Today is...

[IceWizard]

Monday 7 Nov 2016



Bittersweet Chocolate With Almonds Day



This intriguingly specific Day celebrates a particular combination of flavours – dark, bitter chocolate and toasted almonds. This is one of the oldest recipes involving chocolate known in the English-speaking world, featuring as the only chocolate dish in an 18th-century cookbook.

The Day stands alongside Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day. This festivity exists mainly as an idea circulated on the internet. It is sponsored by the National Confections Association, and celebrated and encouraged by organisations such as food.com, a site which aims to encourage cooking and the appreciation of food by holding various different food days.

Both the tannins in dark chocolate and the various fatty acids in almonds have many health benefits, various studies have shown. Bitter Chocolate with Almonds Day encourages a delicious and nourishing dessert, which contributes to health and long life.

Celebrate by dipping blanched almonds in the best dark chocolate you can find, and serving to your friends with a glass of red wine!



And



Hug A Bear Day



Hug a Bear day isn’t about the big fuzzy beasts that roam the forests munching on nuts and berries, and once a year or so busting out the fishing skills to scoop up salmon from the teeming rivers. Hugging one of those could in fact lead to a very bad day.

They are instead about our favorite fuzzy knights of Yore. They’re big and fuzzy and warm, they watch over us at night and keep the monsters in the closet and under the bed at bay.

They’re often the first gift we’re ever given, and many of us carry them forward into our adult lives as ‘memoirs’ of our past. But we all know the real reason we still have them is our lives seem a little better, and a little saner, with our childhood protectors still working for us.

History of Hug a Bear Day

The history of stuffed animals goes back a long ways, some archaeological evidence suggests as far as Ancient Egypt. What is known for certain is that plush toys as we know them first started hitting the scene in the 1830’s, but the most iconic of all of them, the Teddy Bear, came about in 1902.

Story goes that American President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt was hunting, and refused to shoot a baby bear they came across.

Since that day the Teddy Bear has stood as the childhood toy that is given to almost every child.

The term “Teddy” was even derived from the name of this self-same president. There are now millions of Teddy Bears produced every year, in a rainbow of styles and colors.

No matter what your imagination may produce, there is sure to be a Teddy Bear that meets your idea of the perfect fuzzy protector.