If you're frying up some eggs and bacon – lucky you! Some folks in the path of Hurricane Sandy weren’t so fortunate. CNN’s Impact Your World has a great list of ways to get resources to people who need it. Meanwhile, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Pucker up - November 1 is National Vinegar Day!

It has been said that balancing flavors makes great food, and vinegar is the kind of ingredient that can help achieve this balance. Most of us use vinegar in a salad dressing, but vinegar is also what gives barbecue sauce its tang and it’s essential to making mayonnaise.

Vinegar is made via a fermentation process. Different fermented foods result in different types of vinegars and different flavors. Whether you’re dousing freshly fried potatoes in malt vinegar or macerating strawberries in balsamic vinegar, the options for taking ordinary food to new heights are endless.

Aside from its culinary uses, vinegar is a helpful cleaning agent and can also be used to help ease the pain of jellyfish stings.

What’s your favorite vinegar and how do you use it?