I continue to be fascinated by this Strawberry Festival poster, which I found in the archives room of my church a few months ago. As does The Five-Year-Old, who after hearing my explanation of why the soaring price of ice in 1890 could jeopardize an entire festival, asked, “How did they make old-timey ice cream, Mommyo?”
Given the number of haunted houses and other Halloween-related festivities on The Five-Year-Old’s calendar this weekend, it seems like a good time to review the literature on a crucial question. Does garlic protect against vampires?
If you’re just joining us, recently The Five-Year-Old asked me how Americans used to make ketchup in those bleak days before Henry Heinz brought his ketchup to market in 1876. Monday we found and translated an old-timey recipe. Yesterday we cooked it. And today we’re putting our old-timey ketchup to the test.
If you’re just joining us, recently The Five-Year-Old asked me how Americans used to make ketchup in those bleak days before Henry Heinz brought his ketchup to market in 1876. Yesterday we found and translated an old-timey recipe. Today we’re cooking it.
One of the reasons I love eating at local diners is that they tend to serve ketchup in glass bottles. The Five-Year-Old, though, was a bit surprised to learn that squeeze-and-squirt hasn’t always been fundamental to the ketchup experience. “Is this an old-timey bottle, Mommyo?” “Yep.” The Five-Year-Old, warily eying the red glob on her plate: “How do they make old-timey ketchup, Mommyo?” I didn’t know, but making old-timey ketchup sure sounded like a lot of fun.
Baby eagle webcam, male trees in cities, and other news of the week
Last week, while shopping for staples in our local grocery store, we passed the unavoidable Easter candy aisle. The Four-Year-Old immediately snagged a huge chocolate bunny wrapped in gold foil. After gnawing her way through the wonderfully solid chocolate ears, The Four-Year-Old exclaimed in some surprise: “Mommyo! The head’s hollow! How do they do that?”
Overheard in the Caterpickles Transport Pod (while parked in a parking lot)… Mommyo: “The Four-Year-Old, don’t eat the whole bag of M&Ms or you won’t have…
After using vegetable oil to make homemade play-doh, my daughter naturally wanted to know how the vegetable oil itself had been made.
After she learned that we needed cream of tartar to make both snickerdoodles and homemade Play-doh, my four-year-old daughter naturally wanted to know more about this mysterious stuff. So did my husband. “What is cream of tartar anyway?” he asked a bit dubiously.
CATERPICKLES 