How you doin’? I used to love French Fries or anything else fried. French fries were a staple in my weekly--if not--daily diet. Then came Covid and I stopped eating out. As much as I love fried foods, I don’t like to cook them at home. And air fryers, as good as they are, just don’t do it for me in the same way deep frying does. I, like many others, was challenged to provide three meals a day and snacks for my family which became the Perspectives Survival Guide blogs. But enough about Covid and blogs and more about POTATOES!
 
The humble potato is a miraculous vegetable, but Americans are eating less of them than ever before and have ditched fresh potatoes for frozen processed potatoes. I declare it is time to rethink the lowly tuber!

According to Chris Voigt, whose long career as a potato-pusher started in the potato frenzy of the late 1990s. In 1996 the United States hit peak potato consumption—Americans were eating 64 pounds of spuds each year—more than at any point since modern records began in 1970. A record-breaking harvest had flooded the country with so many spuds that the government had to pay farmers to give them away. At the White House, the Clintons were pushing potatoes—fried, marinated, boiled, garlicked—at State Dinners onto princesses, kings and presidents at all official banquets.
 
“It was a crazy time,” says Chris Voigt, “You could literally buy super-sized buckets of French fries at McDonald’s.” But as Voigt made his way up in the potato industry, all the way to executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, the American potato was undergoing a dramatic shift in fortunes.
 
Today, the average American is now eating 30 percent fewer potatoes than during the happy meal days of the Clintons, down to an all-time low of 45 pounds per year. The drop in consumption of fresh potatoes—for boiling, roasting, mashing, and steaming—has been even faster. In 2019, frozen potato consumption overtook fresh potatoes for the first time, opening up a rift that has continued to widen since the Covid pandemic. Most of those frozen potatoes are eaten as French fries.
 
Once this miraculous nutrient-dense vegetable was the fuel of human civilization. Now, in the US, the spud has become synonymous with an industrialized food system that pours profits into a handful of companies at the expense of our citizens’ health. Have we lost the fight against the tide of frozen fries and hash browns, or is there hope for a potato rescue?
 
The white potato is a criminally underrated food. Compared with other carb-loaded staples like pasta, white bread, or rice, potatoes are rich in vitamin C, potassium, and fiber. They’re also surprisingly high in protein. If you hit your daily calorie goal by eating only potatoes, then you’d also exceed your daily goal for protein, which is 56 grams for a man aged 31–50.
 
Chris Voigt knows this because for 60 days in 2010 he ate nothing but potatoes. And a little oil. For two months Voigt didn’t just survive on potatoes, he thrived. By the end of his diet he had lost 21 pounds, his cholesterol was down 41 percent, and he’d stopped snoring. Voigt proved that the potato is highly nutritious, no matter how you eat—whether you boil it or fry it, cook it in the oven or steam it.
“Nutritionally and scientifically, it made sense—potatoes are loaded with exactly the kinds of vitamins that people need. “They’re pretty amazing in my opinion,” says Joanne Slavin, a nutrition professor at the University of Minnesota who helped come up with the 2010 federal dietary guidelines for Americans, which counted potatoes in the recommendation that people eat 2.5 cups of vegetables each day.
 
Potatoes aren’t just amazing from a nutritional point of view—they are one of the original disruptive food technologies. First domesticated in the Andes and then brought to Europe by Spanish colonizers in the mid-1500s, wherever potatoes were grown they supercharged local societies. Potatoes were well suited to growing in cool, wet, European climates and produced veritable bounties compared with established crops like wheat, barley, and oats.
 
An acre of field could serve up over 10 metric tons (~22,000#) of potatoes, according to the diary of an 18th-century British farmer. The same area of wheat would yield only 650 kilograms (~1430#), so it’s little wonder that leading thinkers started singing the potato’s praises. “No food can afford a more decisive proof of its nourishing quality, or of its being peculiarly suitable to the health of the human constitution,” wrote the philosopher Adam Smith in his influential treatise The Wealth of Nations.
 
“Potatoes can be grown in small plots and marginal land,” says Nathan Nunn, an economist at the University of British Columbia who wrote a paper concluding that the introduction of the potato accounted for about a quarter of the population growth in the Old World between 1700 and 1900. Settlements close to areas that were suitable for potato cultivation grew and urbanized more quickly. French soldiers born in villages that could grow potatoes were a half-inch taller in the years after the potato came to the country.
 
Nowhere in Europe was the promise of the potato more evident than in Ireland. The potato probably reached its shores in the early 17th century. A century later the population had doubled to 2 million, and by 1845 it had soared to 8.5 million people—more than 90 percent of whom were utterly dependent on the potato, writes John Reader in Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent. When a fungal disease wiped out nearly all of Ireland’s potato harvest in 1845, over a million people died in what became known as the Great Famine, and a similar number emigrated to North America, Australia, or to Great Britain—where the government continued to export grain, meat and even potatoes from Ireland despite the raging famine.
 
The same qualities that made potatoes a runaway success in Europe—their cheapness, ubiquity, and nutritional density—are a large part of why in recent years they have acquired the status of a second-class vegetable. One Danish observational study found that eating a lot of potatoes—unlike other vegetables—was associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. Other studies have found that potato consumption is linked to cardio-metabolic risk factors like high blood pressure and cholesterol, but the evidence on whether this leads to more disease and deaths is murky.
 
The issue is not so much the potato itself, but the way we eat potatoes and how that has changed over time. Americans now eat 21 pounds of frozen (mostly fried) potatoes and a further 3.7 pounds of potato chips each year. And while deep-frying potatoes doesn’t deplete their nutritional content (it actually increases levels of dietary fiber), it does add a whole bunch of fat and salt, which we know are not all that good for you.
 
Personally, I hate it when we try to simplify things and put healthy foods over here and unhealthy foods over there. As my mother used to say, “everything in moderation.” You really have to look at the entire diet that you’re consuming.
 
The demands of the frozen potato industry have also shaped which potatoes make it into fields, says Mark Taylor, a retired potato researcher. Potatoes destined for potato chips need to be relatively dry and low in sugar, which helps them take up oil and stops them from browning too quickly as they’re deep-fried. McDonald’s is picky about which potato it uses for its fries, which is partly why a single variety—the Russet Burbank—accounts for about 70–80 percent of all frozen French fry production in the U.S. and Canada.
 
This dominance of a few potato varieties is one reason why spuds have also lagged behind other staple crops in terms of development. Yield is a measure of how much crop is produced in a given acre of farmland. Improvements in fertilizer, equipment, farming techniques and crop varieties all push yields upwards, which means we can grow more food on less land.
 
Global yields of wheat, maize and rice have all risen by more than 150 percent since the 1960s, but potato yields have only increased by around 72 percent. A big part of the problem is that potatoes’ genetics make it fiendishly difficult to breed more productive varieties. “It’s a nightmare to breed,” says Taylor, but pressure from climate change and new diseases means that we’ll have to try harder to unlock new potential from this maybe-miraculous crop.
 
The potato is also struggling to generate the enthusiasm it once did in the English-speaking world. At the same time as becoming synonymous with its least healthy preparations, the potato has been squeezed at the margins by the rise of pasta and rice in the Western diet, as well as being a victim of the low-carb diets popularized in the 1990s and 2000s.
 
The potato industry is also arming itself to fight back against what it sees as nutritional misinformation. The marketing and promotion board Potatoes USA is using AI social media listening tools to find examples of “inaccurate nutrition information” online and respond.

The potato is ripe to be rebranded, but the industry has nothing like the marketing resources of the beef or dairy industry, which have poured millions into efforts to remain central to the American diets. Potatoes USA has its tools and is trying to nudge amateur athletes to join “Team Potato” with branded jackets and running gear. Compare that with the iconic long-running campaign from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association: “Beef—it’s what’s for dinner.” Now it might be plated right next to a baked potato.
Finding new ways to prepare and present potatoes to your family will increase the interest and desire for more. My recipe for Bareback Baked Potatoes will surely add surprise to your Thanksgiving table this year.
 
                                                    Bareback Baked Potatoes
Prep Time:  3 minutes
Cook Time:  50-60 minutes
Total Time:  1 hour+
Yield:  4 servings

Ingredients 
4 large potatoes (I prefer large Russets)
1 stick unsalted butter
2 thinly sliced garlic cloves,
Kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup shredded Cheese (I prefer medium aged cheddar cheese)
Garnish with, butter, sour cream, scallions, bacon
 
Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Line a sheet pan with foil and lightly spray it with food release.
3. Using a sharp knife, make thin slices into the potato, into rounds, being SURE not to cut through the potato.
4. Place the cut potatoes on the foil lined baking sheet.
5. Melt 1/2 of the stick of butter and drizzle over potatoes. Insert a few pieces of thinly sliced garlic in between cuts of the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until the outside is tender, and the inside of each potato is soft. When done, remove from oven.
7. Turn oven to a broil.
8. Melt remaining 1/2 stick of butter and drizzle over potatoes.
9. Sprinkle potatoes with cheese.
10. Return to oven until cheese is bubbling.

8. Top with desired garnishes. Serve immediately.

ChefSecret:  Try using different cheese for different entrees. I like to use pepperjack cheese as a spicy alternative. If you want to bring the whole sliced potato to the table, use an oven and broiler-safe serving dish, lightly sprayed with food release.

Quip of the Day:  Q. What’s a potato’s favorite horror movie? A. The Silence of the Yams!
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Do you have a question or comment?  Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, kind, thankful, and stay well and safe. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, including those still suffering the effects of the recent hurricanes. Please consider donating to Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission, Samaritan’s Purse and/or American Red Cross.

#Potato #BarebackBakedPotatoes #HasselbackPotatoes #Spuds #PotatoProtein #HolidayRecipes #2024Recipes #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #SamaritansPurse #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup 

How you doin’? This no-knead bread is the perfect introduction to bread-making, but it yields a gorgeous, rustic, holiday loaf even the most experienced home baker will be proud to share.
 
The dough is super easy to work with and low maintenance: basically, you mix it, let it rise twice—once overnight—give it a quick shape, and bake it in a hot big pot or Dutch oven. It’s full of pumpkin, warm pie spices, and toasted pecans, so it smells truly amazing when it comes out of the oven, like hot cinnamon-raisin toast.
 
It’s a crusty, artisanal-style bread, and when you slice it open, you’ll find it has a bakery-quality crumb—just as tender as can be. It tastes nutty and spicy, and the pumpkin gives it a mild, fall sweetness. It’s such a good-looking boule, we like to put it on the table whole with the bread knife, cutting slices as we go. It’ll pair beautifully with an eggs-and-bacon brunch or a savory autumn lunch. It’s also the bread you want to bake off on Saturday morning, so you can eat it all weekend long. Think big slabs of toast coated in a rich, whipped butter and golden honey.
 
Prep time:  20 minutes
1st Proof time:  12 to 18 hours (passive time)
2nd Proof time:  1 hour (passive time)
Bake time:  1 hour (includes heating the pot)
Yields: 1 large boule that serves 4-6 people
 
Ingredients 
3 cups, plus 2 tablespoons bread flour, and more for dusting
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2/3 cup toasted chopped pecans
1 cup water
3/4 cup pumpkin purée (not pie filling)
1/4 cup honey
 
Directions

1. In a 2-quart mixing bowl, combine the bread flour, salt, yeast, spices and toasted pecans.
2. In a small mixing bowl, add the water, pumpkin purée and honey. Stir until the mixture is smooth.
3. Fold the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture, combining just until all of the flour is absorbed.
4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 12 to 18 hours.
5. Place the dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape it into a ball.
6. Place the dough on a large sheet of parchment paper, and place the dough and parchment paper back in the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise for 1 hour.
7. Preheat the oven to 450⁰ F.
8. When the oven has reached temperature, place an empty big pot or Dutch oven with a lid in the oven for 30 minutes.
9. Remove the hot pot from the oven and use the parchment paper to lift the dough from the bowl and gently place it in the pot.
10. Cover the pot and return it to the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
11. Remove the pot from the oven and carefully lift the bread from the pot. Let it cool on a rack for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing—or until you can’t wait another minute.

ChefSecret:  I use a heavy bottom Dutch oven as that gives the best bake with a super texture. The internal temperature of the bread when fully baked is 190⁰ F to 210⁰ F.

Quip of the Day:  What do you get if you divide a pumpkin’s circumference by its diameter? Pumpkin π
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, kind, thankful, and stay well and safe. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, including those still suffering the effects of the recent hurricanes. Please consider donating to Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission, Samaritan’s Purse and/or American Red Cross.

#Baking #Pumpkin #PumpkinBread #YeastBread #Nutmeg #Allspice #Cinnamon #HolidayRecies #2024Recipes #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup 

                                                                            ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2024

How you doin’? Thailand is a beautiful country populated with beautiful people. It is one of my favorite vacation places. There is so much to do (and buy) in Bangkok. I love the day flea markets for fun things and crafts and the night markets for great street foods.
 
I usually stay in one of the up-market hotels in Bangkok for a couple of days and then I love going to one of the outer islands for a laid-back vacation. Rayavadee Resort, on the edge of Krabi's National Marine Park at the heart of the stunning Phranang , perfectly blends lush foliage, limestone cliffs, white sand beaches and the emerald waters of the Andaman Sea.
 
The resort's award-winning architecture and tropical landscapes were inspired by the  atmosphere of a southern Thai village. Rayavadee's beautiful two-story pavilions and beachfront villas are spread over 26 acres of coconut groves, their spacious interiors and décor providing unsurpassed comfort. This is where I first discovered Thai Street Food Chicken Meatball Salad.
 
Filled with traditional Thai flavors like garlic, lemongrass, fish sauce, and cilantro, this dish is a little bit like eating a spring roll with peanut sauce—but in salad form. I like making this fresh, flavorful meal ahead of time and eating it on busy nights. Just keep the lettuce and sauce separate and assemble it all when it’s time to eat. Prepping it ahead of time makes it a great option for warmer nights, too. What a great way to have a satisfying meal without having to turn on the oven.
 
Prep time:  20 minutes
Chill time: 15 minutes
Cook time:  12 minutes
Assemble time: 10
Yield:  4 servings
 
Ingredients 
1 pound ground dark meat chicken
1 large egg
3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon minced lemongrass
1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce
1 tablespoon granulated sugar or palm sugar
1 tablespoon grated garlic, divided
2 teaspoons  grated ginger, divided
2 teaspoons minced Thai chili
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon tamari or light soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 teaspoon sambal oelek
1 head butter lettuce, rinsed and roughly chopped
1 grated carrot
1/2 thinly sliced English cucumber
 
Directions
To make the meatballs

1. In a large bowl, add the ground chicken, egg, panko, cilantro, lemongrass, fish sauce, sugar, 2 teaspoons of garlic, 1 teaspoon of ginger and the minced Thai chili. Mix with a rubber spatula until well combined.
2. Form the mixture into 8 4-ounce balls and place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
3. Refrigerate the formed meat balls for 15 minutes.
4. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Fry the meatballs, turning them occasionally, until they are well browned and register 165º on an instant-read thermometer, about 8 minutes. Set them aside.

To make the dressing and assemble the salad

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, 3 tablespoons of water, the tamari, brown sugar, rice vinegar, lime juice, sambal, remaining 2 teaspoons garlic and 2 teaspoons ginger until smooth.
2. In a large serving bowl, toss together the butter lettuce, grated carrot and cucumber slices.
3. Top with the chicken meatballs and drizzle with peanut dressing.
4. เพลิดเพลิน. Enjoy.

ChefSecret:  Try a different protein by substituting chopped shrimp for ground chicken.

Quip of the Day:  My African American friend hooked up with a girl from Thailand...
It was strictly a black-Thai affair.
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Do you have a question or comment?  Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
-------------------------------------------
To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to  Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission and/or American Red Cross.
#Entree #ChickenMeatballSalad #PeanutButter #ThaiMarkets #Bangoko #Krabi #Rayaveedee #NationalPeanutBoard #NPB #Dinner #2024Recipes #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup 
 
                                                                                ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2024

How you doin’? It’s going to be another big sports weekend coming up… World Series baseball, NFL football, NBA basketball, NHL hockey and the national sport of politics… it’s exhausting just thinking about it!
 
You and your buddies are going to need some serious fortification to keep you going through all those games, and we’ve got just the thing… Firehouse Peanut Chili! That’s right, I said Peanut Chili. 
 
If you're a fan of chili, you know that this spicy dish comes in an almost-endless number of varieties. Just attend any chili cook-off and you'll be amazed at the versions you'll see. From mild to hot, chili can feature different types of peppers, meats, spices, noodles and even beans, or better yet, peanuts as in my version.
 
But where exactly did this spicy dish first come into existence? Some would say that ancient man probably figured out how to combine meat and peppers into a tasty stew thousands of years ago.
 
Myths and tall tales are not hard to find when it comes to the origin of chili. For example, one popular tale tells of a Spanish nun, Sister Mary of Agreda, who supernaturally appeared to Native Americans in the early 1600s and returned with the first recipe for chili: chili peppers, venison (deer meat), onions, and tomatoes.
 
The modern dish we know as chili, also known as chili con carne (chili with meat), does appear to have roots in the American West, particularly the State of Texas. An old legend holds that immigrants from the Canary Islands brought a recipe for chili with them when they settled San Antonio in the early 1700s. Historians do know that chili was a popular meal amongst cowboys and pioneers on the Western frontier.
 
In the 1880s, chili stands became popular in San Antonio. Women known as "chili queens" served "bowls o' red" to customers, and the fame of chili con carne began to spread across the country. The 1893 World's Fair in Chicago featured the dish at the San Antonio Chili Stand. Since that time, chili has become a popular dish all over the United States. Its association with Texas, however, remains quite strong. In fact, the Texas legislature named Chili the official state dish in 1977.
 
Today, playful debates rage at chili cook-offs regarding which ingredients belong in "real" chili. For many Texans, a "bowl o' red" contains nothing more than chili peppers, meat, and spices. Midwestern versions often add beans and additional fat into the mix. It's not uncommon to find regional varieties of chili that also feature tomato sauce and/or pasta noodles.
 
Chili cook-off attendees will often create their own unique version of chili by choosing specific ingredients they feel will create the most intense flavor. You'll find chilis with different types of meat, including beef, sausage, turkey, and venison. Vegetarian chilis are also popular, replacing the meat with a variety of flavorful vegetables. Chili chefs will also customize the spiciness of their chili by selecting a variety of chili peppers that they believe will give their chili the perfect amount of spice and heat.
 
So, why not Chili con Peanuts! This is for real. U.S., southern-grown peanuts (instead of beans), Guinness Stout and cocoa powder come together with lots of flavor and spice in this new popular Firehouse Peanut Chili recipe. The peanuts are a perfect substitute for those old blaster beans. It's just the thing for meals at the fire station, tailgating fare before games or any time of year.
 
Prep time:  30 minutes
Cook time:  at least 3 hours (the longer it cooks the better it tastes)
Yield:  5 quarts+
 
Ingredients 
2 pounds raw peanuts (for soaking)
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1-1/2 pounds ground beef chuck
12 ounces spicy Mexican chorizo
2 cups chopped yellow onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 red jalapeño chile peppers, seeded, seamed and chopped
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
3 tablespoons beef stock concentrate (Better Than Bouillon)
1 22-ounce bottle Guinness Stout
1 cup water
4 6-inch tortillas chopped
1/8 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon chipotle chili powder
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons Tabasco hot pepper sauce (or more if you like it hotter)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more if you like it hotter)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
 
Garnish 
1 (10.5 ounce) bag corn chips (I prefer Fritos)
1 (8 ounce) packaged shredded Cheddar cheese
1 diced red onion
 
Directions

1. Soak the peanuts in cold water overnight.  Change the water at least once during the soak.
2. Place a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the peanut oil and crumble the ground chuck and chorizo into the hot pan and cook until evenly browned.
3. Add the onion, celery, green and red bell peppers and chili peppers; sauté for four minutes.
4. Skim off any excess grease.
5. Drain the presoaked peanuts and rinse in cold water.
6. Add the presoaked peanuts, the diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir to coat the peanuts.
7. Add the beef stock concentrate, Guinness, water and tortillas pieces.
8. Season with the chili powders, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, oregano, cocoa powder, cumin, hot pepper sauce, basil, salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika and sugar.  Stir to blend, then cover and simmer over low heat for at least 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
9. After 3 hours, taste to test for the doneness of the peanuts and adjust salt, pepper and chili levels to your taste if necessary. The longer the chili simmers, the richer the flavor.
10. Remove from heat and serve over Frito Scoops with shredded cheese and diced onion or refrigerate and serve the next day.

ChefSecret:  The tortillas serve as a thickener to help emulsify the chili. You can also thicken and add a toasty flavor to the chili by using Fritos Corn Chips which will give you a cornier flavor.

Quip of the Day: "Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and then beat you over the head with experience."
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
-------------------------------------------
To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to  Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission and/or American Red Cross.

#Entree #FirehousePeanutChili #Peanuts #NationalPeanutBoard #NPB #US-Peanuts #Guinness #Cocoa #Dinner #2024Recipes #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup  
                                                                                ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2024

How you doin’? We’re coming to that time of year when all the ghouls and goblins come out to frighten all of the kiddies and some adults as well. Halloween is a holiday celebrated each year on October 31 (Halloween 2024 will occur on a Thursday).
 
Halloween was not originally a kid’s holiday. The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts and spirits. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1st as a time to honor all saints.

Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.
Here’s my recipe for a trick-or-treating festive recipe for all ages craving lot of Halloween fun.
​
Prep time:  10 minutes
Cook time:  17 minutes
Yield:  4 servings
 
Ingredients 
4-6 large eggs
1 teaspoon red or blue food coloring
2 large green pimento stuffed olives, sliced in half
1 teaspoon barbecue sauce
6 ounces dry spaghetti or linguine
8 to 10 tablespoons green pesto
 
Directions
1.    Place the eggs in a large pan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 7 minutes—the water needs to be bubbling. 
2.    Drain the eggs, and run them under cold water, cracking the shells all over but do not remove them yet.
3.    Add the food coloring to the pan and leave to cool for at least 30 minutes - the longer you leave them, the stronger the food dye effect will be.
4.    Bring a separate medium pan of water to a boil; add the pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes or until tender.
5.    Peel the eggs and discard the shells. Drain well and dry on kitchen paper.
6.    Use a piping nozzle or small round metal cutter to remove a circle from the white of each egg. Do not dig down too far. This will be the eyeball.
7.    Carefully insert a slice of stuffed olive into the hole to make a spooky eye.
8.     Finish with a blob of barbecue sauce.
9.    Drain the spaghetti well; return to the pan and mix in the pesto sauce.
10.Heap into a bowl, top with the egg eyeballs and let the kids dig in.

ChefSecret:  You can use blue food coloring for kind eyes or use red food coloring for more menacing eyes.

Quip of the Day:  Why shouldn't an angry witch take her broom trick or treating? She might fly off the handle.
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
-------------------------------------------
To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to  Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission and/or American Red Cross.

#Entree #HalloweenEats #Pesto #SpookyEyeballPasta #PartyFood #Eggs #Pasta #Dinner #2024Recipes #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup  

                                                                               ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2024