Hey, all. . .
I want to continue my trend of pairing food with the season.
This post is like the four others before it where I matched fall activities with fall foods.
But this one is a little different. You will see as you read on.
Anyhoo. . . Let’s get started.
I know we haven’t celebrated Halloween, Samhain, All Saints Day, The Day of the Dead, or All Souls Day yet, but I feel like I should mention that Election Day is less than two weeks away.
Doesn’t that blow your mind? We are almost out of this liminal season juggernaut. It’s almost time to think about our country with election day coming quickly.
When I was a teenager, joined a local 4-H Club. 4-H is interesting. It is similar to other youth development groups of its ilk, like scouting organizations of youth groups, in that you join a larger group of youths who do activities together. For example when you join 4-H club, you join a club that has service projects, square dance lessons for those who are interested, and monthly meetings (with, it should be mentioned, teenagers, who are more versed in Robert’s Rules of Order than any people you have ever encountered. Seriously, with their adherence to Parliamentary Procedure it seems like 4-H kids are ready to go straight from high school to Congress). But I digress. . . .
Yet, 4-H it is different in some key ways. While you join a local club, the meat and potatoes of belonging to 4-H seems to be the classes that you sign up for once a year. These were probably most valuable part of the experience for me.
Among other subjects, I ended up taking four summers of cooking classes through 4-H. They were taught by volunteer parents and were fairy extensive lessons. I have fond memories of the summers I spent in those classes.
I remember that we had a lesson book for our that always tried to teach us a little bit of context about the recipes that we made. In particular, I remember one lesson was about making homemade lemonade and chicken fricassee. We learned that you could make chicken fricassee is essentially a sauce made out of any type of meat pieces that you had left over. (4-H emphasizes practicality and thriftiness over fancy ingredients).
For the fun educational tidbit about our cooking for that week, our workbook told us that back in the day election candidates would serve voters lemonade and maybe some food, like chicken fricassee, on election day in order to win their vote. The workbook hinted through illustrations (or more likely in my imagination) that Abraham Lincoln handed out lemonade to voters as they came out of their polling place.
I tried to research candidates serving lemonade for this post and while I saw many articles mentioning candidates serving alcohol, I found none that mention candidates serving voters lemonade. In fact, people used to be so concerned about the affects of alcohol on voting that there was a law in Pennsylvania from 1875-1973 that bars had to be closed on election day.
Fascinatingly enough, I found this NPR interview that mentions George Washington serving rum toddies, corn pudding and a beef barbecue.
So maybe my 4-H lesson book was somewhat right. Drinks were served by candidates on election day, it just wasn’t the lemonade that we were making in our 4-H teacher’s kitchen.
Perhaps they just didn’t want to to teach 4-H cooking students how to mix drinks for election day.
Missed opportunity I say. . . . kidding of course.
In any case, election day is coming up y’all.
I am going to cut to the chase, it is important that you vote this year. I know that this is an off-year for voting for the President, Senate, and the House of Representatives as well as many other offices. But it is still important. Maybe even more important this year for some areas.
I have a quote that I sometimes think about during election time.
All politics is local
Tip O’Neill
Most people are aware that there is a growing polarization in our country over funding, education, libraries, schools policies, I could go on and on.
That’s why I created a new list about
8 Fall Food and Activity Pairings For Election Day and the Days Leading Up to Election Day
- The last day to vote in 2023 the municipal election in Pennsylvania was 10/23/23. If you are registered to vote, reward yourself by eating a piece of Halloween candy that you either already collected or have to pass out on Halloween.
- Put Remember Election Day: Tuesday, November 7, 2023 on your wall calendar, phone calendar, and post it note on your bathroom mirror. Then go to Starbucks and get a Pumpkin Spice Latte. It is in your realm.
- If you do not know where your polling place is and you are from Pennsylvania, go to this website. Find your polling place. Go to Starbucks, try a Pumpkin Cream Coldbrew.
- Find your personalized ballot for this election by going to Vote411.org/ballot Reward yourself by getting a Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin at Starbucks.
- Use the ballot your found at Vote411.org/ballot to research candidates for borough council, township supervisor, and especially school directors and school board members. Find out which candidates align with your values. Remember, it’s hard to complain about decisions made locally if you did not vote. Reward your research efforts with a Baked Apple Croissant from Starbucks.
- On Election Day, Tuesday, November 7, 2023, go to your polling place. Vote. Bring ID if you are a first time voter. Bring an ID anyway just in case. Hours of polling places in PA are: 7 am till 8 pm. Get your sticker. After voting go to Dunkin’ Donuts and get some Maple Sugar Bacon! You’ve earned it!
- Pretend that you are an old fashioned candidate any make yourself a drink on election day. Imbibe your drink. Make a drink for anyone over the age of 21 who lives at your house and asks for one. Don’t make drinks outside of polling places. Wait for the results to come in.
- Accept the results and trust in the election process. This can be hard to do. Take a deep a breath and know that your did your part. Have some decaf Dunkin’ Coffee.
Good luck and have a safe week. Do your research.
Cheers,
Katie
