243/365: National Trail Mix Day, National Eat Outside Day*

Posted on August 31, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Hike up your pants and start walking to the cupboard. The last day of August is National Trail Mix Day!

It’s also National Eat Outside Day. If you’re literal-minded, as I am, then you’ll realize this is the perfect pairing. If you’re eating this mix of grains, nuts, and fruit on a trail, then you’re already eating outside anyway. That’s called killing two birds with one stone.

Sure enough, trail mix was invented with hiking in mind. It’s considered a perfect snack food to take along while hitting the Great Outdoors because it is lightweight, easy to store, and packed with nutrition. The carbohydrates in the dried fruit and granola, and the fat in the nuts, provide an energy boost to help you tackle the toughest of hiking trails. While some claim that a pair of California surfers invented trail mix in 1968 when they combined peanuts and raisins for an energy snack, fans of Jack Kerouac need only point to his novel The Dharma Bums to prove this story is a hoax: trail mix is mentioned in the book, which was published in 1958, back when the mystery surfers were probably still learning their ABCs. It probably dates back even further, under different names; an 1833 Danish book mentions Studenterhavre, a popular mix of raisins, almonds, and chocolate.

Trail mix can contain a wide variety of ingredients suited to your individual tastes. Common items include nuts, dried fruits, chocolate, granola, pretzels, seeds, shredded coconut, crystallized ginger, and marshmallows.

Even with guests in town, it was easy enough to celebrate today’s holidays. We shared a bag of trail mix outside. Done, and done!

National Trail Mix Day

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242/365: National Toasted Marshmallow Day

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Are you in the mood for s’more marshmallows? Today’s  your lucky day! August 30 is National Toasted Marshmallow Day!

We recently celebrated National S’mores Day, and actually did so without ever toasting a marshmallow. I guess this is payback for taking the easy way out, huh? Though in our defense it was late, had been a long day, and we’d just returned from a food festival in downtown Portland. We weren’t really in the mood to go all out and toast our own marshmallows. This time, we have no choice, as toasting is a prerequisite for the holiday. It’s right there in the name and everything.IMAG1393

Contrary to the name, we didn’t want some more S’mores. The other day, Tara mentioned craving Rice Krispie Treats. That’s when inspiration hit: could we make toasted marshmallow Rice Krispie Treats?! According to the internet, the answer was a resounding yes. Yes, we could. So we found a recipe and did just that.

We’ve got guests visiting from Sacramento this weekend, too. Lucky them – they’ll be privy to our food holidays for the next three days. The toasted marshmallow Rice Krispie Treats were a hit, so we’re off to a good start!

Here’s the recipe:

Toasted Marshmallow Rice Krispie Treats

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 (10.5 oz) bag mini marshmallows
  • 6 cups Rice Krispie Cereal

How to Make

  1. Grease a 9×9 pan lightly with cooking spray.
  2. In small saucepan over medium-low heat melt butter. Continue cooking butter, swirling pan until it becomes a nice brown color (this will take about 5 minutes). Remove from heat. Transfer browned butter into a large bowl or pot where you will be able to easily stir your Rice Krispie Treats together, and set aside.
  3. Turn oven onto broil.
  4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Evenly spread your marshmallows onto lined baking sheet.
  5. Place under broiler for 45 seconds to 1 minute until marshmallows are puffed and deeply golden. Watch them closely because they will burn quickly.
  6. Using a rubber spatula lightly greased with cooking spray, immediately scrape marshmallows into bowl with butter. Stir to combine quickly. Pour Rice Krispies into toasted marshmallow mix and stir to combine.
  7. Press evenly into the prepared pan.
  8. Allow to cool before cutting into squares and serving.

Notes

Store airtight for up to 2 days.

They were fantastic!

National Toasted Marshmallow Day

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241/365:National More Herbs, Less Salt Day*

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Well-seasoned cooks will appreciate the challenge presented by today’s food holiday. August 29 is National More Herbs, Less Salt Day!

It’s also National Chop Suey Day and National Lemon Juice Day. Wow, lots going on today! We decided Chop Suey is too fake (it’s Americanized Chinese food, kind of like the fortune cookie) and lemon juice is too easy, so we’re increasing the herbs and putting down the salt shaker today.

More Herbs, Less Salt Day promotes a healthier lifestyle by encouraging us to use fresh herbs in place of salt, which – as wonderfully as it adds zip to food – isn’t the healthiest ingredient in the world, especially for those with high blood pressure. Granted, there are some foods that absolutely need salt. Certain cuts of meat benefit from a nice dose of salt to bring out their flavors, for instance. And for me at least, I can’t imagine eating popcorn without it. I tend to enjoy savory, zesty flavors, and salt is definitely a mainstay, though I try to keep it in moderation.

“Try” being the key word.

Great on cottage cheese...

Great on cottage cheese…

Interestingly, this is one of the few food holidays that was created by a company – specifically, Wellcat Holidays and Herbs, founded by Thomas and Ruth Roy – and is actually copyrighted. A note on their website says we are supposed to obtain permission to use their holidays in any fashion. Maybe we should have stuck with chop suey! No, I did not contact them first. I figure, I’m doing them a favor by generating free publicity!

Most herbs belong to either the mint family (basil, oregano, rosemary, sage) or the carrot family (dill, parsley, cilantro). Late August is an excellent time to celebrate this holiday, as fresh herbs are at their very peak. They have been used for centuries for cooking, medicinal, and even spiritual purposes. They are distinguishable from vegetables because they are used in small amounts and provide flavor, rather than substance, to food. They are nutritionally insignificant but a great way to boost, or enhance, flavors. Hence, today’s holiday!

...and on scrambled eggs, too!

…and on scrambled eggs, too!

To celebrate, Tara and I took different approaches. Tara dished up some cottage cheese and liberally added Mrs. Dash, probably the most well-known herb-based salt substitute out there. I scrambled up some eggs and did the same. I have to say, the cottage cheese was really good. Probably because it’s naturally salty. The eggs? Well…they needed salt. But I resisted! And we’ll make an effort through the remainder of the day, as well.

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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

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239/365: National Banana Lover’s Day*

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Chances are you’ll go ape over today’s food holiday, but I’m not monkeying around one bit when I say it’s real a-peeling. August 27 is National Banana Lover’s Day!

It’s also National Pot de Crème Day. But, c’mon…how can I celebrate something I can’t even pronounce?! (Poh-deh-krem, for the record. It’s a French (duh) custard that translates to “pot of cream” because it’s baked in a ramekin). Sounds rich, and I’m sure it’s good, but we shy away from desserts whenever possible because there are so damn many of them. Besides, who doesn’t love bananas?!

Just like money, bananas don’t grow on trees. They are actually produced by a plant known as the musa acuminata – the largest herbaceous flowering plant in the world. It was named for Antonius Musa, the personal physician of Roman emperor Octavius Augustus, who was responsible for cultivating the exotic African fruit from 63 to 14 B.C., predating even rice. Acuminata means “assume nothing,” which is a polite way of saying, “when you assume, you make an ass of u and me.” Actually, that’s not true. It really means “long-pointed” or “tapering” and refers to the flowers of the plant, not the fruit. Which happens to be long-pointed and tapering, as well.

keep-calm-and-go-bananas-21Portugese sailors brought bananas from West Africa to Europe in the 15th century, and the Guinean name banema caught on, eventually morphing into banana in English. Even though bananas were discovered in Africa, they’re actually native to Southeast Asia, where many wild and exotic varieties grow. Spanish missionary Friar Tomas de Berlanga introduced them to North America.

Bananas were originally red or green. The sweet yellow variety we are used to was actually a mutant strain, discovered by Jean Francois Poujot in 1836. One day he discovered a tree on his Jamaica plantation bearing yellow fruit instead of red or green, and when he tasted it, was pleasantly surprised by the sweet flavor and began cultivating those. When bananas were first served in U.S. restaurants, they were considered exotic treats, and were eaten on a plate using a fork and knife.National Banana Lover's Day

Plantains and bananas are essentially the same; in Southeast Asia, no distinction is made between the two. Other countries consider bananas to be the soft, sweet “dessert” variety we are used to, while plantains refer to the firmer, starcher cooking variety.

We could have done virtually anything to celebrate Banana Lover’s Day, but decided to keep it simple. Tara had hers plain, and I sliced mine and added it to a bowl of Rice Krispies. There’s something about that combination I’ve always loved.

And, the day is still young. There may yet be more bananas in our future!

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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.

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237/365: National Whiskey Sour Day

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Midwest Mark

If you like your cocktails on the tart side, today’s going to be right up your alley. August 25 is National Whiskey Sour Day!

The whiskey sour is considered a “retro” cocktail. This simply means it was popular a long time ago, fell out of favor, and is now making a splash all over again. A splash that includes whiskey, lemon juice, and sugar, the basic ingredients for a whiskey sour (though you could cheat and use commercial sour mix instead). Bourbon is often substituted for whiskey, though really, they are the same thing: bourbon is simply a type of whiskey. To help explain the difference, the Jim Beam website says, All bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is bourbon. Tennessee whiskey? Not bourbon. Canadian whiskey? Nope. Scotch? Definitely not bourbon… you get the idea. 

Are you as confused as I am now? I’m not even going to attempt to decipher scotch.

Adding sour ingredients to cocktails began in the 1700s, when British sailors added lime juice to rum in order to prevent scurvy on those long ocean voyages. And in order to preserve the fresh juice, a little bit of rum – or gin, or whiskey – was added to the juice, as well. One can only imagine the spirited breakfast conversations that ensued after downing a glass of “juice.” Soon, these sailors discovered that the addition of a little bit of sugar made it all taste better. The oldest reference to a whiskey sour dates to a Wisconsin newspaper article published in 1870. A Peruvian newspaper called El Comercio de Iquique published a story in 1962 claiming that Elliot Stubb, an English steward aboard a ship named Sunshine, created the whiskey sour in 1872, though historian Oreste Plath had originally attributed the Pisco Sour to Stubb, apparently in error.

Either way, the whiskey sour has long been a favorite of mine. In fact, the villain in my novel No Time For Kings is described as having a fondness for whiskey sours, and the drink appears in a key scene in Chapter 15. Yes, that’s a shameless plug. It would be more shameless if I mentioned the Kindle version (just follow the link if interested) is priced at a very reasonable $2.99. Ahem.

Back to the food blog. Fun fact about whiskey: it can remain bottled for 100 years, and will still be good when opened. Once it is opened, it’ll remain drinkable for about 5 years. So if you were to buy a bottle today, you could conceivably still drink it on August 25, 2118. But boy, would you be old.

To celebrate, I whipped us up a whiskey sour. Or two. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

National Whiskey Sour Day

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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

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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

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234/365: National Eat A Peach Day*

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Midwest Mark

If you’re a lover of sweet and juicy summertime fruit, you’ll be quite keen for today’s holiday! August 22 is National Eat A Peach Day.

It’s also National Pecan Torte Day. But we just celebrated National Pecan Pie Day last month, and though a torte is technically more like a cake than a pie, it’s still close enough to give us a serious case of deja vu and want to branch out and try something new. Something not-desserty. So, a peach it is!

Think peaches, and chances are, Georgia pops into your head. But the fruit actually originated in China, where it was a favorite of emperors and kings, and dates back to 2000 B.C. Cultivation spread throughout Persia and Greece, and when Alexander the Great conquered Persia, he introduced the fruit to Europe, where it quickly gained favor, especially with Romans. Archaeologists digging through the remains of towns decimated by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. found wall paintings depicting peach trees (along with the curious discovery of Kilroy was here in spray paint). Spanish explorers brought peaches to England and France in the 17th century, where they became valuable and expensive treats. English horticulturist George Minifie brought the first peaches to the North American colonies in the early 17th century, planting them at his Virginia estate. Commercial production began some 200 years later, centered in Delaware, Maryland, Georgia, and Virginia. Peach trees are kind of finicky; they require both cool winter temperatures for proper chilling, and intense summer heat to mature the crop. For this reason, their range is fairly limited.

Peaches and nectarines are the same species, though they are considered different fruit. The fuzzy skin of the peach is dominant, while the smooth skin of the nectarine is the result of a recessive gene.

I love both fruits, and was eager to celebrate today’s holiday – especially since fresh peaches are very much in season right now. If I had my little way, I’d eat peaches every day!

Celebrating this holiday was a breeze, but I’m a little bummed out. Last week I had fresh peaches from the farmer’s market, and they were amazing: perfectly sweet and juicy, just the right consistency. Since we were out of town last weekend we couldn’t make a trip to the farmer’s market, so we settled on peaches from the grocery store. Which paled in comparison. If you ever think farmer’s markets are “too expensive” (hi, dad!), I’m telling you, the little bit extra you’re paying is well worth it. You get quality produce and are supporting the local community.

National Eat A Peach Day

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