Recipe Mutiny steals recipes from food blogs and recipe sites. Then we publish them. With credit (Naturally).
Monday, August 19, 2019
Why Do We Give Apples to Teachers?
Giving an apple to the teacher—it’s a strange, random tradition; one that seemingly has existed since the beginning of time. But as the school year starts back up again, we have to wonder where did the notion come from? Who came up with the idea of gifting fruit to the nation’s educators? Turns out this tradition has a surprisingly juicy history.
The Fruit of Knowledge
There are a couple of reasons for this truly odd cliché. Historically, apples are probably the most symbolic fruits around. From Greek mythology to the Bible’s story of Adam and Eve, apples are literally divine to their core. Given the notable lore around them, they serve as powerful metaphors of knowledge and education.
But this tradition goes deeper than the heady symbolism that surrounds apples.
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Related Reading: An Exploration of Apples In History & Pop Culture
Feeding Teachers
Ever since the 1700s, poor students and their families in Scandinavia gifted their teachers fruits from that year’s harvest as tokens of appreciation. This tradition continued and expanded into the centuries that followed in America, as frontier families were often responsible for housing and feeding teachers as well.
Apple as the fruit of choice, however, didn’t come into vogue until the late 1800s. It was around this time when the fruit underwent a major identity crisis.
Enesco Core Values Mug, $17.18 on Amazon
Secure teacher's pet status when you give them this apple-shaped mug.
Apples Get Rebranded
At the time, a majority of America’s apple varieties were bitter in taste and, as a result, were primarily used in the production of alcoholic beverages like hard cider. Given a growing backlash from the burgeoning temperance movement (which included the notorious Prohibition proponent Carrie Nation hacking an ax across America’s orchards!), the fruit was in clear need of some rebranding.
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A new public relations campaign, one that sought to highlight the nutritional benefits of apples, was soon underway. It was a tremendous success. By 1904, the slogan “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” entered the national lexicon and did wonders to reverse the apples’ previously sordid reputation.
Related Reading: This One-Bowl Apple Snacking Cake Is a Life-Saver
The Persistence of Tradition—and the Ubiquity of Apples
By this time period, there were also progressive gains made in the education arena. There were mandated public education programs nationwide and, best of all, teachers were no longer paid in food and shelter! However, the act of receiving an apple remained a symbolic gesture, one that persisted to the point of cliche for many reasons. Apples were abundant, the crop peaked along with the school year, and they were easily portable—making them the fruit of choice for sucking up to the teacher.
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Pop Culture Reinforcement
This trope manifested itself ad nauseam in pop culture as well. In 1939, Bing Crosby and Connee Boswell had a hit song with “An Apple for the Teacher.” In 1940, the Disney classic Pinocchio saw the puppet-turned-human take an apple to school, just like a real boy would! And then who could forget the classic scene in “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie gifts his teacher a giant-sized fruit basket as the ultimate kiss-up?
While the tradition may not persist in the modern era, it’s still a cultural touchstone, one drenched in nostalgia and innocence. And it will probably stay that way for school years to come.
Visit our Back-to-School Headquarters for everything else you need to know.
Related Video: How to Make an Easy Apple Crisp
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Target to Launch Sweeping Flagship Grocery Line
Target is famous for having, well, everything. Like a brick and mortar Amazon, you can wander in for a 6-pack of socks walk out with a car full of who knows what; clothes, electronics, home goods, and plenty of snacks. All Targets and Super Targets have incorporated full services grocery departments over the past several years so it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the brand is set to launch their own flagship line of food and groceries dubbed “Good & Gather,” at all 1,800 locations this fall.
Related Reading: Are Trader Joe’s Cashiers Required to Comment on Your Purchase?
Similar to others like Whole Foods’ 365 line and Trader Joe’s many subbrands (Trader Giattos, Trader Jose’s) Good & Gather will run the gamut with everything from ready-to-make salad kits to dairy products, dips, snacks, cereals, and much more. The goal for the mega-retailer is to offer customers a line of quality, healthy foods free from artificial flavors and sweeteners at their famously low prices.
Target
“Our guests are incredibly busy and want great-tasting food they can feel good about feeding their families,” said Stephanie Lundquist, Target’s President of Food and Beverage, “we really wanted the brand to represent the quality and the value that guests can expect.”
Related Reading: The Most Interesting ALDI Finds in August
The first Good & Gather brand will be available starting September 15, of this year and by 2020 Target hopes to have more than 2,000 products in stores making it the retailer’s most sprawling internal brand to date. The line will be marked by four sub-labels; kids, organic, signature and seasonal, which will all live under the God & Gather brand umbrella. According to the brand’s official press release, the new line will not replace Target’s existing limited signature food labels like Market Pantry, and Simply Balanced.
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10 Tips and Tricks for Saving Money at Whole Foods
Whole Foods has long been notorious for its high prices, earning it that well-worn nickname “Whole Paycheck” (do people still call it that?). Looking for deals at Whole Foods may sometimes feel like a fool’s errand, but it is possible to get a week’s worth of groceries for way cheaper than expected. Let’s look at how you can do it, even if you don’t live in one of the top affordable cities to buy groceries.
1. Whole Foods charges way more money for premade items, but the ingredients themselves are cheap.
Zoodles, those slices of zucchini that look like noodles, cost about $6 a box when you buy them pre-made from Whole Foods. But did you know a spiralizer can cost you about the same price? You can buy zucchini for about $1 each (one zucchini is about one serving of zoodles) and spiralize your own. This rule, like #2 and many others on this list, also holds true for almost any other store where you shop.
Spiralizer Ultimate 7 Vegetable Slicer, $29.97 on Amazon
Oodles of zoodles await. Squoodles too. And any other veggie noodles you care to make.
2. Visiting the bulk section is a smart move.
You can get more than trail mix in the bulk aisle. If one box of pasta or bag of grains is too much, you can save money by just buying what you need for tonight’s dinner. You can buy tiny amounts of spices so they don’t go stale. You can get ingredients to make your own granola. You can even buy nuts to grind your own nut butters, which is great because almond butter can get pretty pricey (and homemade Nutella is far better for you).
Related Reading: How to Make Homemade Nut Butter | How to Make Your Own Granola Bars
3. Buying frozen instead of fresh veggies will save you time and money.
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It would be great if everyone could buy fresh produce all the time, but did you know that vegetables lose their nutrients as they age? Getting a bag of mixed frozen vegetables can cost less than buying them individually, and there’s no risk of spoilage and money wasted.
Related Reading: Products to Help Fight Food Waste
4. Try to always buy 365 brand.
365 is Whole Foods’ generic brand, like Walmart’s Great Value, Kroger’s Private Select, or Target’s Archer Farms. These items will be at a lower price than other brands, and I have never eaten something that’s worse because it’s 365. There’s even a store that only stocks 365 products in cities across the country.
Related Reading: We Ranked the Best New Whole Foods 365 Ice Cream Flavors
5. If you’re going to buy the premade buffet items, try not to take any of the accompanying sauces.
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These items are priced by weight, so you’d essentially be paying more money for some extra tikka masala sauce. Tempting, yes, but pricey too.
6. Download the Whole Foods app.
The Whole Foods app has coupons for specific stores and preferences, so you can benefit from big savings. If you’re in the market for a new credit card, you can get an Amazon Rewards Visa Signature card that gives you three percent cash back from all Whole Foods purchases.
7. “Fake” meat like tofu and seitan can cost way less than real meat.
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If you like the taste or red meat isn’t your thing, you can save money by buying tofu, seitan, nuts, or beans for plant-based protein. Some faux meat items like the Impossible Burger even “bleed” like a real burger.
Related Reading: What Is the Difference Between Tofu and Tempeh? | Our Favorite Fake Meat Products for Every Occasion
8. Ask for samples of items you’ve never tried.
Because there’s truly nothing worse than buying something new and hating it, ask a Whole Foods salesperson if you can try an item before you buy. More than likely, they’ll be happy to let you have a taste, and then you’ll know if it’s worth the money.
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9. Keep your eyes on the prize!
Whole Foods has so many splurge items like $5 kombuchas, $10 cold-pressed juices, and crazy expensive chocolate bars. Try to focus on just the items you need. It helps to go in with a shopping list and a meal plan in mind.
10. Join Amazon Prime.
While there’s a bigger up-front cost for the Amazon Prime membership itself, if you can afford it, you’ll get great discounts at Whole Foods (now that they’re owned by Amazon)!
Related Reading: Which Grocery Delivery Service Is Best for You?
Sign Up for Amazon Prime
Grocery store savings are just one more reason to try Amazon Prime.
Related Video: We Tried Whole Foods’ Employee Recommendations to See How They Stacked Up
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Make Your Own Potato Tots: 4 Recipes Plus Dipping Sauces
Tater tots are good, no way around it. Those smooth plastic bags of Ore-Ida spud nuggets are freezer aisle sirens singing straight to our pleasure center and its love of all things fried potato, and twanging a chord of grade school cafeteria nostalgia while they’re at it. It is far easier to buy one of those trusty bags and bake the tots in your oven (or crisp them in your air fryer) than to actually make your own from scratch, but sometimes the harder way is worth it. Hence, how to make your own tots—they’re fully customizable, and honestly, even kind of fancy.
Because tots are also made for dipping, we paired each one with a special sauce.
How to Make Homemade Tots
While these do take more time than simply ripping open a bag, they’re not really that difficult, and they only require a few ingredients: russet potatoes, all-purpose flour (but replace with gluten-free flour if need be), salt, and canola oil for frying. Each variation calls for one or two additional ingredients, but the basic process is the same:
- Bake whole potatoes until al dente.
- Peel, then shred them on a box grater.
- Mix with flour, salt, and other ingredients.
- Form them into the classic potato pellet shape.
- Fry them.
- Let them drain on paper towels just til cool enough to eat.
- Dip and devour!
Use a Dutch oven or another deep, heavy pot, or a countertop deep fryer if you have one (this could be the perfect excuse for finally making that particular purchase).
You can also make these tots ahead of time and freeze them to supply yourself for future late-night snacking sessions and easy weeknight dinners that please the whole family. Just one word of caution: The siren song will be even harder to resist coming from your own freezer.
Homemade Tot Recipes
Try our basic batch or one of the below variations—or play around and create your own top-notch tot experience.
Easy Potato Tots
Pair with: Curried Ketchup
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Basic and beautiful, these crunchy-outside, creamy-inside nuggets of fried potato perfection are great for dipping in pretty much anything you fancy, though we’re partial to curried ketchup. It honors tradition, but with a delicious twist. Get our Easy Potato Tot recipe.
Related Reading: The Best Homemade Sauces for Fries | 12 Tasty Vegan Sauces to Put on Everything
Indian-Spiced Potato Tots
Pair with: Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce
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Put an Indian spin on your tots with panch phoron, a Bengali spice mix made from fenugreek, nigella seed, black mustard seed, fennel seed, and cumin seed—or try garam masala—plus a pinch of cayenne. A creamy raita-inspired dipping sauce is just the thing to complement and cool down all those spices. Get our Indian-Spiced Potato Tot recipe.
Related Reading: These International Potato Recipes Prove Spuds Are Well-Traveled
Cheesy Potato Tots
Pair with: Gravy
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Like poutine? These tots pay homage to the fabulous Canadian dish by blending white cheddar into the mix and topping things off with chicken gravy (but use beef if you prefer, or mushroom to keep it vegetarian—and feel free to change up the cheese type too, even combine more than one). We’re not averse to scattering some cheese curds on top as well! When in Quebec…if only in spirit. Get our Cheesy Potato Tot recipe.
Potato Tots Bravas
Pair with: Easy Aioli & Brava Sauce
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Inspired by patatas bravas, one of the best Spanish tapas dishes around, these tots have just a smidge of cayenne and garlic powder, but it’s the sauces that really make them shine. There’s the traditional spicy tomato sauce, of course, and a creamy aioli to soothe the burn and add another layer of richness. Get our Potato Tots Bravas recipe.
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