Week 7 done of my US National Food challenge! 5 out of 7 – again not bad considering I’m on vacation still!
July 23 – National Vanilla Ice Cream Day
 |
Vanilla ice cream … what can you do with it to make it look interesting in a photo? Not much! But I found some yummy vanilla ice cream while in Canada, not ice confection, mind you, but real dairy ice cream. Very yummy and very gluten-free! Mind you, I put this photo on Twitter as well, and some company replied and said their sprinkles would make the ice cream look better – not sure if they were trying to help me or themselves! |
July 24 – National Tequila Day
Not being a big drinker (not at all!), I sat this day out!
July 25 – National Hot Fudge Sundae Day
| It was interesting to have this day two days after the vanilla ice cream day. To be honest, I combined the two – served up my vanilla ice cream for Wednesday, took the photos, then made the sundae and took that photo … and then ate it! Nothing too special, vanilla ice cream, hot chocolate fudge sauce, whipped cream (from a can) and slivered almonds. Very yummy though! |  |
July 26 – National Coffee Milkshake Day
I struggled with this one – I really don’t like the taste of coffee, and my digestive system doesn’t really appreciate lots of milk these days, so I thought I’d sit this one out as well!
July 27 – National Crème Brulee Day
 |
First time I’ve ever tried to make custard from scratch. And then do the torching of the sugar on top – fortunately my brother had a torch so I could make it look proper! But I had a few problems – originally I had it in a dish that was way too deep and the custard wasn’t setting. Then I put it into ramekins and cooked for another 30 mins, but it still didn’t set properly, except one of them, which my brother got. The taste was great – I guess I just needed to leave them in the oven for a little longer! |
July 28 – National Milk Chocolate Day
| I originally was just going to buy a chocolate bar, take a photo of it and call that my contribution for the day. But Grant said that wasn’t really the spirit of my challenge, and I needed to make something out of milk chocolate for this day. So, I thought I would bake some chocolate crackle cookies again (recipe here) but after some research through Twitter, I found a recipe that also used coconut with the almonds and chocolate chips. I tried it. I liked it. Very much. This is now my new nemesis of a cookie that I can’t stop eating! |  |
July 29 – Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day
 |
Wasn’t sure what this day was all about, but the link basically took you to a number of different cheeses. During my stay with my brother and his family, my sister-in-law showed me one of her favourite quick salads, with tomato, cucumber and feta cheese with a balsamic and olive oil dressing (my adaptation of the recipe is here). So, since this recipe uses a slightly different than normal cheese, I thought I’d have this dish for this day! |
Coming up next week:
- July 30: National Cheesecake day
- July 31: National Raspberry Cake day / Cotton Candy day / Jump for Jelly Beans day
- August 1: National Raspberry Cream Pie day
- August 2: National Ice Cream Sandwich day
- August 3: National Watermelon day / Grab Some Nuts day
- August 4: National Lasagne day
- August 5: National Waffle day / National Oyster day
Stay tuned to see which ones I choose to make/eat and how successful (or not) I am!
Follow me at @sarahcookathome or subscribe here to receive the regular updates. And remember, you can comment on any recipe you see, or just give me encouragement in this challenge here!
