4 March 2012 Hi Times Issue 6 Vol. 103 Unique eats, tasty treats and __ St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, and it is time to prepare traditional St. Patrick’s Day meals. Many families take part in eating the traditional corned beef and cabbage for St. Patty’s Day, but why do we eat corned beef and cab- bage only on this green holiday? Corned beef and cabbage is a meal started by Irish-Americans in the mid 1800s that is similar to the traditional Irish dish of bacon and cabbage. “I actually hate only five foods, and these are two of them! I think corned beef taste like puke! My father made me and my brothers sit at the dinner table for 13 hours until we ate a Rueben. I never did,” said LPHS math teacher Mr. Olson. Corned beef and cabbage is the well-known traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal, but some families of students at Laporte High School have their own traditional meals for this holiday. “It is a tradition for my family to eat green eggs and ham for this holiday,” said sophomore Alondra Bonilla. Eating green foods and drinking green beverages is also a tradition on St. Patrick’s Day. “I am going to try to eat and drink only green foods and beverages on St. Patty’s Day,” said senior Andrew Schuelke. Stores and restaurants come out with all sorts of weird green food for St. Patrick’s Day. Some popular green items found are condi- ments, such as mayonnaise and ketchup. Special holiday treats can be made by adding a little green food coloring to just about any- thing. “I am going to try to eat my weight in green mashed potatoes,” said Olson. St. Patrick’s Day is a fun and unique holiday. This year, get out and try corned beef and cabbage or maybe some other type of crazy, green food. By Erica Lang Staff Writer What are you drinking? Is that the Shamrock Shake? What is that? All questions one must an- swer when an unusual drink is cradled by the hands of a thirsty consumer. Many crazy and bizarre drinks have emerged as time has pro- gressed. McDonalds features the Shamrock Shake. The Shamrock Shake, a mint flavored, green- dyed vanilla milkshake, is a sea- sonal dessert sold at McDonald's during March to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. “I love the Shamrock Shakes at McDonalds. I don’t even like mints but it’s so good,” said senior Brandon Kreighbaum. In the 1980s, McDonald’s used the character of Uncle O’Grimacey to help advertise their famous green shakes. Since then, the hairy and green monster has been dropped from the marketing group. Building off the shake, the company introduced the Shamrock Sundae. The sundae consisted of vanilla ice cream topped with mint syrup. Unfortunately, after one year, the dessert was discontinued. McDonalds isn’t the only company that has come up with an out- standing drink. The brand Fuse has many flavors that may seem like odd combi- nations to people. An example is Fuse Banana Colada. It is a drink with the blended fruits of pineapple and coconut. There is also the Fuse Cranberry Raspberry. “My favorite is the (Fuse) Strawberry Melon,” said senior Dj Hill. Gatorade has a huge variety of flavors to choose from, as well from the original G-series to the new G-series Fit, gatorade provides fla- vors like lemon-lime strawberry and orange strawberry and cucum- ber. Aside from Gatorade’s crazy flavors, they have also come out with a new line of drinks. It’s called the G Series, and it caiters to the bodies of athletes. There are three different stages to the G Series: the ‘before’, the ‘dur- ing’ and the ‘after’. The ‘before’ is also known as ‘01 Prime,’ ‘during’ is also know as ‘02 Perform’ and ‘after’ is known as ‘03 Recover’. Athletes take a drink out of the 4-oz. pouch 15 minutes before their game or practice, and it is said to ‘provide energy by the maximizing the availability of carbohydrate energy to muscles’. The ‘during’ is an actual bottle of Gatorade, designed to hydrate and refuel the athlete’s bodies. The ‘after’ looks like a taller version of the normal Gatorade bot- tles. It is the first protein and carbohydrate beverage formulated to help with muscle recovery. All three stages provide maximum performance. Starbucks drinks have a reputation of being delicious; however, not many are aware of the unique treats they offer. One example is the Tazo Green Tea Creme Frappuccino. The in- teresting part of this drink is the the color of the blended beverage. It’s green hue tends to turn heads, but customers shouldn’t be too turned-off by the interesting color. The Tazo Green Tea is actually infused with subtle hints of tropi- cal fruit flavors. Regardless of the color, the taste is quite sweet. According to Starbucks.com, the tea is best-known as a key part of the Japanese tea ceremony. It is known as a serene drink. All of these drinks have certain creativity that people like. What drives companies to blend random flavors together? It is a question known to few, but many of people find it intriguing to try the next, cool flavor. By Tommy Snyder Staff Writer School lunches are made out to be gross, repulsive items that aren’t even supposed to be con- sumed by humans, right? What does a school lunch even consist of? Who chooses the lunch that is slopped onto the trays? Actually, the food is chosen by students similar to the ones walking the halls of La Porte High School. The state requires taste testing by students to see what pleases them. Ultimately, the menus are cho- sen by students, food service managers and the food director. “Elementary students normally do the taste testing while mid- dle school students are the ones who share their opinions most with us [directors], and of course we try to have our high school stu- dents sample the food as well,” says food director Judy Kine. “Although we want to please the students, but the food has to pass certain requirements before we can put it onto the trays to serve.” The food has what seems like an infinite amount of require- ments to pass. Fruits and vegetables have to be fresh and frozen or in their own juice. Breads must be whole grains. Everything must have a child nutrition label that’s less than 30 percent fat to 10 percent saturated and 30 percent sugar by gram weight. Milk must be 1 By Jenna Diehl Staff Writer School lunch details unveiled Festive St. Patty’s Day foods become popular LPHS lunch workers pose as they prepare burritos for students. Photo by Jenna Diehl Interesting beverages wake-up taste buds Who’s changing their food color for St. Patrick’s Day? St. Patrick’s Day takes place each year on March 17. Traditions have been started from this very green holiday. St. Patrick’s Day is known for turning people’s everyday food green. Dr. Seuss encouraged the change of color in food by his story Green Eggs and Ham. Now people have tried varieties of new recipes for turning their favorite food green. Green Eggs and Ham INGREDIENTS: 1/4 teaspoon green food coloring 5 tablespoons water sliced ham 2 eggs non stick cooking spray DIRECTIONS: Mix food color and water, set aside. Separate egg white from egg yolks. Place two teaspoons of food color with egg white and mix. Put two tablespoons of food mixture with egg yolks. Brush ham with food color and fry ham until cooked, remove from pan. Place egg whites in fry pan and cook just until they start to set. Place egg yolks on top of the egg whites. Add an additional teaspoon of color mixture to egg to help steam eggs. Put a lid on top of fry pan and finish steaming eggs until done. If the children prefer scrambled eggs, you may want to add two teaspoons of food color mixture to eggs and scramble. When cooking scrambled eggs, cook on medium heat stirring briskly until done. Irish Shamrock Cookies Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 (3 ounce) package instant pistachio pudding mix 1 1/3 cups baking mix 1 egg 1 tablespoon white sugar Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheet. Cream together the butter or margarine and the pud- ding mix. Blend in the baking mix, egg and sugar and mix well. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 3/8 inch thickness and cut into cookies with a shamrock cookie cutter. Place cookies on the prepared baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 9 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges. Let cookies cool on rack. Frost with green colored icing if one desires. Irish Beef Stew Ingredients: Vegetables (Your choice) 2 cups of beef broth Directions: Mix vegetables and broth in a pan. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 6 hours. Add seasoning for flavor. Enjoy and serve with festive smiles! By Taylor Crider Staff Writer Saint Patrick’s Day inspires green recipes for tasty holiday treats percent or fat free. New regulations also limit fat and sodium requirements. Most recently, new regulations limit starchy vegetables. That does mean the mashed potatoes had to go, and the pasta and whole grain rice had to move in. “I miss the potatoes. They were filling and tasty, I thought that the pasta was a creative way to work in a healthier diet, though,” said sophomore Taylor Goodwin. School lunches must be healthy considering the pro- cesses they go through to reach the lunch tray. The food follows hazard analysis and critical con- trol point, or HACCP. La Porte County Health Department in- spects the kitchen each trimes- ter and during the summer. Em- ployees are Serve Safe Certified and the expiration dates are fol- lowed. Even the times that the food arrives are recorded. There will not be steak and eggs appearing in the lunch lines anytime soon; however new, tasty and healthy choices are being implemented at all times during the year. “At this time many changes are in the works and as we put these in place we will ask for student help to make sure they are ac- cepted,” said Kine. Just remember- everyone is a part of the choosing process for school lunches, and yes, the meat is actually edible. Photo by Tommy Snyder McD’s Shamrock Shake.