August 15, 2011: Relaxation Day & Lemon Meringue Pie

★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
August 15, 2011

Sunrise Jelutong Highway

★~ Today’s Quote: If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there would be peace.  ~John Lennon

★~ Relaxation Day:  Before you rush out the door and head on into the start of a bustling week, take time for a few deep breaths. The motto for today is “easy peasy, light and breezy.” Wear clothes you can move in and feel good in, take a walk at lunch, indulge in the music you enjoy and, if you can, take a 20-minute nap to refresh yourself. “We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.”—David Mamet. What a happy coincidence! Today is also a very special kind of pie day!

★~ Food Of The Day: Lemon Meringue Pie:

With a buttery crust, puckering lemon curd filling and crunchy meringue topping, lemon meringue pie embodies Southern comfort in dessert form. According to Bill Neal, author of Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie, “Lemon meringue pie has been around a long time in the South and most likely grew out of the vast repertoire of puddings, whose popularity pies eclipsed in the late nineteenth century. It is remarkably similar to the Queen of Puddings.” Considered a classic of American cuisine, the pie was apparently prized by luminaries such as President Calvin Coolidge. At the end of what will hopefully be a relaxing day, let’s all sit back on our porch swing or easy chair and sink into a delicious piece of lemon meringue pie.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1877Thomas Edison wrote the president of the Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, PA. The letter stated that the word, “hello” would be a more appropriate greeting than“ahoy,” as suggested by Alexander Graham Bell when answering the telephone. And so it is that we pick up the phone anywhere in the world and say: “Allo. Alo. Bueno. Pronto. Hallo. Aloha. Mo simosi. Hello.”

♥~ 1943 – Because of his special talent to use food scraps in both unusual and appetizing recipes, the War Department awarded Sgt. Edward Dzuba the Legion of Merit.

♥~1969 – Three Dog Night (Danny Hutton, Cory Wells and Chuck Negron) was awarded a gold record for the album, Three Dog Night. Where’d the name of the group come from? In Australia, the aborigine tribes of several regions slept outside all year. As the temperatures got colder, the tribesmen would sleep with a dog to keep warm. In colder weather, they would huddle with two dogs. It must have been an extremely cold night when the group was formed…

♥~1969- Woodstock Anniversary – The Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened on this day in an alfalfa field on or near Yasgur’s Farm at Bethel, NY. The three-day rock concert featured 24 bands and drew a crowd of more than 400,000 people.

♥~ 1977 – 8-year-old Rebecca Chase sank a hole-in-one on the 125-yard par-3 fifth hole at Oak Knoll golf course in The Dalles, Oregon. It was the first hole she ever played

♥~ 2002 – Authorities in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, charged a 30-year-old man for public drunkenness after the slowest police chase on record. The man was cruising down the street at 3 miles an hour on a child’s Fisher Price Power Wheels car.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1771 – Sir Walter Scott writer: Ivanhoe, The Talisman, The Heart of Midlothian, Rob Roy, The Fortunes of Nigel; died Sep 21, 1832

♥~ 1912 –  Juiia Child –  America’s beloved food authority, who didn’t take a cooking lesson until she was in her 30s, was born at Pasadena, CA. Child’s cookbooks and television shows (most famously, “The French Chef”) encouraged Americans to cook and eat well and to be skeptical of food fads and diet strictures. “Cooking is not a chore; it is a joy,” Child believed. She died at Santa Barbara, CA, Aug 13, 2004.

♥~ 1968Debra Messing  actress: Will & Grace, N.Y.P.D. Blue, Ned and Stacey

♥~ 1972Ben Affleck actor: Pearl Harbor, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Glory Daze, Good Will Hunting, Armageddon, Forces of Nature, Reindeer Games

★~ Did You Know:

♥~  They came by the thousands. They came from every corner of the U.S. and many came from other countries. It was a pilgrimage to a farm owned by Max Yasgur in an area of Sullivan County, New York called Bethel.

♥~ Two dozen bands came to play on a wooden stage in the middle of a pasture. It was a happening unlike any other before it … and, probably like none after. 450,000 people formed a love-in for three days and nights.

♥~ Jimi Hendrix was there, Joan Baez, and Arlo Guthrie, too. Country Joe and the Fish, Santana, Crosby, Stills and Nash. Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Who, and so many more

♥~ Joni Mitchell was not there.  Taking the advice of her manager, she chose to guest on the Dick Cavett Show and then watched the festival unfold on TV, tears streaming down her face.

♥~ The dove perched on a guitar neck in the famous poster announcing ‘Three Days of Peace and Music’ is really a catbird, an American perching bird known for its catlike calls.

♥~ Bob Dylan was one of the original inspirations for the festival, and his backing group, The Band, played to the massive audience,  he never made it, as one of his children was hospitalized over that weekend.

♥~ Off-duty police officers were banned from providing security, so a New Mexico commune known as the Hog Farm were hired to form a ‘Please Force.’ The Hog Farmers were led by Wavy Gravy, a toothless former beatnik comic, who put on a Smokey-the-Bear suit and warned troublemakers they would be doused in fizzy water or hit with custard pies.

♥~ Though the festival mood was anti-war, ironically the festival would most likely have turned to tragedy without the U.S. Army, who airlifted in food, medical teams and performers. The hippy crowd was told: ‘They are with us man, they are not against us. Forty five doctors or more are here without pay because they dig what this is into.

★~ Food of the Day: This Week:

For those of you playing “food of the day” with us, here are the foods we will celebrate for the rest of the week. Big News This Week:  The prize for the food of the day contest will be a jar of Emily’s WORLD FAMOUS HOMEMADE PEAR BUTTER!!

Tue  Aug 16:  Bratwurst Day Wed Aug 17: Vanilla Custard Day

Thu Aug 18:  Soft Ice Cream Day Fri Aug 19: Hot & Spicy Food

Sat Aug 20: Lemonade Day

Sun Aug 21: Pecan Torte Day

Mon Aug 22: Spumoni Day and/or Eat a Peach Day

♥~ Send a picture celebrating the food of the day and we will enter you in our August Odd Food-For-A-Day contest.

♥~ Send the picture on the same day as we celebrated the food. If you can’t send it on the same day just get as close as possible,

♥~ At the end of the month we will randomly pick one picture and the lucky winner will win EMILY’S WORLD FAMOUS HOMEMADE PEAR BUTTER.  Emily is a proud sponsor and participant of Odd’s Food-Of-The-Day For-Year.

♥~ The winning picture will be picked by an Odd off-spring.

♥~ Pictures can be e-mailed to Katybeth@myoddfamily.com

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Have a wonderful Monday! If you have a morno moment leave a comment…Odd Loves Company.

7 thoughts on “August 15, 2011: Relaxation Day & Lemon Meringue Pie

  1. I’m a big fan of the late Bill Neal’s recipes and thoughts on food, but I have to confess that the simpler lemon pies made with sweetened condensed milk won my heart long ago.

    • Link for Lemon Meringue Pie recipe:
      http://www.eaglebrand.com/recipes/details/default.aspx?recipeID=3977

      It’s got to be at least 60 years old. They stopped pushing it after the warnings about eggs that weren’t thoroughly cooked, but you can even buy pasteurized eggs these days. I DON’T, but you can. 😀

      I think we added a tsp. of grated lemon peel to the filling and instead of using whipped cream on top, we made meringue with the egg whites. That’s enough for a really puffy, impressive meringue. Just beat them, add some sugar and a dab of vanilla. . . and maybe a shake of cream of tartar, then spread, making sure it covers the filling, and bake.

  2. Pingback: Musing: Lemon Meringue Pie and Pups

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