Let’s Get Sticky- it’s National Cotton Candy Day!

Well, hello there! And welcome back to CelebrateHoliday where today we will just run amuck with July 31^st zaniness!

Why? Because it is Friday! And because there is a wonderful confection to celebrate today:

It‘s National Cotton Candy Day!

Imagine indulging in a great steak dinner and then being presented with this fun & fluffy dessert treat!

My favorite special occasion steakhouse serves obscure cotton candy cones after your meal- it is so fun to see the uniformed waitstaff carrying around these bright, fluffy clouds of sweet treats though the elegant dining room- I’ve been able to try grape, orange, and vanilla at this restaurant. And one time we even were brought back into the kitchen to make it ourselves! What a treat.

Around the world American Cotton Candy is also known as Candy Floss, Fairy Floss, and is very similar to the Persian treat, Pashmak.

Popular flavors are Pink Vanilla and Blue Raspberry, but you can also get Grape, Lime, Orange, Strawberry, Cherry, BubbleGum, Pina Colada, Watermelon, Banana, and Sassy Apple.

Let me know if you’ve ever had Pina Colada- meanwhile I aim to try Banana someday. Meanwhile, I also wanted to wish our favorite fictionalwizard Harry Potter a happy birthday!

Mommy, Daddy- wake up! It’s National Cheesecake Day!

Join me, friends, in a collective: YUM! It is almost like “Ohm”, but much more delicious! Because today, July 30th, is really and truly National Cheesecake Day, the day we are honor-bound by our national pride to indulge in the luscious and rich dessert we all crave: cheesecake!

one word: yum!

And how, you ask, do we celebrate this amazing holiday?

Do we debate on choosing the dense and rich New York style vs. light and creamy Philadelphia style?

Shall we compare our favorite fruit, nut, and syrupy toppings or discuss at length the best swirly, sweet, and colorful  fillings?

Or do we explore in-depth the merits of baking verses refrigerating, chocolate cookie crust versus graham cracker, or indulge in a cheesecake cocktail concoction …?

Enough, of course we don’t talk- we EAT!

And to help us do that our friends at The Cheesecake Factory are offering 1/2 off cheesecake slices today. Or you can make your own with a recipe from one of  my favorite recipe sites.

When I was in high school, my best friend made this fantastic “Zola’s Chocolate Cheesecake” whose ingredients, as I remember, called for three pounds of cream cheese in addition to heavy cream and a whole lot of sugar. This was the same best friend with whom I spent 13 hours making a crazy complicated Frangelico chocolate ganache layered sponge cake with handmade hazelnut toffee chocolate leaves, but that story, I am afraid, is definitely reserved for another day. Like “National Ridicuoulously Complicated Recipe from He%! Day” .

Everyday is a Holiday- Let’s celebrate!

And today it begins- my first blog!

I have chosen for my focus a subject that is near and dear to my heart: holidays! Whether as a parent, an American, a former preschool teacher, or an employee of an online stationery company, celebrating holidays will always be a central feature of my daily life. So here on my blog I will expound upon the numerous joys of celebrating the traditional holidays we honor each year as well as feed my voracious hunger for research, learning, and culture by exploring holidays as yet unknown to me…or possibly even you!

For my inaugural blog post I bring for your celebratory pleasure the obscure national holiday known as:  “Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day”

uh, what?

Yes, it is true, we Americans have a day dedicated to ..uh… sacrificial dairy purchase. Seriously, what can it possibly mean? Perhaps the subject can be enlightened by a bit of poetry:

A poem dedicated to National Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day

So, fellow Americans, if you didn’t cop to all that I’ll spell it out for you: today is the day we are meant to go out and buy some cheese that will be “sacrificed” to bait our mousetraps.  Friends, I couldn’t make this stuff up- if this kind of thing continues I truly think CelebrateHoliday is going to be the most awesome blog ever!

Join me tomorrow, July 30th, when we celebrate- ironically enough- National Cheesecake Day! (I smell a conspiracy here… who thinks Dairy Council is toying with us?)