January 27: Chocolate Cake Day
I’m all about home-baked, but sometimes you need to embrace modern conveniences and go to Trader Joe’s a buy a mini chocolate bundt cake.
Was it as good as homemade? No, (it actually tasted like a Hostess Cupcake?), but that’s okay sometimes.
Tomorrow: National Blueberry Pancake Day
January 22: National Blonde Brownie Day
You might remember that on National Chocolate Brownie Day I asked why they had to call it CHOCOLATE brownie day because, to me, all brownies are chocolate, because duh, that’s what makes them brown. I still maintain that blond brownies are just called blondies.
I whipped up a batch of blondies with chocolate chips AND butterscotch chips. I brought them to work and got rave reviews, so I guess they were pretty radtastic.
Tomorrow: National Rhubarb Pie Day (which is absolutely ridiculous because it’s impossible to get rhubarb in the middle of winter, even in California.), so it became a celebration of National Hot Tea Month.
November 12: National Sundae Day!
We all know what a sundae is. We’ve all eaten sundaes. For this reason, I wasn’t planning into delving into a history lesson on The Sundae. But I recently discovered that the birthplace of the sundae is disputed. Each of these cities believe they were THE VERY FIRST to create the holy sundae: Two Rivers, Wisconsin; Plainfield, Illinois; Evanston, Illinois; New York City; New Orleans, Louisiana; Ithaca, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York. To be honest, I don’t find this all to be too terribly interesting, except that I used to live in Evanston, IL!
From Wikipedia:
Evanston was one of the first locations to pass a blue law against selling ice cream sodas in 1890. “Some ingenious confectioners and drug store operators [in Evanston]… obeying the law, served ice cream with the syrup of your choice without the soda. Thereby complying with the law… This sodaless soda was the Sunday soda.” As sales of the dessert continued on Mondays, local leaders then objected to naming the dish after the Sabbath, so the spelling of the name was changed to sundae.
Ok, whoa there. ICE CREAM SODAS WERE ILLEGAL ON SUNDAYS? I know Evanston is historically a fuddy-duddy town (“early after its founding, because of its strong Methodist influence, and its attempt to impose moral rigor, Evanston was called ‘Heavenston'”), but I’m 100% positive that God really does NOT care if you consume ice cream sodas on His/Her day. If I were God, I would ENCOURAGE the consumption of ice cream products (and french fries) on my day.
I went with the humble, yet satisfying, McDonald’s sundae. Also: cheap! Can’t go wrong with a cheap, satisfying sundae! I usually ask for half fudge/half caramel (not double, half of each), but apparently this was too much for the cashier to handle this time.
It appears that Liz Lemon also enjoys a McDonald’s sundae.
Tomorrow: Chicken Soup for the Soul Day
November 10: National Vanilla Cupcake Day.
The only thing good about vanilla cupcake day was being able to eat vanilla frosting.
I feel like the more popular cupcakes get, the more I hate them. The fact that there are numerous shows about cupcakes on TV is idiotic. Do people feel dainty eating a cupcake? Is it supposed to be quaint? Someone please explain the appeal of cupcakes to me, because I obviously don’t get it.
I was going to say that the only thing about awesome National Vanilla Cupcake Day is that we’ve exhausted national cupcake days (since National Chocolate Cupcake Day was on October 18), BUT NO. National CUPCAKE Day is December 15. Sigh.
Tomorrow: National Sundae Day
October 23: National Boston Cream Day!
The Boston Cream Pie is not a pie! It is a cake! And it was created in 1856 by Armenian-French chef M. Sanzian at Boston’s Parker House Hotel! A Boston Cream Pie is a sponge cake filled with a vanilla custard, and covered in a chocolate ganache.
Remember that time I went to a million grocery stores looking for an Angel food cake and I came up empty handed every.single.time?
Here’s a dozen. Hrmph.
Anyway, I SWEAR I’ve seen Boston Cream Pies (full size AND mini ones too!) in the Safeway bakery section. Apparently I was having the same luck I was having on National Angel Food Cake Day. Ugh. What’s a girl to do?
We’ve all seen those annoying commercials, right? Where the ladies are on the phone talking about their diets where they get to eat key lime pie, strawberry shortcake and Boston cream pie, and the dopey husband overhears and starts rummaging through the fridge looking for the magical decadent desserts? And HAHAHA, joke’s on dopey husband, because his wife and her friend were talking about YOGURT the whole time! Haaaaa.
FYI: this is basically just vanilla yogurt.
Tomorrow: Good and Plenty Day.
October 21: National Apple Day! National Caramel Apple Day! International Day of the Nacho!
Wow, guys! Three excellent days all rolled into one!
Only the best. Honeycrisp are the only apples I can buy that aren’t mealy spheres of mush. I’m seriously The Worst at picking out apples.
Nothing like some nachos to undo the spin class you just came from… 😐
I love Love LOVE caramel apples. Are Affy Tapples a Midwest brand? I haven’t seen them here… apparently California is Happy Apples territory?
YUM!
Tomorrow: National Nut Day!
October 20: National Brandied Fruit Day!
So. Brandied fruit day, hey? Apparently brandied fruit takes a few weeks to make, and I definitely did not start fermenting any fruit in any dark places a few weeks ago. So what to do?
Dump some brandy on some fruit and call it a day!
Just kidding! I classed it up a LITTLE bit. But it’s still basically some fruit with some brandy on it.
I felt like a loser buying an airplane bottle of brandy.
I baked a pear in butter and brown sugar, then made a brandy caramel to pour over it. And served with vanilla bean ice cream! How was it? It was good… but super boozy tasting. Like, I’d much rather have a baked pear with vanilla ice cream and plain caramel sauce instead. It’s like when a nice restaurant adds something fancy because they think it makes a dish better, but no one really wants lavender scented foam on their plate.
Tomorrow: Apple Day! Caramel Apple Day! International Day of the Nacho!
October 18: National Chocolate Cupcake Day!
I know this is unbelievable, but I wasn’t too excited for this day. You’d think I’d be super pumped to eat a cupcake, right? But chocolate cupcakes are so boring! And chocolate frosting is gross!
Seriously. If I’m going to eat a cupcake, it better be good. It better have cream cheese frosting. It better be coconut or carrot or something. If it’s going to be chocolate, it better not also have chocolate frosting.
Ugh. Seriously, why? Who likes chocolate on chocolate? The answer is no one, except idiots. CHANGE THAT ISH UP, YO!
Everyone loves a photo of me eating. Especially when I’m taking one for the team, right??
Tomorrow: Oatmeal Muffin Day.
October 14: National Chocolate Covered Bug Day!
So, National Chocolate Covered Bug Day was yesterday (October 14), and despite ordering them over a week early, they didn’t arrive until today. Booo! Instead of catching my own bugs and dipping them in chocolate myself, I decided to wait until the ones I ordered arrived.
They came in a regular ole box. If the sellers were FUNNY they would have put them in a box with holes poked in it. But they’re not funny.
Anyway! Here they are in all their glory. Two crickets and four larva, dipped in milk or white chocolate.
I was really hoping Bryce would eat one with me, but no dice. I had to go on this journey alone.
Here is my Chocolate Cricket Odyssey:
Tomorrow: National Chicken Cacciatore Day!
October 10: National Angel Food Cake Day
Today was a big pain. No, I didn’t make an angel food cake. That would have been a different kind of pain (dividing a dozen eggs, beating, folding, buying a new pan, etc.). That was exactly WHY I didn’t make an angel food cake. Instead I decided to buy an angel food cake from the grocery store. I KNOW they sell them because whenever I see them I scoff, because I’m admittedly a jerk who judges store bought baked goods. BUT I thought it would be much, much easier to buy one in celebration of National Angel Food Cake Day than slaving away in the kitchen on a Thursday night instead of having a wine and movies night with some ladies (which is what I did instead).
Well… joke was on me because I went to Trader Joe’s, THREE Safeway’s, and two little pastry shops looking for angel food cake and NOPE. Why is Angel Food Cake Day in October, anyway? Shouldn’t it be in the summer? When you’d eat it with berries and not feel too bad about eating cake during bikini season since it’s like, made of air? Hmph.
Anyway, I was complaining about the lack of cake in one of the many bakery departments I was in and a lady told me about this cupcake place that makes angel food cake cupcakes. I was totally skeptical since I’ve never (ever) since angel food cake in cupcake form, but I needed to get on with it and get to movie night (+wine). So I went and the girl was all “yeah we use angel food cake batter in this one!!” and I probably looked at her funny because it was covered in coconut (again, what?) but I paid her and took the pink box.
I got home and took a bite and it was totally NOT angel food cake.
Liar liar pants on fire! This was totally a coconut cupcake. But I think this counts because I tried! I really did.
Tomorrow: National Sausage Pizza Day.
