This 4th of July will find millions of Americans bringing out their backyard barbecues and serving up the usual meals of T-bone steaks, hamburgers, and hot dogs. This holiday season you can give up the yawner meals and liven up your menus with something exotic - like generous servings of edible insects.
To those who think that the words edible and insects don’t belong together, you should be reminded that we already eat insects everyday. That black speck in your slice of bread might be part of a flour beetle, weevil, or other insect pest that is milled along with the grain that goes into the making of the bread. Perhaps you have eaten a bug infested apple at one time or another. I once ate a considerable number of live ants that had gotten into a bag of potato chips before I realized what was happening. Actually, they had an acidic taste that wasn’t bad, but I found their crawling around inside and outside of my mouth and into my nostrils to be an unpleasant experience.
Entomophagy is used to describe human insect-eating habits that are common in some cultures in the world. We sometimes forget that before humans had tools to hunt or practice agriculture, a most important part of their diet consisted of insects. There are 1,462 recorded species of edible insects., but only a few species that are especially palatable while also being nutritious. Many species of insects are lower in fat, higher in protein, and have a better feed to meat ratio than beef, lamb, pork, or chicken. 100 grams of cricket contains: 121 calories, 12.9 grams of protein, 5.5 g. of fat, 5.1 g. of carbohydrates, 75.8 mg. calcium, 185.3 mg. of phosphorous, 9.5 mg. of iron, 0.36 mg. of thiamin, 1.09 mg. of riboflavin, and 3.10 mg. of niacin. Compare this with a serving of ground beef, which, although it contains more protein (23.5 g.), also has 288.2 calories and a whopping 21.2 grams of fat!
Insects are tasty. Really! Even if you are too squeamish to have them as a main dish, you can make insect flour and add it to bread and other dishes for an added protein boost. The public needs to be educated about the value of insect protein.
Insects can be easily obtained at pet shops, bait shops, or by raising your own. Commonly eaten insects and arachnids include grasshoppers, crickets, termites, ants, beetle larvae (grubs), moth caterpillars and pupae, spiders, tarantulas, and scorpions. For the best flavor, one should feed the insects for a few days on fresh grain.
Are you ready to tackle today’s menu?
First, an appetizer:
Dry Roasted Grasshoppers
Spread fresh, frozen and cleaned insects on paper towels on a cookie sheet. Bake at 200° for 1-2 hours until desired state of dryness is reached. Check state of dryness by attempting to crush insect with spoon.
Next, a dip with your favorite beverage:
Wichetty Grub Dip
5 large wichetty grubs 1 teaspoon vegetable oil 1 pinch salt 1 cup low-fat sour cream ½ cup ricotta cheese
Roast or fry grubs in oil until well-browned. Season lightly with salt, then blend to a smooth paste in a food processor with other ingredients. Serve with burrawang bread pieces (burrawang flour has a yeasty cheese flavor and is made from a toxic palm nut after extensive processing) or wattle faltbread (wattle flour is made from the roasted seeds of a type of acacia).
Crackers and Cheese Dip with Candied Crickets Ingredients:
Directions: Soften cream cheese. Introduce remaining ingredients. Spread mixture on cracker and top with a candied cricket.
Now, the main course:
Mealworm Fried Rice Ingredients:
* 1 egg, beaten * 1 tsp. oil * 3/4 c. water * 1/4 c. chopped onions * 4 tsp. soy sauce * 1/8 tsp. garlic powder * 1 c. minute rice * 1 c. cooked mealworms
Directions: Scramble egg in a saucepan, stirring to break egg into pieces. Add water, soy sauce, garlic and onions. Bring to a boil. Stir in rice. Cover; remove from heat and let stand five minutes.
And finally, the dessert:
Mealworm Chocolate Chip Cookies:
*1/2 cup butter *1/2 cup brown sugar *1/2 cup white sugar *1 egg * 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup all purpose flour * 1/2 teaspoon vanilla * 1/2 teaspoon baking soda * 1/2 cup oats * 1/2 cup chocolate chips
* 1/4 cup mealworm flour (made by grinding mealworms)
Cream butter well, then mix in sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, salt, baking soda and chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!
For a beverage you might try the following:
Silly Willy's Home Brew
Offered by Jo Tuscarora ~ Great-Great-Granddaughter of Orlando Tongue ~...who learned this from some Ol' Gal:
Chase wild bullfrogs for three miles to gather up hops. To them add ten gallons of tan bark, 1/2 pint of shellac, and one bar of homemade soap. Boil 36 hours, then strain through an I.W.W. Sock to keep it from working. Add one grasshopper to each pint to give it a kick. Pour a little into the kitchen sink; if it takes the enamel off, it's ready to drink. ---From Native American Technology and Art
Bon appetit!
If you want to watch a TV movie later in the evening, you might like to serve this to your kids. They will appreciate it:
Recipe for Dry Roasted Crickets:
It is important to know that once insects die, postmortem changes happen rapidly making them unpalatable very quickly. You have to cook them alive like you do a lobster.
Just before cooking, put your crickets in the refrigerator until you are ready to roast them. You don’t want to kill them, only slow their metabolism down so that they stop moving. This allows for arranging them on the cookie sheet with out them trying to get away.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Spread a bunch of pre-cooled live crickets out on a cookie sheet. Bake at low temperature for an hour or more until completely dry. Test by crushing a dried cricket with your fingers. If they do not seem completely dried out, roast them some more. However, be careful not to burn them as they taste terrible scorched! Let cool. Dry Roasted Crickets have a nutty flavor and are very good eaten plain with a sprinkle of salt.
Serve with your favorite beverage.
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY TO ALL.
Video. Eating Insects. One California man would like more of us to eat insects. He even adds them to the ingredients of candy in his candy store.
As the Fourth of July nears, more people are starting to think of hot dogs. On that one day alone, over 150 million of them will be consumed. This fact and a lot of other information about wiener world was in an article in our local newspaper. One interesting detail I discovered is that I have been putting my wiener in the bun at the wrong time. Over all these years, I have been dressing the bun first, placing all the dressings in the bun before inserting my wiener. That is a definite no-no. The article points out clearly that one should “always dress the dog, not the bun.” The bun should be dressed after the wiener is inserted. I have always put my wiener in last.
According to the article, after the wiener is inserted in the bun, then one should apply the “wet condiments like mustard and chili...first, followed by chunky condiments like relish, onions and sauerkraut, followed by shredded cheese, followed by spices such as celery salt or pepper.” And all these years, I have put the mustard, relish, and onions in the bun before inserting my wiener.
Well, when it comes to food, I must admit that I am a little weird. When I eat watermelon, I always put salt AND pepper on it. I have had some onlookers say, with a quizzical expression on their faces, “You put pepper on your watermelon?” I always answer, “Yes, you should try it. It’s really good!” Now where did I pick up the practice of putting pepper on my watermelon? From my older brother, when I was about five years old. It was "brother see, brother do" time. I doubt that he even puts pepper on his watermelon today. He probably did that just to see what my reaction would be. But to this day, I still put pepper on my watermelon.
Back to wieners. Again, according to the newspaper article, the kinds of hot dogs we eat and the ways we prepare them are “territorial”: In the West, they prefer chicken dogs, in the Midwest, it is pork and beef dogs, and in the East, they prefer all-beef dogs. I still like my hot dogs with mustard, relish, and onions and, with a red face, I must confess that I have been known to include a dab of ketchup. I know - putting ketchup on your wiener is the equivalent of putting an ice cube in your glass of fine wine.
In Kansas City, they like sauerkraut and melted Swiss cheese. People in New York dress their wieners with steamed onions and mustard, although some prefer the Coney Island chili dog. In the South, you can fry your wiener in cornmeal (a corndog), or top it with “crunchy, creamy coleslaw.” But when it comes to the best-dressed dog, Chicago has to be the winner. There the dog is served in a poppy-seed bun, topped by layers of mustard, raw onions, relish, tomato slices, a spear of dill pickle, peppers, and just a dash of celery salt.
Yes, after you finish your hot dog, it is considered to be proper etiquette to lick away the condiments remaining on your fingers, followed by the use of a paper, not a cloth, napkin. Enjoy your hot dogs this holiday.
POLL TIME: Please indicate the state or region of the nation you are from, and then tell us how you dress your wiener.
UPDATE: LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra—but don't necessarily expect it to keep the fireworks all night long.
Watermelons contain an ingredient called citrulline that can trigger production of a compound that helps relax the body's blood vessels, similar to what happens when a man takes Viagra, said scientists in Texas, one of the nation's top producers of the seedless variety. (Source: Excerpt from Breitbart.com. July 3, 2008)
You can have my hot dogs on the Fourth; I am eating the whole watermelon instead. Gotta get ready for those fireworks.
Video. This documentary details the making of a Chicago-style hot dog at home.
I have just finished reading a report of a poll revealing that, if the value were equal, over 75 percent of women would prefer receiving a new plasma TV instead of a diamond necklace. I thought it would be interesting to poll my wife about that. So I said, “Punkiebuns, if the value were the same in both cases, would you rather receive a diamond necklace or a new plasma TV?” Without hesitation, she replied that she would take the plasma TV. Next, I posed question #2: “Under the same conditions, would you rather get a Corvette (which she covets) or a diamond necklace?” Again, there was a quick reply that she would desire the Corvette. Then came question #3: “ Same conditions: Would you rather have a new dishwasher or a diamond necklace?” Looking at me with disbelief, as though it were silly to pose such a question, she exclaimed, “The diamond necklace, of course!”
That got me to thinking about the song titled “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” from the Broadway musical and later the film “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” The movie was a 1953 adaptation of the 1949 stage musical, which was based on a novel written in 1925. The story includes the gold-digging Lorelei Lee, which starred Carol Channing in the stage musical and Marilyn Monroe in the film.
Lorelei and her best friend are showgirls from Little Rock. Lorelei’s dream is to marry someone rich, and she will do almost anything to achieve that goal. She eventually becomes engaged to a wealthy man who is so in love with her that he will buy her almost anything she wants.
The song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” is sung by Lorelei. Many film scholars now regard this lyric as a feminist text well ahead of its time. It explores women’s power and powerlessness in relationships in the social milieu of that time. The song is a pointed commentary on a society that values women only for youth and sex appeal, and the need for women to take care of themselves (for when they are old and "can't straighten up when they bend.”)
Basically, the commentary included in “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” is that in a romantic relationship, it is best for a young woman to receive diamonds (1920s through the 1950s) because:
1. A kiss and romance are great, but they don’t pay the rent 2. If her man abandons her after a woman grows old and loses her charms and even her shape, the diamonds never lose their shape 3. In case of a divorce, there is still value in the diamonds 4. If your lover turns out to be married, you can get rid of him and still keep the diamonds 5. When you get old and stiff and can’t stand up, you “will still be able to stand tall at Tiffany’s”
I suppose that all the changes and new opportunities for women that have taken place in the United States since 1925 place that song in a different context. Most women today work outside the home and have independent incomes. In fact, some women bring home fatter paychecks than their mates. So perhaps in today’s world, diamonds don’t have the appeal they once did.
Maybe that would explain why my wife would rather have the plasma TV.
Video. Carol Channing performing “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”
How about you -- a diamond necklace or a new 50-inch plasma (or LCD) TV?
When my wife and I toured Europe in 1979, we made sure we got to the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence to view Michelangelo’s David. We spent at least thirty minutes viewing the 500-year-old nude sculpture from different angles. The 17-foot-tall statue of David has an interesting history. To begin with, Michelangelo was not the first choice to do the sculpture, which is carved out of a single block of marble. That stone had already been spoiled by the artist originally hired to do the statue.
After its completion in 1504, the statue was placed on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence where it remained until 1873. To protect it from the ravages caused by the elements and pollution, it is now in its present location.
Up until the time of Michelangelo, most statues of David depicted him after the victory over Goliath. Michelangelo chose instead to depict David just as the battle is beginning. One can view the power in David’s muscles as the prepares to use his sling to deliver a fatal blow to the head of Goliath. Michelangelo employed his thorough knowledge of the male human form to give David the ideal athletic body of an adolescent male with oversized hands and feet.
Some prudish Americans have been known to object to the display of genitals and pubic hair on the statue. For that reason, a fig leaf is available on the internet to cover the genitals and pubic hair of the statue.
It has been said that every form of art reflects the time period in which it is produced. Hence, we have the male human form of David as the ideal male human body of the 16th century. Some people have wondered what Michelangelo’s David might have looked like if were carved in the 21st century, using the typical American male as a model.
Video. First, the original David statue of the 16th century:
Video. Now, the statue of David using a typical 21st century American male as the model.
If you are an adolescent American male, which body most closely resembles your own?
