🍝 silly resolutions (and other cool things)
BOARD EDITION
Y’all, we are doing something a little different this week.
Today’s edition of 5 Cool Things comes to you from the newest member of MFC’s Board, Chelsea Pennington Hahn, a creative storyteller, history buff, fellow museum director, and (of course) foodie!
Chelsea has been a long time supporter of MFC — she even attended our very first event during the pandemic! As the Director of the Lafayette History Museum, Chelsea and I have been able to collaborate on several programs including a holiday party and a History Happy Hour (coming soon).
At the beginning of each month, one of our board members is going to share 5 Cool Things they’ve noticed in their lives, from elementary school classrooms to product development labs. And at the end of it, we’ll do a call for community members like you to share the amazing things you find!
Check out previous Board editions of 5 Cool Things:
Miriah Royal, Board Chair and Sarah Fitzgerald, Board Vice Chair & Secretary.
See Chelsea (and me) in real life — grab your tickets for this Sunday’s (5/31) Field Trip to Bibamba Artisan Chocolate! 🍫
If hey, if chocolate’s not your thing, let us know what you want to see from the Field Trip program here!
So without further ado, I present to you: Chelsea!
🍨And the winner is…
It’s (almost) June, which means summer is here! That, of course, means it’s ice cream season! 🍦(Though, I’m a firm believer in both ice cream and iced coffee no matter the temperature outside…)
A couple years ago, my husband and I got hooked on ice cream sandwiches. To me, it’s the perfect summer treat! But of course, there are a lot of different companies making ice cream sandwiches, and we wanted to know: Which one was the best? 🤔
So we gathered our friends at a local park to host an Ice Cream Sandwich Taste Test Party!
If that sounds like something you want to try this summer, here’s how we did it. We decided to focus on traditional ice cream sandwiches (so no cookies; just the cake-like brownie to contain the ice cream), and scoured local grocery stores to get every brand of ice cream sandwich we could find. We ended up with seven boxes! 😯
Before the party, we cut up a few sandwiches into sample-sized portions and packed them in Tupperware and into a cooler. We were doing science, so it was a blind taste test—each sandwich was assigned a number, and I brought paper for people to jot down their “ice cream tasting notes” as we tried them. At the end, everyone voted for their top 3, and I calculated the results (first choice got 3 points, and so on).
For our group, Fat Boy ice cream sandwiches was the decisive winner, but if you host one yourself, I want to know what you choose! Of course, you could always make your own sandwich if you really want to embrace the season!
🥤Why is iced coffee gay?
June is also Pride Month, 🏳️🌈 and there are so many dishes and food stories that connect to queer culture. Ever wondered about the joke that queer people prefer iced coffee? ☕ (Uh…see my earlier comment about drinking ice coffee no matter the weather!)
This video explores the history of coffee and how it intersects with LGBTQ+ history.
Food also plays a more personal role in many LGBTQ+ people’s stories. In this essay, Eric Kim shares how home cooking played an important role when he came out to his parents. They were shocked when he came out, and stayed up late into the night asking him questions; around 3 in the morning, his mom made his favorite dish: kimchi fried rice. 🍚 It was a point of connection and her way of showing care to him, even when she didn’t fully understand his life yet.
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🧑🍳Food experiments ≠ food science
If you’re like me, you’ve got a collection of videos saved on Instagram of recipes that look delicious…that you’ll definitely never make. 😅
That’s why I always enjoy Drew Gooden’s videos where he makes everything he sees on Instagram for a week. He’s in no way a chef, and the recipes are usually lacking in detail, so the results are…interesting.
🧑🍳 When this video of a food scientist reacting to Gooden’s cooking attempts popped up on my feed, I knew I was in for a treat. She breaks down things that went wrong with the recipes (though in one case, it’s not hard to figure out…you’ll see what I mean!) and answers questions that Gooden (and us!) have about weird food things. 🍳
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🍽️ Making a home
My husband and I bought our very first home and are moving in this month!
That got me thinking about housewarming traditions in different cultures. The scene from It’s A Wonderful Life inspired us to always bring bread, 🍞 salt, 🧂and wine 🍷to new homeowners, but what do people do around the world?
This article explores the housewarming traditions of twelve countries. Though there are some that stand out (in both Japan and Russia, it’s tradition for a cat 🐈 to enter the house first!), almost all of them involve food in some way.
Whether it’s a specific dish or just hosting a feast for loved ones, it’s clear food plays a role in making a house a home. 🏡 I know that one of the things I’m most excited about when it comes to our new place is that there is so much more space, and that means we can host people more easily. Sharing a meal is one of the best ways to make memories and build community—whether you’re doing it at a place you own, a place you rent, or another creative solution like a picnic in the park! 😋
🍝 Pass the pasta
I love a silly New Year’s Resolution, and one that I made this year was to try a new pasta shape!
🍝 So when this video popped up, it seemed meant to be. How cool to see how some of the weirder pasta shapes get made! Plus, the Mr. Rogers vibes of the video are perfection. ☺️
Also—I haven’t completed my pasta resolution yet, so if you’ve got a favorite pasta shape, share it in the comments so I can check it out! 👀
Stay curious and stay inspired!
Rachel
About the Author
Chelsea has dedicated her life to storytelling in myriad forms. As the director of the Lafayette History Museum, she helps connect the community with the stories of their past and the place they call home. As a writer, she creates fictional stories about community, queer joy, and compassion while also working to make that world a reality. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and their dog, Pippin.
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If you’re looking for a simple way to bring inspiring and meaningful food stories like these into your school, we offer hands-on programming and a resource for families called Cooking through Cultural Heritage. 👉🏽 Start the conversation today!