You know what I love most about America? The way that we have a holiday for everything. And even when we run out of holidays, we just make up more holidays and continue using them as excuses to glut. And when it's a food holiday, we are officially permissed to double-gorge! So here's a heads-up for my favorite August food holidays -- y'know, so you can get your shopping done early and beat the mad holiday rush.
- August 1 - Raspberry Cream Pie Day: This shortcut Chilled Raspberry Cream Pie recipe from Rachael Ray can be whipped up in a jif. It'll be just like one of those No-Bake commercials when your friends and family are fawning over you for spending the day slaving over the stove while you're secretly sniggering to yourself, "Heh heh, it was no bake, you fools!"
- August 2 - Ice Cream Sandwich Day: Sure, you could wade through the freezer case, or you could man up and make your own. Consider these decadent peanut-butter-'n'-honey-flavored "Bee-Nut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches" from Domestic Goddess.
- August 3 - Watermelon Day: Who cares about eating watermelon when you can carve them up like victims on Nip & Tuck? The National Watermelon Promotion Board provides detailed instructions for 35 different carvings - from a bug convertible to a T-Rex.
- August 5 - Mustard Day: Stop being a slave to French's and make your own mustard. A mustard you can be proud of. Like a Dark Lager Mustard. Or a Pineapple-Rum Mustard. Or one of the other 161 mustard recipes over available at Melborponsti.
- August 16 - Bratwurst Day: Ohio will be hosting its annual Bratwurst Festival, but assuming you can't make it out to Bucyrus, consider this classic Beer-Simmered Brats recipe from Epicurious.
- August 19 - Potato Day: You know what they say about potatoes: There are craploads of ways to prepare 'em. So rather than suggest one recipe, allow me to point you to the Idaho Potato Commission. They have thousands of recipes, all featuring everyone's favorite tuber.
- August 30 - Toasted Marshmallow Day: If you can hike up a hill, assemble a camp site of twigs, and start a fire with two rocks, then you can certainly make your own marshmallows for roasting and toasting. Here's an oldie-but-goodie homemade marshmallow recipe from the Slashfood archives.
- August 31 - Trail Mix Day: To piggyback, if you can make your own marshmallows, you can make your own trail mix. Consider it an opportunity to be creative. Think beyond nuts, dried fruit, and M&Ms: How about freeze-dried veggies? Bugles? Gummy bears? (Stay tuned for my patented Trail Mix Recipe Generator™.)
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