Fun and beauty combine in this blueberry-blackberry pie, from Kindred Restaurant in Davidson, North Carolina.

Just looking at the cuisine at Kindred makes us want to head to the charming lakeside college town for a week’s vacation of dining and enjoying the view.

For now, we’ll have to content ourself with copying the pie, which is pretty easy to follow:

 
You don’t need piping skills: The whole idea is different sizes of meringues.

We’ll try a light garnish, too: a bit of lemon zest or a chiffonade of basil.
 
 
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MERINGUE

There are three basic types of meringue: French, Italian and Swiss. A sub-tip of the day is to try them all, and decide which you prefer.

Here are meringue details.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF MERINGUE TOPPING & COOKIES

Some sources say that that meringue (muh-RANG) was invented in the Swiss village of Meiringen in the 18th century, and subsequently improved by an Italian chef named Gasparini.

Not all experts agree: The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, states that the French word is of unknown* origin. Meringue wasn’t invented in France.

Even Larousse Gastronomique, The New American Edition of the World’s Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia, acknowledges the Swiss possibility along with:

[2] One of the benefits of dots of meringue (photo #1) is that you don’t need the skill to pipe evenly (photo by Hannah Kaminsky, Bittersweet Blog).

[3] Meringues can be baked into hard cookies or pavlovas, or cooked or torched briefly as a soft topping (here’s the recipe from Raw Spice Bar).

No one can find a historical derivation of the word “meringue*,” but the latest suggestion is that it comes from Middle Dutch meringue, meaning light evening meal—possibly from the Latin merenda, “light evening meal.”

Our personal favorite is the Middle Low German “meringe,” from mern, “to dip bread in wine.” Who wouldn’t like to dip a meringue in a glass of wine?
 
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*Contenders from include 1700 on include, from the Walloon dialect, maringue, shepherd’s loaf; marinde, food for the town of Meiringen (Bern canton, Switzerland). While they have a few letters in common with meringue, evidence for both is completely lacking. A source that makes more sense is the Latin merenda, the feminine gerund of merere, to merit. Who doesn’t merit a delicious confection? But as our mother often said: “Who cares; let’s eat!”
 
  

[2] Make matching cones. Here’s the recipe from Sweet Estelle.

You can create special ice cream for any special occasion, using store-bought vanilla ice cream and mix-ins in holiday colors.

The easiest way is to buy sprinkles, confetti and confetti shapes (hearts, pumpkins, stars, etc.—photo #2).

For example:

 
Preparation

1. SET the container on the counter until the ice cream is soft enough to mix in the decorations.

2. RETURN to the freezer until ready to serve.

TIPS: It’s easier to mix two separate pints than a quart or larger container. And it’s even easier than that to dip the edges of ice cream sandwiches into the sprinkles.
 
 
JULY 4TH TRIVIA

[1] The basic—hot dog, mustard, sauerkraut—at Murray’s Cheese.

[2] Bacon hot dogs from Vermont Cure. Bacon is mixed with the beef.

[3] Chili-cheese on turkey dogs from Jennie O.

[4] Chicago-style hot dog from Kindred Restaurant. Here are the signature hot dog recipes from 12 more cities.

July is National Hot Dog Month, a comfort food served in 95% of homes in the U.S. (June 23rd is National Hot Dog Day.)

According to the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council, Americans purchase 350 million pounds of hot dogs at retail stores—9 billion hot dogs!

The actual number of hot dogs consumed by Americans is much larger, incorporating those purchased from street vendors, at sporting events, state fairs, carnivals, etc. The Council estimates Americans consume 20 billion hot dogs a year, more than twice the retail sales figures.

That computes to about 70 hot dogs per person each year; which sounds like a lot but is just 6 hot dogs a month.

 
HOT DOG BACKGROUND

 
HOT DOG BASICS

 
FUN HOT DOG RECIPES

 
HOT DOG VS. FRANKFURTER VS. WEINER

The hot dog traces its lineage to the 15th-century Viennese sausage, or wienerwurst in German; hence, wiener.

In the 17th century, Johann Georghehner, a butcher from the German city of Coburg in Bavaria, is credited with inventing the “dachshund” or “little dog” sausage—a slimmer version of wienerwurst. He brought it to Frankfurt, hence, frankfurter. Yet, it was still a sausage eaten German-style, with a knife and fork—no roll.

The hot dog, a slender sausage in a roll, was undeniably an American invention. The attribution is accorded to a German immigrant named Charles Feltman, who began selling sausages in rolls at a stand in Coney Island in 1871.

The 1893 World Exposition in Chicago marked the debut of the hot dog vendor. According to National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, around this time that the hot dog first made its first appearance at a ballpark, at a St. Louis Browns game. The first published mention of the term “hot dog” as a food appeared in print in a September 1893 issue of The Knoxville Journal. However, it was well established prior to then.

As the legend goes, frankfurters were dubbed the “hot dog” by a cartoonist who observed a vendor selling the “hot dascshund sausages” during a baseball game at New York City’s Polo Grounds. Concessionaires walked through the stands shouting, “Get your red-hot dachshund sausages.”

In 1906, Tad Dorgan, a cartoonist for a Hearst newspaper, was inspired by the scene and sketched a cartoon with a real dachshund dog, smeared with mustard, in a roll. Supposedly, Dorgan could not spell the name of the dog and instead wrote, “Get your hot dogs” for a caption.

However, Dorgan’s cartoon has never been located. and some hot dog historians suggest the “dachshund” sausages were being called hot dogs on college campuses in the 1890s.

“Little dog” sausages became standard fare at ballparks in 1893 when St. Louis bar owner and German immigrant Chris Von de Ahe, who owned the St. Louis Browns baseball team, began to serve them there…and started a tradition.