Week 19 done of my US National Food challenge with 4 out of 7 accomplished!
October 15 – National Chicken Cacciatore Day
I REALLY wanted to do this day, but couldn’t find a decent recipe, or the time to cook it (dang work getting in the way of my kitchen time!) …
October 16 – World Food Day
This isn’t actually a celebration of a particular food, more about looking after those in the world who don’t have enough food. It was kind of hard to think of something to do today, apart from to think of and pray for those who don’t have enough.
October 17 – National Pasta Day / Four Prunes Day
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I was going to make my bacon & broccoli fettucine again (recipe here) for this day, now that we have proper bacon, but thought I’d try to make pesto from scratch. It worked really well, but the gluten-free pasta kind of let the dish down, in my opinion. Any ideas on how to cook gluten-free pasta without it going gluggy and sticking together will be greatly appreciated!
And yes, I had four prunes as part of my breakfast this morning … so I did both of the days in one! |
October 18 – National Chocolate Cupcake Day
| I was watching a few cooking shows on Netflix (gotta love America sometimes!) and saw this one from Alton Brown on Good Eats. Grant looked at me and said I had to try it, so I did! It was good, not dazzling, but very more-ish. Happy to try any other recipes you guys may have for me! |  |
October 19 – Oatmeal Muffin Day
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I got to try out a new recipe – totally gluten-free, with oats, almond flour and no added sugar (apart from some honey). Our new neighbors gave us some peaches from their back-yard, so I put them into the mix. Out of the 12 muffins I made, they were gone in less than 2 days between the four of us – they were yummy! But I still wouldn’t mind making a few tweaks before I put the recipe on this website for you all to try out. |
October 20 – National Brandied Fruit Day
Just wasn’t going to happen …!
October 21 – National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day / Apple Day
| I’m loving this challenge where I can try out things I wouldn’t usually bake. And now that my family are aware of how yummy pumpkin pie is, I can convince them to try other pumpkin baked goods … savoury pumpkin dishes are another discussion though! So this cheesecake had a granola base, then a cheesecake layer, then a pumpkin cheesecake layer. It was good, but Grant said he’d prefer to have had the full cheesecake as pumpkin flavouring.
Again, I managed to do both of these days today – I had an apple with Greek yoghurt, prunes and walnuts for breakfast this morning – kept me going until lunch time no worries – and yummy too! |
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Coming up next week:
- October 22: National Nut Day
- October 23: National Boston Cream Pie Day / National Canning Day
- October 24: National Bologna Day / Good and Plenty Day
- October 25: National Greasy Foods Day
- October 26: Pumpkin Day / Pretzel Day / Mince Meat Pie Day
- October 27: National Potato Day
- October 28: National Chocolate Day / Wild Foods Day
Stay tuned to see which ones I choose to make/eat and how successful (or not) I am!
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