History of the Candy Cane

While looking into the history of M&Ms it got me thinking. Candy canes are a fun holiday candy but, where did they come from? Is there a meaning behind the cane shape or the traditional red and white twist? Well, here’s what I found.

The history of candy canes goes back about 350 years when candy sticks were a popular type of candy. People began to have Christmas trees in their homes and they wanted something to put on them. Bent sugar sticks, now known as candy canes were just the right thing to hang on their trees.

The bend in the candy canes came from the idea of a choirmaster in Germany. He bent the sticks into canes, to represent a shepherd’s staff and they were handed out to children during nativity services. Historically the first time candy canes were introduced to American was when a German called, August Imgard came to America and put them on his tree, back in 1847.

Almost 50 years later, the stripes were added to the candy canes, along with their minty flavor. Hanging candy canes on the Christmas tree has become a popular tradition for millions of people, and I’m sure will continue for many, many years.

Source: http://inventors.about.com/od/foodrelatedinventions/a/candy_canes.htm

 

M&Ms

 

Do you ever just think of the oddest, most random questions that float around in your brain unanswered until you forget about them? Well yeah, that happened to me so, I decided to do something about it.

I wanted to know who invented M&Ms and when they came to be, so I did some research. It turns out that chocolate from the Spanish Civil War was the inspiration behind M&Ms.  The chocolate pellets that the soldiers were eating had a hard candy shell around them so the soldiers could carry the chocolate during the warm weather without out melting so fast. This was observed by Forrest Mars, the creator of M&Ms. They were first commercially introduced in 1941, and the people loved them.

The United States Armed Forces quickly adopted the new candy during WWII. During the war M&Ms were only sold to the military but, now everyone enjoys them.

Source: http://rivergrandrapids.com/mms-were-originally-created-to-allow-easy-transport-of-chocolate-to-the-military-fact-of-the-day/

 

Homemade Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows

             A winter favorite for people young and old is hot cocoa with marshmallows. My family isn’t very adventurous when it comes to hot chocolate. We just buy the packets at the store and put some (also store-bought) marshmallows in it. I mean, I’m sure that’s what most people do but, if you’ve ever tried homemade hot cocoa you know that it’s 100 times better than what comes out of the packets.

 It’s pretty easy to make. All you have to do is add cocoa powder with sugar, vanilla, a little salt, and milk. The amount of ingredients varies depending on if you’re making enough for the whole family or if you’re just making enough for you to have. You can click here for instructions:

Personal glass: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Simple-Hot-Cocoa-For-One-369469

Enough for the family: http://www.marthastewart.com/353001/homemade-hot-chocolate

Hot chocolate is believed to have been invented by the Mayans 2,000 years ago. This type of beverage was an essential part of their lives and culture. Hot chocolate became popular in Europe by the Mexicans from the New World. Back then hot chocolate was even used by people to help their liver and stomach diseases. Never would I have imagined that hot chocolate would have been used medically. Since then, it has changed quite a bit, and is now a popular drink among Americans and people all over the world. One of the changes we’ve made to hot cocoa is adding marshmallows to it. Too bad the Mayans didn’t think of that!  

For me, waking up to hot cocoa on a snowy winter day would cheer me up, and definitely warm me up! Of course the marshmallows are my favorite part.  My best friend’s mom makes homemade marshmallows to go in their homemade hot chocolate. She cuts them out into little hearts and plops them right into their hot cocoa. They’re adorable and they taste wonderful!

If you want to make these super cute marshmallows you need to buy three packets of gelatin (unflavored), corn syrup, granulated sugar, kosher salt, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar. There’s a link below that will take you to the recipe and tell you the details of making these marshmallows. Definitely don’t forget the powdered sugar! It’s the most important part. Without it you will have sticky fingers and sticky counters for the rest of the day!

Marshmallow recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/homemade-marshmallows-recipe.html

Homemade is always better than the store bought stuff. It might seem like more work at the time but it’ll pay off. You can save money and it’ll taste better!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_chocolate

 

Tips: Preparing Your Holiday Meal

For you, Christmas day might be all about relaxing, opening presents, and enjoying family but, for the cook it can be a hectic race to fill peoples bellies and make sure eveything is on the table. For all you cooks out there, making Chrsitmas dinner doesn’t have to be stressful.

For starters, you can always make a meal ahead of time. If you’re going to make casseroles you can easily make them a week ahead of time and stick them in the freezer. Then on Christmas all you have to do is stick it in the oven and you’re ready to go. That’s what my mom is doing to prepare for Christmas this year. Since she’s vegan she’s making two meals; a chicken dish and a spinach and tofu lasagne (she just stuck in the freezer), which sounds gross but you can’t even tell there’s tofu in it!

Along with preparing the meals ahead of time, know where all of your ingredients are. It would be horrible if on Christmas day you’re making you’re famous apple pie and you can’t find the cinnamon. Just makes sure you know where your stuff is and you know for a fact that you have it.

Another thing that I can’t stress enough is KEEP THE KITCHEN CLEAN! Being the clean freak that I am, I know that it’s hard for me to focus when I’m  surrounded by clutter. You don’t have to be a clean freak to feel that way. The kitchen clutter will add to your stress on Christmas day so, keep it away.

Last but not least, get people to help! Cooking for a Christmas crowd is not a one-man job. You need some helpers in the kitchen with you. Isn’t that what Christmas is all about? Giving to others. If not presents, than a helping hand.

Oreo Balls

            The holiday season is a great time to try new foods or try old foods in a new way. One thing you might want to try, if you haven’t already are Oreo balls. They are heaven on earth.

            Just like cake balls, Oreo balls have become a sensation. Just the other day I was scrolling through my twitter feed and saw a video that Nabisco posted advertising Oreo balls. It was about this guy who couldn’t cook so he made Oreo balls. Basically the video was showing how easy Oreo balls are to make.

 

            It’s true too! They’re super easy! All you have to do if you want to make Oreo balls is buy some Oreos (or if you want to save money you can get the knockoff brand), cream cheese, and chocolate or vanilla flavored almond bark. If you want to know more about chocolate I talked about it in an earlier post.

            The first step to making these delicious treats starts with crushing up a bag of Oreos. If you want to take the easier route, just put them in the food processor and give them a buzz. That’s what my sister and I did tonight and it saves a bunch of time.

Once your Oreos are all crushed up, you’re going to want to put them in a fairly large bowl. If you’re cream cheese is right out of the refrigerator take microwave it for a little bit to make sure that it’s soft enough to stir into the Oreos. Once your cream cheese is soft enough, cut it into cubes then drop it in the bowl with the Oreos. You’re going to want to mix them together thoroughly otherwise you’ll have chunky Oreo balls, and that would be gross (It’s easier to use something like a potato masher to mix them together, compared to using a spoon, because they’re kind of sticky).

Next, take your mixture and form it into balls, and put them in the fridge for an hour. It’s extremely hard to dip the balls in the almond bark if they aren’t hard, so this step is very important. Once they’ve been in there for an hour it’s time to melt the almond bark.

I prefer using the vanilla almond bark but, chocolate almond bark works great too! Using toothpicks is the easiest way to dip the balls into the almond bark. I’ve tried a fork and it’s just too messy for me.

Before the almond bark hardens you can add fun topping like sprinkles or M&M’s. It makes them look more fun and festive around the holiday season, or for whatever occasion you’re making them for.

Gingerbread Houses

Christmas is my favorite holiday! Most of my blogs the rest of this month will probably be geared toward the holiday because it just makes me so happy! It’s a time to be with family, take part in old traditions, eat good food, and make memories that last a lifetime. It’s the time of year where you get to sit by the fireplace and drink hot cocoa with marshmallows, and wear oversized sweaters.

One tradition that used to be number one on my holiday list was making gingerbread houses. Now, this wasn’t just any old tradition for our family. We made it a big huge ordeal. We would get together with two other families and have a full out gingerbread house contest!  Everything was top quality too! We used delicious homemade gingerbread and sugary homemade icing; and of course lots of candy! We even used ice cream cones as trees by turning them upside down and frosting them!

Unfortunately this tradition stopped when both families moved away. It was a while ago so it’s not so sad anymore but, every time Christmas rolls around I think about the tradition that used to be my favorite. Not so much because of what we did but, because of who we did it with.

This year my sister and I felt inspired so, we decided to have our own ginger bread house making contest. Honestly though it wasn’t a contest because we had no judge, so we just had fun with it!

 With years of gingerbread house making under my belt I like to say I’m a pro. The sad truth is that we cheated year and bought ours from the store (but I did a great job assembling mine). So for all of you people who bought them, don’t feel bad; so did we. So maybe I’m not a pro but, I do have the practice!

We wanted to go all out of the decorating so my sister bought tons of different candies. We had M&M’s, Twizzlers, mini candy canes, marshmallows, Hershey kisses, gummy bears, and tons of other stuff.  She even made homemade icing like we used to. It was great! She made blue (which I used for cute, little icicles), and red, and green.

My sister and I have completely different techniques. She decided to go crazy with the frosting and cover her house completely. Then she added sprinkles, gummy bears and kisses. It was awesome when she was done. Honestly I’m sure it’ll be great to eat. The cutest part of her house was by far the gummy bears. She placed them all over the yard and around the house. It was like a little gummy bear army.

 

I, on the other hand took a different approach. I carefully made windows out of Twizzlers, frosted shingles on the roof and added M&Ms on top. I also carefully made a wreath right above the door. And yes, I also had little gummy bear residents living in my house.

 

So if you’re going to make a ginger bread house I recommend putting your own twist on it. Don’t follow directions and go crazy! Express who you are and play with your food! It’ll be more fun!

Vitamin C

With winter basically here, people are getting sick. No one wants to be sick, especially close to Christmas time. A great way to prevent catching anything is by getting enough vitamin C in your diet. It’s really not hard to do at all.  Some of my favorite fruits are packed with vitamin C like, clementines, oranges, and grapefruit. Since winter is orange season, these fruits taste great this time of year! One thing I love to do in the morning is make my own orange juice. I don’t make it by squeezing the juice into my glass. Instead I like to use my mom’s juicer. The great thing about the juicer is that since the whole orange (minus the peel) goes into it, I’m getting extra vitamins from the skin (the white part of the orange). A lot of the vitamin C comes from that part of the orange. Sometimes I juice clementines too, just because they are usually sweeter than oranges.

You can also get vitamin C from vegetables and vitamin pills. According to http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-011101000000000000000-w.html?mbid=enews_nd0823 vegetables that have vitamin C in them are peppers, chives, parsley, kale, spinach, leeks, taro, broccoli, and a bunch more. So if you don’t like oranges, that’s not a problem! You can find vitamin C in a lot of your vegetables. There’s a list on the website above if you want to check that out. There are also certain powders or dissolving tabs that you can put in your water like, Emergen-C and Airborne. They fizz up and make your water taste fruity. This way you can drink your vitamins, if you don’t want to eat them.  

Along with getting enough vitamin C, it’s also important to avoid germs. Wash your hands often and don’t touch your face, eyes, nose, or mouth. Getting a lot of sleep also helps your immune system stay strong, and so does avoiding sugar. Emergen-C and Airborne have sugar in them so if you don’t want that, you can take a vitamin-C pill which probably healthier.

According to http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/the-benefits-of-vitamin-c vitamin C is one of the most affective and safest nutrients. Outside of helping your cold (or helping you avoid a cold) vitamin C may include protection against cardiovascular disease, immune system deficiencies, prenatal health problems, eye disease, and wrinkling. So if you don’t have a cold you can still get these benefits from taking vitamin C.

Dog Treats

This year have you wondered what a good Christmas present for your dog(s) would be? Well, this question stumped me. I have two golden retrievers named Sampson and Kooper. They’re pretty big dogs, and they’re brothers so they love to fight and play. When we give them stuffed animal toys they tear them up so, usually all they get are bones and hard toys. This year I did find them a stuffed Santa toy that was really cute, and I ended up giving it to them before Christmas. Of course, I watched them to make sure they didn’t tear up the “supervise toy” but, somehow Sampson chewed Santa’s little hat right off. This put me in a Christmas gift dilemma. What would I get my dogs?

After thinking about it I decided a great gift to give them would be homemade dog treats! I could make fun shapes, and my dogs would love them! Of course, I had no idea how to make homemade dog treats, so I went to http://www.cesarsway.com/dog-care/dog-nutrition/Recipe-Ideas-for-Quick-and-Healthy-Homemade-Dog-Treats and found some great recipes! One of them was a simple dog biscuit recipe. It called for flour, salt, egg, beef or chicken Bouillon granules and hot water which are all safe for your dog. They say to bake them in strips or bone shapes but, you can do them in whatever shape you want. Since I’d be giving them to my dogs for Christmas I would make them into Christmas trees and candy cane shapes.

Another website I went to was http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Gourmet-Dog-Biscuits/Detail.aspx?evt19=1. If you are feeling fancy and creative I recommend making these gourmet dog biscuits. Juanita, the creator of this recipe says, “Dogs go crazy for these biscuits. When my dogs smell them cooking they know that it will soon be time for treats! You can use any type of meat broth in them, or just use water if broth isn't on hand." These gourmet snacks consist of white and wheat flour, cracked wheat, cornmeal, garlic powder (might give the dogs bad breath), brewer’s yeast, milk powder, beef broth, and milk. Again you can shape these into whatever you want, and they take 45 minutes to bake. To get the details for the recipe go to the website above.

I hope these fun dog treat ideas inspired you and helped you with gift ideas this year!

And P.S. I’d recommend storing them someplace other than under the tree because knowing my dogs, they would plow through the presents to get to those nicely wrapped treats.  

Christmas Baking

It’s that time again. Time to put up the Christmas tree, decorate the house, hang up the stockings, and make Christmas cookies. Today my sister and I spent the day with our Nana and Grandpa. After church this morning we went out to lunch together, and then headed to their house. I helped my Nana decorate the house with Christmassy things while my sister made some really tasty shortbread cookies. She used a simple, 3-ingredient recipe. It consisted of butter, flour and powdered sugar. I tried one and it crumbled and melted in my mouth; just the way it should.

            I decided that I would make some vanilla butter cream frosting for the shortbread Christmas cookies that Halle made. I found a Betty Crocker recipe, which I knew would be really good. It was made of butter (of course), powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla.

These cookies obviously aren’t healthy at all but, if you do want to be a little healthier you can substitute some ingredients. There’s a really good brand of vegan butter called Earth Balance that you can use. You can also substitute the milk in the frosting with almond milk (I promise you won’t be able to taste the difference). If you want to color your frosting, a great way to do it is use beat juice. That way you can make red and white frosting to frost cookies that look like candy canes. 

Christmas baking is something that I absolutely love to do because it makes the house smell wonderful and feel cozy. If you want to be even more cozy light some candles and dim the lights. Relax and talk with your family instead of thinking about school or work. Just take a minute to slow your life down and breathe. It’s good for you.

            Days baking with the family are fun and memorable. To me, they bring the Christmas season to life, and make me thank God for my family. It shows me how special times like these really are. This Christmas season I encourage you to find at least one day to spend baking or cooking with your family. Whether that means baking a cake with your grandma or cooking spaghetti with your kids, I promise it’ll be fun and will help bring you and your family closer together.

Take a Minute

I was watching TV today and saw that they’re playing Christmas commercials already! Don’t they know that it’s not even Thanksgiving yet?! I didn’t even see any Black Friday commercials!

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Christmas but, I also love Thanksgiving. I mean seriously, they can’t just overlook the day the Pilgrims had a huge feast with the Indians. Plus it’s the American holiday where we stuff ourselves until we can’t fit anymore in us.

We can’t just overlook the tasty turkey, exceptional green beans, and homemade pumpkin pie.  One of my personal favorites is the cranberry sauce. My mom just bought some bags of cranberries, and that’s actually what inspired me to write this post. I’m so excited for Thanksgiving and I just feel like nobody is giving it a second thought.

I think we all need to take a minute and focus on the present rather than the future. Even though Thanksgiving is two weeks away I think we can all start thanking the people we love, or even the stranger we meet tomorrow. I think we should take a minute and enjoy the time we have right now. Think of everything from the year 2014 that you’re thankful for, and add onto it every day until Thanksgiving. You’d be surprised how long your list can get!

You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do

Last week I got my wisdom teeth out. I was a little scared about the whole idea of being put to sleep, and getting my teeth ripped out of my head but, in the end it wasn’t bad at all. Now I have four more holes in my head, and a lot less wisdom. Honestly, why do they call them wisdom teeth? I mean they’re just extra teeth in our mouth that have to be taken out, or else they cause problems later on in life. I don’t think they are very “wise” at all. While writing this I just thought of something. I actually feel smarter now that they’re gone. Maybe it’s because the space they used to fill is now full of wisdom! Yeah, that must be it!

Sorry for getting so side tracked! Now I’m going to talk about food. When a person gets their wisdom teeth out their diet consists of mainly ice cream and pudding the first day, and soup and mashed potatoes for the next two days. After the first few days, harder foods can be eaten but, it’s still kind of difficult to chew. I mean, my mouth is still a bit sore.

The best thing about getting wisdom teeth out is eating ice cream….. and watching Netflix for hours. My best friend brought over some amazing mint chocolate gelato (one of my favorites!). She is, and always will be my favorite person because of that. Let that be a lesson, when soft foods are all your friend can eat, bring them their favorite ice cream. Mashed potatoes were another highlight of my week. My mom made some homemade garlic mashed potatoes, another one of my fav. foods.

The worst part about getting wisdom teeth out (aside from getting sick from the pain meds) is wanting food that you can’t eat. All the yummy food like pizza and chips were off limits, so I had to resort to eating pudding instead of pizza. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Word count: 340

Keeping the Earth Green!

            Honestly I’m not much of a tree hugger. I try to be good to the planet but, I use way too much toilet paper, I use paper towels a lot more than I do hand towels, and I throw paper plates into the garbage instead of the recycling. Don’t worry; I’m not an earth hater. I really am working on being better to this lovely world.

Since this is a food blog and not a recycling blog, I’m going to talk about ways to help the planet that involve food. Some great ways to do this are growing your own garden, or composting uneaten food that would otherwise be thrown into the garbage.

I’ve always wanted to have my own garden, and for a while my mom, sister, and I thought about growing strawberries in the summer. This fantasy soon became impossible because, we had so many Japanese beetles swarming around our house, that there was no way we’d be able to raise our little plants. The stinkin’ beetles would eat every last one of them.

You probably understand that starting a garden can be a difficult thing. You have to have the right soil, pick out the types of plants you want to grow, and take care of your garden.

When we thought about having a garden, we didn’t want to put it in our backyard where the dogs could get into it so, we thought about using garden boxes. These little boxes are like tiny, little greenhouses that protect your plants from the outside world, that is if you put the coverings on. Otherwise you can just use them as boxes for your plants to live in. You can also get elevated ones, which would aid in protection from your dogs.

Some great places to get seeds are Lowes, gardening stores, and even ordering them on the internet. Growing your own garden is great because you know that there aren’t chemicals going into your veggies and fruits, you don’t have to go to the store to buy them, and they’re right at home, fresh and ready to eat.

Another awesome way to help the planet is by composting left over food, instead of throwing it in the garbage to be wasted. This is kind of a difficult project to get into just because it’s hard to know what types of foods can be composted. According to http://www.homecompostingmadeeasy.com/foodscraps.html, you can compost vegetable and fruit waste, meal leftovers, coffee grounds, tea bags, stale bread, grains, and general refrigerator spoilage. You can compost meat but, it is not recommended. It will probably make it stink more.

That brings me to my next point. If you want to have a food compost bin or area, make sure you have it far enough away from your doors and windows. I promise it will stink; I mean, it is rotting food. What would you expect?!  

At my old school they decided to do the whole “compost left over school lunch” thing. I’m glad they were trying to save the planet and all but, it smelled horrible! They put it in the courtyard that’s practically in the middle of the school, so all the surrounding classrooms and hallways had a certain smell to them. It also attracted a lot of flies. This isn’t a big deal if you can put the compost far from your doors and windows but, if you have nearby neighbors, you might be getting some complaints.

With Thanksgiving coming up it’s kind of cool to consider composting. The first people here in America even used it! The Indians helped the Pilgrims grow their crops by teaching them to put dead fish in the ground. This is probably one of the very first ways people composted their food. So in conclusion, composting is a great way to recycle food, and one great step toward saving the earth.  

Sources:

-http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/compost-myths-zbcz1311.aspx#axzz3IdOccp7s

- http://www.homecompostingmadeeasy.com/foodscraps.html

Word count: 644

The Cheesecake Factory

One of my all-time favorite restaurants is the Cheesecake Factory. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten at this restaurant. Cheesecake Factories are known for their cheesecake of course…. hints the name. Not only do they have the best cheesecake, they also have an enormous menu of all different types of food. They have everything from Thai food to American food to Italian food, and it’s all delicious. The waiters and waitresses at the Cheesecake Factory amaze me. We went there for dinner last night and our waiter didn’t even have to write any of our orders down. He even memorized my mom’s weird vegan order.

 

            Along with the great food, and mind-blowing waiters, they have beautiful decorations and paintings. All the Cheesecake Factories I’ve ever been to have intricately painted walls, high ceilings, and really cool, unique lighting. My favorite one is at the Jordan Cree Mall. It’s huge and yet the lighting and paintings make it seem warm and cozy.

After a long day of traveling and shopping, sitting down at the Cheesecake Factory last night was so relaxing. We ended up getting seated at 9pm because the restaurant was so packed but, I didn’t mind. It was completely worth the wait! We ordered avocado egg rolls for an appetizer, which we basically inhaled. The eggrolls came with a spicy, sweet green sauce that added the perfect little bite to them. Our main courses came, and my sister and I shared the Thai lettuce wraps. I usually get the herb crusted salmon but I was in the mood for something light, and the lettuce wraps were the perfect choice.

             After that I had to get dessert, so I shared the Reese’s peanut butter cup cheesecake with my sister. It had six layers of chocolate cake, peanut butter ganache, and Reese’s cheesecake. There was lots of chocolate in the cheesecake too, and it was topped with peanut butter frosting and there was whipped cream on the side. Honestly, I’ve never known anyone who could finish a piece of cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory after eating a whole meal before that! It’s so rich and there’s so much of it! I would just say if you ever eat at the cheesecake factory, definitely ask for a to-go box! I’m sure the cheesecake is just as good the next day!  

Repurposing Leftover Halloween Candy

Now that Halloween is over you might have some extra candy just lying around. According to http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-toptenlist.o27-story.html  the top ten candies for Halloween include snickers, nerds, tootsie rolls, life savers, M&Ms, Reese’s, Twizzlers, Butterfingers, Skittles, and Candy Corn. Why not make fun treats out of the leftovers you might have? You can invite some friends over to help or make them yourself!

One of my favorite types of cake is Snickers Cake. This cake can also be made with Heath bars, Reese’s peanut butter cups, Whoppers, or just about any candy bar. It takes a box of devil’s food cake, caramel sauce, whipped topping (like Cool Whip), and of course your candy bar of choice. This cake is so good I guarantee you won’t want to share it with anyone. To find the full recipe go here: http://www.thecountrycook.net/2013/06/snickers-cake.html.

A great way to get rid of that leftover candy corn is by topping off some pumpkin bars with them. It adds a cute touch to a delicious fall dessert. You can also do this with the candy corn pumpkins; I think they would make more sense on the pumpkin bars than the candy corn would.  

What could be better than Reese’s peanut butter cup bark?! If you are a Reese’s peanut butter cup fan and a chocolate-lover than this recipe will be right up your alley. This fun snack is great for any time of year and any occasion! Unless that occasion is a picnic on a hot, summer day, than you’re peanut butter cup bark might turn to peanut butter chocolate goo. All this recipe takes is chocolate candy coating, Reese’s, peanuts, and shortening (if needed). If this were my recipe I would just leave the peanuts out because I’m not a big fan but, this recipe calls for them because the bark needs an extra crunch for texture. To get the full recipe click the link below. http://chocolatechocolateandmore.com/2012/12/reeses-peanut-butter-cup-bark/

Butterfinger pie… if you don’t have a sweet tooth this will give you one! It just sounds good. I mean who would turn down pie that has candy bars in it? Better yet, this recipe requires no baking at all! So it’s actually pretty easy to make. All you need is cream cheese, Cool Whip, graham cracker crust, and of course a bag of Butterfinger candy bars. Everyone will love this dessert, if you leave any for them! To see the rest of the recipe click here: http://www.itisakeeper.com/4535/butterfinger-pie-easy-dessert-recipes/.

 

Asian Food Garnishing

      Whenever I order sushi at an Asian restaurant I always notice the intricate, detailed flowers they make out of radishes, or the fresh banana leaves they place the sushi on. These delicate garnishes help make the food look more appealing, and I honestly believe that it makes the food taste better.

    According to http://johnpoon.org/garnishes.html to have excellent Chinese food, presentation ranks #1, followed by fragrance and taste. You might think that it doesn't make a lot of sense but after thinking about it, it does! Nobody wants to eat food that looks unappetizing or smells like stinky feet. They want something that looks beautiful on their plate, and smells so good it makes their stomach growl.
      Sometimes the presentation of food determines whether or not a 3 year old will eat his veggies. You might have to force him to eat it, unless the veggies are put into the shape of a smiley face. Presentation matters to people even if they don't think it does.
       If you're looking to have a great Asian meal I definitely recommend checking out Sushi House. To see the website click here: http://www.sushihousemenu.com/ . They have dozens of different sushi's and great appetizers. One of their sushi specials is a wooden boat full of sushi. I'm too scared to try it because I've never had raw sushi before but, whenever I see the servers bring it out it looks amazing. If you ask me, presentation is a very important thing. It can make or break your meal choice. I've even seen people lean over to a table next to them, just to ask the people what they got, so they could order it themselves.
    At sushi house they also have a lot of vegan/plant-based options. One thing my mom likes to get is the cucumber salad. Imagine holding a toothpick in your hand. Well that's about how small they cut the cucumbers. I don't know how they do it but, they do! They take these tiny little shreds and put them in an Asian vinegar mixture and serve this in a small bowl. Of course, the proper way to eat this is with chop sticks but, if you don't have enough patience you can ask for a fork.
    Sometimes after our meal they bring out a plate full of flowers made from oranges. I think it's one of the most beautiful things they make there. The sushi chefs are some of the most talented artists around. They could make even the most disgusting food on the planet look appetizing.

Food Artists Cont...

          James Parker is an amazing food artist who makes his creation out of fruits and vegetables. He’s been on food network a couple of times and has won a gold medal for winning a Fantasy Fruit Sculpture challenge. The art of carving fruit and vegetables is popular in Asia to garnish food and is an ancient art. To see some of his breath-taking work click here: http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/12/15/food-artists-and-sculptors/

            Mike McCarey is the next artist. He makes edible sculptures of just about anything! These cakes can range from something as simple as a pair of shoes to something so intricate like the Eiffel Tower. He can even make gigantic dinosaurs or Big Bird from Sesame Street!

 

            Robin Antar is an award-winning sculptor who uses stone as her medium. She uses to stone and makes it look like food products. She’s made York peppermint patties, soft drinks, and in 2008 was working on a sculpture of a Heinz ketchup bottle for the Heinz headquarters.

            Song Dong is an artist who made a “Biscuit City” at a department store in London. The city is a traditional Asian City and was made with tea, caramel, fruit shortcake, and about 72,000 biscuits. Dong says he designed some of the building but the rest was just made up as they were going along.

 

 

            Ray Duey is the next amazing food artist. He uses fruits like melons, apples, and others to make beautiful table arrangements. He uses tiny, sharp tools to carve detailed designs and shapes into the fruit. He was also on Food Network Challenges for his creative ability to carve fruit. You can visit this website to see his beautiful creations: http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/12/15/food-artists-and-sculptors/

            Tamás Balla is an artist who animates food to tell strange stories. He gives the food toes, arms, faces… whatever is needed to aid in telling the story behind his artwork. He’s carved bread into feet, oranges into people, and apples into faces. His art is fascinating and very fun at the same time! Click the link above to view his artwork.

            Prudence Emma Staite is a contemporary artist who works mostly with chocolate. She wants people to view her art with all of their senses. She has made entire rooms, games like checkers and jenga, and pictures all out of chocolate. She has even made jewelry out of chocolate! If you ask me, this lady is crazy for chocolate! To see her creations you can click this link: http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/12/15/food-artists-and-sculptors/

 

Food Artists

              Jason Mercier is a mosaic artist who makes portraits out of unexpected things, such as food. Some of the portraits he’s done are of Rachel Ray, and Jerry Seinfeld. He used potato chips, beans, candy, cookies, hamburger buns, and a bunch of other stuff to make these portraits.  To see the pictures go here: http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/12/15/food-artists-and-sculptors/

                The next artist is a French Sculptor named Christel Assante. Christel takes egg shells and delicately sculpts pictures into them. It takes her about 3 to 4 days to finish an egg project and she mainly uses quail or goose eggs. When she’s done she puts a bulb into the egg through a hole in the bottom, to illuminate the sculpture.

               Jim Victor is a creative artist who likes to use butter as a medium. He sculpts life-size cows, children, and horses out of huge mounds of butter in refrigerators. He also makes sculptures out of cheese, vegetables, bronze, and wood.

                Carl Warner is an artist who uses food to make sceneries and landscapes. Before he actually makes the scenes he sketches out his ideas. When he makes the real scenery he uses super glue and pins to hold his creation together. In these sceneries he might use broccoli for the trees, cabbage for the sea, or bread for a mountain. This guy has an amazing imagination! To see his creations go here: http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/12/15/food-artists-and-sculptors/

                Going back to Renaissance time, Giuseppe Arcimboldo may have been the first artist who used food as inspiration. He didn’t actually use the food itself; instead he just painted mosaics that looked like they were made of food. His food portraits have inspired other food artists as well.

                There’s a bakery called Zhanna in Russia that makes cakes that look like inedible objects. You would never guess that it’s cake. They’ve made cakes that look like treasure chests, sewing machines, and cans of pop that look extremely realistic!

           Dieter Roth is an artist who experimented with many different objects including food. This took place while he worked as a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1965. He would make his art out of food and wait for it to mold and decay to see how it would look. You can view his creations by clicking here: http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/12/15/food-artists-and-sculptors/

source: http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/12/15/food-artists-and-sculptors/

Cupcake Shops

             Cupcakes seem to be a really popular treat these days. I can think of three really, cute cupcakes shops that are around where I live, and they’re all fairly new. If you’re looking for a cool atmosphere and big cupcakes with a lot of frosting I recommend going to Newbo City Market, downtown Cedar Rapids. They have an adorable cupcake shop called, “That One Cupcake Place”. There are all kinds of flavors. They have monster cookie, cookies and cream, key lime pie (which is to die for), and dozens more. Newbo is such a fun place to go. They have food venders that serve brick-oven pizza, homemade ice cream, pasta, and even one just for crazy-flavored peanut butter.

 

           Another great cupcake shop to go to is called the “Wright Touch”. They have cupcakes and cake balls. They even do “holiday-themed” cupcakes which are adorable. I especially love the cupcakes from here because they fill the middle with frosting instead of just putting it on top. The cupcakes aren’t dry either. I find that at most cupcake places the frosting is awesome but the cake is plain and gross but, not here. Their cake is just as good as the frosting.

            My twin sister and I just had our birthday and we were surprised by our friends, who took us to Iowa City for dinner. When we were there we ate at a cute little restaurant called One Twenty Six. I got the rosemary garlic chicken which was seasoned perfectly and came with really good spinach. We actually weren’t originally going to eat there but, when we got to the restaurant we made reservations for, it was empty (on a Friday night) and looked dirty. So we walked around until we found a cute place to eat, which happened to be One Twenty Six.

            After dinner we walked a couple blocks to a cupcake place called “Molly’s Cupcakes”. It’s a really cute, artsy, DIY-decorated place. They have a cupcake bar with swings that are hooked to the ceiling and ground for people to sit in; and they have these tall tables that are made out of school desks all along one of the walls. The cupcakes are displayed along part of the bar and in front of another wall. There are tons of different flavors and they’re all delicious and homemade. I had a cookies and cream one, and it was filled with Oreo fluff and topped with butter cream frosting and Oreo crumbles. The cupcakes are good and even if they weren’t, the fun atmosphere at “Molly’s Cupcakes” would’ve made up for it!

           

Chocolate

Back when it was discovered I’m sure nobody thought that chocolate would become such a popular, world- famous treat. It’s almost weird to think about where it comes from and how it’s made. I know when I’m eating a piece of chocolate I don’t think about that it came from a bean. 

The history of chocolate traces back to Mexico. It was known that the Aztecs made a drink that was from the beans of the cocoa tree. In 1528, the Spaniards conquered the Aztecs and took this chocolate drink with them. In 1615 a chocolate drink was brought to the royal wedding in France, and chocolate was welcomed into England in 1662.

In 1847 the first “eating of chocolate” was introduced by Fry and Sons in England but, it had a bitter taste and didn’t appeal to people. So in 1874 a Swiss chocolatier named Daniel Peterson played with different mixtures to try and balance out the perfect taste and texture. Once he found the milk was a great ingredient to use, he spread chocolate’s popularity.

Chocolate comes from cocoa beans which are usually grown on plantations. A mature cocoa tree is expected to produce 5 pounds of chocolate per year, and these trees are usually planted in the shade of other trees. They take 5 to 8 years to mature and after harvesting these beans they are split open and removed from the coverings, and then covered with burlap until they turn brown. Then they are sundried which usually takes 3 days.

After that the beans are weighed and roasted. The shells are removed and chocolate “nibs” are what is left. The “nibs” are smashed and become a chocolate “mass”. The crushed “nibs” then become the base raw material for all chocolate products. Personally my favorite chocolate is milk chocolate. I think it tastes the best and it’s probably the most common kind.

 Something I’ve never understood about chocolate is why white chocolate is even called chocolate at all. It doesn’t contain any actual chocolate at all, and it doesn’t have the yummy taste of chocolate either. The only time I like white chocolate is when it’s covering homemade Oreo balls but, otherwise I don’t like it.

 

Source: http://csis.pace.edu/~varden/is660R/project3/history.html

 

 

Top 10 Foods/Drinks Comsumed By Americans

The #1 on this list of food is the hamburger. Honestly, I’m not surprised at all because out of all the beef commercially served hamburgers make up 71% of it.  Altogether, Americans eat 13 billion hamburgers a year, which is enough to circle the earth 13 times!

Number 2 happens to be hotdogs. Hotdogs are part of the 4^th of July tradition, and the average American is said to consume 50 hot dogs a year!

French fries are the 3^rd most popular food in America. I mean, what’s a burger without some fries? They make up one-fourth of all potatoes sold in the US, and Americans eat 2 million tons of fries per year (probably because of the fast food industry).

Number 4 is surprisingly Oreos! Who would’ve thought?! About 7.5 billion Oreos are consumed each year, and they’re so popular that they are part of other favorite foods such as milkshakes and ice cream. In America it is the top selling packaged cookie.

Pizza is number 5 on the list. Funny ‘cause pizza didn’t even originate in America! About 3 million pizzas are sold every year and 94% of Americans eat it regularly. We’ve even made October national pizza month which is funny because I had pizza for dinner!

Pop makes number six on the list. On average Americans consume 1 glass of pop per day. This isn’t so good since sugary drinks like pop lead to obesity, and there are 22 teaspoons of sugar in a pop.

Number seven on the list is chicken tenders or chicken nuggets. Chicken tenders are served at a lot of American restaurants including many fast food places.  

Ice cream makes it as number 8! Americans have dedicated July as national ice cream and we are top ice cream consumers worldwide because we eat about 48 pints of ice cream per person per year!  In 2013 it was recorded that the top 15 ice cream flavors start with vanilla then chocolate, butter pecan, strawberry, Neapolitan, chocolate chip, french vanilla, cookies and cream, vanilla fudge ripple, praline pecan, cherry, chocolate almond, coffee, rocky road, and last but not least chocolate marshmallow.

Doughnuts make it on the list as number nine. 344,700 doughnuts are produced each week in the US. There are more than 10 million made every year and the US Doughnut industry is worth about 3.6 billion dollars. Also, in America the first Friday of June is celebrated as National Doughnut Day.    

Number ten on this list is potato chips. People in America eat about 1.2 billion pounds of potato chips per year and the most popular flavors are onion, sour cream, and barbecue.

source:
http://visual.ly/top-10-americas-favorite-foods
 

Key Lime Pie

In my opinion, dessert is the best part of the meal. Often times I find myself thinking about dessert instead of my main course…. all thanks to my sweet tooth.  One dessert I love is key lime pie, and the best place to get it is where the limes come from, the Florida Keys.

            When I was in fourth grade my family and I went on a Disney Cruise. One of the places our boat stopped at was Key West. We got to tour the island, go to a pirate museum, and eat their famous Key lime pie of course!

            They have lots of Key lime flavored foods including key lime floats. The key lime floats were basically root beer floats but instead of root beer it was a yummy key lime drink with ice cream. And as for the key lime pie, it was out of this world. Since the limes that they use are grown right on the island, the pie tasted so good! And of course, the best way to eat it is with lots of fluffy meringue on top!

            The history of this famous key lime pie dates back to the end of the 18^th century.  It’s said that Florida’s first millionaire, William Curry had a cook called, “Aunt Sally” who made the first key lime pie. It’s a commonly told story but no one knows for sure if it’s completely accurate.

The three main ingredients in “Aunt Sally’s” recipe include lime juice, egg whites, and sweetened condensed milk. These ingredients together do not need to be cooked and they’re the reason for the pie’s texture and color. The limes, eggs, and condensed milk were readily available at the time, and are the reason key lime pie came to be. The canned milk did not need to be refrigerated, the limes were everywhere on the island, and lots of people got their eggs from chickens instead of a store, like most of us do now.

One other key lime pie theory is that it was originated by Sponge fishermen. These men would stay at sea for long periods of time and only had a small variety of food available to them on their boats. These ingredients just happened to be sweetened, condensed milk, limes, and eggs. Aunt Sally is actually connected to the Sponge fishermen. Some people believe that she got her recipe from these fishermen, and decided to try it out on William Curry. Mr. Curry obviously loved this dessert; otherwise it wouldn’t be an American favorite.  

source: http://www.key-largo-sunsets.com/history-of-key-lime-pie.html

Restaurant Technology

I’ve noticed in the past year that so many restaurants are getting the latest and most updated technology. One restaurant I love to go to is Panera Bread. When I was there I saw that they have a new system for ordering food. You just have to text them your order and you can go pick up your meal. Starbucks does this too. You just text them your order and it is there when you get there! This is great for the restaurants because it prevents long lines and promotes business.

                Another place that has a similar way of ordering is Noodles and Co. My family went on vacation this past summer and we had four little kids with us; two crazy little girls and two baby boys. It was hard for our whole family to go out to a sit-down restaurant and eat so we ordered in. All we had to do was get on the iPad and go to the website, order our food, and go pick it up. It was much easier than herding all the kids into the car and going out.

                These advances in technology are giving restaurants business they might otherwise not have. If a person can order on their phone, don’t you think they would rather do that than wait in line for ten minutes? I know I would!

                Even sit-down restaurants are starting to add iPads to the table. People can order from them and play games on them! I think this is probably good and productive for businesses, but is it good for the people using the iPads?  What happened to face to face communication, and families actually talking at the dinner table? I already see enough families go out to eat, and instead of talking they all stare absently at their phones like their devices are more important than the people sitting across from them. So it makes me wonder, is all this technology beneficial or is the good old fashioned way (that’s worked this whole time) good enough?

It's What's on the Inside That Counts

             I’m sure you’ve all heard the phrases, “It’s what’s on the inside that counts” and
“Don’t judge a book by its cover”. We always say these when referring to people and relationships but, these phrases can be applied to food as well.

It sound fun funny but, it’s true! What’s on the inside really does count. For instance, nobody likes being disappointed when they bite into what they think is a cream filled doughnut, and end up with a mouth full of cherry jelly. That’s a bad surprise but, there are good surprises too; like finding cookie dough in the middle of your chocolate cupcake! That’s always a treat (pun intended).

You can’t judge a book by its cover either…… or in this case you can’t judge a meal by its appearance/presentation. One of my mom’s friends was over and she was telling me about the time she had the best clam chowder of her life. Her and her husband went to this restaurant and ordered this clam chowder. She said it looked gray but it was amazing. She even said that the same clam chowder was served at presidential dinners! So obviously this soup was too good for people to care about the looks of it.

The same thing goes for this one deceiving piece of cheesecake I had. My mom had a party and invited a bunch of her friends over. One of the ladies brought this amazing looking cheesecake. She had obviously gotten it from the store but, it looked so good. There were chocolate pieces, cherry pieces, turtle pieces…… you get the point. So I tried a piece and it didn’t taste good at all! It didn’t even taste like cheesecake! I kept eating it, thinking it would get better but, all I managed to do was consume 400(or more) unworthy calories. So just remember, don’t judge until you try.