Let's Eat!

 Project 2: The Great American Melting Pot

Well, Lady Liberty turned out well and is now shining her beacon for all the immigrants to be welcomed into our backyard! Not surprisingly, all the recent immigrants are gnomes but we will work on backyard diversity.  Our next project is a cooking one - YUM!  As I was perusing recipes that were "American" in nature I came upon a problem, with America being such a culturally diverse country most of our food has been influenced by other cultures and I wan't able to think of any that were distinctly American from inception (and my kids are kinda picky too).  I suppose I could've made a wild rice and corn dish but that didn't sound very yummy so I had an idea.  I went to the store and bought cheeses and breads from around the world and we made what I called The Great American Melting Pot!

We used our slow cooker as "the new land" and added some

• Mexican Oaxaca cheese
• Greek Feta
• Dutch Gouda
• Spanish Iberico, Manchego and Cabra al Vino (Trader Joes sampler)
• Irish Cheddar
• French Brie (rind removed)
• English Cheddar
• American slices
• about 1/2 bottle of beer and a few shakes of Cajun seasoning

While that was getting all melty and delicious we cut up some

• French baguettes
• Hawaiian sweet bread
• Middle Eastern Flat Bread
• Italian breadsticks
• French croissants
• Polish Polska Kielbasa sausage

Then our feast was ready. All the "cultures" blended very well together (maybe the beer helped) and it was a delicious, albeit not very healthy, meal and then something happened that I had not expected.  A division in the "country"!!  Apparently, I cooked it too long and my pot of cheesy goodness separated into two distinct (but still delicious sides).  I immediately saw the symbolism in this - when the people in a country are happy (and just the right temperature) they are cohesive and one, but when a problem (too much heat) occurs they can very quickly take sides and no longer act as one nation.  A lesson has been learned.