May 11 is National “Eat What You Want” Day

Isn’t everyday Eat What You Want Day?

Foodimentary - National Food Holidays

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What would you like to have to eat today?

Ready to have any and all of your favorite foods and snacks?

Because today, May 11th is the National Eat What You Want day!

Did you know…

Five Most Popular Foods in US

  1. French Fries
  2. Hamburgers
  3. Fried Chicken
  4. Eggs
  5. Pizza

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Today’s Food History

  • 1838 R.I.P. Thomas Andrew Knight. British horticulturist and botanist who experimented with geotropism, phototropism and heliotropism.
  • 1886 W. Marshall patented a ‘grain binder.’
  • 1934 The Dust Bowl.  One of the worst dust storms ever to hit the Great Plains occurred. It lasted 2 days and the area lost massive amounts of top soil.
  • 1946 The first CARE packages for survivors of WW II in Europe arrive at Le Havre, France. (Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe).
  • 1947 B.F. Goodrich announced the development of the tubeless tire.
  • 2002 Joseph Bonanno, a former Mafia boss known as ‘Joe Bananas,’ died in…

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Jelly Beans

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As much as I like chocolate, come Eastertime, I do not get into all the chocolate bunnies, eggs, and chicks. Instead my sweet tooth is satisfied from jelly beans.  Looking just like colorful, miniature Easter eggs, jelly beans are the perfect candy for this time of year.  Brach’s, Jelly Belly, and Gimbal’s are three brands you can find year-round. Brach’s has classic flavors as well as sour, speckled, spice, Hawaiian Punch, and Smuckers varieties, as well as Blackbird eggs, which is a bag of all licorice jelly beans. Jelly Belly produces scores of fancy flavors, including soda and ice cream flavors, kiwi, popcorn, and beer flavored jelly beans.  Gimbal’s makes classic and sour flavored jelly beans; any Gimbal’s varieties with “Lovers” in the name (Cherry Lovers, Honey Lovers) are actually heart shaped jelly-beans.

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Jelly beans also celebrate popular children’s characters.

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During certain holidays, jelly beans of different colors and flavors are available.

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While several holidays result in many varieties of candy for sale, Easter is hands-down the holiday with the most variety of jelly beans. Unlike the select colors for other holidays, Easter jelly beans are often a jelly bean version of a common candy.  Check out the seasonal candy in stores right now.  There are Warheads jelly beans, Lifesaver jelly beans, and SweeTarts jelly beans.  Not to mention Mike and Ike, Swedish Fish, Runts, Nerds, Starburst and Jolly Rancher jelly beans.

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My favorite of them all are the Mike and Ike original jelly beans.  Mike and Ike are already similar to jelly beans, just longer and a little less round.  The Mike and Ike beans contain the same flavors as the original Mike and Ike candy plus white/pineapple and purple/grape.  Mike and Ike candies are made by Just Born.  At this time of year, you may also find Just Born jelly beans.  These are the same flavors as Mike and Ike jelly beans, with the addition of black/licorice.

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What’s your favorite brand of jelly bean?

Please keep reading to learn about chocolate-covered jelly beans………

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A Belly Full of Jelly (Beans, that is)

                      

I know that many of you know that April 22 is Earth Day. But, did you know, that it is also National Jelly Bean Day?  On that date, don’t forget to check out Foodimentary’s blog, as he always has cool food-related facts and trivia. For my next post, I will review a few brands of jelly beans, but for this post, I will share a few recipes which include jelly beans. While jelly beans do not do well in the oven,  they can be an ingredient for final decorating stage. If you can manage to not eat all the jelly beans as soon as the bag is opened (I’m still working on that, myself), save some for these recipes:

Here is an Easter cake, courtesy of Taste of Home.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/colorful-easter-cake

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An easy idea for a small treat/table decoration:

Coconut Egg Nests

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For white chocolate-jelly bean bark:

http://buttercream-bakehouse.com/2012/04/jelly-bean-easter-bark.html

 

 

April Fool’s Day

 

April Fools' Cake Recipe

 

 

Mmmm. This cake looks yummy, doesn’t it?  Only, it’s not a cake.  This is a pizza bread made to look like a cake.  The red jelly filling is tomato sauce, and the glaze on top of the cake is thin slices of mozzarella allowed to melt over the finished cake. This April Fools’ recipe was created by Taste of Home.  You can find the recipe here:

April Fools’ Cake