~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
June 13, 2012
★~ Today’s Quote: Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats
★~Kitchen Klutzes Of America Day:
Happy Kitchen Klutz Day to Me. Bad things just happen to me when I decide to cook. Smoke alarms go off, recipes use words like simmer, poach, and fold, and I am totally flummoxed by “season to taste.” However, I have discovered that I have a certain talent with fried food and my popovers poof beautifully. Yesterday, my mom and I made Beignets and they turned out pretty good. It’s true that she had to help me charm the yeast, and I failed to read the recipe all the way through and missed the step that said ‘let the dough rise for two hours’ so we had them for lunch instead of breakfast, but nobody seemed to mind. I scalded a couple of fingers but, overall, the results were very tasty and the injuries were few.
Kitchen Klutzes are usually acquainted with almost every cooking accident imaginable, but we seldom cause massive injury, destruction, or poison anyone so we earn the title Klutz instead of menace. We usually have an impressive collection of restaurant menus and can make a reservation as quick as an accomplished cook can crack an egg.
Celebrate today by making reservations and/or picking up takeout and let the professionals handle the preparation.
★~Sewing Machine Day:
Do you sew? I sewed something once. Our discerning next-door neighbor taught her daughter and me how to sew a beach towel when we were about nine – we even picked out our own fabric. The beach towel turned out great and I decided to rest on my laurels and never sew again. My sweet mother once suggested a self-help group for want-to-be sewers: if you had the urge to sew, you would call a friend and she would talk you out if it. I remember her muttering when she did thread a needle or pull out the sewing machine: “As you sew, so shall you rip.” Maybe the real reason I don’t sew – besides an inability to measure and general lack of homemaking skills – is that fabric stores are so intimidating. I was reminded of just how intimidating when we went to Joann’s Fabric to buy pink netting for Maxine’s tutu. First, there is never anyone to help you, and then you have to answer questions like, ‘How much material do you want me to cut?’ from a scowling woman who knows you have no idea what you are doing. God forbid you should answer by showing her with your arms instead of telling her in yards. I end up wanting to race for the door yelling, ‘You’re right! I’m a fake! I can’t sew a stitch and I don’t know the difference between glossy thread and matte thread!’
I suppose if you like to sew, sewing machines are the ultimate gadget, and I applaud all of you who can make them hum!
★~Weed your Garden Day:
Weeding the dreaded chore. The best tip gardeners seem to offer is to weed daily to stay ahead of the weeds. Daily weeding should only take about five minutes a day. Why not spend an extra five minutes in honor of Weed your Garden Day.
★~ Today in History:
♥ ~ 1789 – Mrs. Alexander Hamilton served a new dessert treat for General George Washington. The highlight of the dinner party was ice cream! And you thought all this time that Dolley Madison was responsible. Not so.
♥~ 1884 – The Roller Coaster was invented. In 1884, the world’s first roller coaster opened at Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY. Built and later patented by LaMarcus Thompson, the “Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway” boasted two parallel 600-foot tracks that descended from 50 feet. The cars traveled at six miles per hour. Riders paid five cents each for their rides. The roller coaster was a sensation, and soon amusement parks all over the US and the world featured them. Click for more fun facts about roller coasters
♥ ~ 1921 – Babe Ruth connected for a 460-foot home run deep into the center-field bleachers at the Polo Grounds in New York City. It was the longest homer in the career of ‘The Sultan of Swat’.
♥~ 1935 – Jim Braddock defeated Max Baer in a 15-round decision. Braddock captured the world heavyweight boxing title for the win in New York City.
♥~ 1970 – The song Make It with You, by David Gates and Bread, was released. It turned out to be a number-one hit (8/22/70). Though Bread had a dozen hits, including one other million-seller (Baby I’m-A Want You, 1971); Make It with You was the soft-pop group’s only number-one tune.
♥~ 1985 – A Doonesbury cartoon strip took a shot at Frank Sinatra by portraying the ‘Chairman of the Board’ as a friend of organized crime; the Mafia, in fact. Several of the over 800 newspapers that carried the strip by cartoonist, Garry Trudeau, carried the comic strip panel with a disclaimer.
★~Born Today:
♥~ 1865 – William Butler Yeats Nobel Prize–winning Irish poet and dramatist, born in Dublin, Ireland. He once wrote: “If a poet interprets a poem of his own he limits its suggestibility.”; died Jan 28, 1939
♥ ~ 1903 – Red (Harold) Grange Pro and College Football Hall of Famer:. Perhaps the most famous football player of all time, Grange had a spectacular college career at the University of Illinois, being named an All-American in 1923, 1924 and 1925. When Illinois dedicated its Memorial Stadium on Oct 18, 1924, Grange scored four touchdowns against Michigan in the game’s first 12 minutes. Known as the “Galloping Ghost,” Grange joined the Chicago Bears in 1925 for what amounted to a barnstorming tour, the start of a professional career dictated by Grange and his manager, Charles C. (“Cash and Carry”) Pyle.
♥~ 1926 – Paul Lynde comedian, actor: The Paul Lynde Show, Hollywood Squares, Love American Style, Temperatures Rising, Bewitched, The Red Buttons Show; cartoon voice: Claude Pertwee; died Jan 10, 1982
♥~ 1951 – Richard Thomas Emmy Award-winning actor: The Waltons [1973]; Roots: The Next Generation, All Quiet on the Western Front, Johnny Belinda
♥~ 1953 – Tim Allen (Timothy Allen Dick) comedian, actor: Home Improvement, Showtime Comedy Club All-Stars II, The Santa Clause, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Galaxy Quest
♥~ 1986 – Mary-Kate Olsen actress: Full House, It Takes Two, Two of a Kind, So Little Time
★~ Did You Know:
♥~ There are about 64 million sewers in the United States.
♥~ 51 percent of sewers own at least three sewing machines. Only 19 percent own one machine.
♥~ Half of all home-sewing projects are related to home decor; fashion and clothing design make up the other half.
♥~ if you turn your head to the left and stretch your right arm out, the distance between your nose and your finger tip is approximately 36″( 3ft)? This is a method that some still use to measure out there yardages of fabric, instead of using a tape measure.
♥~ Did you know that from the tip of any of your fingers (not the nail), to the first crease of your finger is 1”?
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Enough about me today… Tell us about your crafty talents. Do you cook, sew, bead, wood work, crochet, knit, embroider, paint, to name only a few…..?
I’m not much of cook but I can grill just about anything so I don’t think I will ever starve. Spent some time weeding this past weekend and decided I would hire someone–I am getting old and would rather golf than weed and the back can only handle one or the other. I still clean the gutters, tho
Have a good one!
Grilling counts as a talent! I agree give the weeding to someone else to do. Awful job. My gutters are on the list for next week! Stop by if you are in the neighborhood!
I made an apron and rested on my laurels. My sister is a wizard at the sewing machine but I could just never get the hang of it. I can find my way around a kitchen but I love my crock pot and dining out.
Kids are in camp and I am paying catch up this week. I don’t think I have any special crafty talents but I do a fair job of painting our bathroom and I can talk like Donald Duck. Does that count?
Talking like Donald Duck is a gift that certainly deserves appreciation! Glad the kids are in camp and you hung on to your sanity!
Cooking! To me it’s like a blank canvas and the ingredients are the paint colors that you combine to make something completely great! How sick is this: the grocery store is like a paint store to me. So many options to make so many things. Kinda like a hardware store to DIY’ers I would imagine. I make Chinese, Italian, Thai, American, French, Korean, Spanish and also just Nancy food.
Nancy I am putting dips on next years holiday left overs!! I will trade camp for food :-D. You describe your love and gift of cooking beautifully. I bet Nancy’s food is the best of all!
LOL, ahhh yes..I remember giving you and Stevie a sewing lesson…I used to sew a lot but now with the inexpensive clothes everywhere, from China, etc..it does not save anything at all..unless you want something one of a kind..which I don’t anymore..If I get so bored that I want to drag my sewing machines out I will call your Mom to talk me out of it !!
My mother was just reminded how much she hated to sew during her visit If I recall you could sew anything! I think my mom still has my beach towel.
Glad to find another non-sewer like me! My mom hated sewing so much, she never insisted I learn. I had an older neighbor who tried to teach me, but I kept hearing my mom’s “Sewing gives me a headache,” and I kept finding excuses NOT to learn! If today is Mary-Kate’s birthday, isn’t it Ashley’s, too? I thought they were twins, albeit fraternal. Unless they were separated by several hours, resulting in different birth dates.
Good point–I guess I should add Ashley’s birthday! You can sew buttons on! I’m impressed! Joe’s sister use to send her daughters to the department store to buy there dream prom dresses and then she would copy them without any sort of pattern and return them with the tags still on-it was amazing especially to someone like me.
My mom taught my brother’s to cook and sew. She made them take classes in high school to further there skills. One ended sewing when needed when he was in the air force to making curtains for his home. (side note, his wife doesn’t sew). While the other one became a head chef. She must of thought it would come naturally for me. Let’s just say, the seam ripper is a dear friend of mine….I have three! As for cooking, I can follow a recipe provided no one “accidentally” leaves something out.
I would have loved to been with you when you went to Joann’s Fabrics just to see her face when you tell her I need this much fabric for a turtle. Still makes me chuckle.
Funny Joe could sew and cook. Maybe our Mom’s wanted us to marry men with these skills! That accidentally leaving stuff out of recipes gets me every time.
Joann’s was an aventure–the women who work there seem so serious and stern! They need to lighten up.