January 22nd National Blonde Brownie Day

Anybody can have a regular brownie and I mean, what are they called… brownies! So just what color should a brownie be!?! However, we can confuse the issue by making ones what are blonde in color. They are made with vanilla to change the color, and slightly the taste, but they are nearly the same… just as fattening and, of course, less traditional. They can still be made with, or without, nuts and you might even try adding white chocolate chips instead of regular chocolate chips to take your brownie all the way!

How to celebrate – Make some blonde brownies! Make whatever color brownies you want. (Use food dye) Just make some regular brownies and pretend they are blonde.

Advertisement

January 22nd National Blonde Brownie Day

So, what is a blonde brownie? Well here’s a recipe. It seems the only real difference is that it’s made with vanilla rather than chocolate, even though it does contain chocolate chips. So, why not make it with white chocolate? I didn’t find out about that option. Anyway, a brownie is a brownie white or brown and people enjoy them either way. Just making them blonde catches someone’s attention a little differently. They are good either way.

How to celebrate – Make some blonde brownies. Make regular brownies and blonde brownies and see which runs out first. Figure out how to make your own color brownie!

December 8th National Brownie Day

If you ever want to get the whole family in the same room at the same time, bake some brownies, they’ll soon be in the kitchen with you, unless of course you are baking hem elsewhere (Which might be a little odd). Hardly anyone can ignore the scent of a brownie. There is something about them that just call out to you, drawing you in closer and closer.

brownie_lz

Generally thought of as a cold weather treat, a brownie is great anytime of the year. Of course, there is something about that warm chocolate all melted and gooey, surrounded by a cake like substance that nobody knows what it is, or cares.

images (3)

Add a little ice cream and the day becomes even better. There is something about the blend of warm chocolate brownie and cold vanilla ice cream. You can have it with, or without, nuts. Walnuts, pecans, cashews, any type of nut you choose. You can even share it with someone who is nuts!

images (2)

And if you really want to please Santa leave him a brownie instead of those old, stale cookies! Santa might stay a little longer and leave better presents! Add a dollop of whipped cream and even better! (What is a dollop exactly?)

307410_488409274527615_1709781155_n

You can even go wild if you want to. Add a candy cane all melted inside the brownie or M&M’s or a little brandy (For adults only) The point is, live it up a little! It’s your brownie so you can do what you want with it.

How to celebrate – Make some brownies today. Try some new additive to your brownie. Don’t forget the Alice B. Toklas brownies!

August 2nd National Ice Cream Sandwich Day

It’s summer, it’s time for ice cream… but when you are on the go, it’s not easy to carry the bowl around with you and what do you do with it after you are finished eating it? Well, the simple answer is to make a sandwich out of it and eat everything leaving to evidence behind! (Except for that extra pound or two you have gained.

54f9414a4b919_-_ice-cream-sandwich

Now the ice cream sandwich has been around since the early 1900’s. I am a little surprised it took so long after the Earl of Sandwich invented the… sandwich. It is a logical conclusion and really doesn’t take all that much thought. I was going to give you a recipe here but… come on, how hard is it to figure out how to make your own ice cream sandwich!?!

mint-chip-ice-cream-sandwiches-tease-today-160802_257f8d9d8524e1eacb6c421a49028ee2.today-inline-large

The nice thing about it, it can be made with nearly any sandwich type material. Cake, cookies, brownies, sugar wafers… well you get the idea. Just take your favorite ice cream and slap it between two more solid type objects. Do I need to add that those two objects need to be editable?

c48da05d-216d-4766-8c04-82c32b41ed96

You can even add sprinkles or fruit, whipped cream or the maraschino cherry. (I suggest removing the stem first.) I have tried my own version of the ice cream sandwich, putting ice cream between lice cream. Trust me, it doesn’t work very well. (Though it tastes great)

abc_coolhaus_ice_cream_sandwiches_chocolate_strawberry_thg_120730_wmain

They are easy to make, even easier to buy… well, normally. While I was writing this I decided I wanted an ice cream sandwich and I went to the store to buy some. They were sold out! So I guess it’s a pretty popular day. The lesson here is…buy often and buy early!

How to celebrate – Stock up on ice cream sandwiches! (You won’t regret it) Make your own ice cream sandwiches using your favorite ice cream and whatever sweet you choose to place on the outer edges. Do not, I repeat do not, put brocoli inisde your ice cram!

January 22nd National Blonde Brownie Day

Today is another of those very important bizarre holidays, it’s National Blonde Brownie Day! You probably have gone through most of your life wondering why you had to have brown brownies. Disappointed, you continued to eat the brown brownie all the while wishing you had an option… well now you do!

blonde_brownies

Life is so much better having choices and maybe we can finally get an answer to that age old question, do blondes really have more fun!?! Well, I am not sure you will get that answer from a brownie but it’s worth the effort to try. With each bite you can wait for the answer while washing down that brownie with a cold glass of milk.

7e3197b862200160407b8eb6d0508c75

Now don’t go nuts trying to figure it out, although nuts might make your blonde brownie even better. If you aren’t exactly sure what a blonde brownie is, here’s a recipe for you. Isn’t a blonde brownie a little bit of a contradiction in terms though? And with all the varieties of food coloring these days can’t you really have any color brownie you set your mind to!?!

5f3d47fd-a366-40a9-89bf-6620a284860d

How to celebrate – Have a brownie today, make sure it’s a blonde one though. Make a regular brownie and a blonde one and see which disappears quicker.  Use food coloring to make your blonde brownie whatever color you choose.

July 21st National Junk Food Day

Junk food is often referred to as “Comfort food” because we normally turn to it when we are unhappy or sad about something. It probably does make us happy for the moment, that sweet taste or salty goodness tastes so good… it’s what happens afterwards that makes us even sadder and unhappy.

1409154391870_wps_2_image001_png

Sure that ice cream smooths things over for a few minutes, that bottle of beer (which by the way is junk food as well) makes the troubles disappear, and that bunch of french fries makes us forget about anything else while we are eating them. But whatever drove us to those comforts will come back shortly and haunts us, reminding us daily as we look at our stomachs, our thighs, and those frightening man boobs!

download (1)

The thing is, it’s not the junk foods fault! It’s ours! There’s nothing wrong with junk food, as long as we don’t get carried away. Diets don’t work because when we are on a diet, all we can think about is what we can’t have instead of what we can! Under normal circumstances given the choice between an apple or a candy bar we might actually choose the apple, but when we are denied the candy bar, that is what we crave.

junk-food-and-its-side-effects-3-638

Junk food does have a place in life today. It is convenient, it is fast, and it does taste good. Used when we don’t have time or other choices it serves a purpose. The problem is, in life today we find those conditions more the rule than the exception. A soda will cool you down, but it will also increase the sugar in your body which heats you back up! Diet sodas are known to mimic serious desease. Pizza really isn’t all that bad for you, as long as you don’t eat the whole thing by yourself. Hamburgers aren’t all that bad either, though red meat does have its drawbacks,  it’s more all the bread and condiments we add to it. And fries, well.. there isn’t really much good about them at all. There is nothing wrong with a potato but fry it in grease, add a lot of salt, and shove that in your mouth, it’s a different story.

junk-food-brain

Cereals are more often than not filled with sugar. Donuts, brownies, chips, and candy have little redeeming quality to them either. It’s not that eating them is so awful for you, its eating so many of them that causes the problems. But for today you can forget all of that as we celebrate junk food day. And tomorrow, we will pay the price for our celebration.

How to celebrate – visit a candy or chocolate factory. Maybe replace that candy bar with a piece of celery or that hamburger with a turkey sub (after today if course). Don’t worry about it and eat what you want which is probably what you are going to do anyway.