"The War On Flavorless Food Is Over"

"This is wicked good!"

• 1/2 cup of panko bread crumbs
• 2 TBS oil
• 2 TBS Don't Tread On My Chicken spice blend

Ingredients*: celery salt, kosher salt, paprika, black pepper, garlic, garlic salt, onion, basil, parsley, oregano. *rice powder added to reduce caking

Allergen Notice:
Packaged on equipment that also works with peanuts, tree nuts, soy, and wheat. Our facilities store packaged tree nuts, soy, and dairy items in common areas.

The striped jack "Don't Tread On Me" flag was flown on the first ships of the Continental Navy in 1775. The rattlesnake was a symbol of resistance to the British in Colonial America. It is believed that the phrase "Don't Tread On Me" was first used during the American Revolution.

Although Benjamin Franklin helped create the American rattlesnake symbol, his name isn't generally attached to the rattlesnake flag. The yellow "don't tread on me" standard is usually called a Gadsden flag, for Colonel Christopher Gadsden, or less commonly, a Hopkins flag, for Commodore Esek Hopkins.

In the fall of 1775, the British were occupying Boston and the young Continental Army was holed up in Cambridge, woefully short on arms and ammunition. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, Washington's troops had been so low on gunpowder that they were ordered: "not to fire until you see the whites of their eyes."

In October, a merchant ship called The Black Prince returned to Philadelphia from a voyage to England. On board were private letters to the Second Continental Congress that informed them that the British government was sending two ships to America loaded with arms and gunpowder for the British troops.

Congress decided that General Washington needed those arms more than the British. A plan was hatched to capture the cargo ships. They authorized the creation of a Continental Navy, starting with four ships. The frigate that carried the information from England, the Black Prince, was one of the four. It was purchased, converted to a man-of-war, and renamed the Alfred.

To accompany the Navy on their first mission, Congress also authorized the mustering of five companies of Marines. The Alfred and its sailors and marines went on to achieve some of the most notable victories of the American Revolution. But that's not the story we're interested in here.

What's particularly interesting for us is that some of the Marines that enlisted that month in Philadelphia were carrying drums painted yellow, emblazoned with a fierce rattlesnake, coiled and ready to strike, with thirteen rattles, and sporting the motto "Don't Tread on Me."

*Above history and yellow Gadsden flag photo by http://www.gadsden.info/