Chefs spicing up honey, recipes

I woke up today to a great package of stories from the Chicago Tribune, on how top chefs are using honey, and spicing it up with such "additives" as peppercorns and gin.
It's a great read: Here's the lead story; plus a sidebar on the increase in local hives and new recipes and some "concoctions" by chefs.

Wall Street Journal gives props to honey

The Journal notes that honey is becoming like chocolate and craft beers - an upscale, artisanal product.

Welcome

There is nothing fast about honey.
Certainly, heaving a few spoonfuls of sugar into your morning tea or coffee is quicker. And precious seconds fly by as you wait for the honey to pour from the jar onto your toast or bagel.
Rumor has it that 2,000-year-old honey found in an Egyptian tomb was still edible.
Nutritionists say that it's a great sweetener not only because it has a lot of stuff that's good for you, but also because it stays with you longer than the empty calories of sugar and other sweeteners.
And bees take a long time to make it.
There's also nothing simple about honey. Varieties range from the Budweiser-like, mass-market equivalent to what might be likened to a microbrew that is as unique as the flowers the bees visited to produce it.
Honey has a rich history; its makers (the bees, more than the people) are vital to the world's food supply; and its uses in cooking are probably as many as there are cooks.
The title of this blog comes from the Latin word "mel," which means honey.
I'm a longtime honey lover, but I'm still a newbie honey foodie. Please join me on this journey.