On September 20th, Pepperoni Pizza Day recognizes the most popular pizza ever created. The day celebrates the pizza enjoyed by young and old alike.
While pizza comes with many different toppings, pepperoni is the single most popular pizza. Whether you like your pizza Chicago Style or New York Style, thin and crispy or deep dish, top it with pepperoni!
According to legend, Raffaele Esposito created the first pizza in June of 1889. The Queen of Italy, Margherita of Savoy, inspired the pizza maker so much, he created the pie-shaped delicacy. In the queen’s honor, he named it Pizza Margherita and topped the pizza with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. The colors represent the Italian flag.
Since then, pizza has evolved. It includes a multitude of toppings from anchovies and pineapple to sausage and bacon. However, pepperoni remains the most popular.
Italian-Americans developed the ever-popular topping through time-honored sausage making techniques. Seasoned pork and beef sausage are smoked and cured. Once the product is ready to be sliced, it’s placed on a delicious pie and baked.
HOW TO OBSERVE #PepperoniPizzaDay
Enjoy a slice of Pepperoni Pizza at your favorite pizzeria. Invite friends and family to share their recipes and make your own at home. Either way, the meal will be fantastic! Don’t forget, take a photo and post to social media using #PepperoniPizzaDay. You can also give a shout out to your favorite pizzeria or buy a gift card for another pizza celebration. And who doesn’t like breaking world records, especially when it involves pizza?
National Crème de Menthe Day on September 15th recognizes the creamy peppermint-flavored liqueur used in cocktails and desserts. Enjoy your favorite combination to celebrate!
Many of the liqueurs we enjoy today started as tonics and cure-alls. And we thank pharmacists for bringing them into existence. Crème de menthe (mint cream) is one of those liqueurs. French pharmacist, Emile Giffard, studied the cooling and digestive properties of mint. His research led him to a recipe for crème de menthe.
Crème de menthe is sweet and mint leaves (usually Corsican mint) give crème de menthe its green color. However, when extracted, the liqueur is colorless. This form of the liqueur is called white crème de menthe. Unless color is essential, both varieties have similar flavors and are interchangeable in recipes.
The traditional formula involves steeping dried peppermint or Corsican mint leaves in grain alcohol for several weeks. This method creates a natural green color. The following steps include filtration and the addition of sugar.
Several cocktails include crème de menthe as an ingredient. Two popular cocktails include Grasshopper and Stinger. Because of mint’s digestive qualities, crème de menthe makes an excellent after-dinner drink. Also popular in the kitchen, it is used in many recipes as a flavoring. To make a chilly adult milkshake mix crème de menthe with ice cream. Add chopped pecans or shaved chocolate as a garnish.
Try crème de menthe for the first time or the hundredth. Add it to a dessert or mix up a cocktail. Stir in some chocolate for a mint chocolate flair. Encourage your favorite restaurant or dessert shop to celebrate the day, too. Give them a shout out for their amazing creations, too. If you don’t have a recipe to try at home, check these out:
Share your crème de menthe recipes. Use #CremeDeMentheDay to post on social media.
Annually on the third Tuesday in September, National IT Professionals Day honors the venerable geeks of the world we all rely on to keep us connected.
The IT (information technology) professional is the unsung hero of modern business. These under-appreciated wizzes tackle the obstacles that leave the rest of us scratching our heads. Whether it be desktops, laptops, mobile devices, applications, servers, networks, databases or cybersecurity, IT professionals keep business humming. However, there is often a lack of understanding by business leaders and end-users of the important role they play and the difficulties and complexities associated with modern IT.
It’s also a great day for IT professionals to showcase their expertise. While they’re often solving computer and network issues, they also have a knack for developing and creating. Their insight into the technical universe brings numerous opportunities to individuals and businesses alike. If you tap into all their innovative knowledge, you might be surprised where it takes you.
NATIONAL IT PROFESSIONALS DAY HISTORY
Solarwinds, a provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, created National IT Professionals Day in March 2015.
If you’re an end-user, simply say thank you to the IT professionals that make your life easier. You can also give them a shout out on social media.
If you’re a business leader, in addition to saying thank you, also recognize and seek out the unique insight your IT professionals can provide in today’s always-on, always-connected world to help you make smart strategic business decisions. Recognizing the value of an IT professional will lead to a greater competitive advantage. Highlight their accomplishments, too. You might discover untapped potential if you do.
IT professionals, share why you love what you do. Encourage others interested in the field. While you celebrate the day, include other IT professions. Host competition or propose a challenge. The winners get bragging rights until next year.
Also, share #ITProDay on Social Media to increase awareness of just how important our IT professionals are.
On the Sunday following Labor Day, National Grandparents Day, honors the love only grandparents can provide.
Grandparents and their grandchildren share a special bond. These hugging, caring and patient people in the lives of children offer more than a generous dose of love. Grandparents provide an abundance of wisdom. They also offer guidance and stability.
When grandchildren need a story, grandparents tell the best. A grandparent’s wealth of family history and lore offers lessons of their own. Through humorous stories and some serious ones, grandparents gently point grandchildren in the right direction.
In 2004, the National Grandparents Day Council of Chula Vista, California announced a song for the day. A Song for Grandma and Grandpa by Johnny Prill became the official song of the United States National Grandparents Day holiday. The Council presented Prill with the National Songwriter’s Award for his song, too.
The forget-me-not is the official flower for National Grandparents Day.
As the number of grandparents grows from 65 million in 2011 to 80 million in 2020, expect the observance to increase in significance, too.
NATIONAL GRANDPARENTS DAY HISTORY
Celebrated in the United States since 1978, the United States Senate and President Jimmy Carter nationally recognized Marian McQuade of Oak Hill, West Virginia as the founder of National Grandparents Day. McQuade made it her goal to educate the youth in the community about the significant contributions that seniors have made throughout history. It was also her hope to have the youth “adopt” a grandparent, not just for one day or a year, but rather for a lifetime.
The Joint Resolution
In February of 1977, Senator Randolph along with the concurrence of other senators introduced a joint resolution to the Senate. The resolution requested the president to “issue annually a proclamation designating the first Sunday of September after Labor Day of each year as National Grandparents Day.” After Congress passed the resolution, on August 3, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the proclamation. The statute cites the day’s purpose: “…to honor grandparents, to give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their children’s children, and to help children become aware of strength, information, and guidance older people can offer.”
Other Claims
Others claim the origin of this holiday resides with the efforts of Hermine Beckett Hanna of North Syracuse, New York. She recognized seniors and their importance as early as 1961. New York Congressman James T. Walsh awarded her efforts on February 21, 1990, in front of the United States House of Representatives. He also thanked Hermine Beckett Hanna “for her important role in the establishment of Grandparents Day.”
While we have our grandparents in our lives, it is important to cherish them. Spend time with your grandparents. Learn about their life and ask questions to keep the stories coming. Do the things they enjoy doing. Sometimes, they only want to spend time with you.
How else can you celebrate the day?
Pick up the phone! Surprise your grandparents with a much-awaited phone conversation.
Take your grandparents on an adventure. Plan a day doing their favorite things – one of which is probably spending time with you.
Write a letter to your grandparents. Share with them the things you’ve been doing. They will read your letter over and over.
Learn something from a grandparent. Have you always wanted to know how to make Grandma’s pecan pie or catch a whopper from the river? Grandma or Grandpa will probably show you how. You only need to ask.
Help them out. Clean out a flower bed. Take out the trash. Mow the lawn. Paint a room. Fix the internet. Run an errand. The list goes on.
Take a photo. Sometimes we forget to capture moments with the people we love the most. Take a photo with your grandparent and make sure they get a copy.
Speaking of photos, spend some time looking through old photos with your grandparents. Ask them questions about the people in them and record the information.
Adopt a grandparent. As surprising as it may seem, there are some of our older generations who have no grandchildren. However, they still have love and wisdom to share.
If you no longer have living grandparents, share a fond memory of them. Remember something each of them taught you or one of the fun things you used to do. You can also write down your memories to share with future generations.
Use #NationalGrandparentsDay to post on social media.
On September 13th National Peanut Day pays homage to mighty and tasty peanut.
Likely originating in South America around 3,500 years ago, this legume is not a nut. They grow underground, like potatoes. Since they are an edible seed that forms in a pod, they belong to the family Leguminosae with peas and beans. When it comes to plants packing protein power, peanuts provide a whopping 8 grams per ounce, more than any other nut according to The Peanut Institute. And remember, it’s not a nut! Nuts grow on trees.
The peanut is also high in antioxidants. Not only are peanuts high in vitamins E and B6, but they’re rich in minerals such as magnesium, iron, and zinc. Studies also show when paired with other nutrient-rich foods, this wonderful legume helps us absorb nutrients better, too.
For the longest time, livestock gained the most significant benefit from all these nutrients. Until modern methods came along, planting and harvesting peanuts were labor-intensive and risky endeavors for farmers. Gradually their popularity grew. Civil War soldiers found a fondness for them, and so did fans of PT Barnum’s traveling circus. But what made it possible for peanuts to be grown in abundance was an advancement in farm technology. Just like the cotton gin revolutionized the cotton industry, planters and harvesters transformed not only the peanut farm but farming the world over.
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack ~ lyric from Take Me Out to the Ballgame (1908) by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer.
Dr. George Washington Carver
With the rise in peanut production, there also brought an increase of curious investigation into its possible uses. When the boll weevil wreaked havoc on the South’s cotton crop, Dr. George Washington Carver, made a suggestion. He had been researching this amazing groundnut and suggested farmers diversify into peanuts. It was an economic boon to Southern farmers. He published his research “How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption” in 1916. His continued research resulted in more than delicious uses for this goober, groundnut or ground pea. From shaving cream to plastics and cosmetics and even coffee, Dr. Carver’s appetite for the peanut seemed to be unending.
Many of the peanut discoveries Dr. Carver made 100 years ago are still being used today.
HOW TO OBSERVE #NationalPeanutDay
Explore the world of the peanut and crack open some for a healthful snack. Use #NationalPeanutDay to post on social media.
