Hamburger

Hey readers,
As you can see I cooked through every region of the US. After that I cooked, baked or made meals that you know everywhere in the US, like burgers, chicken wings, and spare ribs.
So, at first I am going to introduce you to the famous burger. Everyone knows it, fast food shops like Mc Donald's  sell them every day . There are different burgers like the normal hamburger, or  chicken burgers, cheeseburgers, vegetarian burgers, and many more. Everyone knows it, but where does it come from, how does it get its name?
First of all, let's see what a burger has to have to be one. A burger is an open-faced sandwich with meat, usually it's beef, and some kind of sauce, like ketchup in it. It is not clear where the burger comes from, but one that for sure is that the word hamburger doesn't come from the English word ham.
There are two theories of the burger's history. The first theory is that it comes from Germany, from Hamburg.  It was a round sandwich with roast beef and roast sausage and came with the German settlers to America. In the middle twenties its name changed from hamburger to burger.
Another theory is that it came from a fair in Erie County, near by Hamburg (Buffalo, state NY). The Mencher brother had a hot pork diner there and when they hadn't enough meat they started to experiment with beef, and created the hamburger and called it after their village Hamburg.
And now you can choose which one you will believe. I think they could both be true.
When I made the burger my thought was that it isn't  enough for everyone ( I had one burger for each person). I made two kinds of burgers, a small one and a big one. I had a big burger, and let me tell you, one burger for each person WAS enough!!!! I was so satisfied after just ONE burger.  When you eat a burger at Mc Donald's  you have to eat 2 to be satisfied (I heard some people can eat 4, but I'm super thin and I can eat just 2 or 3, I don t know I actually never tried). And of course they tasted super delicious, much better than from Mc Donald's. That was my burger, I made the meat so big that I could hardly eat it, because the big ones had two pieces of meat in it AND bacon. I can recommend it to you to make it yourself because of three reasons. First, it tastes better when you do it yourself, second you can control what you want to put on your burger and mix whatever you like, third, you know if there is real meat on your burger and not just pureéd rest of whatever they put in there! I don t want to judge you, I eat at fast food shops too, but after I heard that they chop so much of the rain forest to have free places to feed the cows that become beef , I started  to eat at Mc Donald's just when I had to, and mostly no meat.  So my advice for you, (you don't have to follow it of course, just a suggestion!) try to  think about what you eat, or what you THINK you eat!!!

Day Seven- New England

Hey

The first thanks giving by Jean Leom Germe Ferris

It´s me. Today we are in New England, which  includes the states Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,Vermont and Rhode Island. New England was populated in the 17th century by Puritans  from England who couldn´t practice their religion there, so they sailed with the "Mayflower" (their ship) to Holland, Amsterdam and tried to live there for a few Years. But they din´t like the way the Dutch lived and decided to live in a free, new world. In 1620 they sailed with 102 men on the ship "Mayflower" to America  TZheir intention was to land in Virginia, but because of autumn storms they landed in today's Plymouth, which they set up after they landed.
  Before they went on land they made the famous "Mayflower contract". The Mayflower contract says that every man can choose their own political beliefs and have rights, the first democracy in America had begun.  The pilgrims were not the first settlers in America, but they are important for the American history because they celebrated the first Thanksgiving in America. And that happened because the Puritans didn´t know how to grow food at first and many of them died in the winter from strange illnesses and starvation. They would have all died if the Native Americans hadn't helped them. They showed the Puritans what they can eat and how to grow food. As a thank you, the Puritans celebrated Thanksgiving with the Native Americans, inviting them to a huge potluck. So you see, the Americans didn't kill the Native Americans from the start, but when in 1626 more Puritans came, the killing stared. The Puritans saw the Native Americans as devils and the townships sold premiums to people who killed Native Americans.
In New England were also the witch-huntings, where women who knew how to use medicine were burned. The most "witches" died in Salem.

Boston Tea Party

Another important event for American history is the " Boston Tea Party". "America" had to follow, at this time still, the British rules and belonged to England. England decided to trade in America too and made very high taxes on tea and other imports, so the "Americans" started to smuggle less expensive tea from Holland. When England sent again expensive tea from England, the Boston people, dressed as Naitve Americans threw 342 boxes of tea into the sea at night. That was the beginning of the War of Independence, that's why New England is sometimes called the birth place of America.

But enough of that, even though it's ( in my opinion) very interesting. Let´s talk about eating again. Specialties from New England are clam chowder, baked beans, thanksgiving turkey, lobster and cakes like pumpkin pie, brownies, American apple pie, and chocolate chip cookies. Because no one of my family (including me) eats clams, and I didn t want to cook baked beans, and it isn't Thanksgiving now, I didn't make any of these things. And lobster is too expensive (around 60 euro=$83), and I don't know where to get it here in Germany, so I made corn soup which they do in  Main.  As a cake I made apple pie, because I LOVE it. Both was very delicious.


Apple Pie