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Food for Fun and Thought

Pumpkins, Jack O’ Lanterns and Halloween

October 2, 2018 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Halloween

Here’s to the Witches,

Here’s to their cats,

Here’s to the hoot owls

And Whirring bats;

Here’s to the ghosties,

In robes of white,

Here’s to the thrills of

Hallowe’en night.

 From Hallowe’en Merry Makers 1930

A Spooky Jack-o’-Lantern Tale

Have you ever wondered where the Jack-o’-lantern comes from?

The story goes that the Jack-O’-Lantern comes from a legend that goes back hundreds of years in Irish history. It’s said that a miserable old drunk named Stingy Jack — who liked to play tricks on his family, friends, and even the Devil — tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree.   Stingy Jack then put crosses around the apple tree’s trunk so the Devil couldn’t get down — but told the Devil that if he promised not to take his soul when he died he would remove the crosses and let the Devil down.

When Jack died, Saint Peter, at the pearly gates of Heaven, told him that he couldn’t enter Heaven because he was mean, cruel, and had led a miserable and worthless life. Stingy Jack then went down to Hell but the Devil wouldn’t take him in, either.  Ultimate payback! Jack was scared and with nowhere to go he had to wander around in the darkness between Heaven and Hell.

Stingy Jack, Jack-o’-Lanterns, And Halloween

Halloween, or the Hallowe’en in Ireland and Scotland, is short for All Hallows Eve, or the night before All Hallows. On All Hallows’ Eve the Irish made Jack-o’-lanterns by hollowing out turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes, and beets and then putting lights in them to keep away both the evil spirits and Stingy Jack.  In the 1800′s when Irish immigrants came to America, they discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve and the pumpkin became the Jack-o’-lantern.

If You Want To Eat Your Pumpkin . . .

Jumping from legend to fact:  pumpkins come from a family of vegetables that includes cucumbers and melons. They’re fat free and can be baked, steamed, or canned.

One cup of pumpkin has about 30 calories, is high in vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber, and other nutrients like folate, manganese, and omega 3′s.  Pumpkin is filled with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene, which gives it its rich orange color. Pumpkin seeds are a good source of iron, copper, and zinc but aren’t low in calories. They have 126 calories in an ounce (about 85 seeds) and 285 calories in a cup.

 

If You Want Some Cute and/or Creepy Halloween T-Shirts and PopSockets …

Filed Under: Food for Fun and Thought, Holidays Tagged With: Halloween, Jack O" Lanterns, Pumpkins

PEEPS: Do You Love ‘em or Hate ‘em?

March 27, 2018 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Marshmallow PEEPs

If you have a thing for fluorescent marshmallow bunnies and chicks that were hatched over 50 years ago, you’re not alone. They got their name – PEEPS — because they were originally modeled after the yellow chick.

Every year, PEEPS are the subject of lots of design contests (you’d be amazed what you can make out of peeps) and scientific experiments (some claim them to be indestructible). Just Born, the parent company of PEEPS, claims to produce enough PEEPS in one year to circle the Earth twice. Their website even boasts a fan club and a section for recipes.

Some Peep Trivia

  • Each Easter season, Americans buy more than 700 million Marshmallow Peeps shaped like chicks, bunnies, and eggs, making them the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy.
  • As many as 4.2 million Marshmallow Peeps, bunnies, and other shapes can be made each day.
  • In 1953, it took 27 hours to create a Marshmallow Peep. Today it takes six minutes.
  • Yellow Peeps are the most popular, followed by pink, lavender, blue, and white.
  • Peeps seem to be almost indestructible and are famous for their two-year shelf life. Scientists at Emory University claimed that Peeps eyes “wouldn’t dissolve in anything.” They tried to dissolve Peeps with water, sulfuric acid, and sodium hydroxide. No luck.

 Soft Or Crunchy?

People have definite Peeps preferences. Some like them nice and soft, others like to leave them out in the air to age to perfection and acquire a little crunch on the outside.

They’ve been microwaved (careful, they expand and can really make a mess in your microwave), frozen, roasted, used to top hot chocolate, and added to recipes. Because their outer sugar coating tends to burn, they don’t toast well on sticks like regular marshmallows.

What’s In Them?

  • Send a PEEP to a lab for analysis and you’ll find sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, less than 0.5% of the following ingredients: yellow #5 (tartrazine), potassium sorbate (a preservative), natural flavors, dye, and carnauba wax
  • They’re gluten and nut free but they are not Kosher
  • There are sugar free PEEPS that are made with Splenda
  • Five little chicks (42g, one serving size) will set you back 140 calories, 0g fat, 1g protein, and 36g carbs

Filed Under: Food for Fun and Thought, Holidays Tagged With: Easter, Easter candy, Peeps

Why Is Soda Bread Called Soda Bread?

March 13, 2018 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

St. Patrick’s Day must be near when you spot green bagels and green milkshakes. But, there’s also corned beef and cabbage – and “Irish soda bread” with a cruciform, or cross, slashed on top.  Have you ever wondered why the shape of the cross is slashed on the top of the bread – and why it’s known as soda bread?

Soda Bread and Native Americans

The earliest reference to the chemical reaction that makes soda bread rise is actually credited to American Indians.  Centuries before soda bread became popular in Ireland, Native Americans added pearl-ash (potash), the natural soda in wood ashes, along with an acidic ingredient, to make bread rise.

Soda bread became popular in Ireland when bicarbonate of soda, also known as bread soda, became available to use as a leavening agent.  Bread soda made it possible to work with the “soft” wheat grown in Ireland’s climate. “Hard” wheat flour, the main kind used in the US today, needs yeast to rise properly. “Soft” wheat flour doesn’t work well with yeast but is great for “quick breads” like soda bread.

According to The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, the earliest published recipe for soda bread was in a London magazine in 1836 – also later repeated in several US papers – that refers to a “receipt for making soda bread” found in a newspaper in Northern Ireland. The claim:  “there is no bread to be had equal to it for invigorating the body, promoting digestion, strengthening the stomach, and improving the state of the bowels.” Sounds like tasting good wasn’t a big priority!

In 19th century Ireland, making bread was part of daily life and most families lived in farmhouses where kitchens had open hearths, not ovens. Bread soda, which wasn’t perishable and was relatively inexpensive, meant that anyone who didn’t have an oven (most people in Ireland in the 1800’s didn’t) could make soda bread.

Buttermilk, a by-product of making butter, and the soft wheat for flour, the other components of soda bread, were commonly available. The bread was cooked on a griddle or in a bastible, a big cast-iron pot with a lid that could be put right into coals or a turf fire.

Brown or White, Cake or Farl?

“Plain” soda bread often appears with a main meal to soak up gravy, or at breakfast. It comes both brown and white, and in two main types, cake and farl.

Traditional brown Irish soda bread is basic table bread made from whole meal flour, baking soda (bread soda), salt, and buttermilk.  White soda bread, made with white flour, is considered slightly more refined than brown soda bead and is sometimes considered a more special occasion bread.

Cake, soda bread that is kneaded, shaped into a flattish round, then deeply cut with a cross on the top and baked in an oven, tends to be found more in the south of Ireland. People in the North of Ireland seem to prefer farl — although both can be found in the North and South, sometimes with different names.

For farl, the dough is rolled into a rough circle and cut all the way through — like a cross — into four pieces or farls (“farl” is a generic term for a triangular piece of baking).  It’s usually baked in a heavy frying pan on a griddle, or on top of the range or stove. It’s flatter and moister than cake.  Each farl is split in half “the wide way” before it’s eaten and is best when hot. It’s also allowed to cool and then grilled or fried as part of other dishes — especially Ulster Fry, a local breakfast where golden and crispy soda bread and potatoes are fried in reserved bacon fat and then served with Irish bacon, sausage, black pudding, tomato and egg.

What’s Spotted Dog?

There are regional variations of the basic soda bread recipe – even though some purists would say there should be no additions to the dough.

In Donegal, caraway seeds were traditionally put in the bread.  In earlier and leaner times when raisins or dried fruit were luxuries, a fistful of them or maybe even a little sugar or an egg — if either could be spared — would have been put into the white flour version of the bread during the harvest as a treat for the working men.

The non-traditional varieties of soda breads that are made with raisins, caraway, orange zest, and other add-ins are often called Spotted Dog.

Why Is There A Cross On Top?

Before baking, a cross is traditionally cut on the top of the soda bread loaf with a knife – often said to ward off the devil and to protect the household.

Legend and symbolism aside, there’s a practical reason for the cruciform shape to be cut into the top of the dough. Slashing the dough lets heat penetrate into the thickest part of the bread and allows the bread to stretch and expand as it rises.

Slashing a round loaf with a cruciform shape ends up dividing the bread into quadrants that can be easily broken apart (the breaking of the bread). But, since Ireland is a mostly Catholic country, the symbolism of the cross can also be interpreted as blessing (crossing) the bread and giving thanks.

One serving (74 g) of Irish Soda Bread with raisins and caraway seeds has 214 calories, 3.67g fat, 41.51g carbs, and 4.86g protein.

Filed Under: Food for Fun and Thought, Holidays Tagged With: Irish soda bread, soda bread, St. Patrick's Day

Movies and Popcorn – A Classic Combo

March 1, 2018 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

When you think movie, do you also think popcorn? A good percentage of movie viewing people do. And what’s the biggest movie night of the year? The Academy Awards, of course.

Although the Oscars have been around for a long time – the first Academy Awards ceremony was in 1929 – the main snack food that’s associated with movies has been around a lot longer.

The Evolution of Popcorn

The puffy goodness we know as popcorn is a strain of corn (from maize) cultivated in Central America about 8,000 years ago. North American whalers probably brought popcorn to New England from Chile in the early 19th century. Popping popcorn was fun and its appeal spread across the country.

By the mid 1800’s popcorn was widely available, especially at places like circuses and fairs. The invention of the steam-powered popcorn maker in 1885 meant popcorn could be made anywhere. Amazingly, the only place where it wasn’t available was in theaters, which typically had carpeted floors. Theater owners didn’t want popcorn “dirtying” up the place.

Popcorn and Movies

Because of its popularity, theater owners began to allow popcorn vendors to sell popcorn outside their theaters. During the Great Depression people looked for cheap diversions and movies were it. Popcorn, at 5 to 10 cents a bag, was an affordable luxury.

Eventually theater owners began to lease their lobbies to popcorn vendors, but then figured out they could make more money by selling popcorn, candy, and soda from their own concession stands. Sugar shortages during World War II made sweet treats hard to come by, and popcorn became the main snack. By 1945 over half of the popcorn eaten in the US was consumed in movie theaters.

It’s still king. Americans eat, on average, about 13 gallons of popcorn a year. It’s cheap to make and allows for a huge price mark-up. You might pay $5 for a bag of popcorn, but it probably costs the theater about 50 cents. Plain popcorn doesn’t have all that much flavor, so yellow oil (it isn’t butter) and salt are added to make it tasty and make you thirsty. So, you buy a soda. No wonder movie theaters make an estimated 85 percent profit from concession sales.

Popcorn Recipes

On Oscar night as you prop your feet up to watch clips of nominated movies and famous actors grab their golden statues, or on any movie viewing night in the comfort of your own home, make sure you have a good supply of popcorn on hand. You don’t have to settle for the plain variety – unless you want to. There are some fantastic popcorn recipes with names like Bacon Bourbon Caramel, Cinnamon Candy (red, like the red carpet), Peanut Butter Popcorn, and Endless Caramel Corn.

For even more popcorn recipes to accompany your cheers, boos, oohs, and ahs on Oscar night, check out:

19 Creative Ways to Flavor Popcorn

11 Popcorn Recipes to Take Your Movie Night to the Next Level

Filed Under: Food for Fun and Thought, Snacking, Noshing, Tasting Tagged With: Academy Awards, Oscars, popcorn

Would It Be Valentine’s Day Without Colorful Candy Hearts?

February 13, 2018 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

How Did Candy Conversation Hearts Get To Be A Symbol Of Valentine’s Day?

Cupid would have loved candy hearts — romantic American colonists certainly did. They had their own form of text messages hundreds of years ago, no internet required. Instead, they used candy messages — they would give gifts of homemade hard candy with messages etched into the surface to their sweethearts.

Years later the founder of NECCO and his brother, who developed the process of printing red vegetable dye mottos on candy, turned this tradition into a business.

The candy’s original shape wasn’t a heart, but a seashell shape called a “cockle,” with a message written on a colored slip of paper wedged into the cockle’s shell. NECCO started producing candy with mottos stamped on them in 1900, but the candy was in shapes like horseshoes and baseballs that allowed for longer printed sayings like “How long shall I have to wait?” and “Pray be considerate.” The candy called Sweethearts wasn’t shaped as a heart until 1902.

Sweethearts And Motto Hearts

NECCO still uses their original recipe, process, and machines they used at the turn of the century. Putting out approximately 100,000 pounds of candy a day, it takes about 11 months to produce the

more than eight billion pieces — or about 13 million pounds – of colorful candy sweethearts that are sold in the six weeks before Valentine’s Day. The little hearts with messages account for 40% of the Valentine candy market, just behind – you guessed it – chocolate!

Don’t You Love The Messages – and They’re Low in Calories, Too

“Be Mine,” “Kiss me,”  “Sweet Talk.” The brightly colored hearts with the familiar sayings stamped in red are also known as conversation hearts and sweethearts. The original candies with printed sayings were called “motto hearts.”

The sayings and flavors have been updated over the years and periodically new ones are added. Some of the newer flavors are strawberry, green apple, lemon, grape, orange, and blue raspberry and new sayings include “Tweet Me,” “Text Me,” “You Rock,” “Soul Mate,” “Love Bug,” and “Me + You.”

The candy is quite popular — NECCO sells out of their hearts, 100,000 pounds a day, in six weeks.

Although you’d be hard pressed to call candy conversation hearts nutritious, they are fat free, sodium free, and a caloric bargain at about 3 calories apiece for the small hearts and about 6 calories apiece for the larger “Motto” hearts. If only chocolate was as low in calories!

Filed Under: Food for Fun and Thought, Holidays Tagged With: candy hearts, conversation hearts, motto hearts, Valentine's Day

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