Posted on 02/23/2023 5:24:09 AM PST by Red Badger
(Last Updated On: February 21, 2023)
NATIONAL CHILI DAY
National Chili Day on the fourth Thursday in February honors one of America’s favorite winter dishes–chili. It’s also known as chili con carne (chili with meat).
#NationalChiliDay
In Spanish, chili refers to “chili pepper” and carne means “meat”.
Chili is most commonly made up of tomatoes, beans, chili peppers, meat, garlic, onions, and cumin. However, cooks offer up so many variations to the basic chili recipe. And, with so many varieties, chili cook-off competitions love to feature chili as a favored entry.
American frontier settlers used a “chili” recipe of dried beef, suet, dried chili peppers, and salt. All this was pounded together and formed into bricks and dried. They could then boil the bricks in pots on the trails.
At the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, the San Antonio Chili Stand helped people from all over the United States appreciate the taste of chili. Because San Antonio was a significant tourist destination, it helped Texas-style chili con carne spread throughout the South and West. In 1977, House Concurrent Resolution Number 18 of the 65th Texas Legislature designated chili con carne as the official dish of the U.S. state of Texas.
Before World War II, hundreds of small, family-run chili parlors (also known as chili joints) popped up throughout the state of Texas as well as other places in the United States. Each new chili parlor usually claimed some kind of secret recipe.
Ways to enjoy chili
There are many ways that people enjoy the great taste of chili, some of which include:
Add chili to hot dogs to create chili dogs.
Top burgers with chili and enjoy a chili burger.
Combine chili and chili with fries and make chili cheese fries.
Make the ultimate baked potato by stuffing it with chili.
“Frito pie” is chili with spaghetti noodles.
Transform mac and cheese into chili mac.
Mix rice and chili for another flavor favorite.
Add croutons to your chili for added crunch.
HOW TO OBSERVE NATIONAL CHILI DAY
Make some chili.
Try this Wild Came Chili recipe.
Invite friends to warm up over a bowl of chili.
Share your recipes.
Host a chili cook-off.
Use #NationalChiliDay to post on social media.
NATIONAL CHILI DAY HISTORY
Rich Kelly of Hard Times Cafe in Arlington, VA founded National Chili Day. The day has been celebrated with cook-offs, pot lucks, feeds and bottomless bowls since at least 2006.
Chili FAQ
Q. Are all chilis spicy?
A. No. Chili is such a versatile dish it can be made with very little to no spicy heat.
Q. What’s a chili cook-off?
A. Chili cook-off is a competition. Many people claim they make the best chili and a cook-off is a way to determine who really does have the best chili. Competitors bring their finished dish and judges taste each entry. Sometimes a chili cook-off functions as a fundraiser for a charity.
Q. What kinds of toppings go on chili?
A. Some people prefer their chili without any additional toppings. However, there are many ways to top off your chili. Try these ideas:
Sour cream
Shredded cheese
Jalapenos
Tortilla chips
Cornbread
Cottage cheese
Green onions
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(Last Updated On: February 21, 2023)
NATIONAL BANANA BREAD DAY
February 23rd annually recognizes a well-known food holiday, National Banana Bread Day.
#NationalBananaBreadDay
Bakers know that to make sweet and delicious banana bread, they need to use fully ripe, mashed bananas. The resulting quick bread is moist and almost cake-like. And while some recipes call for yeast, most don’t. Either way, the finished product makes a tasty sliced snack. Toast it and add butter for an even more satisfying treat!
In the 1930s, baking soda and baking powder made banana bread and other quick breads standard features in American cookbooks. Pillsbury’s included banana bread recipes in its 1933 Balanced Recipes cookbook, too. The release of Chiquita Banana’s Recipe Book in 1950 further secured the banana bread’s acceptance.
Surprisingly, bananas first made their appearance in the United States in 1870. For a long time, Americans saw the tropical fruit as merely that – a fruit, not an ingredient. It would take a few decades before they started seeing the banana’s potential.
Early Banana Bread
One early recipe came from The Vienna Model Bakery. It advertised banana bread as something new in the April 21, 1893, edition of St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A new restaurant/bakery chain owned by Gaff, Fleischmann & Company, The Viena Model Bakery was known for its baked goods and was likely one of the first to produce banana bread in the United States. The recipe was made with banana flour, made by drying strips of the fruit, then grinding it to a powder. This process had long been used in the West Indies.
In Hawaii during World War I, a surplus of bananas resulted from very few ships available to export the fruit. To prevent waste, alternative uses for bananas were developed. For example, bakeries started incorporating the fruit into their bread.
This recipe was printed in The Maui News on April 12, 1918, for banana bread:
2/3 banana
1/3 flour
Yeast, coconut milk, or water
There was also rationing of staple food items such as flour. Banana flour was a suggested substitute. It was touted as a health food and recommended for a vegetarian diet.
This, of course, is not the quick bread we know today. A recipe submitted by Mrs. Dean in the February 18, 1918, issue of The Garden Island paper for a banana muffin might more closely resemble the quick bread we think of today.
1 cup cornmeal
3-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 sifted banana
3/4 cup rye flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon Crisco
Mix dry ingredients, add banana, milk, and egg, and Crisco.
Quick Bread and Muffin
The difference between a quick bread and a muffin in baking has a lot to do with the type of fat and how it is mixed, creating a different crumb or texture to the bread.
In 1927, Unifruit (a wholesale produce company) offered a free cookbook called From the Tropics to Your Table. The book offered recipes full of bananas as ingredients, including banana muffins and breads. This little cookbook would have been handy during the Great Depression, which was just around the corner. At the time, families utilized every scrap of food, including overripe bananas. They cooked overripe bananas and other fruits and vegetables into breads, stews, and other dishes when flavor and texture were not as appealing raw.
HOW TO OBSERVE NATIONAL BANANA BREAD DAY
Bake your favorite version of banana bread to celebrate.
With so many varieties to try – banana nut, chocolate banana, and more – you can make more than one!
Invite someone to join you or give a loaf or two away.
Visit your local bakery and pick up some banana bread. Don’t forget to give them a shout-out!
Use #NationalBananaBreadDay to post on social media.
NATIONAL BANANA BREAD DAY HISTORY
National Day Calendar continues researching the origins of this quick bread celebration. We suspect it was founded by someone who thinks it’s the best thing since sliced bread!
Banana Bread FAQ
Q. Can I bake banana bread muffins instead?
A. Yes! That would be a perfect treat for the day.
Q. Can banana bread be frozen?
A. Yes. Wrap it well and place it in a freezer-safe container. It should keep for at least three months.
Q. My bananas aren’t ripe enough for banana bread. What can I do?
A. Poke holes into the peel using a fork. Place in a 300°F oven for 15-20 minutes. The bananas should soften.
Q. My bananas are very ripe but I don’t have time to bake banana bread this week. What can I do?
A. Freeze them in their skins. When you’re ready to bake bread, let them come to room temperature and the bananas will slide right out of the skins and into your mixing bowl!
A Two-Fer! Chili and Banana Bread Ping!.................
Oh boy.....chili porn!!
Went to a chili cook-off competition a few years ago. Got to try a variety of different ones, like rattlesnake chili (not bad), alligator-tail chili (tasty!), and venison chili (very good). One fellow offered people to taste his “Toxic Waste Chili); you had to sign a waiver before trying. Pretty damn hot, LOL
When my daughter was in Middle School, they had a fundraiser where all the band parents brought in a pot of chili to raise money for a trip.
We brought a pot of ‘White Chili’, no tomatoes, used Great Northern Beans instead of Pinto or Kidney Beans, but spicy as usual, and it sold out almost immediately!.....................
Huh?
Must be the Italian version....................
I love white chicken chili. I should make up a batch soon.
Had veggie chili last night, so won’t have a redo this evening. Carnitas will have to suffice.
We used ground Turkey.................
Oh nice! I’ll try that next time!
To make up flavor for the lack of ‘fat’ in the meat, just ad a couple of tablespoons of EVOO................Or not if you are counting calories!...........
My daughter, while doing ride-outs with the San Antonio FD as a paramedic student, would bake banana bread for the firemen. They call her “banana bread girl.” Who knew that there was a day for this? I will now abuse her for not making any for us (in hopes of getting some later).
My cousin made great banana bread, so people requested it a lot, and the recipe was passed to many in the family. A few years ago I saw her and told her how much we have always loved her recipe. She chuckled and told us that she got it off the back of a sack of flour when she was a teenager, and she never told her mom that’s the one she used. We had a big laugh over that!
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