All About Thyme: February 2025

Valentine's Day Edition

February's Special Days: A Potpourri of Celebrations

Herb of the Year for 2025. Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla). Selected by the International Herb Association
February’s flower is the Violet: Faithfulness, Wisdom and Hope
February is Heart-Healthy Month, Chocolate Lovers Month

Week 1
February 9. National Pizza Day.
February 10. National "Cream Cheese Brownie" Day. Fannie Farmer published the first written recipe for brownies (chocolate, of course) in 1896. More below.

Week 2
February 14. Valentine's Day, voted Sweetest Day of the Year by chocolate lovers everywhere.
February 17. Random Acts of Kindness Day. Need a suggestion or two?
February 18. The Sun moves into the zodiac sign of Pisces—Pisces Season begins.
February 19. National Chocolate Mint Day.

Week 3
February 20. We’ll open the discussion of our second Guerrilla Readers book, Jesus and John Wayne.
February 22. George Washington's birthday.

Week 4
February 28. National Chocolate Soufflé Day.
February 29. Ann Lee, founder of the Shaker faith, was born in England on this day in 1736. In their era, the Shakers were the most important commercial purveyors of herbs in America.

Ah, the Chocolate Brownie

Photo by Shania Pinnata on Unsplash

In this day of painfully divisive politics, it’s a treat to find something we can all agree on. I don’t think you’ll give me any back sass when I say that brownies are good. No, brownies are better than that. Brownies are best. And cream cheese brownies . . . well, heavenly. No two ways about it.

But have you ever wondered who came up with this delicious little chunk of fudgy perfection? Pull up a chair and pour yourself a cup of tea. I have a story for you.

Photo by Kyle Hinkson on Unsplash

It begins with Theobroma cacao, the cacao plant. We’re not the first civilization to treasure this divinity, you know. The Mayans of Central America worshipped it, used its beans as money, and brewed them into a medicinal drink called xocolatl, mixed with wine and tejuino, fermented corn. The later, lusty Aztecs of Mexico added vanilla and chile peppers to make—what else?—an aphrodisiac.

The explorer Cortez knew a good thing when he saw it, and took the cacoa beans back to Spain, where passions soon ran high over chocolate—and not just because (with sugar and without sour corn) it was tasty. Good for you, too. Doctors prescribed this new herbal drink for everything from tuberculosis to intestinal parasites and sexual dysfunction, and commercial imports of cocoa beans went through the roof.

Chocolate became even more available in 1828 when a Dutch father-son team found a way to squeeze cacao butter, a natural fat, from roasted cacao beans. This created a cake that was then pulverized into a “Dutch” cocoa powder that could be stirred into beverages. Twenty years later, a Brit named Joseph Fry added melted cacao butter back into Dutch cocoa and molded the first chocolate bar. Twenty flavorful years after that, Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter added dried milk to make milk chocolate, and soon companies named Cadbury, Hershey, Mars, and Nestlé were mass-producing enough chocolate cheaply enough to satisfy everybody’s sweet tooth.

Which is where the brownie pops up—in Chicago,1893, at the Columbian Exposition. Bertha Palmer, wife of the owner of the elegant Palmer House Hotel, was looking for a sweet that would appeal to women attending the Exposition. She wanted something more elegant than the plebian cookie, but more portable than a slice of cake. The hotel's pastry chef took notes and came up with a decadent chocolate finger-food studded with walnuts and topped with a glossy apricot glaze. It was an instant hit with the ladies. The “Palmer House Brownie” is still a much-loved treat at the hotel.

The brownie pops up again in Fannie Farmer's 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. Unfortunately, Fannie’s brownie was heavy on molasses and minus the chocolate (how could she!) —a poor copycat of its elegant Palmer House cousin.

But bakers are nothing if not resourceful, and by 1904, something kin to our modern real-chocolate brownies began to show up with the after-dinner coffee. Publications like Home Cookery: A Collection of Tried Receipts, Both Foreign and Domestic (1904) and and the Service Club Cook Book featured these early versions, which were more cake-like in texture. In 1907, a fudgier variant appeared in Maria Willet Howard's Lowney's Cook Book. This version added extra eggs and (of course!) chocolate, nudging it closer to our familiar treat. You can check this one out for yourself, along with the more basic “Bangor Brownies” in the Project Gutenberg ebook edition of Lowney’s. (Search for “brownies.”)

But nobody says you have to stop there. I’m sure y’all have a favorite mint brownie or cream cheese brownie recipe—or a fabulous recipe for a mint-and-cream-cheese-brownie. Here are some other herb-and-spice combinations that you might not have thought of.

• Warm Spices. Incorporating spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves complement chocolate and add a rich depth to your brownies.

• Chai Masala. Infusing brownies with chai spices (above, plus anise seeds, fennel, nutmeg, ginger), with espresso in a cream cheese filling creates a memorable “dirty chai” cheesecake brownie.

• Cayenne Pepper: For those who enjoy a bit of heat, cayenne sparks a zippy contrast to chocolate. Choose ancho powder for a bit of smoke instead. Add expresso, and you’ve got a winner.

• Lavender. Dried culinary lavender adds a floral note.

• Dried Cherries. Instead of traditional nuts, tart dried cherries are a nicely sharp contrast to dense, rich chocolate. And this one’s gluten-free.

Getting back to that chocolate-is-an-herb thing—an herb for the medicine cabinet, that is, as well as the kitchen. Studies suggest that dark chocolate improves heart health by reducing oxidative stress and lowering blood pressure. Chocolate’s flavanols may enhance cognitive function by improving blood flow to the brain. And dark chocolate’s antioxidants help combat the free radicals that damage cells and contribute to aging. Most benefits are reported from chocolate that has at least a 70% cacao content. This Johns Hopkins page has reliable information.

So during this crazy upside-down, round-and-round, who-knows-what’s-happening-next month, take heart and find refuge in baking a batch of brownies. You’ll feel better. I promise.

And if you have a favorite brownie recipe you’d like to share, just copy it to the comment section of this post. (Paid subscribers only.) I’ll pull them all together and find a convenient place to post them here on Substack so we can all have a taste. Looking forward to your luscious chocolate improvisations!

Your February To-Do List

Pizza's history goes back to 18th century Naples. It doesn’t have to come out of a box. Here are some ideas to inspire your own creative effort. Herbs make it personal.

To see what kind of dishes the Mother of Our Country served the Father of Our Country, take a look at Martha Washington's famous cookbook and learn how to make a Lettis Tart (with or without the Trader Joe’s crust). Suppose the Constitution was on the discussion menu at the Washingtons’ table?

Martha’s Lettis Tart recipe—slightly scorched. Too close to the fire?

Timing is everything when it comes to soufflés, but this simply gorgeous chocolate version (only 7 ingredients!) is worth the attention. Here's a step-by-step tutorial.

If you want to learn more about Shaker history, take a trip to a Shaker village with China Bayles in Wormwood. You'll learn all about the Shakers' herbal practices. This is one of my favorite books in that series—a challenge to research, fun to write. Publishers Weekly liked it too: “Engaging . . . Shaker-inspired recipes, excerpts from a fictional Shaker journal, insights into the Shaker religion and plenty of herbal lore."

Hungry for help in honing your writing skills? The Story Circle Network is a support group for women writers. This craft-focused retreat (Dallas TX, March 21-23) may be the springboard you need. And for more about Story Circle, see my Substack About page.

That’s it for our February All About Thyme. I’ll pop back in tomorrow to introduce our second Guerrilla Readers book. Next Monday, I’ll be back with the February issue of LifeScapes. And the week after that, with Growing Green with the Zodiac and the discussion of our Guerrilla book.