March 24: National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day

There really isn't a whole lot to say about chocolate covered raisins.  They're raisins, covered in chocolate.  I wonder if there are "gourmet" chocolate covered raisins - maybe... plump organic golden raisins covered in sustainably-grown dark chocolate with a sprinkle of sea salt? 

You could make your own chocolate covered raisins, but this is a food I don't think I'm going to ever make.  The time involved and the mess that results just makes it seem like buying is the better option here.  (Although, if you make your own, you could experiment with making "gourmet" chocolate covered raisins.  Hrm...)  I celebrated with some chocolate covered raisins from Trader Joe's. 

I guess the most famous brand of chocolate covered raisins are Raisinets.  Did you know that there are webisodes starring cartoon Raisinets?

March 19: National Chocolate Caramel Day and National Poultry Day

National Chocolate Caramel Day

Due to the last few days, I'm sugared out.  So no making chocolate caramels today.  Some people have trouble making candies- I believe you can be always be a successful candy maker if you use a thermometer.  It's when you try making candies by eyeballing color that things can go wrong.

So if you'd like to try making chocolate caramels to celebrate today, try this basic recipe from All Recipes,  Want to take it up a notch?  Try this recipe that calls for sea salt, which pairs wonderfully with chocolate.


National Poultry Day

While I want to have bees instead of chickens whenever I buy a house, I admire people who have their own chickens.  Some people will tell you that chickens are easy animals to take care of, but I still maintain that the only easy pet is a pet rock.  Every animal requires care, whether it's a simple changing of water or trips to the vet.   The chickens that are a part of the Sunset One Block Diet blog are a good example. 

Mother Earth's Community Chickens blog has some good ideas for celebrating National Poulty Day, including the chance to win a huge basket of goodies.  If you want to celebrate in an edible way, try making a cake that requires a large amount of eggs, like an angel food cake or a chiffon cake.  Looking to celebrate at breakfast?   Make an omelet or add some scrambled eggs as a side dish.  Or cook your favorite chicken dish for dinner or make a turkey sandwich to take to work.  Remember, poultry is not limited to chicken!

March 13: National Coconut Torte Day

Wow, there are a lot of variations for coconut torte!  You can incorporate chocolate and almonds for a decadent dessert.   This recipe, from Lindt, with chocolate and strawberries looks very divine.  Godiva, another fine chocolate company, shares a recipe for macadamia coconut torte topped with a chocolate spread.  And of course, pineapple and coconut always go well together.  Redbook shares another coconut torte recipe that features pineapple.  Brazil has its own type of coconut torte, called quindau.

Of course, you can always make a plain coconut torte and still be indulging yourself.

March 6: National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day and National Frozen Foods Day

National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day

Here's another day where I wish I had done a little more planning.  When I first saw that it was National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day today, I thought, "I have white chocolate.  I have cream cheese.  I'll be able to whip up something after work."  Oh, how innocent I was.  The most highly rated white chocolate cheesecake recipes take a minimum of 8 hours.  There's a lot of chilling time involved.  Ah, well...  It's probably better for my waistline that I don't celebrate with a cheesecake today.

If you do feel like celebrating, try this white chocolate raspberry cheesecake recipe.  Just be aware that it will take ten hours.  Really.

Or just see if your local bakery has any ready.  Or, y'know, the Cheesecake Factory.




National Frozen Foods Day

Now, I'm fairly certain that "National Frozen Foods Day" was mainly established to sell you the kinds of frozen foods that you just heat up and serve.  The kind that you just remove the outer packaging, stab holes into the plastic film, and then microwave for a minute or two.  Maybe you have to stir it before it's done.  I've had those meals before, but I don't really buy those anymore.

Primarily, the only frozen foods I buy these days are frozen vegetables, fruits, and fish.  Frozen vegetables are great for those middle of the winter days when all the farmer's market has is lots of potatoes and cruciferous greens (and you just can't eat anymore of those!) or when the vegetables in the produce section look so sad and limp after traveling so far.

I also like freezing the foods I cook.  It's great for frugal food planning - make a large batch of something and store individual portions in plastic containers.  (I like using plastic containers because they're re-useable.)  One of these days when I finally settle down, I'll get one of the large, stand-alone freezers.  If you're not sure about freezing food or you want to read up on it more, there are a lot of cookbooks out there devoted to recipes that are perfect for freezing.

February 28: National Chocolate Souffle Day

75% of the time, today would be the last day of the month, National Chocolate Lover's Month/Chocolate Month, and National Chocolate Souffle Day would be the perfect way to end the month.  Well, this year isn't in that 75%, but it's still National Chocolate Souffle Day!

I've never made a chocolate souffle, but I have made souffle in the past.  Twice, both for one lab because my first was a disaster.  If you're careful and patient souffles are pretty easy, but if you rush any part of the process... you end up with a hot mess.  NPR has some information about the science involved in making the perfect souffle.  If you feel like giving it a shot, Reluctant Gourmet and Real Simple both have recipes that look pretty good. 

February 25: National Clam Chowder Day and National Chocolate Covered Nuts Day

National Clam Chowder Day

The 21st of last month was New England Clam Chowder Day.  Now, today is just National Clam Chowder Day and I think this is for all types of clam chowder.  Did you know there was more than just New England and Manhattan Clam Chowder?  Apparently there's also Rhode Island, Hatteras, Delaware, and Minorcan Clam Chowders - all different just enough.  I'll have to make it a goal to try all of them.  (Yes, I have some mundane life goals.)  Of course, each region claims that their clam chowder is the ONLY clam chowder. 

It's interesting to read about the history of clam chowder.  Although, the histories of clam chowder you find on the net are all a little different.  What's Cooking America has the history of New England, Manhattan, and Minorcan Clam Chowders. 


National Chocolate Covered Nuts Day

In honor of National Chocolate Covered Nuts Day, I picked up some Sea Salt and Turbinado Sugar Dark Chocolate Almonds from Trader Joe's.  One thing I love about Trader Joe's is that the cashiers feel free to chat with you about the products you're buying.  Today, the cashier looked at the chocolate-covered almonds and asked if I had them before.  I hadn't and he let me know that everyone else who has had them said you get hooked after one.

Everyone else wasn't kidding.

The tasty sea salt and turbinado
almonds set me back $3.99

I've had the chocolate and salt flavor combination before and I love it.  These Trader Joe's almonds were no exception.  These hit all my taste buds and sent them to nirvana.  I ate quite a few of these and then firmly put the lid back on so I would stop eating them.  They really are delicious and can easily become a mindless eating food.  I'll have to be careful about that.

If Sea Salt and Turbinado Sugar just doesn't appeal to you, Trader Joe's has other chocolate covered almonds.  The Sea Salt and Turbinado cost me $3.99.  Some stores will sell other chocolate covered nuts, but I most often see chocolate covered almonds.  You can also make your own chocolate covered nuts - just melt down some of your favorite chocolate in a bowl or saucepan, toss the nuts in, then spread the nuts on a baking sheet or parchment paper.  Let cool and then enjoy.

You can also just get plain dark or
 milk chocolate covered almonds.

February 19: Chocolate Mint Day

Today's Chocolate Mint Day and I have a mint plant that is of the chocolate mint variety, but since my calendar is supposed to be about food holidays, though, I'm guessing that "Chocolate Mint Day" is referring to chocolate with mint flavoring. 

Chocolate and mint are paired together in so ways.  There's chocolate mint ice cream, cookies, cakes, candies,  beer, tea, and fudge.  Smitten Kitchen even has a great recipe for Chocolate Souffle Cupcakes with Mint Cream.  There are endless ways to pair chocolate and mint.  I'm just curious how long this pairing has been happening.  Probably since the days of the Aztecs.

And of course, it's Girl Scout Cookie Season, so if you're a lover of the combination of mint and chocolate, it's time to go get those Thin Mints. 

Also,  Delish says it's National Chocolate Month which makes sense since it's also Chocolate Lover's Month.  In honor of the month, Delish has 8 facts about chocolate.  Really, the only one that was new to me was that the US doesn't even rank as one of the top ten chocolate-consuming nations. 

February 14: Cream-filled Chocolate Day (or Creme-filled Chocolate Day, if you prefer)

Happy Valentine's Day!  Or Singles Awareness Day!  Or, most simply, Happy February 14th!

Today in the US is a big day for chocolate-giving.  (It is in other parts of the world, too, like Japan- although the traditions are a little different.)  Stores here have been stocking Valentine-themed chocolates since before Christmas.  So with today being the peak of chocolate giving in the US, it makes sense that today is Cream-filled Chocolate Day.  (Plus, it's Chocolate Lover's Month, so bonus!)

Chocolates aren't my favorite Valentine's Day candy, so I didn't pay too close attention to the chocolates when I was at the store last week.  During an impromptu run to the store today, though, I looked carefully at the chocolates offered.  Not one was cream-filled!  I was a little shocked - were they all purchased already?  Are they not that big of a seller?  Maybe cream-filled chocolates are only sold in the variety packs or as individual truffles at chocolate shops, like Godiva.  (By the way, if you sign up for their rewards club, you get a free truffle every month.)

Even if you don't have chocolate today, honor Chocolate Lover's Month by reading up on some strange ways chocolate keeps you healthy.  And just remember that tomorrow is what my friends like to call "Half-Off Chocolate Day."

Also, it slipped my mind that yesterday, the 2nd Monday of February, was Oatmeal Monday.  Whoops.  Well, considering oatmeal already gets a month (January), gets at least one other day (either the 16th or 29th of October) and is celebrated in cookie, muffin, and waffle form later in the year - I don't feel too bad about missing yesterday's Oatmeal Day.

February 11: Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day and Peppermint Patty Day

I don't really have anything to say about Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day except...  did you catch President Obama's joke during the State of the Union speech?  Oh, and has anyone actually cried over spilled milk?  Anyone the age over five that is?

Okay, on to Peppermint Patty Day!  Peppermint patties are peppermint flavored discs  covered in chocolate.  I've never been a fan of the combination of chocolate and mint together, so this is another food I don't know a whole lot about.  The only peppermint patties I know of are York peppermint patties.  Those seem to be pretty popular.  You can also make your own.  Plus, I think they'd be great for decorating chocolate cakes.

February 10: Cream Cheese Brownies Day

It's Cream Cheese Brownies Day!  I figured that cream cheese brownies just meant that cream cheese was mixed into the batter before baking.  Well, it can be, but there are quite a few variations on cream cheese brownies.  Some recipes call for the cream cheese to be a separate layer on top of a chocolate layer, while others use the cream cheese to create a marbled effect.  Here's a quick round-up of recipes I looked at:

• Smitten Kitchen's Cream Cheese Brownies is a marbled brownie recipe adapted from Cook's Illustrated.  It was also tweaked a couple of  years later.
• Stylish Cuisine has a layered recipe that she declares is the best brownie she's ever had.  Supposedly, these are best straight from the freezer.
• This cream cheese brownie recipe is a marbled type, but tatkes the short-cut of using a brownie mix.  So does this Betty Crocker recipe. 
• I really wanted to try this Joy of Cooking recipe, but I don't have any metal bowls.
• Like raspberries?  Then you might want to try this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker that uses raspberries.

Eventually, I picked this recipe from Kraft.  Since I have no large microwave-safe bowl, I melted the butter and chocolate using my Micro Pitcher set from Tupperware (that thing is awesome!) and then poured the melted butter and chocolate into a mixing bowl.  Otherwise, I just followed the recipe as it is written.  One little puzzle I ran into was that the cream cheese mixture was a lot of mixture!  I was expecting it to be a smaller amount but there was enough that I could have probably made it a layered brownie.  Also, swirling the two batters together was a bit problematic - the chocolate layer was really thick.  The recipe says to swirl gently which I figured was just cutting a knife through in various directions.  Nope!  This took some actual swirling to get the batters to mix in a nice swirl pattern.

Here's my attempt at getting the swirl, but not really getting it....

 I put it in the oven anyways, wondering if the two batters would mix more while baking.

I baked it for 40 minutes and, since I also had trouble spreading it evenly in the pan, it cooked a little unevenly.  The top of the cream cheese portion browned a little in spots. 

It was tasty and the smell was so good that the brownies were cut long before it was completely cooled.  It's a good recipe - very, very sweet - but definitely not a good recipe for those concerned with their weights.

February 5: Chocolate Fondue Day

Right now, a majority of Americans are watching the Superbowl, the game of all games for the sport known as (American) football.  I'm one of them.  I have no particular investment in the game - no money on the game, none of my teams made it - so I'm just rooting for a good game.  Well, I suppose I'm semi-cheering for the Giants, since so many of my friends are Giants fans.

In addition to being the day of the Superbowl, it's Chocolate Fondue Day.  So while the game is on, we're dipping various foodstuffs in melted semi-sweet chocolate mixed with cream.  We started out with fruits and some peanut butter sandwhich cookies as you see pictured here, but as the game has gone on, we started dipping anything and everything in the chocolate.  Leftover waffles?  Dip it!  Pumpkin bread?  Dip it!  Hey, we have some carrots! Uh....

Okay, so we're not dipping everything.

First step for the fondue, after buying everything, was chopping up the chocolate.  That was tiring so we took turns.  Next time, I buy the chocolate that comes in smaller pieces.

Initially, for our chocolate fondue, we mixed about half a pound of semi-sweet chocolate with 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream. As the chocolate melted, we added about 1/3 cup more cream since the chocolate was looking thick.  We began by dipping fresh pineapple chunks, fresh mango slices, fresh seedless green graps, dried figs, fresh satsuma mandarin segments, fresh ruby red grapefruit, dried papaya  spears, and peanut butter sandwich cookies.  As the chocolate dipping continued, we added some fresh banana, pumpkin bread, and even some leftoever waffles.

By the time halftime came around, we were chocolated out (but not out of chocolate.)  Sometime in the third quarter, we unplugged the mini crockpot we were using for the chocolate.  (While being bi-coastal is great for exploring, it sucks when your electric fondue pot is on the other coast and you're looking for it.)

I feel like I need to eat nothing but cruciferous greens for the next 24 hours to atone for the chocolate consumed.

Happy Chocolate Fondue Day, folks!  And here's hoping the end of the game is exciting and the commercials improve!

January 10th: Bittersweet Chocolate Day

Now this is a day I can easily celebrate.  I love bittersweet chocolate (a.k.a. extra dark chocolate) and I try to make sure to eat at least a piece a day.  (It's good for both your brain and your heart!)  It's usually my afternoon snack or my dessert at night.  Sometimes, I'll use it in something like a microwave s'more or crushed and sprinkled into my yogurt. 

When I was younger, I couldn't stand chocolate.  I still don't really care for chocolate cake or ice cream (I much prefer vanilla in both cases), but as an adult, I find I really like dark chocolate.  Milk chocolate is too sweet and white chocolate is even sweeter.  Finding a chocolate I like was hard at first because I was also trying to stick with companies whose business practices I found ethical.  I once read a collection of food essays (I think it was Food for Thought by Rubin, but I can't be sure) and one essay was about the mostly unethical chocolate industry.  After reading that essay and learning about the links chocolate has to child slavery and damage to the environment, I vowed to only buy from companies I thought had good practices.  Stop Chocolate Slavery has a pretty thorough list of chocolate companies and whether or not they claim to be organic and/or fair trade.  I do occasionally buy from Chuao Chocolates, even though they're not organic, because one of the owners presented at the Science of Chocolate and was impressive.  It still has that small family feel and the shop in La Jolla is always nice to visit.

However, I have to admit my go-to chocolate these days is Taza Chocolate.  (It's found at most Whole Foods.)  It really reminds me of the chocolate you buy in Mexico - slightly grainy, rich, flavorful, and just dissolves in your mouth.  It's not listed on Stop Chocolate Slavery, but claims to be Counter Culture Direct Trade Certified and USDA Organic.

Some places, though, I can't find Taza or it is just out of my budget for the day. Another chocolate that I like to buy is Endangered Species chocolate, specifically the 88% with the blank panther on the packaging.  If I'm feeling indulgent or craving something really sweet, I'll go for the 77% with almonds and cranberries (the one with the wolf on the packaging.)  Normally, though, when I'm trying a new brand, I'll reach for the 85% or higher, as that's what I like best. 

I've tried 99% chocolate and I just don't like it.  Yet, I love taking cocoa beans, taking off the outer shell, and then nibbling away on the bean.  Most people prefer to crush the beans and use them as topping because many people find the bean to be bitter.  For some reason, I don't but I still can't stand the 99% chocolate.  I'm not sure why, but for me, 100% cocoa = awesome, 99% = ew!, and 88% cocoa= awesome.

Another chocolate I like is SweetRiot.  Those cute little tins filled with chocolate-coated cocoa nibs are perfect to keep in my purse or backpack.  When I have the urge for chocolate, one or two of those little nibs can help making the craving go away.  They're USDA Organic and are working on earning their fair trade certification.  I'm not sure of all the places you can find Sweet Riot, but I know you can find them at REI, Whole Foods and the SweetRiot website.

January 3rd = Fruitcake Toss Day and Chocolate-Filled Cherry Day/Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day

Fruitcake Toss Day

Time for a confession!  (Already?)  I've never eaten fruitcake.  Really.  I've always been interested in trying some, since everybody claims fruitcake is terrible.  I've thought about buying fruitcake, but somehow I got the notion that fruitcake is something you give - purchasing one for yourself would break some secret societal norm.  So I've never had one.

Every year at the Holiday White Elephant party, a fruitcake (rumored to be the same one year after year) would put in an appearance.  I never did end up with it and I always wondered about this persisting rumor that people regift fruitcake the next holiday season.  As much as I would like to try fruitcake, there is no way in the world I'd eat one that was a year or more old.

So, if you have fruitcake leftover or fruitcake that you never opened, give it the old heave-ho today.  It's probably too old to be safe, so toss it out.


Chocolate-Filled Cherry Day / Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day

Some sources say that today is Chocolate-Filled Cherry Day while others say it is Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day.  I have never seen a chocolate-filled cherry and a quick bit of internet-sleuthing turned up nothing useful. It would be an interesting candy, though - maybe one day I'll have to try making it.  I'll start with maraschino cherries (as chemically-soaked as they are, I do have a soft spot and smile-inducing memories for maraschino cherries) and then I could inject some chocolate cream inside (much lik with the cream puffs).  Or...ooh!  Even better!  Start with fresh cherries, remove the pits, and place a couple of chocolate chips in the vacancy created by the pit.  Maybe even roast them slightly to melt the chocolate.  If anyone does this, please document the experiment for future generations. 

Chocolate-covered cherries, on the other hand, are pretty easy to find, especially during the holiday months of August (when Christmas marketing begins) through February (Valentine's Day).  There may even be some around during March and April (Easter).  In honor of today, I ate half a chocolate-covered cherry from a box of See's chocolates (yes, I'm the kind of person who cuts all the chocolates in half to see what's inside). 

Making chocolate-covered cherries is probably a great deal easier than making chocolate-filled cherries.  Still, I think I'll give it a shot someday.