Food and Holidays - Ideas For Your Family Cookbook

Almost every holiday we celebrate comes with a vast lineup of traditional recipes we like to prepare. We know the familiar holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, Easter, and the 4th of July that immediately bring to mind the expectations of memorable food associated which each holiday. Of course the Thanksgiving turkey, the Christmas ham, and of course we can't leave out those barbecue ribs at the 4th of July.

The food that we enjoy at holidays and the many recipes that we prepare at the celebration of each holiday provide great ideas and themes for your family cookbook. You can create entire sections of recipes and memorable stories in your family cookbook around each of the holidays that brings family together.

If you have enough ideas and recipe material, you can even dedicate an entire family cookbook theme to just one holiday. A collection of Thanksgiving recipes with pictures and stories about the family thrown in, for example. Or a collection of all of the dishes that were served at your last Christmas holiday gathering. Perhaps something like the "Hill Family 2008 Christmas Recipe Cookbook" as another example. The holiday food ideas for your next family cookbook are almost unlimited.

OK, so much for the well known holidays ... I'm sure you get the idea.

But you might not be aware of the many lesser known food holidays throughout the year. Whether some of the more obscure food holidays and food celebrations offer good ideas and themes for your family cookbook, you'll have to decide. But I assure you, the field is wide open.

There are a number of web sites that keep pretty good track of food holidays. One of my favorites is "The Nibble", an online magazine about specialty and gourmet foods. See The Nibble's section on American Food Holidays (scroll down the page and you'll see a link for each food holiday month). It turns out, there's a food honored just about every day of the year.

Now, some of these food holidays are a bit bizarre. Like "National Cheeseball Day" on April 17th each year. Or "National Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Day" on April 20th. But other holidays honoring our favorite foods aren't as far out, such as "Garlic Day" in April or "National Cheesecake Day" in July. I can envision a family cookbook of favorite Garlic or Cheesecake recipes.

At least, be sure to have some fun exploring the ever expanding list of food holidays that turn up virtually each day of the year.

While we're on the subject, exactly how does a food holiday become official? Well, it turns out that the President of the United States has the authority to declare a commemorative day or event by proclamation. And you thought the President had better things to do?

And you can apply Chase's Calendar of Events for an official "event day". If they accept your holiday, they will publish it on their calendars.

Now let's see, today is Feb 5th as I sit here and write about food holidays ... and sure enough, today is "National Chocolate Fondue Day". Do I hear a chocolate fondue cookbook in the works? And February is "Sweet Potato Month", that might tie in with a sweetheart theme for Valentines Day. February is also "National Fiber Focus Month" (that might be a little rough) and "National Grapefruit Month".

See, the possibilities are endless, don't you agree?