April Fools’ Dinner Ideas (Guest)

guest, holidays, kids, picky eaters | March 14, 2013 | By

(Today’s post is brought you by guest poster Barbara.)

There are few things quite as much fun as April Fools’ Day. Filled with practical jokes and hoaxes on every scale, it’s hard to imagine a year without this kind of fun. Interested in creating a bit of April Fools fun at your house? These dinner ideas can help.

Eat the Meal in Reverse

Sometimes the easiest concepts can make for a good April Fools’ trick, and this is certainly one of them. While you typically serve your meal followed by dessert, try to go in reverse instead. Eat your dessert, then the meal, then the appetizer. Your little ones are sure to think it’s the best day of the year.

Serve Faux Food

Easily one of the most popular April Fools’ Day meal ideas, there are many different ways to tackle this. There are also a variety of different recipes that fall into this category. If you want to stay on the easy side of things, go with premade stuff like “peas and carrots” candy. They’re small candies that are made to look like frozen peas and carrots might.
Want to take things to the next level? Get ready for some real fun. Make a “hamburger” for dinner. Simply make cookies into the shape of hamburger buns, complete with the sesame seeds, and then add a peppermint patty to the middle for the meat. You can even add food coloring to coconut to turn it green so you’ll have the lettuce to go with your burger. A bit of red icing can make the ketchup. Other similar ideas include a meatball sub with a pound cake bun and ice cream meatballs, a “cake” that includes pizza sauce, Italian sausage, and pepperoni topped with a biscuit mix to make it resemble cake, and even a pudding dessert that looks like dirt from your garden instead of dessert.
You could also go with a cake that looks like a pizza, pound cake coated in graham cracker crumbs to resemble chicken nuggets, taco salad made from ice cream, coconut, and maraschino cherries, or even berry sodas that are really jello, making them tough to suck through a straw. There’s quite a bit of fun to be had with these faux food ideas, and you’re likely to surprise anyone who sits down to your table.

Go With Whimsical Names

A great idea if you have little ones in the house, simply renaming a few of your own favorite dishes can be a perfect way to create a meal for this amusing day. For example, for breakfast, you could serve ostrich eggs, which are simply canned peach halves surrounded by whipped cream. For your beverage, you could serve dragon blood, which is really just fruit punch. Coming up with fun names or presentations for your food is the best way to serve your typical meal while still incorporating the holiday spirit into things.
No matter what you decide to serve this April Fools’ Day, it’s certain to be a memorable treat they’ll look back on fondly in the days to come.

Barbara Petersen is a writer with an interest in family, food and fun. See more of her work at the Holiday Gifts & Baskets Blog, put on by http://www.holiday-gifts-gift-baskets.com.

Breathtaking view of the Milky Way from the surface of Mars (Wordless Wednesday)

candy, chocolate, funny, humor | March 13, 2013 | By

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The best hot dogs put the toppings on first

Which is better? The Chicago dog with mustard, relish, tomates, onion, pickles, jalapeno peppers, pepper, bun....or The chili dog from Coney Island hot dogs with chili, cheese, and onions? No matter what, the best hot dogs have the toppings on bottom.

This one is new to me entirely, but it does make sense.

If you’re the type who only adds a bit of ketchup or mustard or maybe the occasional scoop of relish, then this isn’t going to apply to you.

The best hot dogs - Picture shows the anatomy of the Chicago Dog including seasoned bun, yellow mustard, chopped sweet pickle relish, sliced fresh tomatoes, a basic hot dog, chopped onions, a dill pickle speer, two or three jalapeno peppers, ground black pepper, and the rest of the bun.  Put them on top to avoid them spilling out.

But if you’re the type who loves to pile on the toppings (Chicago hot dogs, anybody?), then you know all too well the pains of trying to keep all those toppings in place atop a slippery hot dog while you chow down.

So for the best hot dogs, what you’re actually supposed to do is start putting some of those toppings on first instead of on top. Don’t simply put on the ketchup and mustard because that will obviously make the bread soggy by the end of your dog. Instead, put the sturdier items on the very bottom like onions or pickles (or even lettuce, if that’s your style). Then pile on some of the other wetter ingredients.

Now if you’re at home, that’s pretty easy, but people shy away from doing that at a hot dog stand, right? So just ask the guy for your bun while they’re grilling the dog and you’ll cut your waiting time in half, too. Once you place the hot dog on top of all of the ingredients, it’ll somewhat squish into the middle and you’ll have the perfect hot dog before you know it.