This Just In ...
Kevin Fischer is a veteran broadcaster, the recipient of over 150 major journalism awards from the Milwaukee Press Club, the Wisconsin Associated Press, the Northwest Broadcast News Association, the Wisconsin Bar Association, and others. He has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for over three decades. A longtime aide to state Senate Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature, Kevin can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, "InterCHANGE," on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10, and heard filling in on Newstalk 1130 WISN. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, and their lovely baby daughter, Kyla Audrey, in Franklin.
Culinary no-no #29
I am a big Elvis fan. Anyone who reads my blog knows that.In the 1950’s, Elvis recorded, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.” He sang it on his ’68 Comeback Special. And he sang it frequently during his live concerts in the 1970’s.
Elvis gets a great deal of credit for that song, but it was done originally by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Lloyd Price. His rendition topped the rhythm and blues charts for seven straight weeks in 1952.
HEY!
HEY!
HEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!
WAIT A COTTON, I SAY WAIT A COTTON PICKIN’ MINUTE HERE!
WHAT IN TARNATION IS GOIN’ ON?
I THOUGHT THIS DOGGONE CRAZY BLOG WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT FOOD, NO-NO FOODS TO BE EXACT.
NOW JUST, I SAY JUST EXPLAIN YOURSELF BOY!
I will, I will.
Just relax everybody.
Lloyd Price, who also gave us,”Personality,” and “Stagger Lee,” is now 74 years old and is on a personal campaign to bring more respect to the sweet potato.
His company, Lloyd Price Icon Food Brands Inc., has all kinds of sweet potato products, including, according to the Wall Street Journal, frozen sweet potato cheesecake on a stick.
People like the folks at the U.S. Sweet Potato Council are hoping Price is successful.
That’s because the sweet potato just might be the Rodney Dangerfield of vegetables. Oh, it gets some respect, just not nearly the amount that it deserves.
The odds are most people had some sort of sweet potato offering this Thanksgiving. Sweet potatoes are very good friends this time of year. After New Year’s, we don’t care if we never see another one until the fourth Thursday in November. Robert Tomsho recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal:
“About 75% of canned sweet-potato sales come between Thanksgiving and New Year's, and 40% of the fresh crop is shipped during the last quarter of the year.
Since 1970, annual per capita consumption of turkey more than doubled, and cranberries are up tenfold. The sweet potato (or Ipomoea batatas) has bumbled through the same period at around four pounds a year, trailing celery and not within a whiff of 1920 levels, when per capita sweet-potato consumption peaked at 29.5 pounds.
Sometimes marketed as a "yam" -- the rough-skinned tropical vegetable that is even sweeter -- the sweet potato cemented its standing as a Thanksgiving tradition early in the past century, some researchers say. That's when recipes began pairing canned sweet potatoes with a sweet, packaged product that's still a favorite in late-November cuisine. "It was definitely the marshmallows," says Rick Rodgers, author of the book "Thanksgiving 101."
As Americans moved to the cities, the sturdy vegetable that helped keep the Continental Army on the march during the Revolutionary War lost favor and higher-income consumers shifted to fancier fare.
The sweet potato is high in fiber and vitamins A and C, but "its image hasn't yet made the changeover from the poor man's food to the intelligent food of choice," says Jack Osman. A health science professor at Towson University in Maryland, he has had little luck interesting food companies in his purple passion pie and other sweet-potato confections.
Mr. Osman is part of a quirky bunch of growers, scientists and promoters who have spent years fruitlessly searching for the brave new taste twist that could give sweet potatoes the kind of boost that fast-food fries provided for white potatoes.
Many boosters believe processing sweet potatoes into more varied and convenient forms is crucial, pointing to the growing popularity of sweet-potato chips, whose sales have more than doubled since 2003, according to Nielsen Co., the information and media concern. Even so, their total annual sales remain below $12 million, less than what white potato chips sell in a day.”
Until someone develops a sweet potato product that enjoys the popularity of french fries, it’s unlikely the love affair with the sweet potato will grow beyond our current relationship that blossoms only in November and December.
That’s unfortunate, given the sweet potato’s tastiness and healthiness.
So think about it. If you love them at Thanksgiving and Christmas, why not the rest of the year? Don’t forget the sweet potato January thru October.
PREVIOUS CULINARY NO-NO’S
1) Ketchup on a brat
2) Green peppers on pizza
3) The dirty martini
4) Fruity brats
5) A Bloody Mary after dinner
6) Women “manning” the grill
7) Eating pizza at Festa Italiana, brats at German Fest, or tacos at Fiesta Mexicana. (Be adventurous. You can have those items anytime).
8) Eating a cream puff as though it was a hamburger.
9) Taking your own bottle of sauce when invited to a barbecue.
10) Touching the grill if you’re a guest at an outdoor barbecue.
11) Coaching the host on how to grill.
12) Some regional flavored ice cream…..like black licorice.
13) Taking the husks off before you grill corn on the cob
14) Being afraid to chill red wine
15) Pizza on the grill
16) When serving exotic or strange dishes to guests, do not tell them exactly what it is. Instead, use a more inviting term (caviar) rather than being blunt (fish eggs).
17) In late summer and early fall, this time of year, don’t buy zucchini. Somehow, someway, you will find zucchini or zucchini will find you.
18) Showing disrespect to your restaurant server.
19) Eating out on a Monday night.
20) Pumpkin beer.
21) Mail-order turkey.
22) Grilled cheese is just for kids.
23) Dining in the dark.
24) Ketchup on spaghetti
25) Sneaking healthy foods into treats to get your kids to eat it.
26) Do not throw away culinary gifts received in the mail because you don’t like them.
27) Do not feel guilty about eating Oreos. (Oreos are not to blame for out of control obesity).
28) Doing something so totally ridiculous that you are desperately forced to call the Butterball Turkey Hot-Line for assistance.
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