food

Champagne and other booze flow freely on New Year's Eve. But if you want to wake to a new year without the side effects of alcohol, don't fret: Science offers some guidance.

On Jan. 1, all eggs sold in California will have to come from chickens living in more spacious digs. The rules have disrupted the egg industry and pushed prices up at grocery stores in California.

Distillers must age bourbon in new white oak barrels that are charred inside. But the barrel supply is running low, and new, small craft distillers are having trouble getting any barrels at all.

In the new year we'll be eating pot pesto, pork fat and pancit along with the newborn progeny of Brussels sprouts and kale.

For one family in Overland Park, Kan., it's not Christmas without Mrs. Lawrence. The tea cake, rich with butter and spices, is named for the neighbor who would hand deliver it every holiday season.

For 110 years, Senate bean soup has been offered every day but one in the U.S. Senate cafeteria. But few staffers have actually tasted the traditional soup of the "world's greatest deliberative body."

Nutmeg is a feel-good holiday spice. But it once caused serious bloodshed and may have even been a reason the Dutch were willing to part with Manhattan in the 1600s.