It's National French Fry day!

Ok, who doesn’t like French fries, chips, pommes frites, freedom fries, French-fried potatoes… no matter what you call them or how you cook ‘em (deep fried, oven baked, pan fried)? No one we know that’s for sure. The history of the French fry varies depending on who you ask. My favorite explanation is that the Belgians invented them. They date them back to the 1600’s. During the winter, when the river was frozen they could not fish so they cut up potatoes and ate those fried in oil instead. During World War I soldiers tasted the fried potatoes and called them French because at that time it was the official language of the Belgian Army.

Here are two good sites to read about the history of a French fry HERE at Official French Fries and HERE

So in the tradition of Fun and Facts with Kids, can you guess what we are going to do? You guess it, we are making our own French Fries. Of course the kids are going to have a blast not only eating them but making them too!

You can always:

If you have a favorite French Fries stop that you have been avoiding, now is the day to stop by and indulge in a large! Where are your favorite fry places? Wendy's? McDonald's? Red Robin? Feel free to comment on where your favorite places to get fries are!

Make your own Deep Fried Fries. Buy a large (or a couple) baking potatoe(s) and slice up into strips, depending on the thickness you like. Dry on paper towels while heating up some oil in your deep fryer to 350 and fry for 4-5 minutes or until desired crispiness. Drain on paper towels and season with salt.

Make your own oven baked fries. Use a baking potato or whatever your favorite kind of potato. Slice up into wedges or strips and toss in a bowl with olive oil. Spread out onto a baking sheet and sprinkle on some salt (or some johnny's). and bake at 450 degrees F for 15-20 minutes, stirring fries once when they star getting crisp.

Or to make it really simple, use a bag of store bought french fries, your favorite cut, and deep fry them or spread them on a baking sheet and drizzle with some olive oil and bake until desired crispiness.


THE FOOD:
French Fries of course!  Below is the recipe we will be trying this year. We like the idea of baking these treats instead of deep frying them.  We always love it when we can make it healthier for the kids!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/oven-crispy-fries-recipe/index.html

THE CRAFT:

We will place our French fries in paper fry holders. We found the DIY paper template online. We printed it out on Red and White Striped Scrapbook paper and then cut and folded it to shape.  You can find step by step and the template for two mini’s HERE and a large size to print out HERE

FREEBIES:

We found adorable Culinary Art Fonts. You can download from HERE  Below is an example of some of the fonts: (the end one is pizza that I cut off by accident)