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March 2: Celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday, Read Across America

In honor of Dr. Seuss' Birthday and Read Across America, here are some Seuss-tastic food ideas that are fun/fast. Keep in mind: "a celebration is a celebration, no matter how small!"

Each year on Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, March 2nd, a nationwide reading celebration takes place called Read Across America.  Sponsored by the National Educators Association (N.E.A.), Read Across America brings together children of all ages to celebrate their love for reading.  This Friday, schools, libraries and various other organizations will be hosting celebrity readers and partaking in numerous “Suess-tastic” activities!

It is time for my favorite “holiday”…!

I developed a passion for the zany words of Theodor Geisel after my initial reading of them to a class full of preschoolers.  Their enthusiasm as they joined me in reiterating, “I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam I am!” was contagious. 

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Although, the biggest highlight was when I served them green scrambled eggs for snack.  For kids who ate play-dough and sand from the sand table, their discerning palette astounded me.  (Learning from this, I made a reserved batch, minus the food coloring, the following year).

After years of thematic activities and reading to hundreds of children, one would think the celebration would get old.  But not for me, I now go as a costumed character for “Cat in the Hat” visits and race to several schools to read to as many children possible.  (I always cross my fingers I won’t get pulled over in my crusade). 

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A couple of years ago, I had the joy of visiting three different schools with my daughter as the “mini” Cat in the Hat (from I Can Read With My Eyes Shut).  It thrills me that she enjoys Dr. Seuss, and reading, as much as I do.  Though, I practically forced it upon her by reading, Oh, the places you will go, in Utero aloud when I was pregnant.

Dr. Seuss describes my life in his words, “How did it get so late so soon?” 

With my time a stretched a bit thin, my Seussical activities have been scaled back.  However, I believe that a “Celebration is a Celebration, no matter how small!”  At home we will be celebrating with seussically named, easy to prepare foods. 

If you are pressed for time like me, here is your one stop for ideas you can actually use this Dr. Seuss’s Birthday!  Remember that, "If you never (celebrated this) you should. These things are fun and fun is good."

Breakfast Foods

  • Flapjack Flappers…Oh, Say Can You Say?
    • Your favorite pancake recipe (mine is from a box!)
  • Blueberry Bumplings…The Cat in The Hat Songbook
    • Mini blueberry muffins
  • Brigger-ba-Root’s Doughnut Holes from If I Ran the Circus or David Donald Doo’s Dozen Doughnuts from Dr. Seuss’s A B C
    • Stop by your local Dunkin’ Donuts and viola!

Snacks Foods

  • Who-Pudding…How the Grinch Stole Christmas
    • Make your own or buy in the refrigerator section of the grocery store. 
  • Apples on Top…Ten Apples Up on Top
    • Peel one large apple.  Cut the apple on the side to insure large round slices.  Have the kids count to ten as they stack them.
  • Fish Snacks…One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
    • Colorful Goldfish
  • Truffula Fruits…The Lorax
    • Red Grapes on the vines

Lunch & Dinner Foods

  • Green Eggs & Ham…Green Eggs and Ham
    • Any fully cooked ham, I usually get the spiral cut since it is easier to serve.  After preparing to the packaged directions, place on large platter.  To make it green, cover in a thin layer of cooked spinach or cover in apple jelly and top with chopped cilantro or parsley.
  • Roast Beast Sandwiches…How The Grinch Stole Christmas
  • Daisy-Head Burgers…Daisy-Head Mayzie
    • After making or buying your favorite burgers, top them with a clever daisy!  (Thick sliced cheese cut with a daisy cookie cutter with a green toothpick “stem”)
  • Hoop-Soup (for your Hoop-Soup-Snoop-Group)…Dr. Seuss’ Sleep Book
    • Your favorite soup recipe
  • Corn-on-the-Cobsk…If I Ran the Zoo
    • You’ll have to buy frozen corn on the cob this time of year

Drinks

  • Pink Ink…One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
    • Pink lemonade serve with a pail of Ice
  • Nice Ice…I Can Read With My Eyes Shut
    • Serve ice in a pail (target has some in the dollar area) with a sign that says, “NICE ICE FOR SALE-10 CENTS A PAIL”

Desserts

  • Schlopp with a Cherry on Top…The Things You Can Think
    • Create your own ice cream sundaes
  • Cat in the Hat Cake…Cat in The Hat
    • Prepare several round cake layers.  Frost some red and some white.  Beginning with the red layer, alternate the layers by color.  Serve on a large white, circle-shaped platter.
  • Green Eggs…Green Eggs and Ham
    • Melt white chocolate over double boiler.  When smooth, spoon small amounts onto parchment paper and shape into a fried egg shape.  Before the chocolate sets, top with one green M&M for the yoke.

Just as everyone is “Irish” on St. Patrick’s Day, everyone is a “kid again” on Dr. Seuss’s Birthday—no matter how old.  So, even if your kids are grown, share some Pink Ink with your coworkers, leave some Green Eggs (the dessert version, please) in your mailbox for your mail carrier, or drop off a tall Cat in the Hat Cake to the fire and police departments.

Before you say, “Oh the things that she thinks,” please note that these ideas have been adapted over time from various sources, such as The Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook by Georgeanne Brennan.

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