Challenge 3 Finished - On To Challenge 4!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: we have really amazing, fun, creative participants in our challenges.

When I picked this timing for the "This Day In History" challenge, I was being strategic. There are a lot of  big-name events that happened in history during this fortnight, like the Battle of Gettysburg, the American Declaration of Independence, and several big events in the Jacobite Wars. Henry VIII was very busy getting married and excommunicated, Vermont became the first American colony to abolish slavery, Joan of Arc's heresy charges were annulled, and Anne Frank went into hiding.

So, there were a lot of choices, from the straight-forward to the nuanced, and not only did our participants pick a really eclectic and interesting selection of events to commemorate, they were super creative in coming up with dishes that were inspired by these events. Here's a selection of the historical events commemorated in the past two weeks:

July 2nd - A really delicious recipe for Marlborough Pie was published
July 4th - Battle of Gettysburg
July 4th - Charles Dodgeson introduced Alice in Wonderland
July 4th - T.G. Masaryk proposed breaking up the Austro-Hungarian Empire
July 5th - Hormel introduced Spam
July 6th - Louis Armstrong passed away 
July 9th - George Washington reads the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Army
July 10th - Wyoming's statehood
July 10th - Babe Ruth made his Major League debut 
July 12th - United States Centennial Exhibition

I know some of you were pretty stumped, and some of you had to get pretty creative, so you all should be proud of yourselves for tackling a tough challenge! Well done!

Next Up: "Foreign" Foods

We're not talking actual ethnic foodways - that's a challenge coming later this year. This challenge is all about foods that are named after other countries or cultures. Make some French dressing, or French beans; maybe some Charlotte Russe for dessert? What about Welsh cakes, peas cooked in the English fashion, Hessian soup, Irish stew, Sunderland pudding...of course, much depends on where you are and what is "foreign" to you. Given how this last challenge went, I am thrilled to see what everyone comes up with.

Happy cooking!