Celebrate Tell an Old Joke Day at the senior center

The Charlotte Senior Center isn’t open on July 15, so you’ll have to celebrate Gummy Worm Day somewhere else.

And we can rest easy that on July 24 the center is going with American flag Jell-O, even though it’s Tequila Day. After all, some bottles of this beverage are sold “with worm,” but very different worms from the gummy kind.

The senior center suggests you can have great fun honoring July 24, which is also Tell an Old Joke Day, as you eat your chicken salad on croissant.

Let bygones be bygones on Sunday, July 23, Hot Dog Day.

“I devoured hot-dogs in Baltimore way back in 1886 and they … contained precisely the same rubber, indigestible pseudo sausages that millions of Americans now eat, and they leaked the same flabby puerile mustard,” said H. L. Mencken.

Nathan Handwerker, the founder of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, hired young men wearing white coats and stethoscopes to gather around his cart and eat his “dogs,”’ to create an impression of purity and cleanliness.

With Monday Munch at the Charlotte Senior Center, come eat chicken salad. There’s no need to speculate on how long it would take your tablemates to eat a hot dog. Around this time of year, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut gets lots of publicity for his bone-jarring, stomach-wrenching food feats. Here’s a gift article explaining the body type one needs for his kind of eating.

Chestnut assures reporters he’s in good health but this article links to a study showing that by eating 19,200 hot dogs, he has lost 1.3 years of his life. That’s just from hot dogs. He also holds records for eating Twinkies, pastrami sandwiches, ramen noodle cups, gumbo, mutton sandwiches, pierogi, tamales, boysenberry pie, shrimp cocktail and gyros.

In “Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food” Chris Van Tulleken, a practicing infectious diseases doctor, isn’t concerned with how fast we eat but with what we eat. He offers an interesting, informative and even amusing book detailing the fact that almost all our staple foods are ultra-processed with contents not found in any kitchen. The real problem with the many thousands of additives is that they are specifically engineered to be addictive so that we will eat more. And more.

In 1897, a LeRoy, New York carpenter and cough syrup manufacturer and his wife added strawberry, raspberry, orange, and lemon to granulated gelatin and sugar and trademarked a gelatin dessert called “Jell-O.” You can visit The Jell-O Gallery Museum.

Not surprisingly, Jell-O does not appear in “The Escoffier Cook Book.” But there, you’ll find English bread pudding, French bread pudding, German bread pudding and Scotch Bread pudding with cheese. I’m guessing that the Charlotte Senior Center kitchen won’t be dishing up the German version (rye bread in Rhine wine, Moselle or beer).

An Egyptian dessert called “Om Ali” (Mother of Ali) is made with bread, milk or cream, raisins and almonds. An Indian dessert, “Shahi tukra” is made with bread fried in ghee, dipped in syrup flavored with saffron and rosewater, and covered with a cream sauce embedded with decorative slices of almond. In Cuba, the pudding is often served with guava marmalade and in Hungary, “máglyarakás” (bonfire) is baked with whipped egg white on top.

The Pudding Club in England was formed to preserve the great British pudding. There, they eat a light main course, followed by a Parade of Seven Traditional Puddings. Then, over coffee, they vote on their favorite pudding of the night. This club is located on the northern edge of the Cotswalds, a 15-minute drive from Stratford-Upon-Avon, so you can take in a play and then stuff yourself with pudding.

Looking for a song about a food connected with an upcoming meal at the Charlotte Senior Center, I tried to watch “Chicken.” After a few seconds of watching a fowl dancing, I knew I needed to look further. Here’s a golden oldie featuring another solo dancer from 1935.

Monday Munch
July 17, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 a.m.
Assorted deli sandwiches, potato salad, chips and bread pudding.
Register for Thursday Grab-&-Go Meal sponsored by AgeWell at 802-425-6345 or email.

Locally Yours
Thursday, July 20, 10-11 a.m.
Produce from Full Moon Farm in Hinesburg will be available at the senior center weekly and participants (age 60 and over) will have access to fresh fruit and vegetables at no charge. Please take only what you will use, leaving the rest for other participants. No registration required. Free.

Grab-&-Go Meal by AgeWell
Pickup: 10-11 a.m.
Beef steak with mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, broccoli florets, wheat roll, pumpkin and white chocolate chip cookie and milk. Suggested Age Well donation of $5, but not required to receive a meal. Pay what you can, when you can. Remember to register by previous Monday.

Monday Munch
July 24, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Chicken salad on croissant, green salad, potato chips and American flag Jell-O.

Locally Yours
Thursday, July 27, 10-11 a.m.
Produce from Full Moon Farm in Hinesburg will be available at the senior center weekly and participants (age 60 and over) will have access to fresh fruit and vegetables at no charge. Please take only what you will use, leaving the rest for other participants. No registration required. Free.

Grab-&-Go Meal by AgeWell
Pickup: 10-11 a.m.
Breaded chicken breast, mashed cauliflower, spinach, wheat roll, craisin and date cookie, and milk.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]


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Scooter MacMillan, Editor