Desserts

245/365: National Blueberry Popsicle Day

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today we pay homage to a food that technically does not exist. September 2 is National Blueberry Popsicle Day!

Early in the year, our East Coast Food Consultant – who attempted a similar food challenge in 2011 – warned us about this particular holiday. It was one he’d had trouble with, because they do not make blueberry-flavored Popsicles. At least, Popsicle® (the brand) does not make blueberry-flavored Popsicles. They might have, once upon a time, though I can find no reference to this anywhere, which begs the question: who came up with today’s food holiday, and why?!

This necessitated a change in our thinking. For this challenge, Popsicles® had to become popsicles: generic, frozen ice pops. Those are easy enough to make, in any flavor that strikes your fancy. They sell plastic molds and kits for making your own; in fact, I remember we had some as a kid, and used to freeze our own ice pops to enjoy during those hot summer afternoons growing up. So, Tara and I bought a popsicle-making kit, and – since this challenge was on my radar well in advance – I purchased some fresh blueberries from the farmer’s market in August, and froze them. I then used the following recipe I found online, which includes a little bit of lemon juice and honey for added flavor and consistency (thanks to Lyuba @ willcookforsmiles.com):

Blueberry Lemon Popsicles

Ingredients

  • 24 oz of fresh blueberries
  • 1/2 cup of honey
  • Juice from 1 lemon

Instructions

  1. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor. Puree well.
  2. Split the puree among the popsicle molds.
  3. Cover the molds with saran wrap, tight. Poke very small holes right in the center and carefully stick some wooden popsicle sticks in the puree.
  4. Freeze for 5-6 hours.

Voila! Pretty easy and straightforward. Obviously, I used frozen blueberries, but these worked out well. They turned out pretty tasty – and are all natural, too!

National Blueberry Popsicle Day

Related articles
Categories: Desserts, Fruit | 4 Comments

240/365: National Cherry Turnover Day

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Midwest Mark

No need to toss and turn trying to decide what to eat today. August 28 is National Cherry Turnover Day!

Turnovers are essentially portable pies filled with sweet or savory ingredients. I talked about their history when we had apple turnovers in July, so click the link for a refresher course. Pasties are considered another form of turnover. I’ll remember that the next time I hit a gentleman’s club. Empanadas and spring rolls are also closely related (but not nearly as interesting, as they have nothing to do with strippers).

Cherry turnovers are traditionally made with puff pastry stuffed with a cherry filling and baked until they are golden brown. And, at some point, presumably turned over.

Cutting right to the chase, we grabbed some cherry turnovers from the grocery store. You know how they say Wheaties is “the breakfast of champions”? Wrong. It’s cherry turnovers and coffee. 

National Cherry Turnover Day

Related articles
Categories: Desserts, Pastry | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

238/365: National Cherry Popsicle Day

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Midwest Mark

We’re going to stick with the frozen dessert theme today. August 26 is National Cherry Popsicle Day!

I’m surprised by how many different Popsicle holidays we have celebrated this year. We’ve already honored grape, today is cherry, and coming up we’ve got blueberry. Plus, there were creamsicles, a brand of Popsicle. I think one holiday for this frozen treat would have been sufficient, but as I’ve said before, we didn’t make the rules – all we can do is follow them to the best of our ability. Of course, when there are different variations on the same food, the interesting stories behind the creation of those foods have already been told, as is the case here: I discussed the history of the Popsicle back in May, which leaves me scrambling for words to fill this blank page today.National Cherry Popsicle Day

I will say I researched the most popular Popsicle flavors, and found that cherry is #1. Additional flavors have included orange, grape, banana, root beer, and lemon lime. Then there are the “Jolly Rancher” flavors, the “tropical” flavors…

About the only flavor there isn’t is blueberry. Ironic, considering one week from today we’re celebrating that food holiday. How will we pull it off, if blueberry Popsicles don’t exist?! Stay tuned to find out, folks.

Fortunately, cherry Popsicles do exist. So we picked some up from the grocery store and celebrated by licking them ’til they were gone.

Related articles
Categories: Desserts | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

236/365: National Peach Pie Day

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Midwest Mark

There’s nothing fuzzy about today’s food holiday, and it’s certainly not the pits. August 24 is National Peach Pie Day!

By now, we’re well versed in the history of both peaches and pies. Whoever was the first to put the two together has been lost to history, but most likely the ancient Romans were enjoying peaches – which grew abundantly in Italy – baked into pies long before Caesar was even a gleam in his mother’s eye. Speaking of mothers, peach pie has long been my mom’s favorite dessert, with peach ice cream probably a close second. What can I say about my mom? She’s a real peach! Speaking of, that phrase originated from the tradition of giving a peach to a friend you like. Maybe that was a subtle hint to encourage your friend to bake you a peach pie in return?

We stopped by Shari’s, our go-to pie spot, for a slice of peach pie to share. By “share,” I mean Tara took just a single bite, because she “isn’t crazy about fruit pies.” WTF?? I may be marrying the woman in three weeks, but it doesn’t mean I understand her. I thought it was delicious!

National Peach Pie Day

Related articles
Categories: Desserts | Tags: , , , , | 8 Comments

235/365: National Sponge Cake Day

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Midwest Mark

You’re going to soak up a lot of sweet goodness by indulging in today’s food holiday. August 23 is National Sponge Cake Day!

Sponge cakes are made with flour, sugar, and eggs, and usually leavened with baking powder. They bake up firm with an aerated texture, similar to – you guessed it – a sponge. So there’s truth in advertising. During the Renaissance, Italian cooks earned a reputation as skilled bakers, and were often hired in English and French households. During this time, they introduced a fluffy new treat known as a “biscuit” that was actually a forerunner of sponge cake. The first recorded mention of sponge cake appears in English poet and author Gervase Markham’s elegantly titled The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman. There is little doubt Gervase was a real Casanova in his day. It is said that one of Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting was so hungry one day, even though dinner was hours away yet, that she instructed her servants to sneak her in a pot of tea and some baked goods. Soon she started inviting her friends to join her, and the tradition of 5:00 tea was born. One of these baked goods was a sponge cake “sandwich” consisting of layers of jam and whipped cream. The Queen herself got wind of these, and they quickly became a favorite of Her Royal Highness. To this day, sponge cakes in Britain are often called Victoria sponge cakes. In the U.S., they are sometimes referred to as pound cakes. There are two methods for producing sponge cakes: the “batter” method and the “foam” method. The latter utilizes air whipped into the eggs as a leavening agent, while the batter method uses baking powder and often includes butter. Examples of “foam” sponge cakes include angel’s food, chiffon, and meringue.

To celebrate, we bought some short cake (a type of sponge cake), added fresh raspberries (because strawberries are too cliche), and whipped cream (cliche or not, you need whipped cream). Delicious!

National Sponge Cake Day

Related articles
Categories: Desserts | 6 Comments

233/365: National Spumoni Day

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Midwest Mark

If you like your ice cream to contain multiple flavors, as well as candied fruits and nuts, you’re in for a real treat today. August 21 is National Spumoni Day!

Some calendars list National Spumoni Day on August 22, which is when I originally had it planned. But there was enough doubt that I turned to both Wikipedia and our East Coast consultant, John, for confirmation. They both agreed it was August 21. Thanks for the help, John and inanimate website!

Spumoni is an Italian ice cream made with layers of colors and flavors – usually cherry, pistachio, and chocolate, but sometimes containing vanilla in place of one of the other flavors. There’s also a layer of candied fruits and nuts separating each flavor. Bits of cherry are common. I was hoping…nay, expecting…an interesting background story on the invention of spumoni, how the colors represent a famous Italian battle or something else of historical significance, but was disappointed to learn nobody really knows who or how spumoni came to be. Apparently it just appeared out of thin air one day. It is rumored to have originated in Naples, and is thought to be the precursor to Neapolitan (chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry). It is no longer very popular in Italy, but can be found more readily here in the U.S. of A.

I’ve never been a fan of spumoni, to be honest. I’m very familiar with it though, as it’s a signature dessert of The Old Spaghetti Factory, a restaurant my family dined at often over the years. To be fair, the spumoni they used to serve contained large chunks of candied fruit that turned my stomach; nowadays, they’ve scaled way back on that stuff and simply give you three flavors of ice cream: chocolate, pistachio, and cherry (the most popular combination).

Obviously, we went to The Spaghetti Factory for lunch. If not for them, I have no idea where we would have gotten spumoni ice cream. And honestly, it was better than I expected.

National Spumoni Day

Related articles
Categories: Dairy, Desserts | Tags: , , , , , | 3 Comments

230/365: National Soft Ice Cream Day

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today’s food holiday might just make you melt. August 18 is National Soft Ice Cream Day!

Like many of the food holidays we’ve celebrated, soft serve ice cream was an accidental invention. During Memorial Day weekend in 1934, ice cream truck driver Tom Carvel suffered a flat tire in Hartsdale, New York. In an effort to avoid wasting his precious cargo, he pulled into the parking lot of a pottery store and sold his melting ice cream to passersby. Business was brisk, and within two days he had sold his entire supply. Carvel reasoned that selling soft ice cream from a permanent location could be a lucrative business, and two years later opened his first store – in the same spot where his truck broke down.

Enjoyed this on the road!

Enjoyed this on the road!

Soft serve ice cream contains less milk fat than regular ice cream, and is stored at a slightly warmer temperature (duh). Air is introduced at the time of freezing, and can comprise up to 60% of the finished product’s volume. The higher the air content the creamier, lighter, and smoother the ice cream. Ideally, it should range between 33%-45% of the finished product. Frozen custard is similar, but contains eggs in addition to cream and sugar, and has less air.

Since we were on the road returning from our impromptu trip to Ely, we stopped at a McDonald’s in Hood River and shared a vanilla soft serve ice cream cone. It hit the spot after 12 hours in the car!

Related articles
Categories: Desserts | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

229/365: National Vanilla Custard Day

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Midwest Mark

I’d be pudding you on if I said we hadn’t celebrated today’s food holiday, in one form or another, a bunch of times already this year (and also used the word “pudding” in place of “putting” in at least one previous post). August 17 is National Custard Day!

Custard, a cooked mixture of milk and egg yolks, has been around since the Middle Ages. The name derives from the French word croustade, meaning “crust of a tart.” Early custards could be either sweet or savory, though nowadays sweet, pudding-like custards are the norm. And why do I insist we’ve celebrated custard many times already? Because it forms the base for a wide variety of dishes, including tarts, crème brûlée, and quiche. And we can’t forget chocolate custard. Been there, done that. And that, and that, and that. But we haven’t actually had just plain ol’ custard yet, so in that regard, this holiday is a new one.

We are in Ely, Nevada today for a family gathering. A close friend of Tara’s family passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, and we wanted to be here to honor his memory. Now, we always figured we’d celebrate a few of this year’s food holidays in Ely, because we are planning a trip here for New Year’s, which means we’ll actually complete the challenge here. But obviously that is months away yet, and this visit was never in the cards. Ely is hardly the hotbed of civilization; I doubt there’s anywhere in town that even sells vanilla custard. And with everybody pretty busy today, making vanilla custard is hardly a top priority. So again, we had to plan ahead, and made a batch before we left, which we packed carefully in a cooler filled with ice and hauled 840 miles across three states. We are now enjoying it from the comfort of a Motel 6 in downtown Ely. Definitely one of the trickier holidays to celebrate, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.

The photo below is NOT our custard. As I am writing this entry the evening before we leave, the custard is still setting up, and that will take hours. This is what I’m HOPING our custard eventually looks like. As a completist, I’ll probably come back here and add a photo of ours, when we’re back home. I’m bringing my laptop along, but probably won’t have much of a chance to use it.

National Vanilla Custard Day

Related articles
Categories: Desserts | Tags: , , , , , | 7 Comments

227/365: National Lemon Meringue Pie Day

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Some of these food holidays are full of fluff, and today is no exception. August 15 is National Lemon Meringue Pie Day!

It is also Julia Childs’ birthday. She passed away in 2004, but would have been 101 today if she were still living. What an inspiration Julia was to many – both professional chefs and home cooks. Her passion for cooking was contagious. Even as a child, I enjoyed watching her build terrific-looking meals from scratch on TV. Julia was the inspiration for Julie & Julia, the blog and movie, which in turn were an inspiration for Eat My Words. It’s only fitting to mention her today as we honor her legacy in our own humble fashion. julia-child-300

Lemon meringue pie is recognizable as one of the tallest pies out there. It achieves its height thanks to that meringue topping consisting of whipped egg whites and sugar. If lemon meringue pie were a person it could never live in Beverly Hills, because it’s got no upper crust.

Get it? Upper crust? Yeaaah…moving right along…

Lemon-filled pies and pastries date back to Medieval times, but it’s unsure where meringue originated. Some claim it was invented in the Swiss village of Meiringen and perfected by an Italian chef named Gasparini, but this claim cannot be substantiated. The word first appeared in a cookbook written by François Massialot’s in 1692. Elizabeth Coane Goodfellow, a pastry chef and teacher from Philadelphia, is credited with introducing the dessert to America in the 19th century, where it became a staple of her cooking classes. Recipes began appearing in cookbooks during the latter half of the century, including the 1882 edition of Marion Harland’s Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery. Gotta love the name. It’s not at all sexist!

The chemistry behind meringue is pretty interesting: when egg whites are beaten, their hydrogen bonds break, causing their proteins to unfold and stiffen. Cream of tartar (WARNING: THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS TARTAR SAUCE, YOU FISH STICK LOVERS!) helps the whites to form stiff peaks. Sugar is a necessary part of the process, so put away the Splenda – it won’t turn out at all splendid.

We didn’t feel like whipping it ourselves, nor did we want a whole pie – especially when we are hitting the road tomorrow for a last-minute trip to Nevada – so we got a slice of lemon meringue pie to go from Shari’s. We’ve stopped there several times for other pie challenges. It’s pretty having a pie place/casual dining restaurant so close by!

National Lemon Meringue Pie Day

Related articles
Categories: Desserts | Tags: , , , , , | 8 Comments

223/365: National Raspberry Tart Day

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Hope you aren’t soured on desserts that take advantage of fresh fruit just yet. August 11 is National Raspberry Tart Day!

It should be noted that we are celebrating dessert tarts, not women with loose sexual morals. Were that the case, this would be a different blog entirely.

Tarts are flaky, crispy pastries usually consisting of a shortbread-like crust with a creamy filling and fresh fruit topping. Derived from the French word tarte, these confections resembles pies (though they have an open top) and date back to the Middle Ages, where they were typically savory and filled with meat. Not surprising: wearing a suit of armor all day long really makes a man work up an appetite. Nowadays very few people joust or rescue maidens from castles, so tarts are more likely to be sweet and served for dessert. Miniature tarts are called tartlets. Miniature turtles, on the other hand, are not called “turtle-lets,” but they should be. Tarts are related to flan, crostata, and quiche.

Raspberry season is rapidly winding down, and fresh berries are getting harder to find. Fortunately, we found some miniature tarts in the Fred Meyer bakery. Talk about a one-bite delight! They cost 79 cents each, were the perfect portion size, and tasted delicious!

National Raspberry Tart Day

Related articles
Categories: Desserts | 10 Comments

Blog at WordPress.com.