Grab your favorite toppings because National Soft Pretzel Month in April will give you 30 days to celebrate!
Soft pretzel dough offers a delicious way to make sandwiches and snacks with a twist! The salty, chewy goodness is a perfect vehicle for bringing dips and spreads to our lips. Whether you’re a mustard fan or have a hankering for something sweeter, there’s no limit to what the pretzel goes well with. Pretzel buns, logs and even the standard twist taste great with marinara or honey. How about hummus or caramel? Peanut butter, chocolate or Nutella? All of the above anyone?
National Cheesesteak Day on March 24th not only celebrates a fantastic sandwich but it recognizes one of this nation’s greater debates; Who created this deliciousness?
It’s like March Madness for a cheesesteak. Pat’s and Geno’s square off at 10 AM followed by Chubby’s and Dalessandro’s at 11 AM. Then Jim’s and Tony Luke’s at Noon. Basketball fans know how brackets go. Someone is gonna get a by.
However, the credit is given to a hot dog vendor from the 1930s, Pat Olivieri. According to Philadelphia’s tourism site, Pat’s King of Steaks sits on its original location and is still going strong. This writer has had a cheesesteak from there and would go back in a heartbeat.
The important thing is this fabulous, juicy sandwich on a hoagie roll. The roll is filled with chipped steak, and you can order it with or without cheese and onions. If you’ve never had one, you can really only get an authentic one in Philly. Other places try, so go where you can. But someday, go to Philadephia. It is the real deal.
Invite your friends and head over to your favorite cheesesteak restaurant. Get it with cheese (it’s cheesesteak day, not steak day) and add the onions, too. Use #NationalCheesesteakDay to share on social media.
Dagwood will eat his heart out on March 3rd because it’s National Cold Cuts Day. Call them lunch meats, deli meats, sandwich meats, or cold cuts. Some like them thick, while others stack them mile high. Others still just like them with cheese and crackers. However you like them, National Cold Cuts Day was made for sandwich and snack makers.
There are the deli staples like the humble turkey and ham. Then there are the culinary delights like salami and prosciutto and flavors that require a more acquired taste like head cheese and braunschweiger. Whatever your taste, there is a cold cut for everyone. Well, everyone except the vegetarian.
Every nationality has a flavor all their own when it comes to seasoning, curing and aging a variety of meats. Spices, smoking, and time alters the taste. When the animal is butchered, temperature and air circulation affect the flavor, too.
It’s essentially an art history lesson all rolled into one, and at the end of it all, there’s mouth-watering food that can be enjoyed with friends and a good beverage.
Or, it’s merely a piece of meat meant to make a meal. Breaking bread with friends sounds so much more delightful, though.
Bologna is one of the most popular cold cuts in the United States due to a famous commercial. Named after the Italian city of the same name, bologna is similar to an Italian sausage called Mortadella.
Other popular cuts are chicken, roast beef, pastrami, corned beef, and pepperoni.
On February 1st, National Dark Chocolate Day reminds us to indulge a little. Many tout dark chocolate as the healthier chocolate. However, for some, it can be an acquired taste.
Also known as bittersweet chocolate, dark chocolate is different from milk chocolate. Candy makers add milk or butter to milk chocolate, giving it a creamier consistency. Dark chocolate includes no added milk or butter. Instead, the percentage of cocoa solids remaining in the chocolate determines how dark the chocolate is. The higher the ratio, the darker the chocolate. It may also have a slightly bitter taste.
Chocolate comes from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. We have been cultivating cacao for at least three millennia, and the plant grows in Mexico, Central America, and Northern South America. Our earliest known documentation of using cacao seeds dates to around 1100 BC.
Fermentation helps develop the flavor of the cacao seeds. Otherwise, the seeds are too bitter to eat. Once fermented, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted. After roasting, the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. Processors then ground the cocoa nips into cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Next, they usually liquefy the cocoa mass and mold it with or without other ingredients. At this point in the process, it is called chocolate liquor. The chocolate liquor may then be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter.
Besides being lower in calories and fat, dark chocolate has many other health benefits. It also serves as a decadent ingredient in many desserts and sauces.
Eat some dark chocolate. Bake with dark chocolate. Add dark chocolate to a savory dish. Share dark chocolate recipes. Host a dark chocolate tasting. Learn about the health benefits of dark chocolate. Use #NationalDarkChocolateDay on social media.
Pastrami lovers across the country look forward to their favorite sandwich on January 14th as they recognize National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day.
Popular delicatessen meat, pastrami is usually made from beef. Others make their pastrami sandwich with pork, mutton or turkey. Before refrigeration, butchers originally created pastrami as a way to preserve meat. To make pastrami, they placed the raw meat in brine. Then they partially dried it and seasoned it with various herbs and spices to be smoked and steamed.
A wave of Romanian Jewish immigration introduced pastrami (pronounced pastróme), a Romanian specialty, in the second half of the 19th century. Early English references used the spelling “pastrama” before the modified “pastrami” spelling was used.
New York kosher butcher, Sussman Volk earns credit for producing the first pastrami sandwich in 1887. He claimed to have gotten the recipe from a Romanian friend in exchange for storing his luggage. Due to the popularity of his sandwich, Volk converted his butcher shop into a restaurant to sell pastrami sandwiches.
Classic Pastrami
When served, the deli typically slices the pastrami and places it between two slices of rye bread. Sometimes, the classic New York deli sandwich (pastrami on rye) is served with coleslaw and Russian dressing.
When pastrami and coleslaw combine, it’s called a Rachel sandwich. Similar to a Reuben which is made with corned beef and sauerkraut.
In Los Angeles, they serve the classic pastrami sandwich with hot pastrami right out of the steamer. They slice it very thin and wet from the brine then layered on double-baked Jewish-style rye bread. It is traditionally accompanied by yellow mustard and pickles.
In Salt Lake City, in the early 1960s, Greek immigrants introduced a hamburger topped with pastrami and a special sauce. This pastrami burger remains a staple of local burger chains in Utah.
