By Heather O.
Last night, this was a very important question.
After all, Dr. Suess was not exactly clear when he wrote his classic _Green Eggs and Ham_ about what exactly Sam I Am was offering. Was he offering Green Eggs with regular ham? Or was the Ham green as well? Which noun does the adjective modify–just the eggs, or does it include the ham?
The illustrations, of course, suggest the latter, but the text is not clear on the subject. Not clear at all, people.
Why on earth was this important to us yesterday, you ask?
Well, because we had Green Eggs and Ham for dinner, of course. Didn’t you?
While I was zoning out on a chair letting my son tear apart the Thomas the Train table perusing through Barnes and Noble yesterday, I found this book, The Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook. It has recipes inspired by Dr. Suess, complete with recipes for Who-pudding and Roast Beast. Since my son is all but obsessed with The Grinch and Green Eggs and Ham, we just had to have it.
And we had to immediately try out the recipes, of course. It was all very exciting–the recipe, the colors, the giggling at the idea of eating food that came from a BOOK! Feeling like THE COOLEST MOM EVER, I called DH to tell him that we were having Green Eggs and Ham for dinner. He laughed, and we all prepared for a culinary TRIUMPH!
This is what we got:
Mm-mm–mmm. Doesn’t that look tasty?
Ok. Really, I have to say that the IDEA of Green Eggs and Ham sort of beat out the actual taste, despite the author’s best efforts. The green eggs are fried eggs with guacamole scooped on them, and the ham is just covered in mint jelly which, to be honest, wasn’t exactly tempting to my 5 year old.
I know. Shocker.
And whoever said that novelty will make your kid eat anything was basically full of crap.
Still, he ate the eggs, and nibbled on some salad, and then went out to play and tell his friend that HE got to eat Green Eggs and Ham for dinner! HA!
Well, at least he got something out of it.
We chucked the leftover ham. I mean, seriously, would YOU eat something that looked like that?
I have much higher hopes for The Who-pudding and Roast Beast. I’ll keep you posted.
Despite the novelty, I remember refusing green eggs (scrambled + food coloring) when I was four years old.
Comment #1 by cantinflasMay 23rd, 2007 at 12:25 pmMy mom went overboard and dyed the milk green, too! I would eat the eggs and ham green, but I could not bring myself to drink green milk, even if the taste was the same. Yuck!
Comment #2 by StarababaMay 23rd, 2007 at 12:41 pmGeeze. All I ever got was pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse.
Comment #3 by Susan MMay 23rd, 2007 at 12:51 pmMy kids will drink colored milk but probably wouldn’t come within a 10 foot radius of the green eggs & ham. My kids will have to suffer with Mickey Mouse pancakes as well.
Comment #4 by Natalie S.May 23rd, 2007 at 1:28 pmWhen my boys were wee little, they hated scrambled eggs. After reading them this book several times, I finally got them to try scrambled eggs by putting in green food coloring. hmmm, yum!
Now they love scrambled eggs, and I don’t even have to add the coloring.
Comment #5 by GingerMay 23rd, 2007 at 2:07 pmWhen I was in Joy School, my mom made green eggs and ham by using the greed food dye too. Later that year, she also made stone soup, complete with real stones. It was tasty and all the other kids in class loved it too.
Though I am most impressed by your efforts, I am not sure I would have eaten your culinary masterpiece…jelly + ham = nasty!
Comment #6 by fluffychickyMay 23rd, 2007 at 2:13 pmFluffychicky-
I’ll admit, the whole mint jelly thing threw me a little, but that’s what the recipe called for. It also called for a serious covering of parsley and cilantro to stick TO the jelly, but I figured that would be too much for my little guy. And his mother. I don’t mind cilantro in small doses, but smothered over a piece of ham—I don’t think so.
My DH liked it. He says mint jelly on ham is really good. It also gave him a hankering for lamb.
Comment #7 by Heather O.May 23rd, 2007 at 3:37 pmBlech.
My mom’s extravagances on St. Patrick’s day were simply criminal. She would color the milk green for breakfast. And then, this is the worst, she would color the bread green (she made homemade bread) and make our sandwiches out of it and send us to school! Do you know what it’s like to open your lunchbox when you’re a desperately uncool sixth-grader and pull out PB&J on green bread?
Comment #8 by MelindaMay 23rd, 2007 at 3:46 pmHeeeyyyy, I had green eggs & ham and real stone soup in Joy School, too! You aren’t from Danville, are you, Fluffychicky?
I’m another one of those who was lucky to get Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes. Though I recall wanting, even more than the said Mickey Mouse pancakes, pancakes that were in the shape of an A (my first inital).
Comment #9 by AmandaMay 23rd, 2007 at 4:10 pmNo, I am not from Danville, but I am glad to know that I was not the only child (not counting the others in class) that was subjected to the green eggs and ham and stone soup in Joy School. Frankly, I am amazed that someone else knew what Joy School was!
I never got Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes, but I did get silver dollar sized ones and my brother and sister and I used to have contests to see how many of them we could down in a single sitting.
Comment #10 by fluffychickyMay 23rd, 2007 at 4:24 pmI was reluctant to say it before, but I’m outed now. My refusal to partake was in joy school, too. We did stone soup that year, but especially memorable for some reason was churning butter in a mason jar.
Comment #11 by cantinflasMay 23rd, 2007 at 5:05 pmMy dad did the green eggs and ham thing, too. And the Milk, and the mashed potatoes. And the butter. It was all green.
Comment #12 by Tracy MMay 23rd, 2007 at 5:06 pmI was in Joy School, too! Does that exist anymore? (I don’t have toddlers yet, so I wouldn’t know.) We looooved Joy School! I did it in San Diego, but I’m sure it was everywhere. But I don’t remember ever making stone soup. I feel jipped.
Comment #13 by StarababaMay 23rd, 2007 at 5:34 pmThe last time I heard of Joy School was when my sister was in it…which was two years after I was in it…which would be early-mid 80’s. I still have some of the audio cassettes that we would listen to. My favorite one was the one about Thanksgiving because it had the “Mister Turkey” song on it and I learned how to play it on the piano all by myself while I was in Joy School and everyone was envious of my musical skills.
I don’t know how widespread Joy School was…I had always assumed it was just an Idaho/Utah type thing. But even here in Idaho, there are very few people that I know have heard/participated in Joy School. My husband grew up 30 miles north of where I did and he had never heard of the thing. I think he missed out big time because I remember when it was time for me to start kindergarten and I threw the biggest fit and asked (begged) my parents to let me stay in Joy School for the rest of my educational career…it was that cool.
Comment #14 by fluffychickyMay 23rd, 2007 at 5:44 pmGrammatically, you are correct, Dr. Seuss really only assigns the colour adjective “green” to the eggs, but the illustrations he drew clearly show that he meant for the ham to be ‘thunk’ of as green as well. I have made green scrambled eggs for many of my school classes (grades K-4 I think) and have many mixed reviews. There are a variety of kids who say, “COOL!” but won’t touch them. I have this cook book as well, and it is a lot of fun. I let my class read it for fun, but we haven’t tried anything out of it officially. I did, however, invent Truffula Fruit Cake for Diffendoofer Day (Dr. Seuss’ B-day March 2) and we eat it every year. It is amazing what joy food colour can bring to a child.
Comment #15 by LisaMay 23rd, 2007 at 6:57 pmI know my sister-in-law in TX did joy school with some of her kids a couple of years ago. And some moms in my ward here in WI were planning on doing it this year, but I think it fell through (my oldest was only 1.5, so I didn’t pay much attention).
Comment #16 by VadaMay 23rd, 2007 at 7:20 pmHey, I’m looking forward to that Who Pudding and Roast Beast experiment. Maybe you’ll find a new way to initiate the early onset of labor! (Hey, If you do it in the next week, maybe I’ll still win the guessing contest!)
Comment #17 by JustRandiMay 23rd, 2007 at 10:32 pmMy cousin does Joy school right now with her daughter. They live in FL.
Are you planning on trying anymore of those recipes soon? I’d love to hear (and see) how THOSE turn out!
Comment #18 by Natalie S.May 23rd, 2007 at 11:09 pm2 drops of green and one drop of blue per egg, scrambled.
(Don’t ask me how I know that.)
Comment #19 by BookslingerMay 23rd, 2007 at 11:13 pmNatalie-
I think we will tackle The Roast Beast next month, even though it’s not Christmas, or anything. The recipe for that is just a whole chicken with some mushrooms shoved under the skin to give it a funky look, and then brushed with garlic and herbs crushed in olive oil. Sounds pretty good, actually.
And of course, we’ll have Who-pudding to go with it, which actually looks YUMMY–tapioca pudding with berris. I love tapioca pudding.
Comment #20 by Heather O.May 24th, 2007 at 8:24 pmWhat, oh what, is Joy School? It sounds a little new agey and scary!
We used to have green waffles and green milk on st. patrick’s day, but that was about it.
My own kids would probably refuse green eggs and ham. My 7 year old daughter is way to sophisticated. She only eats egg whites over easy.
Comment #21 by meemsMay 24th, 2007 at 11:51 pmha! doesn’t sound like joy school has changed much. we are currently doing it and we’ve covered green eggs, stone soup, AND mister turkey! anything but new agey, meems… more like june cleaver-ish. www.valueslearning.com i think that’s the right site…? it’s good stuff, though. my kids dig it and the moms like it, too.
our “green eggs” are scrambled with tons of chopped spinach. far more attractive with some added nutrition! we’ve also done deviled eggs with a bit of dye with the yolks. fun!
Comment #22 by makakonaMay 27th, 2007 at 2:35 amLaugh! I was in joyschool too - and we TOTALLY did green eggs & ham! It was the early ’80’s in California. It actually wasn’t that new-agey. It really seemed more like a glorified and more organized play-date. And a good way for our moms to share some time off, by trading days. It was baisically like Sumbeams in the home, but more weekday friendly.
Comment #23 by jane doughMay 28th, 2007 at 12:02 amIt was good for me, anyway. I was “shy” as a kid (as an adult, we realized I probably have an anxiety disorder - go figure). I was able to make friends who were later in kindergarten and primary with me. It helped with the eventual transition to school. I plan to try to start it up with friends in my area when I have my own kids.
[…] Ok, this isn’t ACTUALLY the one that I made, but it looked almost exactly like that. Really. I didn’t take a picture of the one I really made, because I thought, “Only somebody incredibly LAME would take a picture of their meal to blog about it”, so I righteously avoided my camera and instead enjoyed my dinner with my family, even though J complained that there was no salad. Yes, he’s a salad machine. Anyways, I realized after everything was eaten and put away and all that that I have, indeed, in the past, taken a picture of food I have made and posted it on my blog, so I’m already branded with the lameness of food blogging, so I should have just embraced my inner lameness and shared it all with you. […]
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