A Taste Of Minnesota just wasn't for me this year. Two years ago I went to see Blondie and ended up learning about Chubby Checker Steaks. Then last year the steaks were absent but Chubby Checker was performing at the festival. This year there was nothing Chubby Checker related so I had no reason to go. A Taste Of Minnesota has never really been my deal. When it started, the point was to have booths from local restaurants so people could taste what was around town. If I wanted to do that, I would just go to restaurants around town.
In fact, this year a newspaper article complained about how it was less restaurant-y (not their phrasing) and more deep fried food-y (also not their phrasing). I don't have a strong stance on that debate, because if I want fried food I can find that at the State Fair, which is a much better Minnesota tradition. Although I don't actually go to the Fair for the food, I go because I've never missed a year my whole life. I go to look at the livestock and the crops and the tractors and think about how I want to be a farmer.
The Fair started as an agricultural exposition and I like to respect the tradition by looking at prize winning vegetables and scritching the heads of sheep. And my favorite: admiring the big charts that explain how much state revenue comes from hog farming. Oh! And getting recipe brochures from the Beef Council. I love living in Minnesota because while I live in the largest metropolitan area, I can still drive forty minutes in any direction and see crops and/or cows.
Anyway, since I think that A Taste Of Minnesota (with its lack of farm attractions) is sub-par, I would never go without a specific reason. I was sad that Chubby Checker was not there this year, but I found an article that cheered me up. Even though he wasn't doing something meat-related in my town, he was still doing something meat-related. He was in South Carolina, promoting his new line of food products. At a Piggly Wiggly.
When I saw the headline Check Out Chubby Checker Friday At The Pig, I just assumed that The Pig was a venue. Or the nickname of a venue. Nope. It's the Piggly Wiggly. I thought it was great when a reader happened upon Chubby Checker at the Hy-Vee, and now he's at the Piggly Wiggly! Apparently Chubby Checker embraces many grocery stores. But I suppose if you are launching a food product, a food store is a good choice. I can't fault Mr. Checker's logic.
And lucky for us, he is branching out beyond meat. There are sweet snacks being marketed as well! He will have a stranglehold on all snack foods very soon! Actually, this food line exists because he is tired of snack food that isn't tasty. Again, I will not fault Mr. Checker for his logic. He likes snacks that taste good and assumes that consumers do too. I think that is perfectly reasonable.
He has other more specific goals, such as bringing back beef jerky as a top snack. A round of applause for the author of the article because I love the concept of a top snack. Although as far as salty dried meat snacks go, I don't think I've ever eaten beef jerky. Maybe once or twice, but once I see the Slim Jims on display it is all over. There is no other dried meat snack for me. It's Slim versus Chubby in a battle for number one!
He's also got hot dogs and candy bars and chocolate covered popcorn. I bought some chocolate covered caramel corn from a Boy Scout a few years ago and my teeth still hurt. I'll have to stick with the meat products, because last but not least we have an easy-to-cook frozen 1/4 pound steak. Another round of applause for the author of the article, because she made sure to point out that the back of the steak package says, "I had the woman in mind."
Oh, Chubby Checker, how can I ever thank you for keeping me in mind when you created your frozen steak? This is brilliant! If it's easy-to-cook I probably won't burn my frozen steak, and therefore will not have to go running for the shelter of a mother's little helper. This is terribly thoughtful of Chubby, but it's not really relevant to my life because while I am a steak consumer, I am never the one cooking the steaks.
Sometimes LCG and me can't decide what to eat because neither one of us feels like driving to our preferred pizza place and we've already eaten Thai food twice in four days. So we run to the grocery store and pick up a couple of steaks, which LCG then throws on the grill. My job is to sit on the couch. I've tried to help. Sometimes I get the assist by holding a fork or draining a vegetable, but most of the time I get sent to watch TV. Cooking steaks really isn't a two-person job. But since Chubby Checker had me in mind, I can only assume that means the couch is going to get more comfortable and that is greatly appreciated.