While one perspective suggests honoring tools used to make holes, another points to a day created to throw a few punches at a punching bag. However, we will direct you toward the thirst-quenching version instead. Besides, this delicious, refreshing drink sparkles with celebration. A wide assortment of drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, fall into the category of punch.
A combination of fruit juice and a carbonated beverage, the colorful, bubbly drink sparkles with party personality. In fact, parties, weddings, and other celebrations serve punch as part of the centerpiece at the beverage table. Large wide bowls known as punch bowls provide a beautiful vessel for serving punch.
The word punch is a loanword from Hindi panch (meaning five). Originally, punch was made with five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water, and tea or spices. It was called paantsch.
Soft drink manufacturers today distribute many types of “fruit punch” beverages. Most punch mixes are red in color. However, despite the name, they contain a small fraction of fruit juice. Sugar, corn syrup, citric acid, and artificial flavors make up the main ingredients.
Make some punch and make a toast! Thousands of punch recipes make the beverage versatile and easy to make. Check recipe books and online. Be sure to share your favorites, too! Use #NationalPunchDay to post on social media.
As the temperature heats up in June, it’s a perfect time to celebrate National Iced Tea Month!
Iced Tea Day is June 10! Try incorporating some fresh fruits or vegetables since it’s thier Month too. Besides iced tea goes well with any kind of salad.
Brewing the ideal pitcher of iced tea is a matter of taste. Mine is the Tetley Brand. Lots of restaurants brew Lipton. Depending on your taste, you may prefer sun tea, sweet tea or unsweetened tea. Perhaps your palate leans more toward a fruitier tea or a stronger type of tea. As long as it’s iced, June is the month your tea is celebrated.
Iced tea was made as early as the 1870s, but an English merchant by the name of Richard Belchynden brought the beverage to popularity. During the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis temperatures began to soar. Belchynden crossed the Atlantic to sell black tea steeped hot and served to the American public. Under the conditions, fairgoers were interested in cooler beverages. Belchynden needed to switch strategies, or he would have no sales. By brewing a stronger tea and pouring it over ice, the merchant created a new product to sell.
Pour yourself a glass of iced tea and enjoy! What is your favorite way to enjoy it? Kicking back on the porch or with a good friend? Use #NationalIcedTeaMonth to let us know on social media.
National Beverage Day on May 6th encourages us to sit back, relax, and enjoy our favorite beverages.
Beverages come in many forms. And whether you prefer a hot beverage or a cold one, the choice is yours. Serve up a caffeinated drink poured over over ice. Make it carbonated or mix it up as a cocktail or a mocktail as the case may be. Beverages may be freshly squeezed, frozen, blended, or creamy. They can even be sweet, sour, bitter, smooth, or dry.
We drink them to cool off and to warm up. We also drink them to chill out and serve them to add sparkle to a celebration. Although, some months celebrate more than others. While January is quite busy and raises a glass to milk, green juice, and the bloody Mary, February only celebrates Kahlua. While July is busy, May doesn’t shy away from beverage celebrations, either. We just celebrated lemonade and America’s favorite beverage, orange juice, and will celebrate several more in May, too!
Observe National Beverage Day by singing to a “beverage” inspired song while enjoying your tasty beverage! Post photos of your favorite beverage on social media using #NationalBeverageDay
National Lemonade Day on the first Sunday in May encourages the entrepreneurial spirit in young people all across the country.
Not only is the celebration a time to enjoy a refreshing glass of lemonade, but more importantly, it is a day to give youth an opportunity to experience the taste of success.
Through LemonadeDay.org, millions of kids around the nation learn what it takes to run a business in a fun and constructive way.
The days leading up to Lemonade Day are full of preparation by small but budding entrepreneurs. They attend workshops, check their stock, and scout out their locations. On Lemonade Day, they will be ready to set up shop and sell the freshest, coolest lemonade their side of the block!
Michael Holthouse founded National Lemonade Day in 2007 in his hometown of Houston, Texas to allow youth to sample running small businesses – like a lemonade stand. Today he and LemonadeDay.org are partnered with Google to continue to bring the entrepreneurial spirit to the youth of America.
What better way for kids to learn about running a small business than by starting one? For ages, children have set up small stands on the sidewalk. But now, we need to take them seriously. Cash in hand, consumers, come to the counter, and get your lemonade by the glassful.
Businesses face challenges, too. If they’re given lemons, well they make a different sort of lemonade. Use the ledger to create other business scenarios around your home. You can also find more ideas at www.lemonadeday.org. Frequent your favorite lemonade stand and use #NationalLemonadeDay to post on social media.
National Frozen Food Day recognizes the preservation feat that freezing fruits, vegetables, and meats have been on modern life. Celebrated each year on March 6th, the observance takes a look at how frozen food impacts our daily lives, its history, and how far it has come.
Flash Freezing
The frozen food aisle is as standard in the grocery store today as ATMs and self-checkouts. It’s also a convenience we don’t give a second thought to unless the power goes out. The American inventor, entrepreneur, and naturalist Clarence Frank Birdseye II receives credit for developing the method for the flash freezing preserve flavor and quality of foods. Today, we see his name in nearly every canned goods and frozen food aisle in every grocery store in America.
While food preservation by freezing wasn’t new, Birdseye discovered the key was freezing the food quickly. Flash freezing forms small ice crystals, which prevent the cell walls from bursting. Large ice crystals turn the food to mush.
Birdseye applied for many patents, but one of his earliest is from 1927 for a process to flash freeze foods. Consider that in 1930 only 8 percent of American households had refrigeration units in their homes. A frozen food patent in 1927 was a visionary step in a long chain of events to make frozen foods a marketable product.
In 1930, the Birdseye label, owned by the General Food Corporation, began selling 26 products to 18 retails stores in and around Springfield, Massachusetts. Clarence Birdseye continued his work with General Foods Corporation.
Birdseye died on October 7, 1956, but the name and products he inspired continue today.
In 1954, Swanson introduced the first frozen dinners. At the time, the consumers knew them as TV dinners since they were designed to be eaten in front of the newly popular television. Special folding trays, called TV trays, stored conveniently away when not in use. But when dinner time rolled around, they unfolded for each person’s TV dinner. Everyone gathered around the television to enjoy their meal. These pre-cooked meals only needed to be heated through in the oven to be ready to eat. No cooking skills were required. Pre-heat the oven, cook for the required length of time and eat.
The invention of the microwave also changed the types of frozen foods and just how convenient these items can be. Over the years, other frozen foods have developed to meet consumer demand. Various family-sized meals, health conscience meals, and even organic meals have hit the markets in recent years.
Even better make your own. Freezer meals have gained wide spread fame. 1 day of prep will fill your freezer with easy weeknight meals. By preparing them yourself they can be customized for your diet and taste. My husband is diabetic so controlling the foods in them makes it better for his health and easier for me.
You can find even more of my recipes here. While they are not all freezer meals, they are delicious and easy.
NATIONAL FROZEN FOOD DAY HISTORY
President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5157 in which it said: “Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim March 6, 1984, as Frozen Food Day, and I call upon the American people to observe such day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.”
HOW TO OBSERVE #NationalFrozenFoodDay
Take a trip to your local grocery store and find one of your favorites in the frozen food aisle!! Use #NationalFrozenFoodDay to post on social media.