Today is July 25

Published 12:37 am Sunday, July 25, 2021

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Aunties Day

Auntie’s Day, started by Melanie Notkin, founder of Savvy Auntie, honors aunts and celebrates the relationship between aunts and their nieces and nephews.

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Parent’s Day

Parents’ Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of every July. It is a national observance, but it is not a public holiday. Most businesses keep to Sunday working hours.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton introduced Parents’ Day into law (36 U.S.C. § 135), signing a congressional resolution for “recognizing, uplifting, and supporting the role of parents in the rearing of children.”

According to the National Parents’ Day website, “The greatest work of any individual, rich or poor, black or white, when it comes down to the evening of their life, is their children and grandchildren, the work of being a parent.”

Parents’ Day is observed in recognition of what parents do to care for their families, as well as their contributions to society overall. Parents’ Day also helps families to focus on the love, dedication, and investment that child rearing entails.

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If the timing had been different, Jack London could have been a candidate for the Grateful American Book Prize, but he was born too early: San Francisco, 1876.

On July 25, 1897, at the age of 21, he sailed to Canada’s Klondike territories during the apex of their Gold Rush flush, but instead of sweeping for a fabulous fortune, London perused the land, its indigenous people, and pondered the plethora of piggish prospectors who grabbed for gold.

London’s adventures surfaced in the form of a successful debut short story collection called The Son of the Wolf: Tales of the Far North.

Three years later, The Call of the Wild–a story of an abducted dog, was released, and became a bestseller, that permanently pivoted the author’s profile of prestige from evanescent to evergreen.

When he died in 1916 at the age of 40, London had already written fifty works of fiction and non-fiction that are still loved.

The Grateful American Book Prize recommends The Call of the Wild by Jack London.

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Herb-Roasted Chicken with Melted Tomatoes

Ingredients

1/2 medium red onion, roughly chopped

1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh parsley

1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh tarragon

1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh dill

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

3 cloves garlic

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 cup plain yogurt

1 6- to 7-pound roasting chicken

2 pounds plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Pulse the onion, parsley, cilantro, tarragon, 2 tablespoons dill, the walnuts and garlic in a food processor. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil, the vinegar, 2 teaspoons salt, and pepper to taste; pulse until smooth.
  2. Stir half of the herb paste with the yogurt in a small bowl; cover and refrigerate.
  3. Season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Loosen the skin with your fingers; rub some of the remaining herb paste under the skin and the rest on the outside of the bird. Truss the chicken. Place in a roasting pan; roast until the skin turns golden, about 30 minutes.
  4. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Toss the tomatoes with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a bowl; season with salt and pepper. Baste the chicken with the drippings and add the tomatoes, cut-side down, to the pan. Continue roasting until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh registers 155 degrees, about 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper; let the chicken rest 10 minutes before carving.
  5. Arrange the chicken and tomatoes on a platter; sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons dill. Serve with the yogurt sauce.

(Source: https://www.foodnetwork.com/)