Completely NOT About Food

Happy 50th anniversary to my parents, Jack and Hilda Smith!

We met up with them almost 2 weeks ago for brunch at a restaurant that I used to work at in high school. It has since changed hands a couple of times. While the food was very good, I thought that there were some things lacking to round off the menu.

Ok, it's about food again. Sorry. As I was saying. The food was good, but didn't have the finish to it. They had potato skins on the buffet. I like potato skins. However, these were completely plain with nothing on them. I grabbed one anyway assuming that down the line there would be some cheese sauce, maybe some bacon bits, chives, etc., to top them with. Nope, sorry. No toppings for my potato skin.

Then my niece Michelle gets back from the line. She was depressed that they had ran out of the glazed carrots that she had liked so much. She had a couple of mozzarella sticks on her plate that they had replaced them with. Cool! I love moz sticks dipped in marinara sauce. I find them and grab a couple, and guess what? NO marinara sauce. I've never heard of such a thing.

I think there was something else, but it didn't matter. We had a good time eating and talking. We had to leave early though due to a funeral.

Anywho. Congratulations Mom and Dad on 50 years!

Dandelions

OK, why is he talking about dandelions in a food blog? I saw something this morning about dandelions as food and since they are everywhere right about now, I thought why not discuss?

I recall a school field trip when I was young that centered around dandelions. I don't remember what all we did, but I remember they made dandelion fritters and I kind of liked them at the time. I think I even remember coaxing my mom into making them shortly after that once.

I assume that it was a simple batter. One cup milk, one egg and about a cup of flour (give or take depending on your batter preference). The open heads (plucked just above the stem) were dipped in the batter and then deep fried. Hmmmm. I may have to try these again. If I do, I will probably add some pepper to the batter and maybe a little maple syrup or some hot sauce.

There are also recipes for dandelion root tea. Here is a little information about that. I think I will pass on the root tea.

Here is another list of various dandelion recipes.

It seems that almost the entire plant is used except for the stem. The roots are used for tea or coffee, the leaves for salad and the head for various things including wine. They say that the stem is very bitter.

I am going to pass on the salad, but may have to try making some wine out of them.

Here is the wikipedia link if you would like to know more about this plant.

I actually think that a yard full of them looks very nice. That is until they go to seed and keep shooting up as soon as you chop them down.

Fun Food Facts

Pineapples are classified as berries. I couldn't find anything to support this. But I do love pineapple.

The apricot can be traced back to China at least four thousand years ago, and it first appeared in Greek mythology as the "golden apple."

Two-thirds of the world's coffee comes from Brazil. While Brazil IS the largest coffee producer in the world, it is closer to 1/3rd and not 2.

One pound of tea can make nearly three hundred cups to drink. Yum. I like my tea iced with no sugar or lemon. During the winter I can be found with a hot cup of Eark Grey on occasion.

Whiskey was first brewed in the United States in 1640. It was made from a mixture of corn and rye.

Vanilla is the extract of fermented and dried pods of orchids. I did not know this, but looked it up and sure enough, it is true.

Chewing gum was created by the Mayans over 300 years ago. They boiled the sap of the sapodilla tree and chewed it. The Mayan civilization ended about 1200 years ago. While they did have this for hundreds of years before they met their demise, the greeks beat them to it around 2,000 years ago or more.

Milk is actually considered to be a food and not a beverage. I can buy this one.

The above all comes from mindlesscrap.com. Stop in and check it out if you want to kill some time and pick up some trivia. Red comments are mine.