We love green eggs and ham
Fifty years have passed since Sam-I-Am first tempted us and that grumpy skeptic with the delectable dish known as Green Eggs and Ham.
During those decades countless parents and teachers have whipped up scrambled eggs and slabs of ham infused with green dye and asked kids to eat them in a house or with a mouse, on a train or in the rain, with a fox and in a box.
“I first started making it for Gio when he was little,” says pastry chef, author and Riverwoods resident Gale Gand of her now 14-year-old son. “I did the eggs with green food coloring. He didn't eat cereal, so I was always looking for other things to make.”
The book hasn't lost its appeal in her household, which now bustles with kindergarten-aged daughters in the mix.
“I read it about once a week to the girls; we're now reading it in French because we're going to France this summer,” she says.
Published in 15 languages, the book tells the story of Sam-I-Am who ... I think you know the rest.
“It's got a good message,” says Gand. “‘You might think you don't like something but you don't know until you try it.' Parents are faced with that every day.
“It applies to everything in life,” she says.
For David Maish and his 7-year-old daughter, Madison, part of the appeal of the book is its rhyme and rhythm.
“It's just silly and it gets kids' attention.” says Maish, owner of David's Bistro in Antioch.
For today, the 117th anniversary of Dr. Suess' birth (or, to be precise, the birth of Theodor Geisel), I asked Maish and Gand to share their versions of this literary dish. They're not the first to re-imagine this dish, and they surely won't be the last. Celeb chef Nigella Lawson tucks ham slices into eggy pesto pancakes; while the Food Network's Tyler Florence piles poached eggs and prosciutto on garlic-rubbed toast and tops it with homemade pesto. If you have a recipe you'd like to share, please post it on my Facebook wall: Deb Pankey Daily Herald.
Try any of these recipes in the dark or on a boat, in a tree or with a goat and you'll be saying: “I do so like green eggs and ham! Thank you! Thank you! Sam-I-Am.”