It is Spaghetti Day

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By Diane Forrest,

My cousin is a great cook, she loves to try new recipes, I am not that way.  I like to stick with the tried and true.  She invited my husband and I to her home for dinner one night, and had prepared spaghetti and meatballs and lasagna.  It was delicious and my husband raved about it often.  I called her, asked her for the recipe, and set out to make it.  Since it was New Year's Eve, and it made alot, I took some to my parent's for their dinner, and my son and his friend also ate it.

Everyone loved it except for my son.  He blamed me and the spaghetti for ruining his whole year when he developed a stomach virus and spent New Year's Eve in the bathroom.

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Spaghetti is cylindrical pasta made from semolina flour and water.  The name means thin string or twine.  It is used to make a variety of Italian dishes using different sauces such as marinara, cabonera and alfredo sauce.

Today is National Spaghetti Day.  It is a fast, inexpensive, and romantic meal.   Who could forget the dinner between the Lady and the Tramp?  If you don't want to use the jar of sauce, I am giving you the recipe that my cousin got from a local restaurant chef.  I am also included the meatballs too.  Give it a try; I am sure you will love it as much as we did.

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Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 28oz can tomato puree or 3 10oz cans
• 1 small can italian tomato paste
• 1 14 oz can italian stewed tomatoes
• 1 larg can water
• 1 beef boullion cube
• fresh garlic to taste
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 cup Romano/parmesan mixture cheese (grated or powder)

Directions

Mix sauce ingredients in large dutch oven and simmer

Meatballs

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground sirloin
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
• fresh garlic to taste
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp oragano
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 cup Romano/parmesean mixture cheese (grated or powder)

Directions

Mix all ingredients for meatballs and form into small meatballs and brown in skillet.  Add to sauce and cook at least 2 hours on low heat.  Serve over spaghetti noodles

Great Fruitcake Toss

By Akindman,

Today is Fruitcake Toss Day! Fruitcakes are the holiday gift that no one asks for, but many people receive. If you still haven’t eaten or re-gifted your holiday fruitcake, today is the perfect excuse to toss it. Start the year with a clean pantry!

Every year in Manitou Springs, Colorado, there is a Great Fruitcake Toss in which people compete to see how far they can throw or hurtle their fruitcakes. People also use the cakes at this event to make little cars to race during a Fruitcake Derby.

The first Great Fruitcake Toss took place in 1995. The event has grown into a huge festival that attracts participants from across the country. So go ahead and join the rest of the nation today in throwing out your holiday fruitcakes!

Fruitcake facts

Here are some fanciful facts about the much maligned fruitcake and a few of the reasons I love it.

• Some sources trace variations of the fruitcake back to the times of the Egyptians, and fruitcake was certainly around in the Middle Ages. Doesn’t that make it historic? A classic, like the little black dress?
• The shelf life of a fruitcake may be two or even three years – and I don’t mean for dead Pharaohs. Think of the re-gifting possibilities. What’s not to love about that?
• American fruitcake recipes can be documented as far back as 1824, according to About.com, with recipes that include some 9 pounds of fruit and nuts.
• The ingredients are as lavish and colorful as a big box of crayons! Fruitcake is a potpourri of sugary, squishy and otherwise crunchy stuff, including raisins, currants, almonds, pineapples, cherries, pecans, alcohol, corn syrup… a health food, no?
• Many fruitcakes are provided by Trappist monks from Oregon to Georgia. Their bakeries (and fruitcake revenues) furnish financing to the monasteries. Hell, I’m feeling more spiritual about my Christmas fruitcake already.
• The record for consumption of this chock-full-of-nuts confection was set in 2001 by Sonya Thomas, who downed 4 lbs and 14 oz in 10 minutes. (UGH.)
• Takeru Kobayashi – record holder for (competitive) consumption of hot dogs and a number of other foods – attempted to better Thomas’ accomplishment in December 2008, and couldn’t do it!
• What other holiday food has its own sporting event? If you receive one of those fruitcakes (the pallid, chalky, neon-lit, or led-weighted variety) – no worries! There is a fruitcake tossing event that’s been around for years – the Annual Manitou Springs Fruitcake Toss!

Chocolate Covered Cherry

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By Diane Forrest,

If you haven't been down the Christmas candy section at your favorite store, you have missed the tons of boxes of chocolate covered cherries.    This time of year they are everywhere!  My mother used to buy them for her aunts at Christmas, they loved them.  I love cherries, and I love chocolate, but for some reason I don’t like the packaged candy.  I think it must be the liquid that surrounds them.  I’m sure I would love a fresh cherry dipped in chocolate, but I have never tried that.  But have been thinking more and more about it since starting this article!

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Today is National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day, so in researching how this day got started, or even some kind of history, I couldn't find anything.  But I did find a cute made up story about them from what the heck holidays.com, and thought I would share it with you.

Once upon a time, there was an ancient king of England who was king so long ago that no one can even remember his name. He had this mother-in-law that he really hated, but he didn't want to just upset his beautiful queen wife by killing her. So on her birthday, he gave his mother-in-law a GIANT chocolate-covered cherry, and she choked on it and died. To celebrate this day (he told his wife it was a day to mourn for their kingdom's loss though, because he didn't want to hurt her feelings) he declared National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day. Somehow the holiday came over to the USA (probably from immigrants a long time ago) and we all eat giant chocolate covered cherries and hope we don't die tragically.

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So since the holidays are over, and the cherries have been marked down, why not grab a box today.  I’m pretty sure it counts as a fruit, so it won't mess up your diet plans...wink wink!

Below is a recipe if you want to make your own fresh cherries:

Chocolate Covered Cherries

• 2 cups powdered sugar (you may want to use more to thicken it up, some people have used another cup full)
• 1/4 cup margarine
• 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pinch salt
• maraschino cherry,   drained
• milk dipping chocolate (I use giridelli's)

Directions:

1. Combine the first 5 ingredients until well blended and smooth and place in fridge until firm
2. Meanwhile spread out the drained cherries on a cookie sheet and freeze for at least 1 hours.
3. Scoop out about 1-2 teaspoon of filling and form into a ball around a cherry.
4. Place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and freeze for 1 hr after you have formed them all.
5. Melt dipping chocolate and using your hands dip each cherry placing it on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and chill in fridge until chocolate is solid.
6. Remove cherries carefully as not to break them open and loose the center.
7. Place in an airtight plastic container and keep in a cool dry place for up to 1 month.

Motivation & Inspiration

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By Akindman,

January 2nd is National Motivation & Inspiration Day. It was passed by The United States Congress after the tragic events of 9-11-01. The intent of the day is to help people become the very best U that U can be, through "taking action to make things happen. This year's focus is to have 10 million young adults create their goals on National Motivation & Inspiration Day, Monday, January 2nd. They have created 2 Success Calendar Apps available for download. In addition, Motivate America and National Motivation & Inspiration Day has announced this year’s recipients of The American Motivation Awards, “honoring motivational, inspirational and patriotic leaders in America.

This Monday, January 2nd is National Motivation & Inspiration Day, a day created by Kevin L. McCrudden, President of Motivate America, Inc. a Long Island, NY company focused on motivational, leadership and training programs for businesses, schools, athletic teams and individuals.

http://www.MotivateAmerica.us or http://www.MotivationandInspirationDay.org

Cream Puffs

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By Diane Forrest,

Today is the official end of the holiday season, and everyone returns back to work and school and making plans for the New Year.  Many folks have spent the last month going from party to party eating holiday foods and lots of sweet treats.  For those of you who are tired of all the holiday fare...and who didn’t make a resolution to go on a diet, today is a great day for you!

Today is National Cream Puff Day.  Cream Puffs are a light and delicious dessert that originated in Europe sometime during the 1540's when Catherine de Medici's pastry chef created the baked puffed shells for Catherine’s husband, Henry II of France.  To look at them, and taste them you would think you would have to be a French chef to make them, but they are really quite easy.

When I turned 15, I got an electric spritzer maker that could also be used to insert fillings in desserts, and pipe out any kind of dough.  The first recipe I tried was the éclair, because it sounded so exotic.  A cream puff is simply a smaller éclair, almost bite size depending on how large or small you make them.

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So today, on National Cream Puff Day, surprise and delight your family and friends with your culinary talents and try some delicious cream puffs.

Cream Puffs

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1 cup water

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Drop by tablespoonful’s onto an ungreased baking sheet.
3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, lower the temperature to 325 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes until golden brown. Centers should be dry.
4. When the shells are cool, either split and fill them with the pudding mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the pudding into the shells.

I like to stuff mine with instant french vanilla pudding and top with chocolate glaze, however you can fill them with anything you like, pudding, ice cream or other type of cream, even fruit.  You can also top with a caramel glaze or dust with powdered sugar.

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Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients

• 2 1oz squares of unsweetened chocolate
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 3 Tablespoons milk

Directions

Melt chocolate and butter in saucepan over low heat.  Remove from heat and stir in sugar and milk.  Beat until smooth and spread immediately.

INTERESTING FACTS

"Stewardesses"

Is the longest word typed with only the left hand



















And "lollipop"

Is the longest word typed with your right hand.







No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "MT".

Our eyes are always the same size from birth,
But our nose and ears never stop growing.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
Uses every letter of the alphabet.

The words 'racecar,'

'kayak' , and 'level'
Are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous
There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. (I know some people like that)

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that also)

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.


Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.  

The cruise liner, QE 2

moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Winston Churchill

was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Bonus!! All the ants in Africa weigh more than ALL the Elephants!!

Now you know (a little) more than you did before!!

It’s 2012

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By Diane Forrest,

Happy New Years!  Well it is finally here, 2012.  It is a day for new beginnings, out with the old.  The beginning of the New Year is depicted by the "retirement" of father time and the birth of baby new year.   This is celebrated at nearly every hospital across the country.  It was always an exciting time at my hospital to see when the first baby of the year would be born.  The hospital would gather gifts and prizes from local merchants and wait in anticipation for baby New Year.

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Another famous tradition of the day is the Rose Bowl Parade.  Every year I would love to watch the parade, see the fantastic floats and energetic horses.  These people are very serious about their parade, and the rules and regulations are very strict.  People who participate in the float building process begin planning them the day after the parade, and work on it all year long.

Another holiday tradition is the making of a Resolution.  A resolution is a commitment a person makes to accomplish a goal to better their life.  Some common resolutions include:

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A traditional New Year's Day dinner at my home included black eyed peas for luck and greens for money. In the Southern United States, it's traditional to eat black-eyed peas or cowpeas in a dish called hoppin' john. There are even those who believe in eating one pea for every day in the New Year. This all traces back to the legend that during the Civil War, the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, ran out of food while under attack. The residents fortunately discovered black-eyed peas and the legume were thereafter considered lucky.  The Dutch consider it lucky to eat donuts, or any round food, they consider it to symbolize coming full circle.

What not to eat, or foods considered unlucky, are lobsters, because the walk backward, and chicken, because the scratch backward, and this symbolizes moving backwards, instead of forward in the New Year.

No matter how you choose to celebrate the New Year, whether it is spending time with friends and family, watching the parade and football games, or even nursing a hangover, We would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

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