Are You Celebrating National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day?

July 8 is National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day, and you’re probably not celebrating it. You’re not, are you?

I can’t blame you. You probably didn’t know about it. You probably also didn’t know that in the 7 short days of July which have already passed you were supposed to celebrate National Canned Lunch Meat Week, Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day and National Gingersnap Day (July 1st), National Anisette Day (2nd), National Chocolate Wafer Day and Eat Beans Day (3rd), National Barbecued Spareribs Day, Caesar Salad Birthday and Sidewalk Egg Frying Day on top of it being 4th of July, National Apple Turnover Day and Graham Cracker Day (5th), National Fried Chicken Day (6th), and National Strawberry Sundae Day, National Chocolate Day, Macaroni Day and Ice Cream Cone Day (7th).

Phew. That is an exhausting schedule for the first week of any month, but look up ‘national food days‘ and every month is similarly jammed packed with days assigned to sometimes multiple foods, seemingly at random, plus entire weeks devoted to bread, pickles, bison, etc.

Don’t panic, and put the calendar down. I love celebrations as much as the next ‘any excuse to eat a donut’ type (as if I need an excuse to eat a donut), but this is too much. It’s time to edit that list. No one needs to celebrate ‘National Corn Chip Day’ twice in one year, or ‘National Blueberry Pancake Day’ and National Gazpacho Day’ celebrated in the depths of winter. And April, you don’t get to hog ‘National Food Month’ all to yourself, you have to share buddy.

Food Calendar, The Edited Version:

January:

Eat good foods you cooked yourself. Citrus is in season, enjoy cheap oranges. Have a good cocktail or two.

February:

Eat what looks good to you. You’ll probably have some chocolate; buy the good kind, not the cheap clearance kind.

March:

Eat seasonal foods. Start thinking about growing some of your own food. Have some beer.

April:

Have you had cake yet? Get baking and have some cake.

May:

The fruits are looking very good right now. Cut them and eat them as they are. Fruits are more than pie filling.

June:

So many fruits and vegetables at the markets, how great is that? Make sure you preserve some for the future.

July:

Make some space on that grill for all those vegetables. It can’t be all hot dogs and ribs.

August:

Doesn’t ice cream sound good about now? Yes, it does, with some of that fruit you preserved.

September:

Enjoy the last bits of fresh fruits and vegetables.

October:

All that lovely hard squash. Roast it and make soup. Fill empanadas with it. Make it into pie if you must.

November:

Meat will help you get some meat on your bones to keep you warm for winter. Roast some giant turkey legs and eat like a caveman.

December: 

It’s party season. Eat everything.

Do you get my drift yet? Just eat as you like. Cook your own food. Be seasonal, but otherwise, celebrate whatever you eat on any given day.

Photo credit: Foodandwine.com