A listener in San Antonio, Texas, has fond memories of chocolate gravy over biscuits, the word gravy in this sense having nothing to do with a meat-based sauce. Grant shares his mother’s own recipe, which she calls cocoa gravy. This is part of...
That familiar comfort food most often called a “grilled cheese” goes by a few other names, including “cheese toastie” and “cheesewich,” the latter of which is a trademarked name. This is part of a complete episode...
Uff-da! is an exclamation of disgust or annoyance. In Norwegian, it means roughly the same as Yiddish Oy vey!, and is now common in areas of the U.S. settled by Norwegians, particularly Wisconsin and Minnesota. This is part of a complete...
Contrary to popular belief, gorp is not an acronym for Good Old Raisins and Peanuts. Earlier recipes for this crunchy snack contained all kinds of things, like soybeans, sunflower seeds, oats, pretzels, raisins, Wheat Chex and kelp, as in John...
The pronunciation crick of creek is well documented in the Northern Midwest, including Wisconsin and Minnesota, and also appears farther west in the Northwest and parts of California. Sherry in Menominee, Michigan, grew up near Bear Creek...
Sigrin in Albany, New York, grew up hearing her Iowa father use owly for being irritable, peevish, or grouchy, often as a gentle scolding. The word isn’t a single-family coinage. It’s chiefly Midwestern and Canadian, especially around the border...