183/365: National Anisette Day

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Midwest Mark

If you subscribe to the phrase candy is dandy but liquor is quicker, you’ll be racing at top speed to celebrate today’s holiday. July 2 is National Anisette Day!

Today also marks the halfway point of our food challenge! Hard to believe we’ve successfully conquered six months’ worth of challenges. On the one hand we want to celebrate because we’re halfway to the finish line! On the other hand…we still have half a year to go. Yikes. But we’re making good progress!1012317_208531799297145_246909285_n

If you’re wondering what exactly anisette is…so were we. It’s a potent anise-flavored liqueur popular in the Mediterranean, particularly in Spain, Italy, Portugal, and France. It may taste like licorice (blech), but contains no actual licorice, unlike other anise-flavored liqueurs. It’s sweeter than most, and has such a high alcohol content it can burn your throat if you drink it too fast.

I’m not going to lie: reading that scared the bejesus out of me!

Marie Brizard, a well-known French alcoholic beverage company, began producing anisette in 1755, the year they were founded. Anisette is closely related to absinthe, the notorious “green fairy” from Moulin Rouge that was banned in the U.S. until 2007. Reading this did not ease my trepidation in the least. Anisette is most often mixed with a little bit of water which, when swirled in a glass, brings out the essential oils in the alcohol, turning the drink milky-white. If that ain’t a neat parlor trick, I don’t know what is!

Tara and I are not fans of licorice. Rather than drinking anisette straight up, we made a cocktail called a typhoon. Here’s the recipe:

Chilled champagne
1 oz. gin
1/2 oz. anisette
1 oz. lime juice

Shake all ingredients (except champagne) with ice and strain into a collins glass over ice cubes. Fill glass with chilled champagne, stir lightly, and serve.
I have to say, I was fully prepared to hate this cocktail. First off, one whiff of the anisette was enough to turn my stomach – it reeked of black licorice. And the ingredients are a strange combination, to say the least. Champagne? Gin? Lime juice?? So I was very pleasantly surprised when I actually took a sip, and found it not nearly as bad as I’d expected. I daresay, I actually liked it. It was better than the dry martini, the orange blossom, and the mint julep, that’s for sure. Go figure. (Tara was not quite so enamored of the flavor, but at least she didn’t spit it out).
National Anisette Day
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182/365: National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day*

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Midwest Mark

I scream, you scream, we all scream for today’s food holiday, especially when the flavor is wacky. July 1 is National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day!

It’s also National Ginger Snap Day, but we recently had ginger snaps in honor of National Gingerbread Day. Besides, few treats embody summer as perfectly as ice cream. And in Portland, we’ve got the perfect place to celebrate creative ice cream flavors. There was no resisting this holiday!

The line for Salt & Straw: typically long, especially on a hot summer evening.

The line for Salt & Straw: typically long, especially on a hot summer evening.

Vanilla may be America’s most popular flavor of ice cream, but thanks to companies such as Ben & Jerry’s (“Chunky Monkey,” “Cherry Garcia,” etc.), unusual flavor combinations have become a fun – and increasingly popular – draw for ice cream lovers, particularly during warm summer months. In Portland, Salt & Straw, a “farm-to-cone” ice cream shop perfectly representative of Portland’s food culture and unique vibe, opened their first location a few years ago, and were an instant hit. Not just because they pride themselves on sourcing local, organic, sustainable ingredients, but because of their creative flavors. They change with the seasons, but popular choices include Pear With Bleu Cheese, Honey Balsamic Strawberry with Cracked Pepper, Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout, and Arbequina Olive Oil. Salt & Straw pairs with local vendors and restaurants for some very clever and unusual flavors. It doesn’t hurt that their ice cream is very creamy and smooth, made with 17% butterfat and very little air in the churning process. It truly is delicious, and has become the city’s newest Voodoo Doughnut, an overnight sensation garnering big press. Both Saveur Magazine and Oprah’s O Magazine have named it one of the best ice cream shops in America, a can’t-miss destination for foodies in the Rose City.

Goat Cheese Marionberry Habanero.

Goat Cheese Marionberry Habanero.

After dinner, we made a beeline for Salt & Straw. Along with everybody else in Portland, apparently. That’s what happens when you cross a sultry summer evening with a trendy boutique ice cream shop. We ended up waiting in a line 40 people deep for about twenty minutes. Well worth it, though. Tara got Chocolate Blueberry Rice Krispy Treats while I opted for Goat Cheese Marionberry Habanero. Both were delicious, and I think you’d agree, very creative flavors!

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181/365: National Ice Cream Soda Day

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Midwest Mark

You just may float on a happy haze when you celebrate today’s perfectly summery food holiday. June 30 is National Ice Cream Soda Day!

June 20 was also National Ice Cream Soda Day, so I suppose if you didn’t get your fill back then, today’s your encore. We chose to celebrate the vanilla milkshake on that day instead so as not to repeat ourselves. Just to keep us on our toes, there’s also a National Root Beer Float Day coming up in August. Knowing that, we should have opted for something a little more unique today, but laziness got the better of us.

Ice cream sodas, or floats, go by the name “snowballs” in the U.K. and “spiders” in the land Down Under, where women work and men plunder. They are exactly what their name implies: ice cream served in a soft drink. Ice cream sodas were invented in 1874 by Robert McCay Green in Philadelphia. According to legend, during that city’s sesquicentennial celebration, Robert ran out of cream for the flavored sodas he was selling on a particularly hot day, and substituted ice cream instead. But Robert explained in an interview that his creation was no accident: he wanted to invent a new treat to draw customers away from a competitor who had a bigger, fancier soda fountain. He experimented by mixing vanilla ice cream with soda water and a choice of 16 different flavored syrups. This new treat was a big hit, and Green was so proud of his invention, his will stipulated that “Originator of the Ice Cream Soda” be carved on his tombstone when he died.

While teens loved the tasty treat, many adults did not, and the drink was actually banned by some conservative local governments who believed that soda, which was marketed as a “miracle cure” (for what – skinniness?), was a controlled substance that should not be served or purchased on Sundays. In an effort to boost business, soda fountains came up with a treat that contained ice cream but no soda. They coined the new dessert a “sundae” that they could serve on “soda’s day of rest.”

Now, that’s clever!

To celebrate, Tara and I made root beer floats. I mean, what other type of soda-and-ice-cream combination can ever top the classic?

National Ice Cream Soda Day

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180/365: National Almond Buttercrunch Day

Posted on June 29, 2013 by Midwest Mark

June 29 is one of those oddly specific food holidays that left us scratching our heads in confusion at first, wondering what the heck it is exactly. It’s National Almond Buttercrunch Day! But there’s no need for bewilderment; that’s simply the generic name for a well-known brand of candy known as Almond Roca.

Whew. That I know.

Candy company Brown & Haley developed almond buttercrunch just in time for World War II, where it became a popular treat with soldiers thanks to J.C. Haley’s novel idea of storing it in tins to keep it fresh, similar to the method used for storing coffee at the time. This made the candy easy to ship to far-flung locations across Europe and Asia. Brown & Haley named their creation Almond Roca because the almonds they used were exported from Spain, and the candy’s texture reminded them of rocks; “roca” is the Spanish word for rock. Almond Roca is essentially English toffee with just a few ingredients – butter, sugar, salt, and almonds.

I suppose we could have slaved over a hot stove making our own almond buttercrunch, but why bother when every it’s easy enough to find in the grocery store? (Although, it did take us three tries). I’m very familiar with Almond Roca because it was my former father-in-law’s favorite candy. Odd that the candy outlasted the marriage, but hey – it’s good stuff!

National Almond Buttercrunch Day

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179/365: National Tapioca Day

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Midwest Mark

We’re going back to our roots to celebrate today’s food holiday. June 28 is National Tapioca Day!

Tapioca is a starch that comes from the cassava, or manioc, root, a plant native to South America. Spanish and Portugese explorers exported it to the West Indies, and it quickly spread to other tropical and subtropical regions. It’s a major source of carbohydrates and an important food source for half a billion people worldwide.

Odds are, when you think of tapioca, you think of tapioca pudding. I know there are other culinary uses for tapioca – I’ve used it in a beef stew recipe once – but  really, it works best in pudding. So, pudding it is!

I have always been fond of tapioca pudding. Tara had never actually tried it until last year, and though she was skeptical, ended up liking it quite a bit herself. Ours tonight was nothing fancy – pudding cups again – but pretty good, nonetheless!

National Tapioca Day

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178/365: National Orange Blossom Day*

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Orange you glad we get to celebrate a warm summer day with a fresh and tasty cocktail? June 27 is National Orange Blossom Day!

It’s also National Indian Pudding Day. Considering that we also celebrate chocolate pudding and tapioca pudding this week, I was not happy about what I perceived to be pudding overkill. “Somebody’s pudding me on,” I said. “Whose big idea was it pudding all these similar food holidays together in the same week?” Once my pudding puns were exhausted, I got down to the business of researching Indian pudding, and learned that no box of Jell-O mix would suffice for this rather complicated dessert. Indian pudding is a porridge-like mixture of cornmeal, milk, and molasses that requires hours of cooking. Yikes! I didn’t think orange blossoms would be any easier to cook with (or find), but then I learned that the Orange Blossom is actually a cocktail. Not just any cocktail, but one that contains gin and vermouth (two ingredients we’ve got on hand thanks to our recent Dry Martini day), plus orange juice. Score!

The exact history of the Orange Blossom is unknown, but it rose to prominence in the 1920s during Prohibition, when orange juice was used to cut the rancid flavor of illegal bathtub gin. A.S. Crockett’s Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book, published in 1935, contains two Orange Blossom recipes. Orange Blossom No. 1 is served neat and contains equal parts gin, vermouth, and OJ. It was allegedly invented by “some young bridegroom who wanted something novel to use at his final stag party.” Orange Blossom No. 2 is served in an old-fashioned glass with ice and omits the vermouth, calling for a 1:1 ratio of gin and orange juice. Since vermouth is sort of the Rodney Dangerfield of the alcohol world – it truly gets no respect – I’m not surprised that this second recipe doesn’t even bother with it.

We figured, since we’ve got vermouth on hand, we might as well go ahead and use it, so we made a couple of Orange Blossom No. 1s. The result? Maybe not quite as bad as the dry martini…but it’s not something I would drink again. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not a fan of vermouth.

National Orange Blossom Day

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177/365: National Chocolate Pudding Day

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today’s food holiday is decadent, creamy, and smooth. Unless you live in England, where it’s more of a spongey cake-like consistency. June 26 is National Chocolate Pudding Day!

We’ve had pudding holidays before, so if you’re keeping track of all your food history through our blog, you’ll remember that “pudding” once referred to sausage, and was savory long before it ever became sweet. In England, if you order chocolate pudding, you’ll get a cake-like dessert that is thickened with eggs and steamed. Here in the good ol’ USA, pudding is thickened with starch and boiled, resulting in a much creamier treat. I’ll give Britain their cool double-decker buses and Big Ben, but I personally think our version of pudding is about a hundred times better than theirs. And I know. I’ve had both.

Jell-O started making puddings back in 1897, but most of the early flavors were fruity. In 1934 General Foods introduced Walter Baker’s Dessert, a chocolate confection named after Baker’s chocolate company. In 1936, in an effort to fend off a million “who the hell is Walter Baker?” questions, the name was simplified to Jell-O Chocolate Pudding.

We went the easy route today and had prepared chocolate pudding cups. Before you cry foul, just remember that we slaved over souffles twice this year, and have made a majority of desserts from scratch. We needed a break!

National Chocolate Pudding Day

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176/365: National Strawberry Parfait Day*

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today’s food holiday is perfect! Literally. It’s the French word for “perfect.” June 25 is National Strawberry Parfait Day!

It’s also National Catfish Day. I personally would have preferred celebrating this dish instead, as I love a good fried catfish and there are a couple of really good Southern restaurants in Portland that serve catfish. But Tara isn’t real keen on the fish, so we agreed to celebrate with strawberry parfaits instead. Why break the dessert streak, anyway?

Not too long ago we had chocolate parfaits, so this is somewhat familiar territory for us. Only this time we are fortunate to have fresh strawberries to use. Specifically, Hood strawberries from Oregon, which we picked up from the farmer’s market on Sunday. Hoods are the sweetest, juiciest, most flavorful strawberries in the world. I’m convinced of this. I have friends in California who insist their strawberries are better, but to me it’s not even close. Ours blow theirs away hands down. Click on the above link if you want a refresher course on the history of parfait.

Here’s a fun and random fact about strawberries. In Bavaria, people living in the countryside have an annual rite each spring in which they tie a basket full of strawberries to the horns of their cattle as an offering to elves, who they believe love strawberries and will reward the farmers with healthy calves and an abundance of milk as a thank you gesture.

Ha. Country folk.

I decided to mix things up and go healthier with these parfaits. I layered Tillamook vanilla yogurt, fresh Hood strawberries from Oregon, and granola for a tasty low-cal, low-fat treat. It was very good. But also would have been more apropos for breakfast. Hmm…

National Strawberry Parfait Day

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175/365: National Pralines Day

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today’s food holiday is a little bit sweet and a little bit nutty. June 24 is National Pralines Day!

A praline is essentially a pecan that has been boiled in sugar until it turns crisp and brown. In some parts of the world, almonds are used. Pralines are popular additions to cookies, candy, ice cream, and chicken noodle soup.

Pralines are French in origin, and were named after the 17th century diplomat César, duc de Choiseul, comte du Plessis-Praslin. Talk about a mouthful. Dude-with-a-long-name’s personal chef, Clement Lassagne, actually created pralines after watching children scavenging leftover scraps of almonds and caramel from one of his pastries. Other versions of this story exist. In one, he followed the children, who had stolen almonds and heated them over a candle, caramelizing them. Or, one of his klutzy apprentices knocked over a container of almonds into a vat of caramel. Whatever the true story, pralines caught the fancy of many, and even though dude-with-a-long-name gets all the credit, Lassagne didn’t do too badly for himself. He opened a candy shop in France called Maison du Praslin which is still around to this day.

Pralines made their way with French settlers to New Orleans. Because almonds were in short supply, cooks began substituting nuts from Louisiana’s abundant pecan trees instead. Women who sold pralines on the streets of the French Quarter were known as Pralinières and were given the unique opportunity to sell their wares in order to earn a living. Women who sold “other things” on the streets of the French Quarter earned a living in other ways, but we won’t discuss that since this is a family blog. Since New Orleans was a busy port city, pralines spread around the country, and became a popular confection nationwide.

To celebrate the mighty praline, we stopped by Baskin Robbins for pralines and cream flavored ice cream. I had never had it before, and I’m not exaggerating at all when I say it was some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had!

National Pralines Day

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174/365: National Pecan Sandies Day

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Midwest Mark

Today’s food holiday is a little nutty. Literally. June 23 is National Pecan Sandies Day!

Pecan sandies are essentially sugar cookies with chopped pecans. Their name comes from their sand-like color. Originally called “sand tarts,” pecan sandies are the descendants of sugar cookies that originated in the Middle East. Cookies themselves started out as grain cakes cooked over hot stones some 10,000 years ago. These early “biscuits” were largely flavorless but kept for long periods of time, and became a popular ration for soldiers and sailors alike, both of whom needed a durable food that wouldn’t spoil during their long journeys. A popular early cookie that contained nuts, sweetener, and water was called the jumble. English settlers brought cookies to America in the 17th century, though the name itself comes from the Dutch koekje. In many countries of the world, including the U.K., cookies are still called “biscuits.” Which makes me wonder what biscuits are called…

Keebler makes a variety of Pecan Sandies cookies, and they’re pretty good. So we picked up a package to celebrate today’s food holiday. Pretty simple!

National Pecan Sandies Day

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