On Friday, Chick-fil-A will ring-in the “Eat More Chikin” Cows – Cow Appreciation Day. As part of the Atlanta-based restaurant chain’s celebration, Chick-fil-A is offering a free meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) to any customer who visits one of its 1,800 restaurants fully dressed as a cow.
Customers dressed “head to hoof” in cow attire will receive a free Chick-fil-A Meal, which includes an entrée, side item and Dr Pepper (or beverage of choice). Customers who are too “chicken” to go all-out in cow attire will receive a free entrée of choice for wearing any cow-spotted accessory, such as a hat, scarf, tie or purse.
Locally, the Chick-fil-A Towne Creek Commons is celebrating the “holiday” with its own twist. On Thursday, they will host a Craft Night so that customers will be able to make costumes and prepare for Cow Appreciation Day.
Chick-fil-A has a special web site dedicated to the day: www.CowAppreciationDay.com. The site offers in-depth details on the celebration, cow costume ideas, as well as downloadable cow spots, masks and other bovine-themed accessories customers can use to create costumes.
New Pat Branning cookbook
Continuing the tradition she started with 2009’s “Shrimp, Collards & Grits,” Pat Branning, formerly of Salisbury, has a new coffee-table cookbook, “Magnolias, Porches & Sweet Tea,” 16 pages of which are excerpted in the hefty magazine Charleston Style & Design.
The 450-page magazine includes an excerpt from the book and a number of recipes, many of which include the Southern delicacy, crab. The photos in the book are by Branning’s son Andrew, a Catawba College graduate, but the book includes many paintings by Charleston-area artists. Other recipes use perennial Southern favorites such as corn, sweet potatoes and squash.
The excerpt is in the spring 2014 issue of the magazine.
Canning workshops
Cooperative Extension will offer The Basics of Home Canning, a series of workshops to teach the principles of canning and how to safely can at home. The focus will be on safety, types of equipment and proper methods. Participants will receive hands-on experience operating both a water bath canner and a pressure canner. Designed for beginners with little or no previous canning experience, the workshops will also help experienced canners as the session includes updates on the most recent USDA canning recommendations.
Workshops dates are Monday, July 21, 6-9:30 p.m., for high acid; and Monday, July 28, for low acid, from 6-9:30 p.m. The deadline to sign up is Thursday, July 17 (high acid) and Thursday, July 24 (low acid).
The workshops will be at the Rowan County Extension office. Cost is $20, which includes all written materials, food and class supplies. Class size is limited, so register early.
For more information, please contact Toi Degree, Extension family and consumer education agent, at 704-216-8970.