National Oatmeal Month

January is National Oatmeal Month in the United States.

The name oatmeal can be used to refer to a couple of different things, both of which contain oats. The first, which is also known as white oats, is ground oat groats - the groat is the hulled kernel of the cereal grain, which is in this case the oat, and is a wholegrain - which may be rolled, steel-cut (which means cutting the groats into pieces) or crushed. The second meaning of the name is for a porridge which is made from oats.

Oatmeal contains soluble fibre which can help lower cholesterol. It has long been associated with Scotland, due to the fact that oats grow better in Scotland's short and wet growing season than wheat does.

Oatmeal, the porridge, is a dish which is often served hot, making it an ideal warming and healthy winter breakfast dish. It may also have other ingredients added to it.

Oatmeal, the ground oats, is used as an ingredient in other dishes, one of the most famous being the haggis.

National Croissant Day

National Croissant Day is on January 30th in the United States.

The croissant is a type of crescent-shaped pastry that is inextricably linked with France, who made this particular pastry the most famous. The croissant is a buttery and flaky Vienna-style pastry. It may come as no surprise after that that the ancestors of the croissant are documented in Austria. Going back as far as the thirteenth century, the kipferl, an ancestor of the croissant, is referenced to in Austria.

The croissant is a popular breakfast item made from yeast leavened dough and butter. It is usually served hot. The croissant itself dates back to the nineteenth century to a Viennese bakery founded in Paris by an Austrian artillery officer. The croissant, whose name means crescent, was inspired by the Viennese kipferl being sold.

Croissants may be eaten plain, although often with butter, but they can also be stuffed, such as in the pain aux raisins and the pan au chocolate, which contain raisins and chocolate respectively. They can also be stuffed with items such as ham and cheese, which is popular in the US.

National Corn Chip Day

National Corn Chip Day is on January 29th in the US.

Corn chips are a type of snack food that is popularly eaten with dips, in chips 'n' dips. Corn chips are similar to tortilla chips in composition, as they are both made from corn, but the process of making them and the resulting end product are different.

Cornmeal is either fried in oil or baked to make corn chips. They are usually in the shape of a small scoop, which makes picking up dips with them easy, whereas the most common shape for tortilla chips is that of a triangle. They are crunchy in texture, and thicker and more rigid than tortilla chips are. Corn chips also tend to be saltier and have a stronger flavour.

As well as accompanying dips, they are also commonly eaten with chilli.

National Blueberry Pancake Day

January 28th is National Blueberry Pancake Day in the United States.

A rather specific type of day this, not just pancakes, but blueberry pancakes. This is a rather odd time of year for an American holiday to have blueberries in it - they are not in season in the United States at this time. However, they are in season in Mexico, so fresh blueberries can be obtained from there.

The pancakes in question will be the thicker, smaller diameter, American pancakes which are similar to Scotch pancakes and drop scones. With this type of pancake being thicker, it is easier to add blueberries to the recipe. Blueberries are quite small in themselves (they are a small, dark purple fruit that ranges in size from 4-15 millimetres), but it would be tricky adding them to a British-style pancake that's only a couple of millimetres thick, rather than the US variety which tends to be about a centimetre thick.

National Chocolate Cake Day

National Chocolate Cake Day is on January 27th in the United States.

Chocolate cake is what it sounds like - a cake made with chocolate, although other ingredients can also be used, especially those that can be used between layers of the cake and to glaze the outside or top of it. In most chocolate cakes, these extras tend to use cream, or more chocolate.

Although chocolate has been around since the 18th century and it became much less expensive in the 19th century as processes for extracting  the required ingredients from cacao beans improved, chocolate cake itself is a rather more recent creation. The ability to make chocolate cakes improved by the end of the nineteenth century, but recipes were still mostly for chocolate drinks.

Cake mixes to make chocolate cake at home were introduced in the 1930s and by the end of the century various "death by chocolate" cakes became popular. Today it is possible to get a wide range of different cakes, some of which contain no flour at all.

National Pistachio Day

January 26th is National Pistachio Day in the United States.

The pistachio tree belongs to the cashew family, and first came from the Middle east and Central Asia, but has since been spread to other countries, with the United States now being the largest producer of pistachios in the world, although the People's Republic of China is the largest consumer. The fruit of the pistachio tree, which is also called pistachio, has been consumed commonly for at least 8,000 years, but there is some evidence of it being consumed over 78,000 years ago. The pistachio was common around the Mediterranean in Roman times.

Pistachio is yet another of those tree fruits that are considered to be nuts but are not, in fact, botanical nuts, making it a culinary one, as it is actually a drupe. The seed consists of an inner kernel, which is the part which is consumed, that is surrounded by a shell. Pistachios are commonly sold, when sold separately and not as part of something else, with the kernel still in the shell, resembling cooked shellfish like mussels. The kernels are often greenish in colour.

Pistachios are eaten whole, commonly either roasted or salted, and the kernels are also used in ingredients in a wide range of other foods, most often sweet ones such as candy, ice cream and baklava. Pistachios, like most nuts, are a good source of a variety of nutrients, and may help in reducing the risk of heart disease. Also, as with many tree seeds, poorly harvested or processed pistachios may contain aflatoxin.

National Peanut Brittle Day

January 26th is National Peanut Brittle Day in the US.

Brittle itself is a type of hard sugar candy known around the world in many countries and under different names. Although it was only called brittle in the late 19th century, the confection itself has been around much longer.

Brittle typically has nuts embedded in it, with different types being popular in different areas. In the United States the most popular type of brittle is peanut brittle - although peanuts are not actually nuts but legumes.

Brittle is made by heating a mixture of sugar and water to the hard crack stage (300 °F/149 °C) and mixing in the nuts. Other ingredients may also be added at this point. Whilst still hot, the mixture is poured out onto a hot surface and cooled. After cooling it is broken into pieces.

National Bread Machine Baking Month

January is National Bread Machine Baking Month in the United States.

Bread has been around for many millennia, and has been cooked at home for years. It has been cooked in both sweet and savoury versions, or simply plain, which can be used either way. Many smaller urban areas, even after bread was no longer baked at home, would still commonly bake it communally, using communal ovens, or those that were available.

In recent years, bread machines, which are also known as bread makers, have become more popular. These have also made making bread at home a whole lot easier. Gone is the preparation time; it is now a largely hands-off process. All the ingredients are simply placed inside the machine - and there are many commercially available bread mixes that contain almost all of the required ingredients, the main excluded ingredient being water - and the machine will make the bread to the chosen programme. These machines also commonly come with timers, allowing them to be set up hours before the bread is needed - and you really want a machine with a timer. The use of a timer means that a bread machine can be completely set up before going to bed, and you can then make up in the morning to a freshly cooked, warm loaf of bread.

This loaf will usually be smaller than many commercial loaves, but is still adequate for the average sized family. For smaller families, the loaf will last a couple of days. If bread machines have a flaw, it is that they still need time in which to cook the bread, usually a few hours, so you cannot decide that you want bread in the next few minutes, you need to plan it beforehand.

Lobster Thermidor Day

January 24th is Lobster Thermidor Day in the United States.

The famous, and amongst chefs and gourmets, legendary, French chef, culinary writer and restaurateur Auguste Escoffier, who updated and made popular traditional French cooking methods and elevated cooking to a respected profession, created Lobster Thermidor around 1880 at a restaurant called Maison Maire in Paris, which was near the Comédie Française, a theatre. The dish was apparently named to honour Victorien Sardou's play Thermidor, which opened at the theatre in January 1891. The play, which takes its name from the month in the French Republican Calendar, celebrates the Thermidorian Reaction which resulted in the overthrow and execution of Robespierre and the end of the Reign of Terror.

This is, as the name suggests, a lobster dish, in which cooked lobster meat, together with brandy (often cognac), and egg yolks are stuffed inside a lobster shell, and which may be served with a crust made from oven-browned cheese, commonly Gruyère. Mustard must be used in the sauce. The dish is quite expensive and time consuming to make and, given that lobster by itself tends to be quite an expensive item of seafood, is generally only served on special occasions. This was by no means the only dish still cooked today that was created by Escoffier; two of the most famous are still Peach Melba and Melba Toast, both named after Dame Nellie Melba, the Australian singer.

A more modern, and very similar, dish in its ingredients, cooking and serving, is the American Lobster Newberg.

National Peanut Butter Day

National Peanut Butter Day is on January 24th in the United States.

Peanut butter is a paste made from dry roasted peanuts; peanuts, like so many things with "nut" in the name, not actually being a nut but rather a legume.

Peanut butter is strongly associated with the United States, but the first person to actually develop it was a Canadian. Peanuts being ground into a paste, though, is a much older concept, with the Aztecs having done it - peanuts being native to South America.

Peanut butter differs from peanut paste as it has a different consistency - one nearer butter, hence the name. There are two main types of peanut butter, smooth and crunchy (or chunky). Crunchy peanut butter is actually slightly healthier. Both contain dietary fibre and unsaturated fats.

Peanut butter can be eaten as is - it's a popular sandwich ingredient in the US - and is also an important ingredient in many recipes, both sweet, such as cookies and candies, and savoury, such as in Indonesian recipes.

National Rhubarb Day

National Rhubarb Day is on January 23rd in the United States.

Rhubarb has been cultivated for thousands of years and consists of rhizomes from which grow long, fleshy stalks known as petioles which terminate in large, somewhat triangular leaves. The stalks are the part of the plant which are eaten, and have a crunchy texture similar to celery when raw and tend to be red in colour. The leaves are not eaten, as they contain toxic substances.

Rhubarb can be grown at home in the garden in may areas, and is also a popular plant for growing indoors. In the "rhubarb triangle" in the UK rhubarb is grown in forcing sheds and harvested by candlelight, which causes the stalks to be sweeter and more tender.

Rhubarb is actually a vegetable, but usually treated like a fruit. It can be eaten raw - dipping the stalks into sugar and eating them that way is popular - or cooked. It's a popular ingredients in pies and crumbles which, as the rhubarb is treated like a fruit, are sweet dessert dishes rather than savoury ones.

National Blonde Brownie Day

January 22nd is National Blonde Brownie Day in the United States.

Blonde brownies, which are also known as blondies, are a variant on the brownie. One of the most significant ingredients in a regular brownie is chocolate (or chocolate flavouring); where blondies primarily differ is that this is an ingredient which they lack, excluding any items such as chocolate chips which may be added.

Blondies are made from eggs, baking powder, vanilla, brown sugar (which takes the place of the cocoa), flour and butter. Other ingredients, such as nuts or chocolate chips may also be added.

Blondies are made in a similar fashion to the normal chocolate brownie, and are usually served in the same way, cut into smaller pieces. Whereas normal brownies are often frosted, this is not normally the case with blondies. The use of brown sugar as the primary ingredient makes them sweet enough.

National Granola Bar Day

National Granola Bar Day is on January 21st in the United States.

Granola bars, as the name might suggest, are candy bars made from granola, making them, in general, rather healthier than the average candy bar. The granola is simply pressed into the shape of a bar and packaged, making it a convenient snack.

Granola itself is a breakfast or snack food. The main ingredients are honey, nuts and rolled oats, but other ingredients such as puffed rice may be included too. Fruit is a common after-market addition to a bowl of granola, and granola bars may have dried fruit incorporated into them.

Granola bars are similar to the flapjack or muesli bar that can be found in Britain and other countries.

Assuming that nothing unhealthy is added to the granola when making it into a bar, this does make a convenient and healthy snack. However, given that chocolate is hardly an uncommon additive, they are often not as healthy as they could be.

National Cheese Lover's Day

January 20th is National Cheese Lover's Day in the United States.

Not so much celebrating cheese, as those who love it. Admittedly, it's hard to do that without actually celebrating the cheese itself.

Cheese is a product that is made from milk, and there are many different types of milk that can be used to make cheese, although cow's milk is generally the most common. The other main milk types are goat, sheep and buffalo.

Cheese is an old food, dating back to at least 5500 BC, and possibly being even older, as this is simply the date of the oldest cheese making equipment that has been found. It's believed that cheese manufacture could date back to 8000 BC. Cheese, especially those that have a hard rind (or wax in some modern cases), can have a very long shelf life, with hard cheeses generally lasting the longest. This makes cheese a useful prepared food that can be stored until consumption, an important element in earlier civilisation.

Just as there are different types of milk used to make cheese, there are different types of cheese. there are hard cheeses, and soft cheeses, and cheeses at various steps in between the two. Cheese are used in both savoury and sweet dishes, cheesecakes being one of the most common of the latter (soft cheese are most commonly used in sweet dishes), although not every type of cheese is suited for sweet dishes. Other ingredients are also added to cheese, such as fruit, herbs and spices, with one of the most common being mould, which creates mouldy, or blue, cheese. Some cheese are also smoked.

National Buttercrunch Day

January 20th is National Buttercrunch Day in the United States.

Buttercrunch (sometimes butter crunch) is a type of toffee created in the United States, different from the misnamed English Toffee - misnamed as that is also a US creation. Buttercrunch, the toffee, should not be confused with buttercrunch, they type of lettuce.

Buttercrunch is coated with chocolate and usually crushed and toasted almonds. Like other toffees and similar foods it's made by caramelising sugar, and also has butter in it.

As well as the original toffee variety, buttercrunch is also popular as a type of cookie, although in there are of course differences between the cookies and the actual toffee.

Buttercrunch toffee is a comparatively easy dish to make, as it only has a few ingredients - nuts, brown sugar, butter and chocolate chips. The most difficult part here is with caramelising the sugar correctly.

National Popcorn Day

National Popcorn Day is on January 19th in the United States.

Popcorn, or popping corn, is a type of corn - maize - that has been heated until it explodes, or "pops," hence the name. Not all types of corn are able to pop and make popcorn.

Popcorn is not, as you might think, a modern food - it is in fact a very old one. Maize has been grown for over 11,000 years in Mexico and popcorn has been found dating back over 5,500 years - perhaps much longer.

Popcorn is actually quite a healthy food, in its normal state. It's high in fibre, low in calories and fat and free from sugar and sodium. This is generally found to be quite boring and tasteless, and most modern popcorn is doused in much more unhealthy ingredients, such as salt, butter and toffee.

Popcorn can be made either savoury or sweet, depending on what, if anything, is added to the dish.

National Peking Duck Day

January 18th is National Peking Duck Day in the United States.

Originating in Beijing (the real name of Peking) in China, duck has been roasted in china for over 1,500 years. The closest version to modern Peking Duck dates back something like 600 years. In the 19th century, Peking Duck became widespread and was introduced to the rest of the world, and has since become a national symbol of China.

Properly, ducks to be cooked as Peking Duck need to be raised especially for it, but that is of course not always the case. The duck is washed, hung up to dry and glazed before being roasted with the skin on until it turns brown and then sliced thinly.

It is served with steamed pancakes, spring onions and sweet bean sauce, and possibly vegetables such as cucumber sticks. The sauce is spread over the pancake, then the meat and vegetables are placed on it and it is rolled up.

National Slow Cooking Month

January is National Slow Cooking Month in the US.

What is slow cooking? Well, it's pretty much what it sounds like - cooking that is done slowly.

Slow cooking is done in an electrical device known as a slow cooker, also sometimes known as a Crock-Pot, even though that is a trademarked name. The slow cooker simmers the food in it slowly over many hours, and at a comparatively low temperature, rather than the higher temperatures and faster times of other means of cooking.

Some dishes suitable for slow cooking are stews, soups, boiled dinners and pot roasts. The cooker itself usually consists of a ceramic insert - typically removable - which is placed inside an outer metal shell containing a heating element. The top is then covered with a glass lid.

A slow cooker allows food to be cooked unattended over many hours. A meal may therefore be set to cook before departing for work for it to be ready after returning.

National Fig Newton Day

January 16th is National Fig Newton Day in the United States.

Fig Newtons - they are a brand name - are a type of fig roll manufactured by, these days, Nabisco, although originally they were made by the Kennedy Biscuit Company which later merged with the New York Biscuit Company to form Nabisco.

The Fig Newton was invented in the later 19th century. They are, as mentioned, a brand of fig roll, which is a type of biscuit or cookie - or possibly pastry, as they are made from a cake-like dough - that has been filled with fig paste.

At the time of their invention, figs - a fruit native to and popular in an area stretching from the Mediterranean to Asia - were a solution to the physician's prescription of a daily intake of fruit and biscuits to help with digestive problems; such problems were believed at the time to be the root of all illnesses.

Most fig rolls are made in the distinctive shape of the Fig Newton. The biscuit itself is named after the town of Newton, Massachusetts.

National Strawberry Ice Cream Day

National Strawberry Ice Cream Day is on January 15th in the US.

The middle of January may not seem like an ideal time for a national day celebrating ice cream - it does tend to be rather cold in winter, and cold desserts are preferable in the summer. Strawberries are also not in season at this time of year.

Of course, it isn't necessary for the fruit known as the garden strawberry, to distinguish it from the wild ones and from which it was first grown in the late 18th century, to actually be in season to eat, or even make strawberry ice cream.

Strawberry ice cream dates back to at least 1813, as it is known to have been served at the second inauguration of U.S. President James Madison, and is one of the three flavours in Neapolitan ice cream, along with chocolate and vanilla, and is therefore used in Neapolitan-style ice cream sandwiches. Most common types of strawberry ice cream are made with strawberry flavouring, but if making it at home it is certainly possible to use fresh or frozen strawberries. Some better commercial makes will also use whole strawberries rather than flavouring.

National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day

January 14th is National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day in the United States.

Pastrami is a Jewish delicatessen meat that possibly originated in the wind-dried beef of Anatolia and Byzantine dried meat. It is a type of preserved meat pre-dating the development of refrigeration and is traditionally made from beef although mutton, pork and turkey are also used.

The meat is brined - which means simply steeping it in or treating it with brine, a mixture of salt and water - then partially dried, seasoned with herbs and spices, smoked and finally steamed. The meat is now strongly associated with New York City, to which it was brought in the late 19th century.

Hot pastrami sandwiches are exactly what they sound like - sandwiches that contain pastrami, and probably other foods, that are served hot. A grilled Rachel sandwich - a variant of the Reuben using pastrami instead of corned beef - is one example.

National Peach Melba Day

National Peach Melba Day is on January 13th in the US.

Peach Melba is a dessert made from peaches (where part of the name comes from), vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. Peaches are a fruit with a long history of cultivation, with records of the trees dating back more than 3,000 years in China.

The "Melba" portion of the name comes from Dame Nellie Melba, an Australian opera singer and soprano. In the late 19th century, at the Savoy Hotel in London, French chef Auguste Escoffier, created the dish in her honour. Dame Nellie was performing at Covent Garden in the opera Lohengrin by Wagner. At a party held by the Duke of Orléans, the chef created a centrepiece and the new dessert, which was displayed using an ice sculpture of a swan.

For the opening of the Carlton Hotel in 1900, Escoffier created a new version in which the ice swan was omitted and in which the peaches were topped with raspberry purée.

Peach Melba is not the only dish named after the singer; Melba toast is another.

National Marzipan Day

National Marzipan Day is on January 12th in the United States.

Marzipan may have originated in Persia and then moved to the Mediterranean; alternatively, it may have come from the Iberian Peninsula. In both cases, it's believed to have come from areas of Arabic influence.

It is a confection made from sugar or honey and almond meal. It can be used to make marzipan sweets (candy), where it is moulded into different shapes, with fruit being popular, and then coloured to look more realistic.

It is also used in cakes. In stollen, a traditional German bread-like fruit cake popular at Christmas, it is used inside the cake itself. For cakes which are iced, particularly fruit cakes, the marzipan is first spread over the cake and then the icing is spread on top of it.

Pre-made marzipan can be purchased and used or moulded as desired, which is easier than making it from scratch, despite the limited number of ingredients.

Curried Chicken Day

January 12th is Curried Chicken Day in the United States.

Even though curries are strongly associated with Indian cuisine - and a wide range of other Southern and South-eastern Asian cuisines, especially Thai, as well as dishes derived from them - curry is not, in fact, a word in any of the languages native to India, as it is an English word. It is believed that the word curry is derived from the Tamil word kari, which means "sauce." Curries have since spread across the world, often due to British influence, and today curries are incredibly popular in Britain itself, with chicken tikka masala being considered a British national dish.

All curries are made using spices, which can include leaves from the curry tree, but often doesn't, but just how spicy a curry is - its "heat" - can vary tremendously, from incredibly mild to potentially dangerous. Curries can be "wet," which means they are cooked in sauce, or "dry." As the world kari means sauce, there are suggestions that dry curries are not truly curries, as they are not cooked in sauce.

A chicken curry can be made from scratch, using raw chicken, but another popular way of making them is by using left over roast chicken and "currying" it - largely and traditionally, just adding the cooked chicken to a Western-style sauce flavoured with curry powder, which is a powder made from a mixture of different spices - which can get another meal or two from a chicken carcass. There are other types of curried chicken, such as the previously mentioned chicken tikka masala, as well as Coronation chicken, a cold sandwich filling that was invented for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. These are some of the most common British curried chicken dishes, but chicken can also be used in many other traditional recipes, and their Western adaptations.

National Milk Day

January 11th is National Milk Day in the United States.

Milk has been extracted from other mammals for human use for many thousands of years - perhaps as many as eleven thousand, depending on which region of the planet is looked at - following the domestication of mammals. Cows are the most common source of milk, especially when it is intended to be consumed as a liquid, but there are other domestic animals. Along with cows, sheep and goats were the earliest dairy animals domesticated, and the latter two are still used for their milk, although this milk is less commonly consumed as a drink in general than cow's milk is. Other animals such as buffalo are also sources. Milk from dairy animals other than cows is quite commonly used to make milk-based products such as cheeses.

As milk became more commercial, and households stopped having access to their own sources of dairy animals, it began to be delivered to households on a daily basis. Daily, because milk goes off very quickly if not refrigerated. As domestic refrigeration improved, and with the development of other techniques for increasing the lifespan of milk, home delivery became less common.

As well as the typical cow's milk, and that from other dairy animals, there are a number of other white coloured liquids that do not have a dairy origin, and don't even have any animal origin at all - which is useful for strict vegetarians, like vegans. These include types such as soy, coconut, rice and almond milk. Non-dairy milks have seen a rise in popularity, and are often used as a substitute for regular milk.

National Bittersweet Chocolate Day

National Bittersweet Chocolate Day is on January 10th in the United States.

Bittersweet is one of the different classifications of chocolate. The definition - and, indeed, the name - does vary from country and region to country and region.

Bittersweet, which is also called semisweet or dark chocolate, is one of the more bitter, and stronger flavoured, types of chocolate. Some sugar has been added to it, but less than a third. In the US, bittersweet needs at least 35% chocolate liquor and less than 12% milk solids. In the EU, there is no precise correlating chocolate type, but dark would be the normal description. There are also generally more requirements that need to be met, and chocolate liquor is not measured.

Chocolate does contain a number of things that are quite good for you, but the presence of the sugar makes them less so. Bittersweet chocolate, having less sugar, is therefore healthier - you can get the health benefits without the sugar disadvantages. It is too strongly flavoured for some, though, but it is popular in cooking.

National Apricot Day

January 9th is National Apricot Day in the United States.

The apricot tree has been cultivated since ancient times, although it is not known precisely where they originated. They have been cultivated in Persia for years, but they have also been grown in Armenia for a long time. There are records dating their cultivation in India back over 5,000 years. They are today cultivated in many different countries, with the Middle East and Mediterranean areas being the largest producers.

The apricot is a small drupe with a seed inside it in a hard shell that varies in colour from yellow to orange and they have a smooth or velvety surface. The apricot fruit itself, like many fruits, contains a lot of nutrients of various types. Apricots are one of the more popular types of dried fruit. Dried apricots are frequently treated with sulphur dioxide which gives them a vivid orange colour. Dried apricots have a high fibre content.

National English Toffee Day

National English Toffee Day is on January 8th in the United States.

This may be known in the United States as English toffee, but it's rather different to the confection in England (and the rest of the UK) known as toffee.

Toffee is made by heating sugar or molasses until it caramelises - the temperature varies slightly depending on the type of sugar. It is heated until it reaches what is known as the hard crack stage at 149 to 154 °C (300 to 310 °F). Butter is also added to the mix, as can other ingredients, such as nuts and dried fruit. The toffee is normally quite hard.

English toffee is a very buttery variant made in the US. It is available in both chewy and hard, and frequently contains almonds in it. The Heath Bar is a popular chocolate candy based on English toffee, having an English toffee core and coated with milk chocolate.

National Tempura Day

National Tempura Day is on January 7th in the United States.

Tempura is a type of dish made from seafood or vegetables which are then covered in a light batter and deep fried. The batter is made from cold, sometimes sparkling, water and a soft wheat flour as its base. Other ingredients, such as eggs, baking soda, oil and spices may also be added to the batter. It is possible to buy flour especially created for tempura.

Tempura is a type of cooking strongly associated with Japan, with many Japanese restaurants serving it, but it did not originate there. Instead, it came from Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in the sixteenth century in the Portuguese-founded city of Nagasaki. The name itself is Latin in origin, coming from the word "tempora" meaning times or time period. Today, tempura can be found all over the world, and not just in Japanese restaurants.

National Bean Day

National Bean Day is on January 6th in the United States.

This is a day that celebrates the bean - not the Japanese Setsubun, the Bean Throwing Festival, which is celebrated the day before spring.

Beans come in many different varieties, and the name primarily refers to large plant seeds of the Fabaceae family, which is also known as Leguminosae, and the word "legume" refers to some of the plants and seeds in that family.

There are many tens of thousands of different types of beans, many of which are used for both human and animal food, and beans are one of the longest-cultivated plants. Broad beans, which are also known as fava beans, have been grown in Thailand since the early seventh millennium BCE. Some of the bean types that are most commonly eaten are the aforementioned broad, or fava, bean, runner beans, lentils, soybeans, red kidney beans and peanuts. Yes, peanuts are another so-called nut which isn't actually a nut; they are instead a type of bean. Another common type is the haricot, or navy, bean, which is the type of bean most commonly used commercially to make baked beans.

Some of the commonly eaten bean types contain a toxin, such as red kidney beans. This toxin needs to be removed by proper preparation and cooking of the beans, or they can be dangerous.

Beans of all types have a range of nutritional properties. They also tend to be a good source of protein; this makes them useful in a vegetarian or vegan diet, which may otherwise lack needed protein.

National Shortbread Day

January 5th is National Shortbread Day in the US.

Shortbread, despite the name, is not really bread these days, but a type of biscuit or cookie, although it is "short." The short part of the name comes from the crumbly texture of the finished biscuit.

Shortbread is made from white sugar, butter and flour at its base, although other ingredients are also sometimes used. Originally, shortbread was a type of biscuit bread baked in medieval times. This bread was a bread roll that was twice baked.

Today, shortbread has a practically indelible cultural association with Scotland. Although it is made in the rest of the UK, and similar biscuits are made in some other countries, it is Scottish shortbread that is the best known. Shortbread is eaten throughout the year, but is much more common at Christmas and the New Year (or Hogmanay in Scotland). The biscuits can come in a variety of shapes, with the most common being fingers, rectangular in shape, petticoat tails, which are made from a large circular biscuit cut into wedges, and rounds, which are simply round biscuits.

National Whipped Cream Day

In the United States January 5th is National Whipped Cream Day.

Whipped cream is just as the name suggests - cream that has been whipped. The cream itself is the layer of higher-butterfat that is at the top of un-homogenized milk. When the milk is left standing, the cream will rise to the top, and can be skimmed off.

The cream itself is whipped until it is light and fluffy, and this can be done with a whisk, fork, hand or electric mixer. Whipping the cream adds air to it, creating the light and fluffy texture. Whipping cream dates back to at least the 16th century.

Whipped cream is a popular addition to cakes, desserts, pies, milkshakes, ice creams and puddings, as well as a topping on hot drinks such as hot chocolate or cocoa. Aerosol cream can be purchased as an easy to use substitute for whipping the cream by hand.

National Spaghetti Day

January 4th is National Spaghetti Day in the United States.

Spaghetti is a type of pasta that is believed to have originated in 12th century Sicily. It is a long, thin and cylindrical pasta that is made from flour and water. The Italian type is made from durum wheat semolina but other kinds of flour can also be used.

Spaghetti is cooked by boiling it in water. Fresh spaghetti is the best, but it needs to be cooked quickly to enjoy at its best, so commonly people will buy dried spaghetti and then cook it as needed.

In Italy, spaghetti is usually served with tomato sauce, usually with herbs added, and Bolognese, which is a meat-based sauce, is also very popular, both in and outside of Italy.

As well as fresh and dried spaghetti, it can also be bought in tins already in a tomato based sauce, such as Heinz Spaghetti. In the US, it is also served quite commonly with chilli con carne.

National Wheat Bread Month

January is National Wheat Bread Month in the United States.

What is wheat bread? And why does it deserve a different name? Aren't most breads made from the same ingredients?

Well, to a large proportion, the last question isn't true - there are many different flours that bread can be made from. This is a fairly normal type of bread, which is also called brown, wholemeal and whole wheat bread.

The difference is, generally, that this type of bread contains a lot of whole grain flour - in this case, the grain is wheat. Whole grain means that all of the grain is used to make the flour, rather than just the endosperm of refined grains.

Whole wheat bread is less processed and therefore generally better for you than the typical processed white bread. It's also quite common to find "bits" in it; this is sometimes done deliberately these days but, as a consequence, can make it less popular with children.

National Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day

January 3rd is National Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day in the US.

Another national day with chocolate in it, even if it also has a piece of fruit in it too - although covering them in chocolate isn't the healthiest way of eating cherries.

At its base, this is a cherry that has been dipped in chocolate. This can be done with fresh cherries, and is easy to do at home by simply holding them by the stalk and dipping the cherries into melted chocolate. The downside of this method is that the cherry will probably still have the stone in it, which could cause problems if you aren't expecting it.

There are different types of chocolate covered cherries. As well as using different types of chocolate, such as white, milk and dark, the cherries themselves can vary. Glacé cherries, which are a form of candied fruit, are popular, and dried cherries are another alternative. Sometimes the centre may not be a cherry but rather something cherry flavoured, such as cherry liqueur.

National Hot Tea Month

January is National Hot Tea Month in the United States.

For those outside the US, calling it "Hot Tea" month may seem a bit redundant, but in the US tea is popularly drunk cold, as iced tea. So that's why the fact that this is celebrating the hot drink is made clear, and hot tea is far better in winter than cold tea.

Tea refers to the drink made by pouring water over the cured leaves of an evergreen shrub native to Asia, although it is often used to describe drinks made in a similar way, such as green tea, fruit and herbal teas. Tea has been drunk for a long time in China - possibly close to five thousand years - where it was first a medicinal beverage. It has since become strongly linked to the British way of life, and the British introduced the plant to India, where much of today's teas are grown.

There are many, many different blends of tea available. Most tea purchased is a blend, but it is possible to buy teas originating from a single estate. There are also different ways of processing the tea after harvest.

National Cream Puffs Day

January 2nd is National Cream Puffs Day in the United States.

Cream puffs, which are also known as profiteroles and choux à la crème, are a type of French pastry.

The dish is made from choux (pronounced "shoe") pastry, a type of light pastry dough made from butter, water, flour and eggs. The pastry is formed into a ball, which is then filled. The fillings commonly used are pastry cream, custard and whipped cream, with ice cream a popular filling in the US.

After filling, the cream puffs may then be left as-is, or alternatively can be decorated in a number of ways such as with powdered sugar, caramel and chocolate sauce.

The term "profiterole" is sometimes reserved for a particular type which is filled with whipped cream or ice cream and then topped with chocolate.

Profiteroles date back to at least the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the term was used in English. The term cream puff has been used in the US since the middle of the nineteenth century.

National Soup Month

National Soup Month is in January in the United States.

What better time of year to have a nice bowl of warm soup than in winter when it's gold? Not that soups can't be served cold - both gazpacho and vichyssoise, for example, are traditionally served cold in summer.

Soup is an extremely old dish, dating back well over 20,000 years. It is also one of the most simple dishes to make, although it does require the use of waterproof containers to make it.

There are also different types of soup, as well as hot or cold. They are all traditionally primarily liquid (those with more solids are considered stews, but there is no clear line between the two), although they may contain or be made from solid ingredients. The two main categories of soups are clear soups and thick soups, each category being further broken down into different types.

Almost anything can be made into a soup - meat, seafood and vegetables are all used. They have often been a popular way of using leftover food by boiling them together, but since the introduction of canned soups in the 19th century, they have also been a popular commercial item, as all you need to make a soup is buy a can, open it and then heat the contents; much easier than making them from scratch. Pre-made refrigerated soups are also available.

Soups also do not need to be savoury; there are various desserts soups that can be made. Different recipes for soups can be found all over the world, as regions have their own variations.

Apple Gifting Day

January 1st is Apple Gifting Day in the United States.

This isn't a day celebrating the donation of an apple-based product, even though that might be appreciated, but rather the gifting of the fruit itself.

The apple is one of the most widely cultivated fruit trees in the world, with there being over seven thousand different varieties grown around the world. The apple may have been the earliest tree to be cultivated, with the earliest wild apple trees being in Central Asia, with eastern Turkey having the largest diversity of the genus Malus, the genus of which the apple is part of, which includes the crab apple and the wild apple. The apple tree has since been spread around the rest of the world, and were taken to North America by European colonists in the seventeenth century. The only apples native to North America are crab apples. Today, the largest producer - by a significant margin, something like 8 times as many as the next country, the United States - is the People's Republic of China.

Apples have many appearances in mythology and religion, from the apple of the tree of knowledge eaten by Adam and Eve to the golden apple that caused the Trojan War to the apples which give the Norse gods their eternal youthfulness.

Apples can be eaten raw and cooked, although apples used for cooking are rarely used for eating, and are used as a base of many different foods and drinks. Apples provide little in the way of essential nutrients, with the exception of dietary fibre.