303/365: National Candy Corn Day

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today’s food holiday celebrates a confection synonymous with Halloween, and one of my favorite candies. October 30 is National Candy Corn Day!

The funny thing is, I wasn’t always a fan of candy corn. I never cared for it while growing up. In fact, it wasn’t until a few years ago that I discovered how delicious this candy actually is! I’ve been hooked ever since. I even blogged about it last year, so if you’re interested in reading more about my personal obsession with candy corn, follow the link.

Candy corn was invented by George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company of Philadelphia in the 1880s. The traditional colors of candy corn – a wide yellow end, an orange center, and a white tip – are meant to resemble kernels of corn, though they’re about triple the size of a real kernel. Candy corn was originally made by hand, and while the process remains the same, most of it is automated today. The recipe is unchanged, as well; it’s mostly sugar, corn syrup, carnauba wax, and artificial coloring. Fondant and marshmallows are added for texture. While primarily associated with Halloween, different versions of candy corn are now made to coincide with other holidays. “Reindeer corn” for Christmas has a red end and green center, “Cupid corn” for Valentine’s Day has a red end and pink center, and “Bunny corn” for Easter is a two-colored version with a white tip and a variety of pastel-colored bases. New variations this year included s’mores and pumpkin spice flavors.

I suppose we could have gone upscale and celebrated with a candy corn cocktail (all the rage lately) or some other concoction, but in this case, simple is best. We enjoyed a handful of candy corn straight up!

National Candy Corn Day

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302/365: National Oatmeal Day

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Midwest Mark

In the mood to sow your wild oats? Today’s your day! October 29 is National Oatmeal Day!

Oatmeal is a porridge or cereal made from ground, rolled, crushed, or steel-cut oats. Though oats have been a food source for thousands of years, they initially played second fiddle to wheat and barley. They were originally viewed as a weed-like plant and burned to clear room for more important crops. When they were used for food, it was mostly to feed livestock. The Scottish were the first to cultivate oats and use them as a food source, since oats grew better than wheat in Scotland’s short, wet growing season. This was met with derision by the English, who described them as “eaten by people in Scotland, but fit only for horses in England.” The Scots replied, “That’s why England has such good horses, and Scotland has such fine men!” Ooh. BURN. Oats were first brought to America in 1602, planted off the coast of Massachusetts. They were an important crop to George Washington, who sowed 580 acres in 1786. They were still predominantly a livestock crop in the U.S. until around the turn of the 20th century. As their health benefits became increasingly well known – oats are rich in soluble fiber, and have been shown to reduce cholesterol and prevent heart disease – oatmeal consumption rose dramatically. Today, it is one of the country’s most popular breakfast cereals.

To celebrate, I stopped by Starbucks for one of their specialty oatmeals, while Tara went the instant (and economical) route. I have to say, I was impressed with all of the add-ins Starbucks included…fruit, nuts, and a packet of brown sugar. Perfectly fitting for such a chilly autumn morning…it dropped to freezing today!

National Oatmeal Day

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301/365: National Wild Foods Day/National Chocolate Day*

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Those who appreciate nature will go wild over today’s food holiday. October 28 is National Wild Foods Day!

It’s also National Chocolate Day, but c’mon…how many separate chocolate holidays can there possibly be? (25 so far this year, to be exact, ranging from chocolate covered raisins and chocolate mousse to chocolate covered insects and bittersweet chocolate. And there are still more to come). I appreciate chocolate as much as the next person, but can you say overkill? So we’re celebrating wild foods instead.National Wild Foods Day

Wild foods are defined as those that can be gathered from outdoors and eaten without any processing. Many different foods fall under this category: blackberries, huckleberries, chanterelle mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, wild rice, maple syrup, juniper berries, dandelions, salmon, elk, oysters, etc. I love the idea behind this holiday – foraging in the woods, gathering edible plants and berries to eat – but I question the timing of it. November is just a few days away, which means many of these wild foods are out of season. I don’t trust myself to pick wild mushrooms, because one misidentified fungus and it’s lights out, and I’m not a hunter, so it’s not like I’m going to go out and bag myself a deer. Instead, we’re going to have to rely on the grocery store for our wild foods fix, which feels a little bit like the definition of “defeating the purpose,” but it’s not like we have much choice. Especially on a day in which we are flying back home from Denver.

So to celebrate, we bought a bag of elk jerky at the Denver International Airport. I suppose it would have been better if we’d bagged the elk ourselves, gutted it, smoked it, and made jerky, but we do have our limits, you know? The airport-wild elk jerky was pretty tasty!

Oh, and yeah…we also had chocolate. Oops.

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300/365: National American Beer Day/National Potato Day*

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Midwest Mark

October 27th marks our 300th food challenge of the year. It’s National American Beer Day! And also, National Potato Day. We’re on the road and enjoying our first-ever NFL game: Redskins vs. our beloved Broncos here in Denver. Fortunately, stadiums are synonymous with beer, and since we spent most of today at Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium, were easily able to celebrate both food holidays (potato wedges and Bud Light). Think of this as a two-touchdown performance in the 4th quarter. Speaking of…what a great game! 45-21, Broncos beat the Redskins handily. Go, Peyton!! National American Beer Day

We have already celebrated beer and potato holidays, so I won’t bore you with regurgitated history lessons. Instead, I promised a big announcement, and I wanted to save it for a special day. Challenge #300 certainly qualifies; we are racing toward the finish line now, with barely over two months to go, and nary a misstep. The food challenge has been time consuming, costly, and has required tons of planning and hard work, but it’s also been a lot of fun! We have learned a lot about the history of many popular dishes, and tried plenty of new ones we’d only ever heard of previously. Part of us will be sad when this all ends. Which leads to our announcement:

Eat My Words will continue beyond December 31st! 

Not in the same form, of course. Assuming we successfully complete our quest to consume a year’s worth of food holidays, we’re not going to turn around and do it all over again. Been there, done that, and we’d be dealing with an awful lot of repetition. Plus, the demands of a daily blog are overwhelming. The fact that we have been able to devote so much time to our challenge in a year that included a marriage, three-day work function, and multiple weekend trips is pretty amazing…but we wouldn’t want to do it again. It’s taken a ton of effort, not to mention a little bit of luck. I’m glad we took this on, but man, never again!

However, there is plenty more we can do, at a much more relaxing pace. Read: whenever we want, rather than on a daily basis. The theme of our blog will still revolve around food challenges, and we’ve got a lot of fun ones planned. Some of our ideas include:

  • Making a meal using only yellow foods.
  • Creating upscale versions of kid’s food (Spaghetti-Os, Sloppy Joes).
  • Cooking a retro meal from a 1950s-era cookbook.
  • Making a complete meal using ingredients that start with the letter R.
  • Cooking a Dinner From Hell, using foods we despise.
  • Making a meal using only ingredients sourced from the farmer’s market that day.

We also envision more head-to-head challenges (like our souffle battles) and, yes, we’ll celebrate the occasional food holiday – ones that we passed on the first time around when there were multiple choices, and others that we just really enjoyed. We have lots of great ideas, and will be turning to our readers for even more. Our blog will be more interactive than ever before!

So, there you have it! Eat My Words will be back in 2014 with new challenges, new food facts, and new fun. A scaled-down version that won’t clog your In Box with emails every single day. It’s a win/win, folks!

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299/365: National Pumpkin Day*

Posted on October 26, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Orange you glad there’s a holiday devoted to your favorite gourd? October 26 is National Pumpkin Day!

It’s also National Pretzel Day and National Mincemeat Pie Day. I’d have loved to grabbed a pretzel and called it good – it doesn’t get much easier than that, and we’re on the road in Denver this weekend – but we already celebrated pretzels back in April. Duplicate food holidays annoy me. And I’m not much of a mincemeat fan, so pumpkin it is! But we’re going to pass on the obvious, pumpkin pie, because there’s a special food holiday devoted to that particular dessert (December 25, of all days)! Fortunately, pumpkin-flavored anything is all the rage these days, so it wasn’t difficult to find a way to celebrate this holiday, even from the road.

Pumpkin is derived from the Greek word pepon and means “large melon.”  It is a type of winter squash native to North America, and traditionally refers to round, orange varieties of squash that are commonly carved into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, and made into pies in the fall months, when they are ready for harvesting. They are one of the most popular crops in the U.S., with 1.5 billion pounds being produced annually; top growing states are Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and California. Most parts of the pumpkin are edible including the shell, seeds, flowers, and leaves. They were a Native American staple, and were cut into thin strips and roasted over a fire to serve as sustenance during the long, harsh winters. The flesh was roasted, baked, parched, boiled, and dried, and the seeds were used as a type of medicine. Even the hard shells did not go to waste; these were used as bowls and containers to store grains, beans, and seeds. Columbus brought pumpkin seeds back with him to Europe, but these were fed to pigs and were not seen as fit for human consumption.National Pumpkin Day

Ol’ Christopher was wrong. Pumpkins are delicious! We celebrated by grabbing a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks this morning. This seasonal favorite is always highly anticipated when fall rolls around, and today’s tasted extra delicious!

Stay tuned for a special announcement regarding Eat My Words tomorrow.

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298/365: National Greasy Foods Day

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Health nuts are going to have a coronary over today’s food holiday. October 25 is National Greasy Foods Day!

Greasy food gets a bad rap, and rightfully so; foods fried in oil are packed with calories and fat and can lead to a variety of health problems including obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. But sometimes tofu just won’t cut it; instead, you find yourself craving a big, juicy burger. Or sizzling hot french fries. It’s okay to give in once in awhile and indulge, as long as you don’t make it a regular habit. And according to studies, many people do just that – fried chicken is the most-ordered restaurant meal in the U.S. It’s certainly one of my favorites! Probably the greasiest thing I ever ate was a strip of chicken fried bacon one morning courtesy of a restaurant called Slappy Cakes. As you can probably imagine, it was delicious, and evidence of the fact that the worse a food is for you nutritionally, the better tasting it is. Here’s a fun link to some of the greasiest foods around the country, courtesy of The Today Show. 

Tara and I are headed out of town today for a long weekend in Denver, Colorado. It’s a sort-of honeymoon that will include our first NFL game ever (go, Broncos!). It’s always trickier to complete food challenges away from home, but the menu these next few days doesn’t look all too difficult, so I’m sure we’ll do just fine. To celebrate greasy food, we picked up breakfast from Jack In The Box before hitting the airport. Breakfast sandwiches and hash browns? Plenty o’ grease there!

National Greasy Foods DAy

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297/365: National Bologna Day*

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Midwest Mark

If you think today’s holiday is full of baloney, you’re quite literally right. October the 24th is National Bologna Day!

It is also National Good and Plenty Day and National Food Day. Good and Plenty is the oldest candy brand in the U.S., dating to 1893, but it’s licorice-flavored and therefore, in our opinion, unworthy of celebration. It’s also National Food Day, but on this blog, every day is a national food day! Besides, this holiday is devoted to raising awareness of healthy, affordable, sustainably priced food, but isn’t linked to any particular type of cuisine. Bologna was the logical choice for us today, so bologna it is!

Bologna is a type of sausage similar to mortadella that originated in Bologna, Italy in the 1400s. It is made of finely ground meat, typically beef or pork, and lard (though by regulation this must be invisible to the naked eye, giving new meaning to the phrase “out of sight, out of mind”). It may also be made from chicken, turkey, venison, or god knows what. The first bolognas were made from pork, studded with cubes of white fat, and flavored with pepper, coriander, anise, and pistachio nuts. A recipe from Robert May, published in 1660, calls for  “a good leg of pork and a lot of lard, flavoured with cloves, nutmeg, mace, pepper and caraway seeds.” I’m not sure why bologna has such a bad rap and is often said to contain lips, snouts, and other unsavory animal body parts; it’s really no worse than any other type of sausage around and was a childhood favorite of mine.

To celebrate, I made a bologna sandwich for dinner. I’m very specific about my bologna: it must be on white bread, with mustard (NO mayo), American cheese, a slice or two of tomato, and pickles. There can be no deviating from this format! Tara is not a bologna fan – surprise, surprise – so she suffered through a bite. Me? I could’ve gone for another!

National Bologna Day

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296/365: National Boston Cream Pie Day*

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Once you’ve finished pahking the cah at Hahvahd Yahd, settle in for a slice of today’s tasty treat. October 23 is National Boston Cream Pie Day!

It’s also National Canning Day. I’m not sure whether that means you’re supposed to can something today, or eat something that you’ve canned. I had a slice of toast with huckleberry jam I canned myself, so technically both food holidays are in the books today.

Many good things come from Boston. Cheers, the Red Sox, the original Tea Party – and the official dessert of Massachusetts, Boston Cream Pie (which is actually a cake and not a pie). It consists of two layers of spongecake filled with vanilla custard and topped with a chocolate glaze. It may also contain powdered sugar and a cherry, if your chef or bakery is particularly flamboyant. Boston Cream Pie was created by chef M. Sanzian at the Parker House Hotel  in 1856, when they first opened for business. The Parker House was the first hotel in Boston to feature hot and cold running water, an elevator, and a French chef with an initial for a first name. It’s also where Parker House soft dinner rolls were invented. This place has history! The dessert was originally called a Chocolate Cream Pie and, alternatively, a Parker House Chocolate Cream Pie. But it’s still not a pie, folks!! It is believed that the first Boston Cream Pie was baked in a pie tin, which at the time were more common than cake pans, and because it was cut into wedges, was called a pie. On December 12, 1996, a civics class from Norton High School broke into raucous celebration when the bill they sponsored – declaring Boston Cream Pie the official state dessert – was passed into law, beating out other candidates which included toll house cookies and  Indian pudding.

Unlike most of the food holidays we’ve celebrated this year, we’re taking today’s a little less literally (try saying that 5 times fast). Yoplait makes a Boston cream pie-flavored yogurt that actually does taste like the real thing. We figure, repurposing some of these foods makes for a more interesting interpretation. For instance, on National Almond Day, we added slivered almonds to a chicken teriyaki dish. Doesn’t get much more creative than that! Call it creative, call it lazy, whatever…today, we called it breakfast!

National Boston Cream Pie Day

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295/365: National Nut Day

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t. If you don’t, today’s not your day. October 22 is National Nut Day!

National Nut Day has been around for a long time in the U.S. A few years ago, it spread across the pond when Liberation Foods Company, a U.K.-based organization run by and devoted to supporting small farmers and nut gatherers in some of the world’s poorest countries, “imported” the holiday to England as a way to raise awareness for nuts while promoting a healthy lifestyle. The British take it very seriously, with an official website and a nationwide public awareness campaign. Talk about a noble cause. Here in good ol’ America, few people probably realize today is devoted to going nuts. But they should: nuts are healthy and nutritious, and are an excellent source of protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. It is believed that a handful a day can help prevent heart disease. There are many varieties of nuts, some meeting the true botanical definition (acorns, chestnuts, hazelnuts, palm nuts) and others considered culinary nuts (almonds, cashews, pistachios, walnuts, pine nuts, macadamia nuts, and peanuts). What’s the difference? Let’s ask Wikipedia!

A nut in botany is a simple dry fruit with one seed (rarely two) in which the ovary wall becomes very hard (stony or woody) at maturity, and where the seed remains attached or fused with the ovary wall. A nut in cuisine is a much less restrictive category than a nut in botany, as the term is applied to many seeds that are not botanically true nuts. Any large, oily kernels found within a shell and used in food are commonly called nuts.

Clear? Good! We had a tough time deciding how to celebrate. We’ve already paid homage to many different types of nuts this year, including peanuts, pistachios, pecans, almonds, pralines, hazelnuts, and macadamia nuts. They’re all good! We finally decided the best way to honor nuts, plural, was to sample from a can of mixed nuts. It’s recommended you eat a handful a day, and that’s precisely what we did. The can included peanuts, almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts, filberts, and pecans. All good stuff!

National Nut Day

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294/365: National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day*

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today’s food holiday would make even a Jack-o-lantern smile: October 21 is National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day!

It’s also International Day of the Nacho, but there’s a National Nacho Day coming up in a little over two weeks, so we’ll be honoring cheese-covered tortilla chips then. And some calendars list today as National Caramel Apple Day, but the majority say that one’s celebrated on Halloween, which seems pretty fitting to me. Today, it’s all about sinfully creamy and delicious pumpkin cheesecake.

Pumpkin cheesecake is a seasonal treat that takes the best of two desserts – pumpkin pie and cheesecake – and combines them into one heavenly treat. I’ve written about the history of cheesecake in previous posts, so follow the preceding link if you need to get caught up to speed. (The fact that stands out most to me: cheesecake was served to athletes during the first Olympics ceremony in ancient Greece. Interesting concept of “health food,” huh?). It’s unknown when the first pumpkin cheesecake was created, or who invented it, but I remember trying it for the first time about six years ago. Nowadays, it’s an autumn favorite at places like The Olive Garden.

Neither of us had ever made a cheesecake before, and neither of us wanted to make a whole cheesecake, you know? That’s a lot of high-calorie leftovers. Luckily, we were able to find individual slices at New Seasons Market. I have to give a shout-out to this local grocery chain that specializes in fresh, locally grown, organic, and specialty foods. They’ve been a lifesaver for a number of challenges (bagels and lox, cherry cheesecake, etc.) and often have hard-to-find food items we can’t get anywhere else. Once again, they came through for us! We shared a slice of pumpkin gingersnap cheesecake that was like the most decadent pumpkin pie ever…and then some!

National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day

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