eCreamery is one of those great online finds where you can customize labels as a gift for your favorite ice cream lover.

Since 2007, eCreamery has been churning out superpremium ice cream: classic favorites, original flavors, and customers’ own unique creations.
 
 
ICE CREAM FOR HALLOWEEN

Get ready for some “to die for” frozen delights! A bewitching collection of ice cream flavors will delight everyone from your mummy to your little monsters.

They’ll also get a howl out of the funny messages on each frightfully fabulous pint!
 
 
The Spooky Scoops Collection includes one pint each of:

 
Made in small batches, each pint is hand-packed and hand-labeled.

If you prefer, you can pick your own flavors and customize labels with your own titles (photos, too).
 
 
BIG SAVINGS

The regular price for the set is $79.99 plus shipping and handling.

For Halloween 2022, it’s $49.99 plus shipping and handling.

Head to eCreamery.com.

[1] A real scream: this gift package of four Halloween pints (both photos © eCreamery).

[2] Cookies and S(Cream) ice cream.

[1] A mock sushi roll, made with string cheese (photos #1, #2, #6, and #7 © Frigo Cheeseheads).

[2] A package of string cheese can be turned into delicious and fun recipes.

[3] You can buy wasabi mayonnaise or make your own by stirring wasabi into mayo (photo © Wasabi-O | Amazon).

[4] The fun of string cheese is peeling the strings (photo © Chris Hsia | Wikipedia).

[5] Sticks of string cheese can be cut up into salads or for skewers; wrapped in crêpes, egg roll wrappers, and tortillas and heated for a melty treat; and much more (photo © Lee | Pixabay | Creative Commons Zero License).

[6] Unleash your inner cheese artist.

[7] Food fun: shred string cheese atop pasta instead of sprinkling Parmesan.

[8] Peeling string cheese (photo © Schultz’s Cheese).

[9] Smoked string cheese (photo © Burnett Dairy).

[10] Ukranian smoked string cheese, kosychka (photo © Nickispeaki | Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike-4.0 International License).

National String Cheese Day is September 20, 2022, and we’re having some food fun with this string cheese “sushi” recipe.

Many people think of string cheese as a kid’s snack, or something to go into a lunchbox. At home, you can make everything from Halloween “broomsticks,” string cheese snakes, and flower bouquets to recipes we’d serve to a group of grown-ups.

After years of snacking on string cheese right out of the package, who knew that we would uncover a cache of creative recipes from Frigo. Check them out.

In the U.S., string cheese is typically a snack for kids. Frigo Cheese, a leading producer, has a dedicated site just for them, called Frigo Cheeseheads.

Frigo makes three varieties of string cheese: original (mozzarella), Cheddar and mozzarella swirl, and a Colby and Monterey Jack blend. (Note that only mozzarella sticks are “stringable.” The others are cheese sticks, but not string cheese.)

The recipe for string cheese sushi follows.

> The history of string cheese is below.

> The different types of cheese.

> The history of cheese.
 
 
RECIPE: STRING CHEESE SUSHI (MOCK SUSHI, THAT IS)

First, a point of information: “Sushi” doesn’t mean raw fish; it is Japanese for vinegar[ed] (su) rice (shi). There’s no rice in this recipe; hence, “mock” sushi. But you could use the same ingredients, swapping out the bread for rice, to make “real” string cheese sushi.

Either way, fill the roll with your favorite veggiess, thinly sliced.

We tried different combinations from the following list. Our personal favorites:

 
No dip is used in this recipe, but we used wasabi mayonnaise (photo #3).

You can make it just by blending wasabi paste or powder into mayonnaise of plain yogurt to taste. If you don’t have wasabi, use a bit of hot sauce, cayenne, or red chile flakes.
 
Ingredients

 
Selection Of Vegetables

You can blanch the asterisked* vegetables if you like.

 
Preparation

1. PLACE one slice of bread on a smooth surface. Roll the slice flat with a rolling pin and cut off the crusts. Spread the bread with a thin layer of cream cheese.

2. LAY the vegetables on top of the cream cheese. Experiment with what assortment of veggies makes the perfect roll for you.

3. TOP the vegetables with peeled strings of string cheese.

4. CAREFULLY ROLL up the bread until the ends meet (use a bit more cream cheese to seal the ends, if needed). Using a serrated knife, gently cut into pieces; plate and serve.
 
 
STRING CHEESE HISTORY

String cheese is made in the U.S., Mexico, and some countries in Europe. It is a subcategory of the family of cheeses known as pasta filata†. That’s Italian for “spun paste,” referring to how the curds are heated and stretched/kneaded, or “spun.”

The group is also known in English as stretched-curd, pulled-curd, and plastic-curd cheeses. Stretched curd cheeses manufactured with the pasta filata technique undergo a kneading of the fresh curd in hot water, which gives the cheese its fibrous, stringy structure.

The string cheese subgroup includes string cheese from the U.S.; chechil from Armenia; dil peyniri from Turkey; korbáčik, a braided cheese from Slovakia (photo #10 is similar); and oaxaca from Mexico, among others. Recipes (including aging time) and shapes vary.

You can typically peel the curd from the main body of the cheese—just try it with a ball of mozzarella. The curds of string cheese, a slightly drier (low moisture) mozzarella, are even more pliable. If you’ve never done it, pulling thin strings of cheese off the body is fun.
 
 
American String Cheese

In the U.S., string cheese refers to snack-sized, individually wrapped cylindrical “cheese sticks.”

To make mozzarella, the cheese curds are heated to create a cohesive mass. The heat causes the casein proteins in the milk to align such that mozzarella is stretchy and elastic.

To make string cheese, the cheese is stretched further. This completely aligns the proteins and allows the cheese to be pulled apart, string by string.

Kids have fun peeling the cheese and eating the strings (photo #8), and adults can use the strings as a garnish (photo #7).

American string cheese was invented by Wisconsin cheesemaker Francis Baker of Baker Cheese in 1976. His family’s cheese factory focused on mozzarella.
 
 
It Started With Pizza

Post World War II, American soldiers returning home from Italy had a hankering for pizza. The crust and the tomato sauce were easy enough to acquire, but mozzarella was difficult to find.

In Italy, mozzarella was (and is) made from water buffalo’s milk‡. Italian immigrants to the U.S. substituted cow’s milk. It worked, and abetted the growth of the chain pizza business that was popping up throughout the Midwest: Pizza Hut (Kansas, 1958), Little Caesar’s (Michigan, 1959) and Domino’s (Michigan, 1960) [source].

Baker Cheese spotted the shift and turned its attention from Cheddar, then the company’s mainstay since 1916, to a full mozzarella plant.

Baker made six-pound loaves and 20-pound blocks of mozzarella that restaurants would cut and slice for their pizzas. There were one-pound packages in grocery stores.

But the company began to get requests from mozzarella-loving consumers who wanted smaller units that they could eat as a snack.

By the 1970s, Francis Baker, son of founder Frank, had an idea for a snack cheese. He took a ball of mozzarella, heated and stretched it into a rope, and cut it into small chunks, creating the Original Baker String Cheese.
 
 
String Cheese Becomes Big Business
What began in 1977 as a few hundred pounds of string cheese a month is now the only cheese Baker Cheese produces: nearly 3 million sticks per day. The original stick is joined by jalapeño, low-fat, organic, and smoked versions.

Following the success of Baker string cheese, other companies began to make plain and flavored varieties, including Borden, Frigo, Galbani, Horizon, Kraft, Organic Valley, and Sorrento. Retail chains like Aldi (Happy Farms), Kroger, Safeway (Lucerne), Target (Good & Gather) Trader Joe, Walmart, and Whole Foods (365) sell private-label versions.

In 2003, in the midst of the low-carb craze, the Atkins and South Beach diets, were an added boon for string cheese, and introduced new consumers to the product.

Baker Cheese became an industry leader in the innovation and design of string cheese manufacturing equipment, pioneering the extrusion process and individually wrapped packages of string cheese.

In the process, the company has won awards at the most prestigious cheese contests: the United States Cheese Championships (Best String Cheese) and the World Championship Cheese Contest (Best Flavored String Cheese, for Jalapeño) [source].

A tip: Microwave your string cheese for 7 to 8 seconds for even more flavor and aroma.
 
 
________________

†Pasta filata cheeses from Italy include burata, mozzarella, provolone and scamorza, among others. Mediterranean pasta filata cheeses include halloumi from Cyprus. There are numerous others made in Europe and Latin America. A subgroup is a braided cheese, made from strips of the highly elastic cheese wound together in a braid. Armenia, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and many Latin American countries make braided cheeses.

‡Mozzarella di bufala is the water buffalo product, fior di latte (“flower of the milk”) mozzarella is made from cow’s milk
 

September 20th is National Fried Rice Day. No doubt, everyone who enjoys Chinese food has had fried rice. We can eat a big plate of it as a main course! But today, we offer you something different: A fusion Italian Fried Rice recipe.

What makes it “Italian” fried rice?

Instead of rice, the recipe uses orzo, a rice-shaped pasta (“orzo” means barley in Italian). It also uses Italian vegetables (asparagus, zucchini) instead of bean sprouts and bamboo shoots—not to mention Parmesan cheese.

Orzo is used most traditionally in soups, but this versatile pasta has been widely adapted by chefs in Italy and America for both main courses and side dishes. You can even use it to make risotto!

> The history of fried rice.

> Check out more fried rice recipes below.

> The different types of rice.

> More grain types (plus beans).
 
 
RECIPE: ITALIAN FRIED RICE

This recipe, sponsored by Barilla, was created by Brandon Cook, Executive Chef of Culinary R&D at The Cheesecake Factory, using Barilla orzo.

Chef Brandon advises: “Have all your ingredients prepped and ready to go along with the crispy fried egg. Once you start cooking, the dish will come together very quickly!”

You can purchase sofrito in a jar, or make it with the recipe below.
 
Ingredients For 2 Servings

 
Preparation

1. SAUTÉ the diced vegetables in olive oil. Set aside

2. SOFT-POACH poach the eggs in simmering water and shock them in ice water. Drain and pat dry.

3. SEASON the panko with salt and pepper and the grated Parmesan. Bread the poached egg in the seasoned flour, beaten egg, and seasoned breadcrumbs. Deep-fry the egg at 350°F for 45 to 60 seconds. It’s important that the eggs are cold going into the fryer so that the yolks remain runny after frying. Remove the eggs from the fryer to a paper towel-lined plate and season with a pinch of coarse salt.

4. BRING a pot of salted water to a boil with added Parmesan rinds, if available (keep them in the freezer for occasions like this, and for making soups). Cook the orzo until al dente. Drain.

5. HEAT a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the oil and heat until it begins to shimmer. Add the soppressata and sofrito to the pan, tossing to incorporate.

6. ADD the shallot, zucchini, and tomatoes to the pan, stirring to incorporate. Continue to cook until the tomatoes begin to blister and shallots begin to caramelize. Add the chiles, asparagus, and orzo to the pan, stirring and tossing to incorporate.

7. DRIZZLE the colatura into the pan. Add the torn basil and Microplane (or substitute another tool) an even layer of grana over the ingredients. Stir and toss to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

8. MOUND the fried pasta in two shallow bowls and sprinkle the reserved asparagus tips and toasted pine nuts all over. Top each serving with a crispy poached egg and Microplane more Grana Padano over the entire dish. Crack the second egg over the dish. It’s ready to enjoy!
 
 
MORE FRIED RICE RECIPES

You can make “fried rice” with any grain, from brown rice to quinoa. It’s a great way to use leftover grains.

 
 
________________

*Substitutes include serrano and Anaheim chiles, or red chili flakes. You can also use hot sauce to add spice.

[1] Italian fried rice. A poached egg coated in panko sits on top (photo © Flavor & The Menu | Carlos Garcia).

[2] Italian fried rice uses orzo, a rice-shaped pasta (photo © Barilla)

[3] Classic fried rice, topped with shrimp for a main course (photo © Good Eggs).

[4] What looks like a stuffed crêpe is a sophisticated take on Shanghai Fried Rice from Tao Downtown in New York City (photos #4 and #5 © Tao Group).

[5] Inside the “stufffed crêpe.”

[6] You can use any grain to make “fried rice,” including quinoa. Here’s the recipe (photo © P.F. Chang’s).

[1] General Tso’s chicken, the most popular Chinese food (photo © Spicy Southern Kitchen).

[2] Tamales are ground meat, poultry, or vegetables stuffed into masa (corn dough) and steamed in a corn husk (photo © Mackenzie Ltd).

[3] Chicken pad Thai, garnished with cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice (photo © Good Eggs).

A new study has revealed that Chinese food is the most Googled cuisine, according to Google search data.

The research, conducted by BBQ experts Food Fire Friends, analyzed Google search data related to the 40 most popular cuisines in the world, across the 50 U.S. states.

Here’s what Americans googled most. Can we assume it’s what Americans eat most? Not necessarily, but it’s food for thought!

#1: CHINESE FOOD. With an average of more than 3.35 million searches per month, Chinese is the clear winner by far. According to GrubHub, General Tso’s Chicken (photo #1) is not only the most popular Chinese dish; it’s the 4th most popular dish of all foods that are ordered through GrubHub [source]. Here are the Top 10 most popular Chinese dishes.

#2: MEXICAN FOOD. With an average of 1.22 million Google searches, Mexican food tickles the palate with hot salsas and spices that include allspice, cinnamon cloves, coriander, Mexican oregano, and thyme. Not to mention guacamole and Margaritas! The difference between authentic Mexican food and Tex-Mex.

 
#3: THAI FOOD. More than 823,000 monthly Google searches puts Thai cuisine into third place. Yes, please, we’d love some tom kha gai (chicken in coconut milk soup) and pad Thai (photo #3—stir-fried rice noodles with shrimp or chicken, peanuts, scrambled eggs, sprouts, and other vegetables). We also recommend green papaya salad

#4: INDIAN FOOD. Registering an average of 673,000 Google searches, Indian food favorites include biryani, curries, tandoori chicken, fish and shrimp, and great flatbreads.

ROUNDING OUT THE TOP 10

#5: KOREAN FOOD, with an average of 246,000 Google searches per month. Bibimbap, Korean BBQ, jjigae (Korean stew), kimchi, and Korean fried chicken are among our favorites.

#6: JAPANESE FOOD, with an average of 201,000 Google searches per month. Beyond sushi and sashimi, cooked favorites include ramen, soba, tempura, teriyaki, and yakitori.

#7: SOUL FOOD, 201,00 searches. Top ranking: collards, cornbread, fried chicken, fried pork chops, macaroni and cheese, and don’t forget the peach cobbler.

#8: GREEK FOOD, 165,000 searches. We always start with a mezze plate (assorted spreads), Greek salad, or horiatiki, followed by kabobs, moussaka, pastitsio, or souvlaki, with baklava as our dessert of choice.

#9: ITALIAN FOOD, 165,000 searches. In addition to antipasto, pasta, and pizza, we want bagna cauda, polenta, porchetta, ribollita, and a basket of focaccia with EVOO for dunking. For dessert: gelato? ricotta cheesecake? tiramisu? all of them?

#10: HAWAIIAN FOOD, 90,500 searches. One reason we feel that Google searches don’t equate to foods consumed, is that who has had Hawaii’s #1 dish, poi (steamed or baked taro root)? More Americans have had poke, a type of sashimi salad. Loco moco is a favorite comfort food, a hamburger patty topped with gravy and a fried egg, all placed atop a heaping plate of white rice. Here are more Hawaiian favorites.

Are you inspired to discover a new dish?

We’ve had lots of the first nine cuisines, but with the exception of poke, none of the tenth.

In search of Hawaiian food in New York City, we were so excited to find a restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that “manages to cram all of Hawaii’s greatest hits onto one menu” [source]. Alas, the article was from 2013; the restaurant has closed. Another, in Harlem, is still open.

Field trip!

Our Top Pick Of The Week is something special for lovers of chicharrónes (fried pork rinds or cracklings), or for those who love a low carb chip but don’t eat pork*†.

As with chicharrónes, Flock Foods turns seasoned strips of skin and fat and fries them to a crispy, puffy state. Fly down to the next section to learn all about them.

> National Pork Rind Day, a.k.a. Pork Rind Appreciation Day, is Super Bowl Sunday, when one pigskin recognizes the other.

> July 6th is National Fried Chicken Day. That includes the skin!

> If you’re vegetarian or vegan, check out these PigOut Pigless Pork Rinds.

> The history of chicharrones is below.
 
 
FLOCK FOODS: CHICKEN CHIPS & THEN SOME

At Flock Foods, what started as a single flavor of crispy, packaged chicken skin chips has became a zero-carb line of small-batch, wok-fried, tasty snacks in:

 
The chips are all natural, made from just three ingredients: chicken skins, a proprietary seasoning blend, and oil. That’s it!

There are 13g of protein per one-ounce serving.

While we’ve only tasted the chicken chips, the line has expanded to:

 
Flock Foods has become the place to go for all the high-protein, low-carb meat snacks your crunch-loving palate desires.

The line is dairy-free, gluten-free, and keto-friendly. All products have zero sugar, and zero carbs.

The snack is also an excellent source of collagen protein, the protein found in connective tissue, skin, tendon, bone, and cartilage. Collagen provides structural support to tissues and is also involved in essential bodily processes, including tissue repair and signaling between cells. (here’s more about it).
 
 
WAYS WE USE FLOCK CHICKEN CHIPS

Add them to the plate, or incorporate them into:

 
Recipes

[1] Crispy snacking: chicken chips (all photos © Flock Foods).

[2] There are four flavors.

[3] Toss some on a salad instead of croutons.

[4] Add them to a cheese or charcuterie board.

Head to FlockFoods.com.

In addition to a supply for yourself, treat friends who are on carb-avoiding diets, and give them as party favors and stocking stuffers.

For a bigger gift, sign someone up for a subscription!
 
 
THE HISTORY OF CHICHARRONES

As with so many cooked foods, the origin of chicharrónes (the plural of chicharrón) is lost to history. Certainly, pork skins and other edible animal skins have been consumed since man discovered how to use fire. Every part of an animal that could be eaten, was.

The word entered the English lexicon in the 1940s. In the U.S., the snack crossed the border into the Southwest, and became popular with followers of the Atkins Diet in the 1970s.

It got a boost in the 1990s when President George H.W. Bush proclaimed chicharrónes to be his favorite snack.

Their compliance with gluten-free, keto, low-carb, and paleo diets helped raise awareness even more in recent years. Here’s more history of chicharrónes.
 
 
________________

*Chicharrones can also be made from the skin of chickens, cows, pigs, or sheep. The snack began in Spain and traveled to Latin America. Here are the regional differences.