Even for “Barbie” fans, pink pasta is totally gross
Worst food idea of the week: A Washington Post recipe developer invited readers to celebrate Barbie by making pink pasta. Whether you like the movie or not, the very pink pasta looks gross.
W. Somerset Maugham once advised: “To eat well in England, you should have breakfast three times a day.”
People in our parts say to eat well on Mondays, head over to the Charlotte Senior Center at 11:30 a.m. Even though press time is too early to post the menus, we know they’ll be good. Check the Charlotte Senior Center website for August menus on the website.
And fear not, August offers plenty of opportunities for food fests. National food days proliferate. From National Milkshake Day on Aug. 1 to Trail Mix Day on Aug. 31, there are plenty of special days in between honoring chocolate chip cookies, filet mignon, lemon meringue pie, peach pie, waffles, the banana split and chop suey. So far, no pink pasta day.
August doesn’t seem to have a Real Corn Dog Day, but former Texas agricultural commissioner and current gadfly author of the The Hightower Lowdown, Jim Hightower, must have been thinking about August menus when he provided a real corn dog recipe in his monthly newsletter at the end of July.
From left, Glen Willette, Kathy Quesnel, Patti Blair, Sean Moran and Kate Racha, a rising junior at Champlain Valley Union High, had a great time working on the July 23 Monday Munch, as the lunch volunteers always do.
Hightower writes, “Mesoamericans pioneered the real corn dog. Theirs was straightforward: Charred corn on a corn tortilla with peppers and native spices.”
Hightower writes, “Mesoamericans pioneered the real corn dog. Theirs was straightforward: Charred corn on a corn tortilla with peppers and native spices.”
But his has some modern embellishments, including adding pancetta or prosciutto, warning: “This is meant to flavor the dog, not turn it into a corn-flavored hamburger, so a bit of temperance, please.”
He also notes that you can skip the bun and use crisp leaves of romaine lettuce, concluding, “If you don’t like it, chances are your dog will eat it.”
We would note that even though Charlotte’s great bread maker at Back Door Bread is off cycling across the country, Monday Munches always follow Fyodor Dostoevsky’s dictum: “There is not a thing that is more positive than bread.” We can guarantee that there will be bread and butter on the menu.
Food for kids’ thought
Jane Smiley once noted, “Leaving any bookstore is hard, especially on a day in August, when the Street outside burns and glares, and the books inside are cool and crisp to the touch.”
On a recent glaring hot day, I entered the Flying Pig with a generous gift card courtesy of the Friends of the Charlotte Senior Center. There, helpful staff guided my selection of books for the Little Free Library for Kids, located outside The Charlotte Grange. Leaving with a bag stuffed with books, I felt inspired to skip down the street. And I only used half that gift card.
Anybody who cares about kids from 8 months to 18 years needs to be sure those kids get over to The Charlotte Grange. New titles include popular graphic novels, a Newbery Medal book about a gorilla living at the shopping mall and more, more, more.
No, there are no Barbie books at the Little Free Library for Kids. But at the Flying Pig the “Blueberries for Sal Cookbook” is on the shelves. With excerpts from this classic favorite about Little Sal and her mother and Little Bear and his mother, this book has recipes for everything from blueberry lemonade to blueberry-oat cookies to blueberry pancakes to blueberry upside-down cake. And lots, lots more.
Finally, here’s the Kingston Trio with “Raspberries, Strawberries“.