Alfred Hitchcock Day

This weekend there was not an obvious call out. What happened this weekend? Well, I thought about a Coca Cola theme, it was on March 12, 1894 that bottled Coke was first sold. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was first published, and National Alfred Hitchcock Day.

I've always found Alfred Hitchcock kind of fascinating. It's commonly known that the blood in the original Psycho movie, was really chocolate syrup. What I didn't realize was that food was often a prop for Hitchcock's films. I found several pages that talk about the relationship between food and the storyline in his films. It was used draw your attention to and from subtle context. No one knows how March 12 was determined to honor the great director. He was born in August and died in April. But anyway, I went with the movie Psycho. We have chicken sandwiches, American fries, and ice cream with homemade chocolate syrup for dessert.

Yeah, I cheated a little bit, with bought pumpernickel bread and ice cream, but hey, I didn't want to spend the day in the kitchen. I also, could have made a fancy mayonnaise and didn't. Yup, lazy.

Let's talk sandwich, in the movie Psycho, Marian Cane sits down to eat with Norman Bates for dinner and has a sandwich, where Norman accuses her of eating like a bird. I'm not sure what kind of sandwich it was or what was on it. So, I set out to make a very tasty chicken sandwich. I dunked my chicken breast (should have marinated it, but I was running late and the crew was hungry) in a half cup of balsamic vinegar mixed with some rosemary. I then cooked in my iron skillet on medium heat for about 7-10 minutes on each side. Slicked my chicken up, placed it on my pumpernickel bread, with 2% milk cheddar cheese slices, with bacon, lettuce, and mayonnaise. I regret that I forget to pick up a tomato from the store. My husband and daughter had onion and Swiss cheese on theirs. The chicken breast in the balsamic vinegar was a new one for me. I've using it more and more as of late, it does add a bit of sweet tang flavor. Both my husband and daughter said the rosemary was a little much on theirs. I think it is just one of those herbs that they are not used to because I've on just started using it in the last little bit.

The American fries are thinly sliced potatoes that I used a slicer for and just deep fried. I'm still wondering about my deep fryer, they came out very greasy and not crisp for some reason. I didn't season them, trying to decrease our sodium intake.

Now, my truly new experiment, homemade chocolate syrup. I found several recipes for it using my newest go to site, Yummly.com. I like Yummly, because it searches the web and pulls recipes from several sites. This includes sites from other countries and my former favorite, Allrecipes.com. Anyway, I egress. The general gist of all the the recipes for chocolate syrup were the same, cocoa powder, water, sugar, and vanilla. I went with one cup of cocoa, 1 1/2 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cup water, and a teaspoon of vanilla. Bought it to boil and boiled it for 2-5 minutes until thickened. It made about two cups. According to the research it did on our dear friend Alfred, he often finished a meal with ice cream. I just took up to an ice cream sundae to make it extra yummy. I used vanilla and strawberry ice creams with strawberries, chocolate syrup and whipped topping.

Nothing really over the top, but some days I just do not want to spend the whole day cooking. It is great opportunity to interest your kids to the classics. There are so many great Hitchcock films to choose from. He was more about suspense than gore.

Thank you for reading and accepting my excuses. Next week, it is Saint Patrick's day. My husband is asking for some Shepherd's Pie and shakes.