According to nationaldaycalendar.com, pretty much every day of the year has some food associated with it. National Donut Day is June 4, National Popcorn Day was Jan. 19 and National Lemonade Day is Aug. 20. Chances are if there is a popular food, there is a day associated with it. So to celebrate a few of the upcoming days, here are three recipes to try out:

National Corn Chip Day (Jan. 29)

Frito Pie/Cougar Chips

The pie can be made casserole-style or you can do it “Cougar chip”-style, as this reporter’s high school alma mater called them during football games with the corn chips intermixed with the chili. Ultimately, Frito Pie is just chili, cheese and Fritos all mixed together and you can’t go wrong with that. Here is a vegetarian twist on classic chili with Fritos and cheese.

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 small onion (diced)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 sweet potatoes (peeled and chopped)
• 1 red bell pepper (chopped)
• 1 jalapeno pepper (minced)
• 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans
• 1-2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes (or tomato sauce)
• 1/2 cup water (or vegetable broth)
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Cheddar cheese
• Fritos

Directions

In a Dutch oven or large pot with a lid over medium-high heat, saute the garlic, onion and olive oil until fragrant then add the sweet potatoes, bell pepper and jalapeño and cook for about 3 minutes until the onion is soft.

Add the black beans, tomatoes, water and spices and reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Serve hot. Top with cheddar cheese and Fritos.

The same recipe can be made in a casserole, just put all the ingredients into a baking dish and bake at 375 for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

National Croissant Day (Jan. 30)

Croissants

Croissants are tricky and no matter how many episodes of the Great British Baking Show you watch, you will most likely fail the first time you make them. In fact, you’ll probably fail the second time, too, but you’ll fail less. They take time (two to three days), patience and a certain amount of finesse to get them just right.

Note: This was only my second attempt at making the flaky crescent wonders, and while I got incredibly close to getting them right, they still weren’t perfect — though they still tasted good. And for more precise measurements, I followed a metric recipe from weekendbakery.com to try and nail it.

Ingredients

• 140 grams warm water
• 11 g dry active yeast
• 500 g flour (extra for dusting)
• 140 g milk
• 55 g sugar
• 40 g soft unsalted butter for the dough
• 280 g cold unsalted butter for laminating
• 12 g salt
• 1 egg and 1 tsp water for egg wash

Directions

In a small bowl combine the water with the yeast and set aside.

In a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine flour, milk, sugar, softened butter and salt in then add the yeast and water mix (this allows time for the yeast to activate). Mix on medium-high speed until dough forms then knead for three minutes. Mold the dough into a disc shape and put it on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the refrigerator for four hours or overnight.

Thirty minutes to one hour before you plan to start rolling out the dough, on a piece of parchment paper, roll out the cold butter to a 17-centimeter square. You can also soften the butter completely first by using a hand mixer and mixing it until smooth, then spread it out to the correct dimensions. Place the butter in the fridge to chill back down.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a 26-centimeter square. Then place the butter slab diagonally on top of the dough (it should look like a diamond). Take the flaps of exposed dough and fold them over the butter to its center, overlapping them slightly and pinching the dough to seal all edges.

With the butter completely covered, roll out the dough to a 20-by-60 centimeter rectangle, keeping the edges as straight as possible. Do not tear the dough.

Fold the dough letter-style (in thirds, overlapping) and cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Repeat the process two more times, rolling out the dough from the open end into a 20-by-60 centimeter rectangle. Dust the dough with a little flour to help prevent tearing.

After the third roll and fold, return the fridge for four hours or overnight.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough one last time to 110-by-20 centimeters taking great care not to rip the layers of laminated dough (if you do, the butter will melt out during baking).

Then, use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 10-centimeter pieces along the long side. Then diagonally cut those pieces in half for two triangular sections of dough.

On the shorter side end of each triangle, make a small cut (about 1.5 centimeters), then roll the dough toward the point, creating a slight crescent shape.

Arrange on a baking sheet and brush on the egg wash then let proof for 2 hours until the croissants have noticeably risen. Do one more coat of the egg wash.

Bake at 390 degrees in a convection oven or 430 degrees in a conventional oven for 20 minutes. If they begin to brown too quickly, adjust the oven temperature.

Feb. 3 National Carrot Cake Day

Carrot Cake

The incredibly moist spice cake is super easy to make and can be adapted based on individual preferences fairly easily.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 5 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp heavy cream or milk
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• pinch of salt, to taste

Directions

Mix all ingredients together in a standing mixer or with a hand mixer until smooth. Add sugar for desired taste.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped pecans (1 cup for cake, 1 cup for garnish), optional
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 2 cups grated carrots (three large carrots)

Directions

Toast the pecans in a 300 degree oven for 7-10 minutes.

Reheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease two or three cake pans, lining the bottom with parchment paper then greasing the parchment.

In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, oil, eggs, applesauce and vanilla until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flower, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold in with a rubber spatula. Add the carrots and one cup of pecans, if desired, and fold those in.

Pour the batter into your cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. When done, place the cake pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes then turn the cakes out to cool completely.

Top with a cream cheese frosting and the remaining pecans.

Looking for more days to celebrate?

Here are the upcoming food related days this week:

Jan. 28 National Blueberry Pancake Day

Jan. 29 National Corn Chip Day

Jan. 30 National Croissant Day

Jan. 31 National Hot Chocolate Day

Feb. 1 National Baked Alaska Day

Feb. 2 National Tater Tot Day, Heavenly Hash Day

Feb. 3 National Carrot Cake Day