May 3 Garden Meditation Day

May 3rd is Garden Meditation Day, It is time to forget about everything else, take some time for yourself, relax and meditate. Provides the perfect opportunity to achieve inner peace while honoring the essential ties between people and the environment.

Participation in Garden Meditation Day can include sitting with quiet awareness in your garden or nearby park, or weeding, watering or planting in a focused, relaxed manner. Practiced with or without movement, meditation can quiet the mind and invite inner harmony, and gardening can make the world more lush, beautiful and livable.

It is time to forget about everything else, take some time for yourself, relax and meditate.

May 2 Melanoma Monday – First Monday in May

The first Monday of May is Nat’l Skin Self-Examination Day, also known as “Melanoma Monday.” On this day people are encouraged to examine their bodies for skin cancer and learn more about the detection and prevention of melanoma and other skin cancers.

In observance of Melanoma Monday, and in memory of my Uncle Budd, Chris and I performed skin self-examinations in front of our bathroom mirror this evening. To perform a thorough examination you need to strip down to nothing and examine all parts of your body — even under your arms, between your toes, and behind your ears — using a hand mirror when necessary.

There are five things to consider when looking over any moles you encounter during this task, called the ABCDEs of skin examination: Asymmetry (is one half of the mole different from the other?), Border (is it scalloped or poorly defined?), Color (does it vary from one area to another?), Diameter (is it bigger than 6mm?), and Evolving (does it look different than our other moles, or is it changing?). 

Founded by the American Academy of Dermatology, Melanoma Monday has been raising awareness since at least 1984. For more information on prevention and screening visit www.melanomamonday.org.

May 2 Truffle Day

 
It’s Truffle Day on May 2. According to legend, a man named Louis Dufour invented the chocolate truffle in Chambéry, France in 1895. The first recipes for chocolate truffles appeared in the 1920s. Today there are three main types—American, European, and Swiss. Each type of truffle has a slightly different twist, but they all include a creamy ganache filling and a topping like cocoa, coconut, or drizzled chocolate.

This chocolate confectionery is traditionally made with a chocolate ganache center coated in chocolate, icing, cocoa powder, chopped nuts or coconut. The truffle may be filled with other fillings such as cream, melted chocolate, caramel, nuts, fruit, nougat, fudge, toffee, mint, marshmallow or liqueur. 

Enjoy the following tried and true recipes.

Easy OREO Truffles

Easy Decadent Truffles

Basic Truffles

Chocolate Truffles

May 1 Loyalty Day

 

Loyalty Day is observed annually on May 1. It is a special day for people to reaffirm their loyalty to the United States and to recognize the heritage of American freedom. The President of the U.S. issues a proclamation annually on May 1 as part of celebratory activities of Loyalty Day.

First observed in 1921 as “Americanization Day,” this holiday was intended to counterbalance the Communist celebration of Labor Day on May Day. On July 18, 1958, it was made an official holiday by the U.S. Congress (Public Law 85-529). President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed May 1, 1959, the first official observance of Loyalty Day. This day has been recognized with an official proclamation every year, by every president, since its inception as a legal holiday in 1958. 

May 1 Chocolate Parfait Day

May 1 recognizes the food holiday National Chocolate Parfait Day. Parfait literally means “perfect” in French. Parfait is a French dessert developed in 1894. This dessert was made with sugar syrup, eggs and cream. However it evolved to a custard-base ice cream flavored with fruit puree.

Chocolate parfait, that we honor today, usually involves chocolate mousse of pudding layered with whipped cream, cookie crumbs, fruit or anything else that is delicious and goes well with chocolate. Chocolate parfait also can have a gelatin or yogurt base, and the rest of the dessert is built from there.

There are hundreds of parfait recipes. They are all perfect for breakfast or dessert. If you want to celebrate National Chocolate Parfait Day, you should try making a perfect dessert to share with your family or friends.