November 29th is National Chocolates Day!

Here are today’s five things to know about Chocolate:

Chocolate comes from the Aztec word “xocolatl” which means “bitter water”.

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Switzerland is one of the top countries for chocolate consumption. The Swiss consume about 22 lbs of chocolate, per person, per year.

Cocoa beans were used as currency by the Mayan and Aztec cultures. Perhaps this is where they saying “Money grows on trees” came from.

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Allowing chocolate to melt in your mouth produces the same or even stronger reactions as passionately kissing.

Most cocoa comes from West Africa.

Today’s Food History

1627 John Ray (Wray) was born. A leading 17th century English naturalist and botanist. He contributed to the advancement of taxonomy, and established the species as the basic unit of taxonomy.
1968 The Who release ‘The Who Sell Out.’ One of my favorite Who albums, with commercials for some real and some fictitious products, including Heinz Baked Beans.
1997 Plastic bags are a serious danger to marine mammals. A 65 foot, 70 ton finback whale died off the coast of Spain. Its digestive tract had been blocked by 30 plastic bags, and several hard plastic objects.
1997 Reports from Chile about giant rats, that had been feeding on the droppings of hormone fattened poultry, were attacking farm animals near Santiago.

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Categories: Food Holidays, November Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: national chocolates day

October 28th is National Chocolate Day! / #NationalChocolateDay

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Chocolate Day!

Did you know the smell of chocolate is a natural calming agent?

#NationalChocolateDay

Here’s a Foodimentary look at he history of Chocolate

Here are today’s five thing to know about Chocolate:

White chocolate originates from the cocoa (cacao) plant, but it is not ‘chocolate.’
Switzerland is one of the top countries for chocolate consumption. The Swiss consume about 22 lbs of chocolate, per person, per year.
Most cocoa comes from West Africa.
Allowing chocolate to melt in your mouth produces the same or even stronger reactions as passionately kissing.
Cocoa beans were used as currency by the Mayan and Aztec cultures. Perhaps this is where they saying “Money grows on trees” came from.

Today in Food History

1846 (Georges-) Auguste Escoffier was born. Escoffier was called “the emperor of chefs” and “emperor of the world’s kitchens” by Emperor William II of Germany. He modernized and codified the elaborate haute cuisine created by Marie-Antoine Carême, and developed the ‘brigade de cuisine,’ system of kitchen organization. Escoffier was chef at the Carlton Hotel in London, the Grande National Hotel in Lucerne, Switzerland, the Grand Hotel in Monte Carlo, the Savoy in London and the Ritz hotels in Paris and New York City. His books include ‘Guide culinaire’ and ‘Ma Cuisine.’
1886 The Statue of Liberty (‘Liberty Enlightening the World’) was officially unveiled and dedicated in New York Harbor.
1916 Cleveland Abbe died. Abbe was an astronomer and meteorologist, and is considered the “father of the U.S. Weather Bureau.” The Weather Bureau (National Weather Service) was authorized by Congress in 1870.
1919 The Volstead Act was passed, which enforced the 18th amendment, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages. It went into effect on January 16, 1920.

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Categories: Food Holidays, October Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: chocolate, chocolate day, food holiday book, national chocolate day, the history of chocolate

February 19th is National Chocolate Mint Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Chocolate Mint Day!

Here are today’s five thing to know about Chocolate Mint:

In tea houses and dinner halls of the early 1900’s mint sprigs and dark chocolates served after desserts for patrons to ‘chew for good breath and aid digestion’.

Thin Mints account for over 25% of the annual Girl Scout cookie sales.

Andes chocolate mints, created in 1921, have little to do with the Andes mountains. They were once called “Andy’s Candies” but the owner ‘found that men did not like giving boxes of candies with another man’s name on them to their wives and girlfriends’ so he changed the name.

Frango Mints, perhaps the first chocolate mints, were first patented in 1918. They were sold in tea houses and sold frozen to emphasize the sharp mint flavor.

Ancient Greeks believed mint could cure hiccups.

Today’s Food History

1764 Gottlieb Sigismund Kirchhof was born. He developed a method for refining vegetable oil, and also improved brewing & fermentation.

1855 Bread Riots in Liverpool.

1906 Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company (W.K. Kellogg Company) was founded by Will Keith Kellogg to manufacture breakfast cereals (cornflakes).

1913 Cracker Jack began to put prizes in each box.

1976 Iceland broke off diplomatic relations with Great Britain when the two couldn’t settle their disagreement on the ‘cod war’ fishing rights issue.

1985 Cherry Coke was introduced nation-wide

1999 The world’s largest strawberry shortcake was created in McCall Park, Plant City, Florida, the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World. The city holds the Guinness record for the world’s largest strawberry shortcake, over 6,000 pounds.

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Categories: February Food Holidays, Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: national chocolate mint day

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February 25th is National Chocolate Covered Peanut Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day

Here are today’s five thing to know about Chocolate Covered Peanuts:

The original chocolate covered peanut candy are Goobers first sold in 1925. The word “Goober” was a common slang word for peanut.
Peanut M & M’s were not introduced until 1954. They were tan until 1960 when colors were first introduced.(yellow, green, & red)
Rapper, Eminem’s original stage name was M & M, his name was eventually changed for obvious trademark issues.
The initials M & M stand for the Forrest Mars from Mars Candies and Bruce Murrie from Hershey Chocolates.
In 1976 red M & M’s were replaced with orange. The red dye(red #2) was ruled to be a potential carcinogen. Red did not return until 1987.

Daily Quote:

“M & M’s, the chocolates that melt in your mouth nor in your hand” first used in 1954

Extra: It is said that M & M’s were tan in color for decades because if they DID melt in your hand it would not show

Today’s Pinterest Board : Foodimentary

Today’s Food History

1904 Adelle Davis was born. Nutritionist, and author of ‘Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit.’ She promoted many theories that have been labeled as unfounded and dangerous by the medical community.

1918 Wartime food rationing began in parts of England

1922 Donald McLean was born. McLean was a Scottish potato expert who supposedly discovered the world’s largest private collection of potatoes, with 367 varieties.

1934 RIP Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton, an American botanist, she helped establish the New York Botanical Gardens.

1950 RIP George Richard Minot, American physician, Minot was one of the developers of the ” raw-liver diet ” used to treat pernicious anemia.

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Categories: February Food Holidays, Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: national chocolate covered peanuts day

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January 31st is National Hot Chocolate Day! / #HotChocolateDay

Here are today’s five things to know about hot chocolate:

What’s the difference between Hot Chocolate and Hot Cocoa? Hot Chcolate uses milk or milk chocolate while hot cocoa uses only powdered cocoa.

The first hot chocolate was Mayan, and it was served with chili peppers!

In Spain, hot chocolate with churros is considered a working man’s breakfast.

Hot chocolate has antioxidants and flavonols, very healthy nutrients. Just skip the sugar.

Chocolate is the 3rd most traded commodity in the world. 1st is oils, 2nd is coffee.

Today’s Food History

1893 The Coca-Cola trademark was recorded.

1930 Scotch tape was developed by Richard Drew of the 3M Company.

1980 Due to record high sugar prices, Coca Cola begins substituting high fructose corn syrup for half of the sucrose (sugar) used in Coca Cola.

1990 The first McDonald’s restaurant in Moscow, Russia opens.

2001 Germany announced plans to destroy 400k cattle due to the mad cow crises. We know it now as Mad Cow Disease

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Categories: Food Holidays, January Food Holidays, Uncategorized

February 14th is National Cream-Filled Chocolates Day! #ValentinesDay

Five Food Find about Valentine’s Day Candy

In the 1800’s, physicians commonly advised their lovelorn patients to eat chocolate to calm their pining.

More than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine’s Day.

16_28135_30va_01e-valentines-day-chocolate-truffles

At one time, conversation candies were made into shapes including horseshoes, baseballs, and watches.

At least 10 new conversation heart sayings are introduced each year. Recent additions include “Yeah Right,” “Call Home” and “Puppy Love.”

It is believed that Madame Du Barry served chocolate to all her suitors; Casanova consumed chocolate instead of champagne to induce romance; and Montezuma, the king of the ancient Aztecs, believed chocolate would make him virile.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1779 RIP Captain James Cook, British explorer who charted and named many Pacific Islands, including the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).

1803 Moses Coats patented an apple parer.

1838 Margaret E. Knight was born. An American inventor, she invented an improved paper bag machine to make bags with flat bottoms.

1886 California oranges were first shipped East by rail.

1903 The U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor was established.

2003 Dolly the sheep died. Dolly was the first animal cloned from an adult animal. (Born July 5, 1996)

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Categories: February Food Holidays, Food Holidays, Uncategorized

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December 28th is National Boxed Chocolates Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Five Food Finds about Chocolate

The word “chocolate” comes from the Aztec word, “Xocolatl”, which ironically means “bitter water”.

The biggest bar of chocolate ever made was created in Turin, Italy. The bar was created in 2000 and weighed 5,000 pounds.

While the US produces the most chocolate and consume the most pounds every year, the Swiss consume the most per capita, followed closely by the English.

Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40% of the world’s almonds and 20% of the world’s peanuts.

Every Russian and American space voyage has included chocolate bars.

Today’s Food History

1763 John Molson was born. Founder of Molson Brewery, Montreal, Canada.

1869 William Finley Semple patented the first chewing gum, although he never commercially manufactured any gum.

1886 Josephine Garis Cochran patented the first commercially successful dish washing machine. It became a huge hit at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Her company eventually evolved into KitchenAid.

1897 Edmond Rostand’s romantic, dramatic play ‘Cyarano de Bergerac’ premiers in Paris. A unique combination of love, swordplay, comedy, pathos and proboscis.

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Categories: December Food Holidays, Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: National Boxed Chocolates Day

January 10th is National Bittersweet Chocolate Day! #BittersweetDay

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five things to know about Bittersweet Chocolate:

Bittersweet chocolate is a sweetened form of dark chocolate that does NOT contain milk. It’s usually used for baking.

Dark chocolate is most popular among men.

More than twice as many women than men eat and crave chocolate.

The first chocolate bar was produced by Cadbury in England in 1842.

The word Chocolate comes from the Aztec word xocolatl, meaning, bitter water.

Today’s Food History

1778 Carolus Linnaeus died. He was a Swedish botanist who developed the modern system for defining and naming plants.
1839 Indian tea became available in Britain for the first time.
Until this time only tea from China had been available, and that was very expensive.
The development and import of Indian tea brought the price down so all could afford it, and it quickly became the national drink.
1919 Restaurateur Milton Parker was born. Owner of the famous Carnegie Deli in New York City from 1976 until his retirement in 2002.
1977 Ruth Graves Wakefield died. Inventor of the Toll House Cookie,
the first chocolate chip cookie, at the Toll House Inn neart Whitman, Massachusetts in the 1930s.
1984 Wendy’s ‘Where’s the Beef?’ ad campaign began. Burgers aren’t just for kids anymore.

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Categories: Food Holidays, January Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: national bittersweet chocolate day

January 3rd is National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five things to know about cherries:

Cherries were brought to America by ship with early settlers in the 1600s.

Cherry pie filling is the number one pie filling sold in the US.

Darker cherries have higher antioxidant and vitamin levels than lighter ones, but sour cherries have far higher levels than sweet.

The main kinds of cherries can be found growing on tall trees that range between fifteen and thirty meters tall.

Asian varieties, such as the Japanese Sakura, (known colloquially as the cherry blossom) are well-regarded for their long, weeping branches filled with small pink flowers.

Today’s Food History

1795 Josiah Wedgwood died. English inventor, artist and world renowned pottery designer and manufacturer. His daughter, Susannah, was the mother of Charles Darwin.
1871 Oleomargarine was patented by Henry Bradley of Binghamton, New York. Hippolyte Mege-Mouries developed margarine in France in 1869, and received a U.S. patent in 1873 for margarine. There were many patents granted for various formulas and manufacturing techniques for margarine in the U.S. beginning in
1871. I can remember, as a kid, kneading a plastic pouch of margarine, with a red dot of food coloring, to distribute the color throughout the margarine. The dairy industry was able to have laws passed that prevented manufacturers from coloring the margarine. (The natural color of margarine is white).
1888 The first patent for wax coated paper drinking straws (made by a spiral winding process) was issued to Marvin C. Stone of Washington, D.C.
1892 John Ronald Reuel Tolkein was born. Author of ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. Food and hospitality play important roles in both.
1921 Studebaker announced that it would stop making farm wagons. Studebaker began making horse drawn wagons in 1852, and started experimenting with the new ‘horseless carriage’ in 1897.
1979 Conrad Nicholson Hilton died. Founder of one of the most well known and largest hotel chains. It all began when he and his father turned their large New Mexico house into an inn for traveling salesmen.
1980 Joy Adamson died. Naturalist and author of ‘Born Free’ about Elsa, a lion cub. She had also researched culinary and medicinal uses of various plants in Kenya.
2000 Charles Schulz created his last ‘Peanuts’ comic strip.
2002 Alfred Heineken died. Grandson of Gerard Adriaan Heineken, the founder of Heineken Brewery. Alfred was president of the company from 1964 to 1989.

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December 16th is National Chocolate Covered Anything Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food things to know about chocolate:

Theobroma, the scientific name of the tree that chocolate comes from, means “food of the gods.”

Chocolate was consumed as a liquid and not a solid for nearly all of it’s history.

American Revolutionary soldiers were sometimes paid in chocolate.

Ruth Wakefield, the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie, sold her recipe to Nestle for a lifetime supply of chocolate.

The first chocolate bar was invented in 1847 by Joseph Fry.

Today’s Food History

1843 Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ was published. It contains numerous and elaborate descriptions of Christmas food and dinners.
“Oh! All that steam! The pudding had just been taken out of the cauldron. Oh! That smell! The same as the one which prevailed on washing day! It is that of the cloth which wraps the pudding. Now, one would imagine oneself in a restaurant and in a confectioner’s at the same time, with a laundry nest door. Thirty seconds later, Mrs. Cratchit entered, her face crimson, but smiling proudly, with the pudding resembling a cannon ball, all speckled, very firm, sprinkled with brandy in flames, and decorated with a sprig of holly stuck in the centre. Oh! The marvelous pudding!”

1892 The first performance of Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’ in St. Petersburg.

1940 ‘Corn Silk’ was recorded by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.

1948 Jim Bonfanti of the music group ‘The Raspberries’ was born

Today’s Pinterest Board at : Foodimentary

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Categories: December Food Holidays, Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: national covered anything day

Let’s Eat Cake! January 27th is National Chocolate Cake Day! #NationalChocolateCakeDay

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five things to know about Chocolate:

The first French word for chocolate mousse translates in English to“chocolate mayonnaise”.

The “blood” that you see in the infamous “shower scene” in Psycho is actually chocolate syrup.

The history of chocolate cake goes back to 1764, when Dr. James Baker discovered how to make chocolate by grinding cocoa beans between two massive circular millstones.

A process for making silkier and smoother chocolate called conching was developed in 1879 by Swiss Rodolphe and made it easier to bake with chocolate as it amalgamates smoothly and completely with cake batters.

In the U.S.A, “chocolate decadence” cakes were popular in the 1980s; in the 1990s, single-serving molten chocolate cakes with liquid chocolate centers and infused chocolates with exotic flavors such as tea, curry, red pepper, passion fruit, and champagne were popular.

Today’s Quote: “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”~Charles M. Schulz

Today’s Food History

1521 The Diet of Worms begins; an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire where Martin Luther made his famous appearance.
1851 RIP John James Audubon: Ornithologist, naturalist & artist, known for his paintings & prints of North American birds.
1910 RIP Thomas Crapper: Said to have invented the flush toilet. Many believe he simply “improved” the device invented by others.
1984 Michael Jackson’s hair catches fire while filming a Pepsi commercial.

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Categories: Food Holidays, January Food Holidays, Uncategorized

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November 7th is National Chocolate Almonds Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Chocolate Almonds Day!

#NationalChocoateAlmondsDay

Here are today’s five food things to know about chocolate almonds:

Almonds are in the peach family. Seriously, the pits DO look similar:

Americans collectively eat about 100 pounds of chocolate every second.

Raw almonds are best for you!

Chocolate business matters was the reason Milton Hershey cancelled his Titanic trip last minute.

Eating dark chocolate reduces the risk of heart disease.

Today’s Food History

1857 H.N. Wadsworth received the first American toothbrush patent.
1872 The ‘Mary Celeste’ sailed for Genoa from New York with a cargo of 1700 barrels of alcoholic spirits. The ship was found abandoned near the Azores, the captain, his wife and daughter and 7 crewmen missing, and no sign of violence. The captain, his family and the crew were never seen again.
1913 Alfred Russel Wallace died. Wallace was a British naturalist who developed a theory of natural selection independently of Charles Darwin. He sent his conclusions to Darwin, and their findings were both presented to the Linnaean Society in 1858.
1965 The Pillsbury Doughboy, ‘Poppin’ Fresh,’ was born. He made his debut in a commercial for crescent rolls.
2006 The Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act was approved by state voters. It bans smoking in all bars and restaurants. It becomes effective on December 8.

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Categories: Food Holidays, November Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: Almond history, National chocolate almonds day

October 18th is National Chocolate Cupcake Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

Today’s Cupcake Trivia

Cupcakes were originally baked in teacups, hence the name Cup-cake

Here are today’s five thing to know about Cupcake:

Cupcake liners do more than make it easy to remove them from the pan. Traditionally, sides of tins are greased for easy removal, but also floured because the batter needs to have something to cling to. A cupcake liner takes care of both.
On August 15, 2009 GourmetGiftBaskets.com broke the world record for largest cupcake ever made. The cupcake was 1,224 pounds, 4 foot tall by 10 foot wide, and had 2 million calories.
One of the most popular cupcake bakery’s in the U.S. is Crumbs in New York City. They have reported $23.5 million in cupcake revenue last year alone!
The first mention of a cupcake recipe goes as far back as 1796. Amelia Simms wrote a recipe in “American Cookery” which referenced, “a cake to be baked in small cups”.
However, it wasn’t until 1828 that the actual word cupcake was used by Eliza Leslie in her cookbook “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats”.

The complete list of

October Food Holidays

Today’s Food History

1753 Jean Jacques Regis de Cambaceres was born. A French politician and gourmet. A gastronomic contemporary and rival of Talleyrand and Carême. The dinners he gave were famous, and Cambaceres closely supervised the food preparation. He refused to admit late-comers, and was also said to have demanded complete silence while dining.
1871 Charles Babbage died. He invented the adding machine, and among his other inventions is the cowcatcher, the V shaped front end on locomotives.
1878 Thomas Edison made electricity available for household usage.
1892 The first long distance telephone line between Chicago and New York City was put in service.
1919 William Waldorf Astor Born. William Waldorf Astor was a cousin of John Jacob Astor IV, the great grandson of John Jacob Astor. He built the Waldorf section (1893) of what would become the Waldorf Astoria (1897). The Empire State Building (1929) now stands on the site.
1931 Thomas Alva Edison, “the wizard of Menlo Park” died.
1945 James T. Ehler, Chef and food writer, was born.
1969 Cyclamate, a non-caloric sweetener, was banned. Discovered in 1937, and widely used in the food industry, cyclamate was found to cause cancer in laboratory rats. Cyclamate is still used in many countries around the world.

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Categories: Food Holidays, October Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: chocolate cupcakes, food, food holidays book, national chocolate cupcake day

September 27th is National Chocolate Milk Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Today’ Food Fact:

Chocolate milk was invented in Jamaica!

In the early 1700’s Sir Hans Sloane, while living in Jamaica, “He found the taste of cocoa ‘nauseous'” but mixed it with milk & made it more ‘palatable.’

Five Food Finds about Chocolate Milk

Chocolate milk is a sweetened, usually cold, cocoa-flavored milk drink. It is created when chocolate syrup (or chocolate powder) is mixed with milk (from cows, goats, soy, rice, etc).
It can be purchased pre-mixed or made at home with either cocoa powder and a sweetener (such as sugar or a sugar substitute), or with melted chocolate, chocolate syrup, or chocolate milk mix.
Other ingredients, such as starch, salt, carrageenan, vanilla, or artificial flavoring may be added.
Chocolate milk should always be refrigerated like plain milk.
Blending the two flavors (milk and chocolate), hence the name of the mixed drink..

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1892 The Diamond Match Company patented book matches.

1938 The ‘Queen Elizabeth,’ the largest passenger liner of its time, was launched in Scotland. The world’s largest floating restaurant.

1947 ‘Bread and Butter Woman’ was recorded by Danny Kaye & the Andrews Sisters.

1947 Musician Marvin Lee Aday, ‘Meat Loaf’, was born.

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Categories: Food Holidays, September Food Holidays

Tagged: chocolate history, chocolate milk, chocolate milk history, facts, food, foodimentary, foodimentary book, national chocolate milk day, september holidays

September 23rd is National White Chocolate Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five thing to know about Chocolate:

White chocolate originates from the cocoa (cacao) plant, but it is not ‘chocolate.’
According to the FDA, to be called ‘chocolate’ a product must contain chocolate liquor, which is what gives it the biter intense chocolate flavor (and color) to dark and milk chocolates.
White chocolate contains cocoa butter, milk solids, sugar, lecithin and flavorings (usually including vanilla). Cocoa butter is the fat from cocoa beans, extracted from the cocoa beans during the process of making chocolate and cocoa powder. Cocoa butter has very little ‘chocolate’ flavor.
Cocoa butter is one of the ingredients used to make real chocolate, it is gives chocolate the ability to remain solid at room temperature, yet melt easily in the mouth.
Cocoa butter is one of the most stable fats known, containing natural antioxidants that prevent rancidity and give it a storage life of 2 to 5 years. It is used for its smooth texture in foods (including chocolate) and in cosmetics and soaps.

Today’s Food History

1777 John Bartram died. An American botanist, and considered the ‘father of American botany,’ he established a botanical garden in Philadelphia in 1728.
1877 Victor Shelford was born. An American zoologist and ecologist, he was one of the first to treat ecology as a separate science. He was active and influential in several ecological organizations, including the Nature Conservancy formed in 1951.
1903 Italo Marchiony applied for a patent for an ice cream cup mold. Initially, he would fold warm waffles into a cup shape. He then developed the 2-piece mold that would make 10 cups at a time. (The patent was granted on December 15).
1955 The first British commercial TV station began broadcasting. The first advertisement was for Gibbs SR toothpaste.
1967 The Queen Mary began her last Atlantic crossing.
1982 First Farm Aid Concert was held at Champaign, Illinois.
2002 William Rosenberg founder of Dunkin’ Donuts died.
2003 Actor Gordon Jump died. The ‘Matag Repairman’ in commercials, also Arthur Carlson on ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’

Categories: Food Holidays, September Food Holidays, Uncategorized

August 20th is National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five thing to know about Pecan Pie

A handful of Pecans provide nearly 10 percent of the recommended Daily Value for zinc
It would take 11,624 pecans, stacked end to end, to reach the top of the Empire State Building in New York City.
Texas adopted the pecan tree as its state tree in 1919. In fact, Texas Governor James Hogg liked pecan trees so much that he asked if a pecan tree could be planted at his gravesite when he died.
Albany, Georgia, which boasts more than 600,000 pecan trees, is the pecan capital of the U.S. Albany hosts the annual National Pecan Festival, which includes a race, parade, pecan-cooking contest, the crowning of the National Pecan Queen and many other activities.
Pecan trees usually range in height from 70 to 100 feet, but some trees grow as tall as 150 feet or higher. Native pecan trees – those over 150 years old – have trunks more than three feet in diameter.

Today’s Food History

1913 Stainless steel was cast for the first time in Sheffield, England. Harry Brearly of Thomas Firth & Sons discovered how to make ‘the steel that doesn’t rust’ by accident.
1948 Robert Plant of the music group ‘Led Zeppelin’ was born.
1955 ‘The Popcorn Song’ by Cliffie Stone hit number 14 on the charts.
1968 The largest sea bass caught with a fishing rod weighed over 563 pounds. It was caught off the coast of California.

Categories: August Food Holidays, Food Holidays

Tagged: facts, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, life, national chocolate pecan pie day, today's food history, todays food history

August 4th is National Chocolate Chip Day! / NationalChocolateChipDay

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Chocolate Chip Day!

Here’s today’s facts about Chocolate Chips

Chocolate chips are a required ingredient in chocolate chip cookies, which were invented in 1933 when Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in the town of Whitman, Massachusetts added cut-up chunks of a semi-sweet Nestlé chocolate bar to a cookie recipe.
The cookies were a huge success, and Wakefield reached an agreement with Nestlé to add her recipe to the chocolate bar’s packaging in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate.
Initially, Nestlé included a small chopping tool with the chocolate bars, but in 1939 they started selling the chocolate in chip (or “morsel”) form.
The Nestlé brand Toll House cookies is named for the inn.
Originally, chocolate chips were made of semi-sweet chocolate, but today there are many flavors.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1608 John Tradescant was born. He succeeded his father as naturalist and gardener to Charles I.

1693 Dom Perignon discovers the process for making champagne. “Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!”
(A widely held legend, but only a only a legend.)

1755 Nicolas-Jacque Conte was born. He invented the modern graphite pencil.

1958 The first potato flake manufacturing plant opened in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

1983 Dave Winfield, a N.Y. Yankee outfielder accidentally killed a seagull with an errant throw in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays. He was arrested, charged with cruelty to animals and had to post a $500 bond. The charges were dropped the following day.

Categories: August Food Holidays, Food Holidays

Tagged: facts, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, life, national chocolate chip day, today's food history, todays food history

September 12th is National Chocolate Milkshake Day! 🍫 + 🥛= 😋

John-Bryan Hopkins

Milkshakes got their name from being served in bars. If the customer enjoyed the milkshake, he shook hands with the bartender. If not, the bartender didn’t get a tip.
Malted milk powder was invented in 1897 by James and William Horlick, but it was Ivar Coulson, a soda jerk for a Walgreen’s drug store, who first added it to milkshakes in 1922. This created the malted milkshake or just plain “malt.”
Steven Poplawski invented the electric blender in 1922 just for milkshakes. Before that, the effort of shaking them up must have required a lot of upper body motion.
It’d take 3,200,000 average-sized milkshakes to fill up an Olympic-sized pool. How fast do you think Michael Phelps could swim in that?
Australians can still buy traditional milkshakes in “milk bars,” which are much like old-fashioned drugstores with counter service. They’re usually served still in the steel cup, but may be poured into a paper cup for carry out orders.

Today’s Food History

1818 Richard Jordan Gatling was born. Before inventing the Gatling Gun, he developed a machine for sowing rice, wheat, and other grains, and invented a steam plow.
1928 Katharine Hepburn makes her first New York stage appearance in ‘Night Hostess.’
1940 The caves at Lascaux in France are discovered. They contain some of the earliest know art, dating back over 15,000 years. The prehistoric cave paintings (over 600) depict many large animals including aurochs, red deer, horses, stags, bison, etc.
1959 The TV show ‘Bonanza’ premiers. The frontier adventures of the Cartwright family, father, 3 sons and Chinese cook Hop Sing, on the ‘Ponderosa’ ranch near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
1965 Norwood Fisher of the music group ‘Fishbone’ was born.
1971 Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey closed.

Categories: Food Holidays, September Food Holidays

Tagged: chocolate milkshake day, facts, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, lake tahoe nevada, life, national chocolate milkshake day, palisades amusement park, prehistoric cave paintings, richard jordan gatling, today's food history, todays food history, william horlick

July 28th is National Milk Chocolate Day /#NationalMilkChocolateDay

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Milk Chocolate Day! 🍫+🥛=😋

Five Facts about Chocolate:

More than 50 percent of adults in the US prefer chocolate to any other flavor.
Americans eat 2.8 billion pounds of candy annually. About half of it is chocolate.
The word chocolate comes from “Xocolatl,” the Aztec word that means “bitter water.”
Eating chocolate can help prevent tooth decay and works as an anti-bacterial agent.
The Ivory Coast produces more cocoa than any country in the world which makes for 37 percent of it.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1586 The potato was introduced to England. It is claimed that Sir Thomas Harriot introduced potatoes to England on this day. (Some sources give December 3 as the date).

1852 Andrew Jackson Downing died. An American horticulturist, he was the author of ‘The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America’ (1845) and editor of the ‘Horticulturist’ periodical.

1866 The metric system was authorized to standardize weights and measures in the U.S. (Authorized, yes, but we still don’t use it very much).

1900 One of the many claims to the origin of the hamburger, is that Louis Lassing (or Lassen) first served hamburgers on a bun in his diner in New Haven, Connecticut.

1907 Earl S. Tupper was Born. The inventor of Tupperware. (Tupperware makes the containers used to conduct mold and bacterial experiments in the back of refrigerator shelves).

1977 At 11:02 p.m. the first oil from Prudhoe Bay arrived at Valdez in the trans-Alaskan pipeline. It took 38 days to travel the 800 miles.

1989 The largest halibut (Atlantic) caught with rod and reel weighed over 255 pounds. It was caught in Gloucester, Massachusetts by Sonny Manley

Categories: Food Holidays, July food holidays

Tagged: facts, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, life, milk chocolate day, national milk chocolate day, today's food history, todays food history

July 3rd is National Chocolate Wafer Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Chocolate Wafer Day

Five Food Finds about Chocolate

Ancient Aztecs thought chocolate had magical powers; like the ability to give them strength.

Chocolate was consumed by the ancient Aztecs as a frothy beverage, somewhat like hot chocolate we drink today.

Chocolate contains over 300 mineral properties that are beneficial to your health.

Chocolate comes from a plant, called Theobroma cacao, which translates “Food of the Gods”.

Dark chocolate has more antioxidants than green tea and just as many as blueberries.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1806 Michael Keens presented the first cultivated strawberry combining flavor and appearance, at the Royal Horticultural Society. “…. I have for a considerable time employed myself in raising new varieties from seed, which has been not only a source of great amusement to me, but also very profitable in my profession.”

1844 The last pair of Great Auks was killed near Iceland. They had been hunted to extinction for food and bait. Great Auks (Garefowl) were almost 3 feet tall, with short wings, similar to penguins. They were flightless, which made them vulnerable to hunters.

1890 Idaho became the 43rd state, the Potato State.

1908 M.F.K. Fisher (Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher) was born. Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was an American food critic and writer and the author of various articles, essays and books about food. She also translated Brillat-Savarin’s ‘The Physiology of Taste’ in 1949.

1922 ‘Fruit Garden & Home Magazine’ was founded. Two years later it was renamed ‘Better Homes & Gardens’.

1924 Clarence Birdseye, with the financial backing of W. Hodges, W. Gamage, B. Jones, I.L. Rice and J.J. Barry, founded the General Seafood Corporation. The birth of the frozen food industry.

1929 More unusual uses for kitchen appliances: Foam rubber was developed at Dunlop Laboratories. British scientist E.A. Murphy used a kitchen mixer to whip natural latex rubber.

1954 Rationing finally ended in Britain, almost nine years after the end of World War II.

1985 The honey bee was designated the official state insect of Missouri on July 3, 1985.

Categories: Food Holidays, July Food Holidays

June 26th is National Chocolate Pudding Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy Chocolate Pudding Day!

Here today Pudding Trivia:

Originally a British dish, this pudding could be made on very short notice.

Ingredients vary, but it was basically a sweetened porridge made from flour, tapioca or oatmeal and milk. The term originated in the late 16th century.

In Colonial America cornmeal was cheaper and more readily available, so here, Hasty Pudding was a cornmeal mush (cornmeal added to boiling water and cooked) with molasses, honey, brown sugar or maple syrup and milk.

There are both savory and dessert versions of this dish.

An example of a savory version would be a meat pudding.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1797 Charles Newbold patented the first cast-iron plow. Farmers had doubts about the effect of the iron on the soil.

1848 The first pure food laws were enacted in the U.S.

1870 The original wooden boardwalk in Atlantic City was built. It was taken up during the winter months, and was replaced with a larger boardwalk in 1880, which was destroyed in a hurricane in 1889. It was rebuilt again, and in 1898 rebuilt with steel.

1910 Roy J. Plunkett was born. He was the inventor of Teflon (Polytetrafluoroethylene) in 1938. The first nonstick cookware using Teflon was sold in 1960.

1949 Larry Taylor of the rock group ‘Canned Heat’ was born.

1959 In Montreal, Queen Elizabeth and President Dwight D. Eisenhower officially open the St. Lawrence Seaway which connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.

1963 President John F. Kennedy said ‘I am a jelly donut’ (Ich bin ein Berliner) in a speech to the citizens of Berlin. He meant to say ‘I am a Berliner’ (Ich bin Berliner). ‘Ein Berliner’ means jelly donut.

1974 A package of Wrigley’s chewing gum with a bar code printed on it was the 1st product logged on the new Universal Product Code system (UPC).

1981 In Mountain Home, Idaho, Virginia Campbell took her coupons and rebates and bought $244.60 worth of groceries. She only paid 67 cents after all the discounts

Categories: Food Holidays, June Food Holidays

Tagged: facts, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, life, national chocolate pudding day, today's food history, todays food history

June 22nd is National Chocolate Eclair Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

It’s National Chocolate Eclair Day!

Here’s 5 Facts about Chocolate Eclairs:

An éclair is an oblong pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with icing.
In French, “éclair” the dessert may have gotten its name from the “flash” of frosting that glistens across its top.
When baking the perfect chocolate éclair, sufficient steam is essential to the construction of the inner cavern that will be filled with vanilla cream.
MasterChef India pastry experts spent three days constructing a 26 foot tall chocolate éclair pyramid in 2010, taking the world record, according to Limca.
The éclair originated during the 19th century in France. It was called “pain à la duchesse” or “petite duchesse” until 1850.

Today’s Food History

1633 Galileo was forced by the Inquisition in Rome to renounce his theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun.
1847 Supposedly, Hanson Crockett Gregory, of Rockport, Maine, created the doughnut. His mother’s fry-cakes were not cooked in the center, so he cut the centers out so they would no longer have undercooked centers. (I have doubts about this story)
1947 During the early evening Holt, Missouri received a world record 12 inches (300 mm) of rainfall in 42 minutes.
1947 Howard Kaylan of the music group ‘The Turtles’ was born.
1992 M.F.K. Fisher (Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher) died. Fisher was an American food critic and writer, author of various articles, essays and books about food, and she also translated Brillat-Savarin’s ‘The Physiology of Taste’ in 1949.
2002 Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer died. She wrote the ‘Ann Landers’ advice column. Her twin sister Pauline Esther, under the pen name Abigail Van Buren, wrote the‘Dear Abby’ advice column.

Categories: Food Holidays, June Food Holidays

Tagged: national chocolate eclair day

July 8th is National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

Five Food Finds about Almonds:

The protein in almonds is more like the proteins in human breast milk of all the seeds and nuts, which is why it is the choice of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine as the base for its baby formula.
Almonds are the most nutrient-dense tree nut. One ounce of almonds (20-25 almonds) contains 160 calories and only 1 gram of saturated fat and no cholesterol. Almonds are also an excellent source of vitamin E and magnesium, and a good source of protein and potassium.
The Jordan almond is a large plump variety of almond from Malaga, Spain, considered to be the finest cultivated almond. The are frequently sold with a hard colored sugar coating, or salted.
It takes 1000 pounds of almonds to make 1 pint of almond oil.
The world’s largest almond factory is in Sacramento, California. It processes 2 million pounds of almonds a day.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1497 Vasco de Gama left Lisbon with four ships, to search for a sea route to India. He was the first European to sail there (notwithstanding Columbus’ valiant try), and he opened the area to Portuguese trade (and colonization).

(Pondering Point: Columbus sailed to America on his way to India. Wrong Way Corrigan flew to Scotland on his way to California).

1810 Gabriel Gustav Valentin was born. This German-Swiss physiologist was the first to discover the digestive activity of pancreatic juice. (Something I’ll bet you always wanted to know!).

1831 John Styth Pemberton was born. Pemberton was the pharmacist who invented Coca-Cola in 1885. (Pharmacists used to have a much more interesting life!)

1844 Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln was born. She was the author of the original Boston Cooking School Cook Book, before Fanny Farmer took it over. 1887 A riot breaks out at the saloonkeepers picnic in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1881 The Ice Cream Sundae was invented. Edward Berner of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, supposedly invented the Ice Cream Sundae, when he served a customer ice cream topped chocolate syrup (used to flavor ice cream sodas). It was a Sunday, and flavored soda water was not served on Sundays to respectable people.

1886 It rained snails in Cornwall, England. (Sounds like a description of a Monty Python skit). July is one of the best months for raining all sorts of living creatures.

1949 Wolfgang Puck was born. Chef, formerly of Spagos in Los Angeles.

1957 William Cadbury, chocolatier died at age 89.

1989 ‘Good Thing’ by Fine Young Cannibals is #1 on the charts

Categories: Food Holidays, July Food Holidays

Tagged: Almonds, cadbury, chocolate, facts, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, life, national milk chocolate with almonds day, today's food history, todays food history

May 1st National Chocolate Parfait Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Chocolate Parfait Day!

Here are today’s five things to know about Chocolate:

Dark chocolate has more antioxidants than green tea and just as many as blueberries.
White chocolate really isn’t chocolate. It’s made from cocoa butter, the substance you get by pressing cocoa beans. Cocoa butter is absent of the cocoa solids used to make chocolate.

Chocolate was consumed by the ancient Aztecs as a frothy beverage, somewhat like hot chocolate we drink today.
Chocolate comes from a plant, called Theobroma cacao, which translates “Food of the Gods”.
Eating chocolate can also reduce the symptoms of stress.

Today’s Food History

1683 Supposedly, a patent for a system of extracting salt from sea water was granted in England.
1841 The first wagon train left Independence, Missouri for California.
1851 London’s Great Exhibition opened in Hyde Park. It was the first international exhibition ever to be held. The Exhibition was housed in the Crystal Palace.
1889 Bayer introduced aspirin powder in Germany.
1927 Imperial Airways became the first British airline to serve hot meals.
1931 Empire State Building opens. It was built on the site of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
1971 ‘Brown Sugar’ by the Rolling Stones is released.
1991 Charles Elton died. Elton was an English biologist who first developed the idea of a ‘food chain.’
2001 Hindus in Seattle filled suit against McDonald’s restaurant chain for not disclosing the use of beef flavoring in its French Fries.
2005 A 9 foot, 640 pound freshwater catfish was caught by fishermen in northern Thailand on the Mekong River. According to many, this is the largest freshwater fish ever caught.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: april food holidays, Food Holiday, National Chocolate Parfait Day, National Food Holiday, parfait day

November 29th is National Chocolates Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five things to know about Chocolate:

Chocolate comes from the Aztec word “xocolatl” which means “bitter water”.

Switzerland is one of the top countries for chocolate consumption. The Swiss consume about 22 lbs of chocolate, per person, per year.

Cocoa beans were used as currency by the Mayan and Aztec cultures. Perhaps this is where they saying “Money grows on trees” came from.

Allowing chocolate to melt in your mouth produces the same or even stronger reactions as passionately kissing.

Most cocoa comes from West Africa.

Today’s Food History

1627 John Ray (Wray) was born. A leading 17th century English naturalist and botanist. He contributed to the advancement of taxonomy, and established the species as the basic unit of taxonomy.
1968 The Who release ‘The Who Sell Out.’ One of my favorite Who albums, with commercials for some real and some fictitious products, including Heinz Baked Beans.
1997 Plastic bags are a serious danger to marine mammals. A 65 foot, 70 ton finback whale died off the coast of Spain. Its digestive tract had been blocked by 30 plastic bags, and several hard plastic objects.
1997 Reports from Chile about giant rats, that had been feeding on the droppings of hormone fattened poultry, were attacking farm animals near Santiago.

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Categories: Food Holidays, November Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: national chocolates day

May 15th is National Chocolate Chip Day ! #NationalChocolateChipDay

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Chocolate Chip Day!

Here are today’s five food finds about Chocolate Chips:

Originally, chocolate chips were made of semi-sweet chocolate.

Chocolate chips were invented in 1933 when Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in the town of Whitman, Massachusetts added cut-up chunks of a semi-sweet Nestlé chocolate bar to a cookie recipe.

The cookies were a huge success, and Wakefield reached an agreement with Nestlé to add her recipe to the chocolate bar’s packaging in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate.

Initially, Nestlé included a small chopping tool with the chocolate bars, but in 1939 they started selling the chocolate in chip (or “morsel”) form.

The Nestlé brand Toll House cookies is named for the inn.

1280px-mixing_chocolate_chips_into_cookie_batter

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1923 Listerine was registered as a trademark.
1930 Mrs. Ellen Church, a registered nurse, became the world’s first airline stewardess (flight attendant). The 11 passengers were flying on a United Airlines tri-motor Boeing 80A from San Francisco to Cheyenne, Wyoming. The meal was chicken, fruit salad and rolls.
1940 Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the U.S. in Wilmington, Delaware.
1989 Hershey’s reduces the size of the Hershey bar to 1.55 ounces. The price remains 40 cents.
1991 The famous Paris cooking school, L’Ecole de Cordon Bleu, opens a branch in Tokyo, Japan.
2007 Karen Hess, culinary historian, died. Some of her books were ‘The Taste of America‘ (1977) and ‘Carolina Rice Kitchen: The African Connection‘ (1992). She also annotated Mary Randolph’s ‘Virginia Housewife‘ (1983).

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Food in May, May Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: chocolate chips, Food Holiday, may food holiday, national chocolate chip day, National Food Holiday

Yes! May 2nd is National Chocolate Truffle Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Chocolate Truffle Day!

Here are today’s five food finds about Chocolate Truffles:

According to the legend, the chocolate truffle was created by Louis Dufour in Chambery, France in 1895.

Historians believe that chocolate truffles burst in popularity because across the street from Louis Dufour’s chocolate truffle shop was the Prestat Chocolate Shop.

Roald Dahl was a big fan of Prestat truffles!

There are three types of truffles: American, European and Swiss.

The first recipe for a chocolate truffle appears in a cookbook from the 1920s.

Today’s Food History

1878 At 7 a.m., the Washburn A flour mill in Minneapolis exploded, sending the roof 500 feet in the air. 18 workers were killed and seven other flour mills were also destroyed.
1885 Good Housekeeping magazine begins publication. Founded by Clark W. Bryan, the magazine was purchased by Hearst publishing in 1911.
1934 Sergey Vasilyevich Lebedev died. A Russian chemist who developed a method for large scale production of synthetic rubber. Production of polybutadiene was begun in 1932 using potatoes and limestone as raw materials.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: april food holidays, Chocolate Truffles, Food Holiday, national chocolate truffle day, National Food Holiday

April 3rd is National Chocolate Mousse Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy Chocolate Mousse Day!

Here are today’s five thing to know about Chocolate Mousse:

The word mousse is French and translates as “froth” or “foam.”
Cold dessert mousses are often poured into decorative glasses and garnished with fruit, sweet sauces, or whipped cream.
Savory mousses can be made from fish, shellfish, meat, foie gras, etc.
There are three key constituents to a mousse: base, binder, and aerator.
They may be hot or cold and are often squeezed through a piping bag onto some kind of platform to be used as hors d’oeuvres.

Fun Fact:

Savory mousse dishes were an 18th century French achievement. Dessert mousses (generally fruit mousses) began to appear much later, in the second half of the 19th century.

The first written record of chocolate mousse in the United States comes from a Food Exposition held at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1892.

Chocolate mousse came into the public eye in the U.S. in the 1930s, about the time as chocolate pudding mixes were introduced.

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Today’s Food History

1829 James Carrington of Connecticut patented a coffee mill.
1845 William James Farrer was born. An Australian agriculturist, he developed several new cultivars of wheat.
1860 The first Pony Express mail delivery service by horse and rider between St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California began. The 1,800 mile run took 10 days.
1956 Elvis Presley sings ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ on the ‘Milton Berle Show.’ An estimated 25% of the American population tuned in to hear him.
1959 The Coasters song ‘Charlie Brown’ is banned by the BBC because it refers to “throwin’ spitballs.” The ban only lasted 2 weeks.
1974 The Super Tornado Outbreak. 148 tornadoes in 13 states in 26 hours. The world’s largest tornado outbreak in recorded history. It included six F5 tornadoes and 30 F4 tornadoes. The first tornado hit at 1 p.m. and the final tornado hit at 2 a.m. the following morning.
1982 The temperature in Lamberton, Minnesota dropped from 78 degrees F to 7 degrees F in 24 hours. The 71 degree drop in temperature is a Minnesota record.
1985 The Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood, California closed after 57 years. Robert Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby, created the Cobb Salad there in 1936.
2010 Students at a Utah high school created a replica of Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ using 2 tons of Malt-O-Meal cereal.

Today’s Pinterest Board at : Foodimentary

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Categories: April Food Holidays, Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: chocolate mouse facts, national chocolate mousse day

April 21st is National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five things to know about Cashews:

The pistachio, mango, cashew and poison ivy are in the same family.

Cashews are native to Costa Rica and Central America.

The fresh cashew nut has a substance inside that produce a big burn and rash in skin and mouth, at the same time this is a highly valuable product known as Cashew Nut Shell Liquid or CNSL, ingredient that have special structural features for transformation into specialty chemicals and high value polymers, this is important considering the fact that, since this is a renewable resource, is better than synthetics.

The cashew nut and the cashew Apple are completely different things! Thank his last one is a kind of fruit to which it’s attached the nut, this fleshy fruit has an aroma some people love while others dislike, the most common way of preparation of this fruit is doing a tasteful juice mixed with water and sugar.

Cashews in Costa Rica are harvested in March and April.

Today’s Food History

1878 The White House hosted the first Easter Egg Roll. Previously, the activities had been held on the Capitol grounds. Congress passed a law banning the practice due to a limited maintenance and landscaping budget (Bah humbug!). President Rutherford B. Hayes was asked if children could hold the activities on the South Lawn of the White House and he enthusiastically agreed. The event has been held there ever since.

1910 R.I.P. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain. American author, pen name Mark Twain, who wrote ‘Tom Sawyer’, ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,’ etc. There are many quotes and descriptions about food and dining in his works. An example is: “A man accustomed to American food and American domestic cookery would not starve to death suddenly in Europe, but I think he would gradually waste away, and eventually die.” (From ‘A Tramp Abroad’).

1962 The Top Of The Needle restaurant in the Seattle, Washington Space Needle, was officially opened. It was the second revolving restaurant in the U.S. It seats 260 and rotates completely once every hour. (The world’s first revolving restaurant was the La Ronde Restaurant built in 1961 atop the Ala Moana building fronting the Ala Moana shopping center. The restaurant has since closed down.)

1963 The Beatles and the Rolling Stones met for the first time at the Crawdaddy Club.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays

Tagged: chocolate covered cashew day

Who’s in? May 3rd is National Chocolate Custard Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Chocolate Custard Day!

Here are today’s five food finds about Chocolate Custard:

Due to the fact that it is a very fine organic powder, custard powder is EXPLOSIVE!

Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk.

Depending on how much egg or thickener is used, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce (crème anglaise), to a thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs.
The most common custards are used as desserts or dessert sauces and typically include sugar and vanilla.
Custard bases may also be used for quiches and other savory foods.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1654 A bridge in Rowley, Massachusetts began charging a toll for animals. People passed for free.
1913 William Motter Inge was born. An American playwright, he was the author of ‘Picnic’ which was also filmed in 1956.
1937 Francis Stephen Castelluccio was born. Better known as Frankie Valli of ‘The Four Seasons’ singing group.
1939 The Andrew Sisters recorded ‘Beer Barrel Polka.’
1944 Most wartime meat rationing ended in the United States.
1947 Sylvester tried to have Tweety Bird for lunch for the first time in a Warner Brothers cartoon. 1959 Passing through the newly opened St. Lawrence Seaway (see April 25) the British freighter ‘Ramon de Larrinaga’ becomes the first deep draft ocean ship to enter the Duluth, Minnesota harbor.
2007 Jamison Stone, 11 years old, bagged a ‘wild hog’ that weighed in at over 1050 pounds. He was hunting on a commercial huntng preserve with his father and several guides in eastern Alabama. The animal measured 9 feet 4 inches long, nose to tail.

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Food in May, May Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: chocolate custard, food holidays, may food holidays, National Chocolate Custard Day, National Food Holiday

October 28th is National Chocolate Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Chocolate Day!

Did you know the smell of chocolate is a natural calming agent?

#NationalChocolateDay

Here’s a Foodimentary look at he history of Chocolate

Here are today’s five thing to know about Chocolate:

White chocolate originates from the cocoa (cacao) plant, but it is not ‘chocolate.’
Switzerland is one of the top countries for chocolate consumption. The Swiss consume about 22 lbs of chocolate, per person, per year.
Most cocoa comes from West Africa.
Allowing chocolate to melt in your mouth produces the same or even stronger reactions as passionately kissing.
Cocoa beans were used as currency by the Mayan and Aztec cultures. Perhaps this is where they saying “Money grows on trees” came from.

Today in Food History

1846 (Georges-) Auguste Escoffier was born. Escoffier was called “the emperor of chefs” and “emperor of the world’s kitchens” by Emperor William II of Germany. He modernized and codified the elaborate haute cuisine created by Marie-Antoine Carême, and developed the ‘brigade de cuisine,’ system of kitchen organization. Escoffier was chef at the Carlton Hotel in London, the Grande National Hotel in Lucerne, Switzerland, the Grand Hotel in Monte Carlo, the Savoy in London and the Ritz hotels in Paris and New York City. His books include ‘Guide culinaire’ and ‘Ma Cuisine.’
1886 The Statue of Liberty (‘Liberty Enlightening the World’) was officially unveiled and dedicated in New York Harbor.
1916 Cleveland Abbe died. Abbe was an astronomer and meteorologist, and is considered the “father of the U.S. Weather Bureau.” The Weather Bureau (National Weather Service) was authorized by Congress in 1870.
1919 The Volstead Act was passed, which enforced the 18th amendment, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages. It went into effect on January 16, 1920.

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Categories: Food Holidays, October Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: chocolate, chocolate day, food holiday book, national chocolate day, the history of chocolate

Search results for “National Chocolates Day”

Here are today’s five things to know about Chocolate:

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Here are today’s five thing to know about Chocolate Mint:

In tea houses and dinner halls of the early 1900’s mint sprigs and dark chocolates served after desserts for patrons to ‘chew for good breath and aid digestion’.

Thin Mints account for over 25% of the annual Girl Scout cookie sales.

Andes chocolate mints, created in 1921, have little to do with the Andes mountains. They were once called “Andy’s Candies” but the owner ‘found that men did not like giving boxes of candies with another man’s name on them to their wives and girlfriends’ so he changed the name.

Frango Mints, perhaps the first chocolate mints, were first patented in 1918. They were sold in tea houses and sold frozen to emphasize the sharp mint flavor.

Ancient Greeks believed mint could cure hiccups.

Today’s Food History

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Here are today’s five thing to know about Chocolate Covered Peanuts:

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Today’s Food History

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Here are today’s five things to know about hot chocolate:

What’s the difference between Hot Chocolate and Hot Cocoa? Hot Chcolate uses milk or milk chocolate while hot cocoa uses only powdered cocoa.

The first hot chocolate was Mayan, and it was served with chili peppers!

In Spain, hot chocolate with churros is considered a working man’s breakfast.

Hot chocolate has antioxidants and flavonols, very healthy nutrients. Just skip the sugar.

Chocolate is the 3rd most traded commodity in the world. 1st is oils, 2nd is coffee.

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Five Food Find about Valentine’s Day Candy

Today’s Food History

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Five Food Finds about Chocolate

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Here are today’s five things to know about Bittersweet Chocolate:

Bittersweet chocolate is a sweetened form of dark chocolate that does NOT contain milk. It’s usually used for baking.

Dark chocolate is most popular among men.

More than twice as many women than men eat and crave chocolate.

The first chocolate bar was produced by Cadbury in England in 1842.

The word Chocolate comes from the Aztec word xocolatl, meaning, bitter water.

Today’s Food History

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Here are today’s five things to know about cherries:

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Here are today’s five food things to know about chocolate:

Theobroma, the scientific name of the tree that chocolate comes from, means “food of the gods.”

Chocolate was consumed as a liquid and not a solid for nearly all of it’s history.

American Revolutionary soldiers were sometimes paid in chocolate.

Ruth Wakefield, the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie, sold her recipe to Nestle for a lifetime supply of chocolate.

The first chocolate bar was invented in 1847 by Joseph Fry.

Today’s Food History

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