~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥
April 19th, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote: I was standing in the park wondering why frisbees got bigger as they get closer. Then it hit me. ~ Unknown

★~ Amaretto Day: 

Like other favorite liqueurs, amaretto has a legend, and a sentimental place in Saronno culture because of its Italian origin.

In 1525, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s pupils, artist Bernardino Luini, was commissioned to paint frescoes in a Saronno church. Because of the church’s dedication to the Virgin Mary, Luini needed a model to base her on, and he found his muse in a young innkeeper. The woman wanted to express her gratitude (and adoration) with a payment, but didn’t have the money, so she steeped apricot kernels in brandy and gave him the concoction. Thus, amaretto’s love story was born.

If you’re cooking with amaretto, it’s a great enhancer for desserts like tiramisu and even the whipped cream on your hot chocolate or coffee. Or, jazz up your favorite pastries by adding a shot or two to the batter. You can even go savory because amaretto is a great addition to almondine sauce and chicken dishes.

Of course, amaretto is just as good by itself or on the rocks. Besides adding it to your coffee, the liqueur is also a great base for French Connections, Toasted Almonds and Bocce Balls. So here’s to you, amaretto enthusiasts, and cheers!

Cent’anni!

★~ Garlic Day:

Native to central Asia, garlic has a lengthy history dating back 6,000 years. Long a staple of Mediterranean diets, garlic was a commonly used seasoning in the cuisines of Africa, Asia and Europe. China is currently the world’s biggest producer of garlic followed by India, South Korea, Egypt and Russia.

Regarded as a force of both good and evil, the Egyptians are said to have fed the herb to workers building the Great Pyramid of Giza because they believed it boosted their stamina. In the Middle Ages, plague-phobic Europeans ate whole cloves of garlic to fight off the scourge known as the Black Death.

Dubbed the ‘stinking rose’ because of its overpowering taste and smell, garlic is known for causing bad breath, which apparently can be neutralized by sipping milk or eating parsley.Ironically, despite its illustrious reputation, the herb that causes garlic breath has also long been admired for its powers as an aphrodisiac. Legend has it that Tibetan monks were forbidden from entering monasteries if they had eaten garlic because of its reputation for arousing sexual desire.

Thanks to Hollywood and popular literature, we’re well aware of the myth that garlic deters vampires, but it’s also thought to protect against the evil eye and to ward off jealous nymphs said to terrorize pregnant women and engaged maidens.

★~ Today in History:

♥~1956 – Actress Grace Kelly became Princess Grace of Monaco on this day. The beloved U.S. actress from Philadelphia married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in a storybook wedding. More than 1,500 radio, TV, newspaper and magazine reporters were on hand for the event in Monaco, as were most of the citizens of the tiny country

♥~1981 – The first major-league baseball team to win 11 straight games at the beginning of a season was the Oakland A’s. Win number 11 came with a few fireworks, as a brawl or two became a part of a 6-1 victory over Seattle in the first game of a doubleheader. In the second game, however, Seattle ended the A’s win streak with a 3-2 win.

♥~1988 – Former singer and one half of Sonny and Cher; Sonny Bono was inaugurated as the Mayor of Palm Springs.

★~Born Today:

♥~1930 – Dick Sargent (Richard Cox) actor: Bewitched, That Touch of Mink, Body Count, Fantasy Island; died July 8, 1994

♥~1935 – Dudley Moore actor: Arthur, Arthur 2, 10, Crazy People, Parallel Lives, Bedazzled, The Hound of the Baskervilles; died Mar 27, 2002

♥~1937 – Elinor Donahue actress: Father Knows Best, The Andy Griffith Show, Get a Life, Pretty Woman

♥~ 1979 – Kate Hudson actress: Almost Famous, 200 Cigarettes, Dr. T & the Women, The Cutting Room, Four Feathers, Le Divorce ; daughter of actress Goldie Hawn

★~ Good To Know: These tricks won’t help you find you car keys, but these updated Mnemonic tricks might be helpful in other ways.

♥~ The Verbal Gimmick : Would we ever be on time without these four words: “Spring forward. Fall back.”

♥~ Do you still remember this oldie but goodie?
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one
Excepting February alone:
Which hath but twenty-eight, we find,
Till leap year gives it twenty-nine.

♥~ Desert Or Dessert: Many people have trouble with these similar words —desert, dessert — until they remember that when it comes to tasty treats like cake and ice cream, you always want an extra helping — just as the word itself has an extra s. Dear cousin Carla taught me this, and I owe her my life.

♥~ The Acronym: Suppose you have to buy three things: nails, plywood, and antifreeze. Use the initial letter of each item to create a word: PAN. Remember that. In the store, work in reverse, P-A-N, the letters reminding you what you have to buy. Or you could just make a list.

♥~ Cross Words: Acrostics are another thing entirely. You don’t create a new word, you create a memorable phrase or sentence. The first letter of each word stands for the things you’re trying to remember. The eight little bones in the wrist are a big task for anyone: Scaphoid, Lunate, Triquetral, Pisiform, Trapezium, Trapezoid, Capitate, Hamate. The job is easier, or at least funnier, with this: Some Lovers Try Positions That They Can’t Handle. Remember it, and you could be a hit at the next party when someone is trying to remember those pest wrist bones.

♥~ Number Game: If you want to know a long number, create a clever line in which the number of letters in each word tells the digit. For example, here’s pi to 15 ingenious places: “How I like a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.” (3.14159265358979) You understand this right? Good.

♥~ Making A Speech The Greek Way : The Greeks were memory mavens, and actually had a Goddess of Memory (and mother of the Muses), Mnemosyne (ne-mos-se-nee). And their biggest brain, Aristotle, wrote De Memoria et Recollectione. In Aristotle’s psychology, the image is the basis of memory. For example, if you have to make a long speech, imagine that you’re walking slowly through your house, and each piece of furniture, art, etc. prompts a paragraph. Or remember a speech the modern way and create a nice organized stack of note cards.

♥~ Keeping track of my keys is easy, I put them in the refrigerator. I will explain someday, soon.

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Chicago is dryer and colder today. This picture was taken not far from my house. Fortunately, we did not have any water damage.

And now a joke…cause it’s Friday!! Shared by my sweet mother:

A good old Kentucky boy won a bass boat in a raffle drawing.
He brought it home and his wife looks at him and says,

“What you gonna do with that. There ain’t no water deep enough to
float a boat within 100 miles of here.”

He says, “I won it and I’m a-gonna keep it.”

His brother came over to visit several days later. He sees
the wife and asks where his brother is.

She says, “He’s out there in his bass boat”,
pointing to the field behind the house.

The brother heads out behind the house and sees his
brother in the middle of a big field sitting in a
bass boat with a fishing rod in his hand .
He yells out to him, “What are you doin’?”

His brother replies, “I’m fishin’. What does it look like I’m a doin’?”

His brother yells, “It’s people like you that give people from Kentuckya bad name, makin’ everybody think we’re stupid. If I could swim, I’d come out there and whip your ass!”

Odd Loves Company,