Snack Time: Baguettes & Butter
While in Paris last week, I ate Baguette every day.
You may think that it’s some sort of overblown stereotype that the French are constantly eating baguettes… but it is not! People walk down the street eating baguettes. Kids gnaw on them in strollers. Baguettes are such a staple of French life that they were price-controlled by the government for ages, and more recently when wheat prices went up it was a national crisis.
As a fan of the baguette, I agree with this national tradition 100%. It’s an extremely simple bread, but absolutely, utterly delicious. A chewy, crunchy outside and a fluffy middle. Slather some salted butter on it and you’ve quite literally got a perfect food.
So, this week, I recommend Baguettes & Butter as a snack. I for one am planning on going to a local French bakery early tomorrow morning so that I can get one and pretend I am still in Paris.
Check Out Saltair Bead Studio!
A special announcement! My Etsy store, which features my handmade beaded jewelry, has gone live! I would love if you could check it out, and give my shop some views to get that internet algorithm going.
Did Lee Pace Post a Thirst Trap This Week?
We have been blessed. He did. All hail King Nerd and his quads.
Candle Salad
If you have never heard of “Candle Salad” before, let me enlighten you. It’s a recipe from the 1950s where you stick a ring of pineapple on a bed of lettuce, put a half a banana in the center of the pineapple so it stands upright, toothpick a maraschino cherry on the end of the banana, and then decorate that with some whipped cream or—the horror!— mayonnaise.
On top of that just being utterly disgusting, the “candle” the fruit assembly creates is… suggestive. Which is especially funny considering that the dish is is definitely White-Suburban-Church-Mom-Core.
For years Candle Salad has been a joke in my friend and family group, as my mother and her friends were once innocently SERVED THE DISH at a LADIES’ CHURCH FUNCTION and could not keep themselves from laughing. It’s popped up a few times recently and it makes me laugh like mad every time I see it.
For example, the delightful vintage baker/TikTok creator B. Dylan Hollis recreated the recipe. It was certainly only a matter of time before Hollis and his followers discovered such a delightfully heinous vintage recipe. In fact, when I first started watching Hollis’s videos I purposefully went through his whole catalog, saying to myself “HE HAS TO HAVE MADE CANDLE SALAD!” I was not disappointed. His commentary is *chef’s kiss.*
More recently, my mother came across the salad on Twitter, where someone’s daughter had created them a Candle Salad Hat for Halloween. RAISED RIGHT!
But, then! To my utter horror and delight I came across yet another iteration of the salad, this time while looking at bead patterns.
That’s right. It’s a “candle” made out of beads. We have learned nothing.
*blows a kiss* Goodnight, everybody!