cotton candy day

July 31 Homemade Cotton Candy for cotton candy day #fantasticdrivel

Wednesday is my night to cook dinner. But it is also a weekly opportunity for me to share some fantastic drivel—things you didn’t care you didn’t know—with you, dear reader.

July 31, 2013 is Cotton Candy Day. Yes, I’m aware that cotton candy is more of a dessert than a dinner, but my research for dinner options yielded very little fruit. July 31 is also Flag Day in Hawaii, so I did add coconut flavoring to my cotton candy. A token gesture, to be sure, but I was really excited about making homemade cotton candy!

I should mention that “National Cotton Candy Day” in the United States is on December 7th. Cotton candy seems like a strange way to commemorate Pearl Harbor Day, however, so I prefer the less nationalistic “Cotton Candy Day” celebrated July 31st.

Cotton candy is made by spinning strands of molten sugar around a stick. “Spun sugar” shows up in European history as early as the 18th century, but as it was expensive and time-consuming to make, it was a luxury confection for the rich folk.

Machine-spun cotton candy was invented in 1897 by the dentist William Morrison and confectioner John C. Wharton and first introduced to a wide audience at the 1904 World’s Fair as “Fairy Floss” with great success, selling 68,655 boxes at 25¢ per box (equivalent to $6 per box today). Joseph Lascaux, a dentist from New Orleans, Louisiana, invented a similar cotton candy machine in 1921. In fact, the Lascaux patent named the sweet confection “cotton candy” and the “fairy floss” name faded away, although it retains this name in Australia. |from Wikipedia

What a brilliant business partnership: a dentist and a confectioner. Reminds me of a line from a Tom Lehrer song, “The Old Dope Peddler”:

He gives the kids free samples
because he knows full well
that today’s young innocent faces
will be tomorrow’s clientele.

(pictures of my cotton candy attempt after the cut)

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bolívar the libertador

July 24 Bolivian Peanut Soup for Simon Bolivar Day #fantasticdrivel

Wednesday is my night to cook dinner. But it is also a weekly opportunity for me to share some fantastic drivel—things you didn’t care you didn’t know—with you, dear reader.

July 24, 2013 was Simón Bolívar Day (also his 230th birthday). Compared to last week’s Wrongway Corrigan writeup, I have very little to say about Simón Bolívar. This is slightly ironic, considering Simón Bolívar was one of the most influential politicians in the history of the western hemisphere, while Corrigan was a crazy airplane mechanic who “accidentally” flew over 3,000 miles the wrong way. Perhaps someday I’ll write more about Bolívar, but for now Corrigan will have more coverage.

To be fair to not-so-simple Simón, I’ll give you the two paragraph opening to his Wikipedia article.

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830), commonly known as Simón Bolívar, was a Venezuelan military and political leader. Bolívar played a key role in Latin America’s successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire, and is today considered one of the most influential politicians in the history of the Americas.

Following the triumph over the Spanish monarchy, Bolívar participated in the foundation of the first union of independent nations in Hispanic-America, a republic, now known as Gran Colombia, of which he was president from 1819 to 1830. Bolívar remains regarded in Hispanic-America as a hero, visionary, revolutionary, and liberator. During his lifetime, he led Venezuela, Colombia (including Panama at the time), Ecuador, Peru (together with Don José de San Martín), and Bolivia to independence, and helped lay the foundations for democratic ideology in much of Latin America. |from Wikipedia

(it gets more exciting. keep reading after the cut)

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wrongway corrigan

july 17: wrongway chipotle pumpkin soup #fantasticdrivel

Wednesday is my night to cook dinner. But it is also a weekly opportunity for me to share some fantastic drivel—things you didn’t care you didn’t know—with you, dear reader.

July 17, 2013 presented some special challenges. In addition to my usual research about the date (learning about July 17 in history and around the world), I had some special limitations imposed on my choice of recipe:

  • we were on a fambly camping trip, meaning my “kitchen” consisted of a can opener, a cutting board, and a camping stove
  • my sister is allergic to gluten, meaning she basically can’t eat anything

Great.

Before I could worry about the recipe, though, I had to research July 17. And that’s how I learned about Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan…

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tesla’s egg

Jul 10: Tesla Coil Quiche #fantasticdrivel

Although it has not been officially adopted as an international holiday, July 10 is Nikola Tesla Day.

Profoundly crazy and profoundly brilliant, Tesla was the mad-scientist genius largely responsible for inventing AC (alternating current) electrical power. Although he became somwewhat reclusive later in life, Tesla loved celebrating his birthday, July 10, by inviting the world into his laboratory to hear about his newest bizzare inventions/theories/ideas/etc. He didn’t actually invite the whole world into his lab, but he did invite the press, which had the same effect. Appropriate, then, that we should continue to celebrate Tesla’s birthday by honoring him in the press, which is what I’m doing here.

I also wanted to honor him at dinner, since July 10, 2013 fell on a Wednesday. So what do you cook for Nikola Tesla day?

Tesla had some strange eating habits, and spent most of his life as a vegetarian. I learned that he liked milk and green beans, and did not like mayonnaise. Not quite enough to build a meal around. After some research, however, I found a connection through an event that I have written about before: The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, The Great Columbian Exposition…

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the pig war

pink t-shirt design: large black hog with "I {heart} tubers" text #fantasticdrivel

Imagine that it’s July 3, 2013, and it’s your night to make dinner. You know that today is the 150th anniversary of Pickett’s Charge, the failed infantry assault that secured defeat for the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg—and perhaps the entire Civil War (the farthest point reached by the attack has been referred to as “the high-water mark of the Confederacy”). Naturally, you want to observe the sesquicentennial with whatever meal you prepare…but what do you cook?

I was faced with this exact situation, dear readers, when I had to plan a meal for July 3, 2013. I began by researching the kinds of foods that Pickett’s men might have eaten 150 years ago. Although it would have been an interesting culinary exercise, I decided that “hardtack, gruel, and the bitter agony of defeat” was not the direction I wanted to go. So I broadened my search, ultimately choosing to make pork and potatoes. And this is why.

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