Best holidays overflow with sweet treats
One of my favorite holidays lands this week — Nov. 1. That’s when Halloween candy goes on sale! We can load up on pumpkin-shaped peanut butter cups, which make a whole lot more sense to me than ANYTHING labeled “pumpkin spice.”
I hold nothing against pumpkin pie. But if there’s strawberry-rhubarb pie next to it, I’ll hold that. Better yet, if I spot a peanut butter-chocolate pie, forget the pumpkin-whatzit, I’m going with peanut butter-chocolate spice every time.
Other favorite holidays of mine include Feb. 15 (heart-shaped chocolates), chocolate rabbit ears the day after Easter, and the Christmas fudge sales on Dec. 26.
No, wait, Dec. 26 is when wrapping paper and Christmas cards go on sale. That’s important, too — as long as in another 360 days or so, you can remember where you stashed your discounted treasures.
Otherwise, you end up running out to buy emergency wrapping paper and cards at full price. It’s way less satisfying than chocolate and caramel. Also, the Christmas tree-shaped peanut butter cups are still full price.
Basically, America runs on chocolate. Some would say coffee, but since I don’t drink the stuff (if only it tasted as good as it smells), I’m sticking with chocolate—as long as no one spikes it with pumpkin spice.
Why, just take a look at this sampler pack of days dedicated to our sweet teeth:
• Jan. 8, National English Toffee Day
• Jan. 26, National Peanut Brittle Day
• Feb. 1, Decorating with Candy Day
• Feb. 2, National Heavenly Hash Day (I suspect it’s also Eat your Decorations Day, maybe as toppings for your heavenly hash ice cream)
• Feb. 11, National Peppermint Patty Day
• Feb. 15, National Gumdrop Day AND National I Want Butterscotch Day (don’t forget the Valentine’s candy sales)
• Feb. 23, National Tootsie Roll Day
• Feb. 25, National Chocolate Covered Nut Day
• March 8, National Peanut Cluster Day
• March 14, White Day (you must give three times the amount of candy you received last month for Valentine’s Day)
• March 26, National Nougat Day
• April 5, National Caramel Day, and National Peeps Day
• April 18, National Pinata Day (for the fitness-minded candy lovers, this combines exercise with treats)
• April 22, National Jelly Bean Day
• May 4, National Candied Orange Peel Day (um, what?)
• May 23, National Taffy Day
• June 1, National Candy Month
• July 18, National Sour Candy Day
• July 20, National Lollipop Day
• Sept. 14, Gobstopper Day
• Oct. 13, National M&Ms Day
• Oct. 30, National Candy Corn Day
• Oct. 31, National Caramel Day (and trick or treat search for homes passing out full-sized candy bars, not the so-called “fun size”)
• Nov. 4, National Candy Day
• Nov. 7, National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day
• Dec. 7, National Cotton Candy Day
• Dec. 19, National Hard Candy Day
• Dec. 26, National Candy Cane Day
• Dec. 28, National Chocolate Candy Day.
On a completely unrelated note, did you know that obesity and diabetes are national epidemics? I’m not sure why. Maybe we’ll explore that in another meandering. For now, I need to throw out the pumpkin spice some clod foisted upon me and bake a batch of monster cookies with chocolate chunks, M&Ms, peanut butter chips and coconut—to get my strength up for post-Halloween candy shopping.