Tips on Three Summer Pleasures: Ice Cream, Grilled Entrées, and Food Festivals

Summer weather means enjoying the back yard and indulging our taste buds with outdoor barbecues and ice cream desserts.  Summer, when the kids are out of school, is also the most popular time for family travel.  And if your travel plans can fit in a food festival, that could be the highlight of the vacation, especially for kids. Here are some recent news pieces with tips on all three areas of summer fun. 

ICE CREAM WITHOUT THE SCREAM

Most people agree that ice cream is a great treat—until it turns into an ice cream headache. Never heard of this malady? Prevention (the magazine) discusses both the cause and the cure.  Here’s the story:  Sensitive nerves located above the roof of the mouth may respond to the cold temperatures of ice cream with the dilation of blood vessels; this dilation, in turn, can cause a headache.  This type of headache vanishes quickly, but to avoid it entirely, Dr. Jason Rosenberg (director of the Johns Hopkins Headache Center) recommends the following course of action: 

1) consume ice cream slowly, or

2) before swallowing it, warm up the ice cream by holding it in the front of your mouth for a short time. 

The latter method has the added benefit of allowing you to savor each bite (or lick) a moment longer. 

GRILLED DINNER WITHOUT THE MESS

“Every grilling season brings a parade of ‘new and improved’ barbecue tools to market,” says Lisa Futterman, writing for the “Good Eating” section of the Chicago Tribune.  She tested 7 new products and graded them thumbs up or thumbs down.  Here are 3 that she recommends:

1. Cameron’s Emeril-Approved Mesquite Smoker Bag: These are “spacious, idiot-proof smoking bags,” maple- and mesquite-laced, but the smoky flavor does not overwhelm the meat.  The heavy-duty foil makes for a tight seal and easy after-dinner clean-up.  For more information, check out the product at amazon.com.

2.  Afire Coconut Charcoal: It’s made from coconut shells and dried coconut meat, but it doesn’t add a coconut taste to the food you’re grilling.  It’s additive-free, sustainable, environmentally friendly, and easy to light. Moreover, it provides a long-lasting, hot  fire.  What more could you ask?  The price?  Well, it may seem a bit expensive, but the manufacturer says it performs as well as twice the amount of regular lump charcoal.  For more information, google Sears, Afire Coconut Charcoal.

3. Weber Stainless Steel Grill Pan: This product has these good features—a big grilling surface and a design that protects all the food (even a green bean) from falling through the cracks.  In addition, Futterman likes the flat cooking area better than the traditional basket, “which can cause foods to steam rather than grill.”

FOOD FESTS WITH A NOVEL TWIST

We hope you didn’t miss the Sunday, May 22^nd issue of Parade.  Its cover story, “Eat Your Way Across America,” tells readers about 50 fabulous food festivals in 50 states, all occurring from late May to mid-October.   The festivals are grouped by section of the country and then listed in chronological order, so it’s easy to find a food festival near your home or your vacation destination.  To assist you even further in planning a visit to one or more of these festivals, click here: http://www.parade.com/food/festivals/index.html  On the website, you can also add any festival you know of that the Parade article missed. 

Here are some of the odd festivals that caught my attention as I perused the lengthy Parade article:

#5 The Slugburger Festival in Corinth, Mississippi:  A slugburger, in case you didn’t know, is a deep-fried beef and soy-meal patty.

#9 The Suffolk Peanut Festival in Suffolk, Virginia: Here you can witness the world’s only peanut-butter sculpture contest.

#20 The World’s Largest Calf Fry Festival and Cook-Off in Vinita, Oklahoma: Calf fries (also called Rocky Mountain Oysters) are—burp—fried calves’ testicles.  Visitors eat some 2,000 of these at this annual event, but, thank goodness, other food is available, too.

#29 The Rhubarb Festival in Lanesboro, Minnesota:  Rhubarb, a member of the buckwheat family is used in the festival’s soup, bread, and even games. It’s also honored by the singing of the “Rhubarb National Anthem.”

#34 The Spinach Festival in Lenexa, Kansas: Here you can see the world’s largest spinach salad and dip your fork into a yummy spinach dessert.

Among the less bizarre but perhaps more delicious festivals are these: the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland, Maine; the Hope Watermelon Festival in Hope, Arkansas; the Arizona Taco Festival in Scottsdale, Arizona; and the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan. 

No doubt each of these festivals has its own website. 

Whether you’re going to a food festival or not, for a good laugh, check out the Parade site “The Top 8 Food Festival Antics.”  To reach it, click here.

Isn’t summer fun?

Source(s):

Prevention, “How to Lick an Ice Cream Headache” June 2011.

Chicago Tribune, “Good Eating,”  “Grilling Gadgets” by Lisa Futterman, May 18, 2011.

Parade, May 22, 2011. 

Parade.com “Top 8 Food Festival Antics.”

http://www.parade.com/food/festivals/features/top-8-festival-antics.html