365 National Days of...

  Happy Wednesday! We are almost one week into 2021, can you believe it?!  Today is National Bean Day. National Bean Day is January 6th as a nod to Gregor Mendel who died on January 6, 1884. Gregor Mendel was a geneticist who used bean plants and pea plants to study plant genetics.  The History of the Bean The first bean plants were cultivated by Native tribes of Peru and Mexico as far back as 7000 B.C. In 1551, the term 'kidney bean' was coined as way to differentiate between different kinds of beans. The modern fairy tale, "Jack and the Beanstalk," first appeared in 1734 as "The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean." Gregor Mendel began his research in genetics in 1854 using bean plants. National Bean Day Activities 1. Attend a chili cookoff! I love chili and this would be the best bean day activity for me. So many different varieties, ingredients, and ways to make it and so yummy too! 2. Create and perfect your own baked beans recipe. My favorit...

  Happy National Bird Day! Birds are amazing creatures and so beautiful too. National Bird Day was created by the Avian Welfare Coalition, in 2002, to raise awareness on the lives and hardships of birds. The AWC also wanted initiate change in creating healthier environments and more sustainable relationships with birds. Birds are our closest link to the dinosaurs as they have the most evolutionary ties with them. Birds are also the cornerstone of all other animals in many ways. For example, the holes that woodpeckers make are often homes for larger animals. Because of this the ACW wants to make sure that the trees that woodpeckers peck aren't demolished. Ways to celebrate National Bird Day: 1. Read Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" 2. Watch episodes of Looney Tunes with Wile E. Coyote 3. Build a birdhouse and feed some birds Hope you enjoyed this information about National Bird Day. For more information please visit, www.nationaltoday.com. Tomorrow: National Bean Day

  Welcome back for another installment of National Day of...! Today is National Spaghetti Day. Anyone else really loving that 3 of the 4 days so far has talked about food?! In most households, spaghetti is a favorite and everyone has their own way of making it. I make sure to add diced tomatoes and sweet onions to my spaghetti sauce. I also prefer that the sauce isn’t mixed in with the noodles because I think it makes it dry, but everyone has their own way.  The oldest documentation about pasta goes as far back as 1st Century B.C. It was found in the writings of a Roman poet and was referred to as Lagana or sheets of dough. During the 12th century spaghetti production bean in Sicily. Today, Spaghetti has evolved in so many ways and is often prepared with basil or oregano.  Does anyone have any favorite ways of determining if spaghetti is ready? One of the most fun ways is to throw it all the wall to see if it sticks or not; I just have my husband taste it so he can tell m...

 There was a lot going on yesterday so I missed posting yesterday but I still wanted to talk about National Chocolate Covered Cherry day. I don’t know about you, but I’m a fan of anything that includes chocolate. Chocolate should be it’s own food group. I also love cherries so the combination of the two is the best.  Chocolate covered cherries are also known as cherry cordials. The first chocolate covered cherries were made in the 1700s by the English. The cherries were soaked in a cherry brandy and covering them with chocolate. They were saved by for the holidays and were savored because of their intoxicating effects. Cherry cordials in America were made by crushing whole cherries and cooking them in sugar and brandy and then coating them with chocolate. During prohibition, alcohols was removed from the cherry cordials. Modern chocolate covered cherries started being mass produced - without alcohol - in 1929. Today, the most popular brands of cherry cordials are Cella’s, Quee...

Back again for more riveting information about today's national day. I hope everyone enjoyed the information about National Hangover Day. January 2nd is National Buffet Day. Like most Americans, I love  buffets but hate that I wasn't able to enjoy them in 2020. National Buffet Day is the perfect day to come after National Hangover Day. Let's face it, in the US everything revolves around food. Food unites us. When we celebrate there's food, when we're depressed there's food; it might not be the best way to cope with the problems around us, but it's what we do.  Buffets are great because it settles the age old question: What's for dinner? My husband and I can spend hours  trying to figure out what we're going to have for dinner which is such a monotonous process. So a buffet can be a great compromise.  The first modern buffet in the United States was debuted in 1939 in New York but originally started in Sweden in the 1800s. In 1939, the buffet was debu...

 Welcome to my new blog. This year I have decided that I'm going to dedicate a little time each day to writing about what the national day of is. We here it all the time, 'today is the national day of,' but we hardly know what any of them are about, so I thought it would be a little fun to find out. So here we go...January 1st is probably the easiest to guess: National Hangover Day. I think National Hangover Day is easily explained. Everyone spends December 31st drinking and partying and celebrating the incoming year, just to wake up with the biggest headache they have ever had in their life. Hopefully, if you wake up after a night of partying you are one of the lucky ones that doesn't have to work on National Hangover Day. However, if you're not one of the lucky ones, I've got some tips from around the world for you. 1. In Russia, people with hangovers spend time in a sauna. 2. Ancient Romans believed that the only way to cure a hangover was to eat fried canary...