Week 10 done of my US National Food challenge with 5 out of 7 accomplished! We are now in the US, so a lot of the ingredients in my recipes should be more accessible (especially since I’m following the US National Food Days!)
August 13 – National Filet Mignon Day
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First time ever cooking a filet mignon! I added a little olive oil, salt and pepper and then fried over medium heat for about 7 minutes each side. I liked the taste, but Grant said it was a little bland for him … but he always likes a little more spicier foods than me! |
August 14 – National Creamsicle Day
We don’t have any popsicle makers yet – they are in storage and likely to take another 2 months to get here. So this was another rest day for me!
August 15 – Lemon Meringue Pie Day
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This was an AWESOME success! I’ve made this recipe before and served it to friends and family with a little trepidation in case the lemon didn’t set properly and the meringue didn’t work. But every time I’ve made this recipe, it has turned out AWESOME!! And the good thing is that all of the eggs are used – the same amount of whites are used in the meringue that are required for the lemon. Recipe is here if you want to try it for yourselves! |
August 16 – National Bratwurst Day
| Bratwurst … something that’s really prevalent here in the US, but not something we have had on a regular occasion in the other countries we’ve lived in recently! I didn’t want to just fry up a sausage and then have a photo of a cooked sausage, so we made bratwurst quesadillas, corn tortillas, red capsicum (peppers) and onions, with cheese melted in between. Quite yummy, but very greasy. Next time we have bratwurst we’re going to try to reduce the amount of grease we actually eat from them! |  |
August 17 – National Vanilla Custard Day
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As you read from a previous Food Day, I made creme brulee for the first time about a month ago. And I had issues with the custard setting. So I tried again for this Day. And, because Grant had tasked me with finding a good custard pie recipe, I thought I’d try the custard in my normal pie crust (recipe here). The crust worked well, the custard set this time, but it was a little tasteless so I think I need to try again! |
August 18 – National Soft Ice Cream Day
| For this day I tried something different – Grant often has ‘wazzed-up bananas’ that kind of tastes like soft ice-cream, so I thought I’d do that for this Day. I know the photo doesn’t look like much, but it is a frozen banana, processed for a while in a blender (I’m waiting for my fantastic new food processor to arrive!) and I added some honey and almonds to it all. Tasted great … pity about the photo. |  |
August 19 – Potato Day
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I originally was planning on making a potato bake for this day – layers upon layers of potatoes with cream, french onion soup mix, bacon and more cream. But, I ran out of time to keep them in the oven for sufficient time. So I made the Spanish potato salad instead (recipe here). The kids were really keen on the potato bake (they aren’t usually that interested in potato salad), but both really enjoyed it. Score one for me! |
Coming up next week:
- August 20: National Chocolate Pecan Pie day / Lemonade Day
- August 21: National Pecan Torte day
- August 22: Eat a Peach day / National Spumoni Day
- August 23: National Sponge Cake day
- August 24: National Peach Pie day
- August 25: Whiskey Sour day
- August 26: National Cherry Popsicle day
Stay tuned to see which ones I choose to make/eat and how successful (or not) I am!
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