My Meals are on Wheels

National Escargot Day

Five Food Finds about Escargot

• Escargot - French - An edible snail, especially one prepared as an appetizer or entree.

• The French consume 40,000 metric tons of snails each year.

• Heliculture is the science of growing snails for food.

• Snails have been eaten as food since at least ancient Roman times. Apicius, the author of the oldest surviving cookbook (1st century B.C - 2 century A.D.) has a recipe for snails in his cookbook.

I have always seen potatoes cooked this way and thought how great they looked, but never got round to actually trying them out until now. I also learnt from an unsuccessful tasting at a family roast dinner (I won’t name names), that these take a pretty long time to cook. We had a delicious roast beef dinner cooked for us and these potatoes looked the bee’s knees; but unfortunately they were absolutely rock hard in the middle, although the outside was still crispy and salvable.  

National Taffy Day

Five Food Finds about Taffy

• Salt water taffy was “invented” in Atlantic City in 1883.

• Modern technology allows confectioners to produce 1,000 pieces of taffy a minute.

• In one hour enough pieces of taffy are made to cover one third of the length of Atlantic City (about 1.3 miles).

• The three most popular taffy flavors sold by Sweet Candy Company are peppermint, cinnamon and chocolate.

National Vanilla Pudding Day

Five Food Finds about Pudding

• The Fortress hotel in Galle, Sri Lanka, is charging $14,500 a serving of the world's most expensive pudding, which is called "The Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence".

• Hasty pudding, originally a British dish, this pudding could be made on very short notice.  Ingredients vary, but it was basically a sweetened porridge made from flour, tapioca or oatmeal and milk.

National Strawberries and Cream Day

Five Food Finds about Strawberries

• Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.

• The ancient Romans believed that strawberries alleviated symptoms of melancholy, fainting, all inflammations, fevers, throat infections, kidney stones, bad breath, attacks of gout, and diseases of the blood, liver and spleen.

• Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring.

I guess the definition of perfect bacon is relative.  For me, perfect bacon would be crispy, cooked all the way through.  Not awfully curly and not leathery.  No flimsy, rubbery bacon for me.  But, for someone else, what I consider perfect bacon might not be the perfect bacon for them.  They might like it a little less crispy, or cooked just enough and a little flimsy.  

National Devil's Food Cake Day

Five Food Finds about Devil's Food Cake

•  Devil's food cake is considered a counterpart to the white or yellow angel food cake.

• Devil's food cake is generally more moist and airy than other chocolate cakes, and often uses cocoa as opposed to chocolate for the flavor as well as coffee.

• Devil's food cake was introduced in the United States in the early 20th century with the recipe in print as early as 1905.

National Cheese Souffle Day

Five Food Finds about Souffle

• A souffle is essentially a simple white sauce enriched with egg yolk. Stiff egg whites are folded right into the mixture. At this point, you can add whatever flavor you like: cheese, vegetables, chocolate or fruit.

• The secret to a great souffle is to beat the egg whites into stiff white peak consistency and to fold them carefully into the sauce to keep as much air in the mixture as possible.

National Cherry Cobbler Day

Five Food Finds about Cobbler

• A cobbler is a deep dish (casserole or soufflé dish) fruit pie (peach is most common) with only a top biscuit dough crust.

• Fruit cobblers can be made with almost any fruit, singly or in combination.

• The cobbler takes its name from the biscuit dough crust on top - it is rough looking or 'cobbled.'   It originated in the U.S.