Macaroon Day is celebrated each year on May 31. Macaroons are believed to have first appeared in Italy in the late 18th century. The recipe was carried by nuns in hiding during the French Revolution. They were picked up by the Jewish community and are now a frequent celebration food at festivals like Passover.

The word macaroon describes small cakes or meringue cookies that consisted mainly of ground almonds. Today, macaroons come in a variety of flavors.

I found a recipe that I like to use that consists of only four ingredients and is quite good:

5 1/2 C flaked coconut
1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
2 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 t almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix all ingredients well and drop by rounded teaspoons onto an aluminum foil-lined, greased baking sheet. Bake for about 8 – 10 minutes or until they are lightly browned around the edges. Remove from baking sheets and allow to cool.

Chia Pet Rescue

Memorial Day
Save Your Hearing Day
Worldwide No Smoke Day
What You Think Upon Grows Day
National Macaroon Day

Geek Pride Shirt
by ChiaPetRescue

May 25th was designated as Geek Pride to coincide with the premiere of the first Star Wars movie in 1977. Also celebrated on this day is Towel Day in honor of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Tim McEachern organized events called Geek Pride Festival and/or Geek Pride Day 1998 to 2000 at a bar in Albany, New York. In 2006, it was celebrated for the first time in Spain also.

In researching this day, I found a list of rights and responsibilities for the day:

Rights:

1. The right to be even geekier.
2. The right to not leave your house.
3. The right to not like football or any other sport.
4. The right to associate with other nerds.
5. The right to have few friends (or none at all).
6. The right to have as many geeky friends as you want.
7. The right to be out of style.
8. The right to be overweight and short-sighted.
9. The right to show off your geekiness.
10. The right to take over the world.

Responsibilities:

1. Be a geek, no matter what.
2. Try to be nerdier than anyone else.
3. If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.
4. To save and protect all geeky material.
5. Do everything you can to show off geeky stuff as a “museum of geekiness.”
6. Don’t be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.
7. Attend every nerdy movie on opening night and buy every geeky book before anyone else.
8. Wait in line on every opening night. If you can go in costume or at least with a related T-shirt, all the better.
9. Never throw away anything related to geekdom.
10. Try to take over the world!

Chia Pet Rescue

May 23rd is National Taffy Day.

Taffy is made mainly from sugar, as most candy is. It is made by boiling sugar then stretching and/or pulling it to infuse air into it and adding a hefty dose of butter or oil and flavorings and allowing the mixture to cool.

We are probably most familiar with Salt Water Taffy. The legend of how salt water taffy got its name is disputed.

One story involves a candy-store owner, David Bradley, whose shop was flooded during a major storm in 1883. His entire stock of taffy was soaked with salty Atlantic Ocean water. When a young girl came into his shop and asked if he had any taffy for sale, he is said to have offered some “salt water taffy.”

Fun facts about Salt Water Taffy:

• Modern technology allows confectioners to produce 1,000 pieces of taffy a minute.
• In one hour enough pieces of taffy are made to cover one third of the length of Atlantic City (about 1.3 miles).
• In one day enough pieces of taffy are made to cover about 2/3 of the width of New Jersey (about 46 miles).
• The three most popular taffy flavors sold by Sweet Candy Company are peppermint, cinnamon and chocolate.

Chia Pet Rescue

May 22nd is National Wig Out Day. I read that it was started by a group called the Wigsters. The Wigsters are a small group of local people who love to have fun and who want to help show the world that Bellingham is anything but boring!

The Wig Out was inspired by Julia who often wore character wigs (and the costumes to match) to her job at a local mortgage company. Her personal freedom was very refreshing.

The purpose of the Wig Out is to have as many people as possible wear a wig every year on this day. Everyone-young and old, silly and serious, conservative and liberal – all of us can benefit from getting our wig on once a year.

So grab your wig and wear it today!

Chia Pet Rescue