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.