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For this year's Fourth of July menu, give up the "hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob and ice cream" idea of tradition and take the advice Martha Washington offered women of her day: Rediscover the recipes of our Colonial ancestors.One person who took Martha Washington's advice to heart was Amelia Simmons, author of "American Cooking," considered the first truly American cookbook and a direct ancestor of "The Boston Cooking School Cook-Book" (1796). Her 47 pages of New England recipes highlight staples such as corn, beans, squash, potatoes, pumpkin and apples and dishes such as pumpkin pudding, ash cakes, slapjacks, Indian pudding, baked beans, roast game and boiled seafood.

Some folks may argue with Dana Jacobi's choices of the 12 most beneficial foods, but because chocolate makes the list, I won't be one of them. The goal of the 12 Best Foods Cookbook (Rodale, 2005, $21.95) is to give readers recipes that feature those super foods that scientists tell us have health benefits because of their nutrients and antioxidants. This dynamic dozen includes: blueberries, black beans, broccoli, chocolate, oatmeal, onions, salmon, soy, spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and walnuts.

Marlene Millard from Longview, Wash., said that back in the 1960s she had a recipe for making a delicious sour cream cake that used a boxed white cake mix as the base. She said it was one of those cravings she had during pregnancy that she thought she would never get back, so she threw away the recipe. Now she finds herself craving the cake some 50 years later and would like to be able to recreate the taste. Perhaps back in the '60s doctoring cake mixes was something new. These days, entire books exist with nothing but doctored cake mix recipes.

LAST WEEK, I came home with a pair of pantyhose given to me by another woman, and my wife didn't hit me with a frying pan. It happened the day the Vidalia Onion Lady came to town. Mary Louise Lever is that lady. A resident of Rome, Ga., she travels to various cities passing out pantyhose, recipes and wisdom about Vidalia onions. Vidalia onions are like Southern belles -- they are exceptionally sweet but bruise easily. The crop, which by law can be labeled Vidalia only if it was grown in one of 20 southeast Georgia counties, should begin arriving in Baltimore-area markets by next week, Lever said.

Kathy Brown wasn't always much of a chef - but she was an educator. When Brown, the former head of Grace Christian School, was diagnosed with amyloidosis of the heart in April 2008, she began experimenting with recipes to suit her new low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar diet. Compelled to share what she'd learned, Brown started compiling a heart-friendly cookbook for other patients. While Brown later received a successful heart transplant, the 62-year-old died in December 2010 before she could finish the book.

It was while she was serving dinner to her kids in 2008 and their dad was out campaigning for president, that Michelle Obama hatched a modest daydream: a vegetable garden on the White House grounds. She'd recently had a conversation with her children's pediatrician about their eating habits, and the poor health of children he was seeing in his practice. It shook her up — he was treating obesity and diabetes in kids — and she resolved to make better food choices for her family. She never said anything to Barack Obama about a vegetable garden (she told interviewers this week that she didn't want to jinx things with a "what if" question)

We could save a billion dollars a year by replacing one tablespoon of butter with one tablespoon of olive oil each day.That's a difference of about 7 grams of saturated fat, enough to prevent 100,000 heart attacks in the next decade.Love your butter? Try a different approach. Eat 1 ounce less cheese per day. Or substitute skim milk or fat-free yogurt for whole milk. Try replacing your usual Taco Bell Burrito Supreme with a Border Light. Or have butternut squash instead of creamed spinach at Boston Market.

Richard Zaworski of Baltimore requested a recipe for Oyster Pot Pie. "Years ago," he wrote, "my mother made it for my family and we enjoyed it a great deal, but no one can remember the recipe." Marlene Zaworski Mundie, no address given, responded. "I have had this recipe for a few years, but it is not a family recipe. My husband loves it. It is especially good when it snows outside. The white sauce can also be used for chipped beef." And, noting the name of the man seeking the recipe, she added, "Maybe I'll find a lost relative."

If you won't be in the Grandstand at Pimlico, you can still celebrate the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes in style with a black-and-gold party. Black and gold — the colors of the Calvert family — pop up everywhere at the Preakness, from the state flag to the winner's wreath of black-eyed Susans. Recreate that feeling at home with black and gold stacks of polenta, goat cheese and olives, deep brown chocolate bread pudding with a gold topping, and Black & Tans, a fruity cocktail with turn-of-the-century Maryland roots.

Joan Shaw from Fayetteville, N.C., was trying to find a recipe for making cucumber salad dressing. She was particularly fond of one served at the Baldino's restaurant chain. I was not able to locate the Baldino's recipe, but I did receive a recipe for a creamy cucumber dressing from Jennifer Simms of Santa Rosa, Calif. Simms says she can't recall where she originally got this recipe but that she has been making it for several years and everyone seems to enjoy it. She says it works equally well as a salad dressing or dip and that it is wonderful with raw vegetables.