’ve ever wondered, “Am I doing this right?”, this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories has answers to the questions you might be too embarrassed to ask out loud — but still should know.

This is not your grandmother’s etiquette talk, but instead something you can put to use tomorrow..

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• The Easy Bread Plate Hack Everyone Should Know About: The “B” and “D” hand trick doesn’t just save embarrassment — it’s one of the most-searched etiquette questions worth learning.
• History Behind the Rules We Follow Without Thinking, And Why: Did you know that Medieval danger signals, Victorian pamphlets, and ancient dining rituals still influence how we sit, eat, serve, and host today?
• The Check-Dance Ritual, And Who Pays? From the guy with “alligator arms” and the host rule to power plays disguised as politeness, the debate over who pays is one of the most revealing etiquette moments in our professional and personal lives, and it's worth learning how to do it right.
• Toasting: Trust, Poison, and a Loud Clink: Did you know that the glass clink isn’t just for celebration—historically, it was a way to prove you weren’t poisoning your neighbor. (And yes, how high your glass, or goblet, was filled mattered!)

🎧 What You Can Do Next:

If this episode made you rethink even one habit, hit follow, share it with a friend, and send us your funniest or most unforgettable etiquette story. Join us, Nancy and Sylvia, in future stories at Family Tree Food & Stories, where we explore the traditions, quirks, and conversations that shape how we eat, gather, and connect — because. . .

Additional Links ❤️

• Book: My Family Tree, Food & Stories Journal Awarded #1 New Release on Amazon

Home for the Holidays: The Lost Art of Decorating with Food

What if your next holiday centerpiece wasn’t from a store—but from your pantry? In this episode of Family Tree Food & Stories, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely help you rediscover the forgotten art and easy ways to decorate with food. It’s been a long-standing, even ancient tradition that’s fun and everyone can join in and help.

From hanging this year’s turkey wishbone and saving it for next year’s wish-making activities, to crafting apple-head dolls, hanging cookie tree ornaments, and stringing cranberry and popcorn garlands, there’s an interesting story with each of these holiday decorations.

There’s some pretty interesting history to many other food decorating traditions. Nancy and Sylvia dig into the Greek legend of the cornucopia and the history of how the pineapple became a symbol of welcome in many New England towns.

You’ll also learn the story of how Otto, the cookie-loving poodle, managed to sneak his share of holiday food decorations, unbeknownst to his owners. Then, give some of the other traditional edible craft decorations a try with your own family and friends, like orange-and-clove pomanders and more.

This holiday season, try bringing a little nostalgia back into your home, things that your grandmother might have done, and get an early jump on decorating for the holidays, with food!

Nancy shares… “Food is art, food is memory—and decorating with always makes you happy.”

Whether you’re a crafter, foodie, or simply someone craving a warmer, more memorable type of holiday season in 2025, this episode will help you remember that every meal has a story, and every story is a feast.

Key Takeaways:

• The history of edible decorations: from cornucopias to cookies and eggs
• Holiday decorating ideas: garlands, pomander oranges, bread babies, and more
• Regional food decorating stories from New England to Ecuador
• Why food and decoration: memory-making magic for holidays, heritage, and home

Tune in to Family Tree Food & Stories at Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.com or wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe so you never miss an episode release.

Learn why oatmeal is more than breakfast—it’s a bridge between past and present, comfort and culture, nourishment and nostalgia.

Additional Links ❤️

• Book: My Family Tree, Food & Stories Journal Awarded #1 New Release on Amazon
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• Facebook Family Tree Food Stories GROUP👍