★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
August 8, 2013
★~ Today’s Quote: “Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best,” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called. ~A.A. Milne
★~ Happiness Happens Day:
The Secret Society of Happy People was founded by Pamela Gail Johnson in August of 1998. The Society has a simple purpose with few basic ways to enact them:
- Recognize your happy moments with the same enthusiasm as you recognize your unhappy moments.
- Encourage others to talk about their happy moments too.
- Don’t unnecessarily rain on other people’s parades.
- Celebrate Happiness Happens Day by spreading happiness far and wide.
To celebrate Happiness Day, Odd will give away 1 Secret Society of Happy People Playful Membership. Entry by telling us what makes you happy in the comment section of Odd, and we will draw a winner on Friday.
★~ Zucchini Day (sneak Zucchini onto your neighbor’s porch Day):
If you’ve planted a garden, and if in that garden you’ve planted and harvested an overabundance of zucchini that your family is refusing to eat, and your neighbors, postman, and babysitter are saying “No thank you” too, then acknowledge that today there is only one thing left to do . . . Sneak them onto your neighbor’s porch. Just think of it as Tough Zucchini love. On the other hand, if you can never have enough Zucchini do share your favorite Zucchini recipe with the rest of us!
El Morno Friend Isabel shared this zucchini recipe: Squash Blossoms Stuffed with Ricotta. (pictured above). Click If you want to see what a Zucchini blossom looks likes after being stuffed but not cooked.
El Morno Friend Stan shared this recipe: Zucchini Chips
★~ Today in History:
♥~ 1964 – Joan Baez and Bob Dylan shared the stage for the first time when the singers performed in a concert at the Forest Hills Music Festival in the Forest Hills Tennis Stadiumin Forest Hills, NY.
♥~ 1969 – The photo session for the cover of The Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ album took place on the crossing outside Abbey Road studios. Photographer Iain McMillan, balanced on a step-ladder in the middle of the road took six shots of John, Ringo, Paul, and George walking across the zebra crossing while a policeman held up the traffic. The band then returned to the studio and recorded overdubs on ‘The End’, ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ and ‘Oh! Darling’.
♥~ 1974 – Roberta Flack received a gold record for the single, Feel Like Makin’ Love. Flack, born in Asheville, NC and raised in Arlington, VA, was awarded a music scholarship to Howard University in Washington, DC — at the age of 15. One of her classmates became a singing partner on several hit songs. Donny Hathaway joined Flack on You’ve Got a Friend, Where is the Love and The Closer I Get to You. She had 10 hits on the pop charts in the 1970s and 1980s.
♥~ 1988 – 39,012 fans attended the first night baseball game at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.
♥~ 1991- Students at Stanly Community College in Albermarle, North Carolina, set a world record by filling a container with 5,438 cubic feet of popped popcorn.
♥~ 1999 – Tish, the world’s oldest captive goldfish, died in Yorkshire, England, at the age of 43. At least. Seven-year-old Peter Hand had won Tish at a fair in 1956. The fish swam with the family until his death.
★~Born Today:
♥~ 1937 – Dustin Hoffman Academy Award-winning actor: Rain Man [1989], Kramer vs. Kramer [1980]; The Graduate, Tootsie, Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, Dick Tracy, Hook, Search for Tomorrow, Outbreak, Sphere
♥~ 1938 – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Author best known for her book The Yearling (1938), which was the best-selling novel in America in 1938 and which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939.
♥~ 1953 – Donny Most actor: Happy Days, Stewardess School, Dead Man’s Island
♥~ 1978 – Garfield’s sidekick, Odie who first appeared in the “Garfield” comic strip Aug 8, 1978.
★~ Good to Know:
♥~ One zucchini is a “zucchina.”
♥~ Zucchinis were first brought to the United States in the 1920s by the Italians.
♥~ The word zucchini comes from ‘zucca’ the Italian word for squash.
♥~ The flower of the zucchini plant is edible. Fried squash blossoms are considered a delicacy.
♥~ Mild bitterness in zucchini, like that in related species like cucumbers, may be result from environmental factors such as high temperature, low moisture, low soil nutrients, etc. The bitterness is caused by compounds called cucurbitacins.
♥~ The world’s largest zucchini on record was 69 1/2 inches long, and weighed 65 lbs. Bernard Lavery of Plymouth Devon, UK, grew the humongous veggie.
♥~ A zucchini has more potassium than a banana.
♥~Biggest is NOT best. The most flavorful zucchinis are small- to medium-sized and the darker the skin, the richer the nutrients.
♥~ There are 20 calories in 1 cup of chopped Zucchini. Calorie count changes if you fried it in wesson oil and lather it in butter.
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I found this story amusing: Man saves dog first, then wife from capsized yacht. Wouldn’t this be what they both wanted?
Don’t forget to share what makes you happy for a chance to be really happy by winning a “Secret Society of Happy People Playful Membership.”
Happy Thursday to you!
Morno,
My sis grows Zucchini so we enjoy a lot of during the summer. I don’t mind, it’s tasty and I usually go home with some bread to take to the office the next day.
Just waking up in the morning makes me happy, but I could add my kids and golf to the list. Sunday dinner, too.
In my case, I would have saved the dog and never looked back. I would have made a phone call, tho.
Have a good, one
Big fan of Zucchini bread! I bet your sister is very popular at the office.
Nice happy list. I’m surprised golf isn’t first tho :-D.
Your ex comments make me smile. Nice of you to call in a rescue report!
What makes me happy? Little things every single day but today I am very happy that the oldest son made it safely to NYC with the 20 foot UHaul and will be starting his Columbia MBA adventure soon! Now that makes me smile ear to ear! Thanks for asking.
So many zucchini facts….I am not a fan other than when it is in bread or cake or cookies and otherwise complimented with other flavors. Not a squash lover at all. When I was younger my mom insisted I eat squash. I could handle eating it if it was raw and uncooked so that is how she put it on my plate but I don’t eat it at all today. I have an aversion to all veggies orange and mushy for some reason.
So wonderful about your oldest son. The travel angels did their job!
I agree about mushy! I like most veggies raw better than cooked.
Have a Happy Day!
I learned a lot about zucchini!
Thanks! And happy to see the photo here, too!
THANK YOU for sharing. Now I know about zucchini blossoms!
Good Morno,
Zucchini. I like it but this year everyone had large crops and I have enjoyed it every imaginable way and some ways i never would have imagined.
What makes me happy? My family, having my gas tanked filled by someone else, my “too big” kid sitting in my lap, ice cream, porch time and wine with my husband after the kids are tucked away to name just a few things.
Happy Day to you!
Lovely happy list. Even tho Cole is huge I still love it when he throws himself in my lap usually to pin me down and try to talk me into some outlandish project.
Well, it looks like we may have added to your Zucchini recipe file and now you can make fireplace kindling (below)
I once heard Utah Phillips say that if you cut open a large zucchini and let it dry, it makes very good kindling for your fire.
Now that is a handy tip especially since we have an outdoor fire pit that we use all the time once it starts to cool off. Have you tried it? I’m going too! Thanks.
One thing that makes me happy is enjoying a cup of coffee in the morning or a healthy squash plant with fruit on it in my garden. I go for the winter squash these days.
Funny Cole just sent me a text saying he had the most wonderful coffee. The best coffee he had ever had in his WHOLE LIFE– Clover coffee? It made him very happy. I love winter squash. Such a great comfort food.
Family and chocolate make me happy .
I like zucchini cut into strips with a potato peeler , sauteed until soft, then substituted for pasta and covered with a spaghetti sauce and cheese..very good and a lot fewer calories than pasta. 😀
Chocolate in 2nd place? Yum, your zucchini recipe sounds great. We will have to give it a try.
zucchini is ok. i’ll eat it.
yachter graham had the rescue order correct. not all dogs can swim, people, on watercraft especially, should know how to swim. preservers for all.
my mom, nik, running, friends, thoughts of retirement = happiness. if i had to choose just one at this moment, it would be the latter!
good day!
Exactly! Well said! Three cheers for Graham! Plus his wife has a great story. Retirement! I bet you’ll make a great retired person. Busy going and doing all the time.
Too funny about the zucchini. I was the victim just a few weeks ago when my sister in law came to visit and brought zucchini from her garden. How could I say no? I would feel guilty if I threw them away, so every time I open the fridge I see them staring back at me. Getting rid of them without guilt would make me happy. But what REALLY makes me happy these days is knowing I’m FINISHED with my Bar studies AND I actually earned my law degree this year. I put my diploma on the wall and smile every time I see it. And I don’t for a moment feel “braggy” about it. I’m just very happy and humble that at my age I was willing, and thankfully able, to take on such a challenge and see it through. And none of that would have been possible without the support of my DH, my son, and my friends, including one lovely professional pet spoiler who pitched in a time or three when my schedule overwhelmed me. So yeah, these days that makes me happy.
You win! :-D. Isn’t it the best feeling ever to wake up after something amazing and wonderful has happened and lie there and just let the moment fall over you?
I think happy comes in large part from what you just described–hard work, doing it, completing it, mastering it, finishing it. And when people support your efforts that even makes it happier.
No guilt in pitching something you didn’t buy, and don’t want but graciously accepted to avoid hurting someone feelings. At least in my book.
We are happy, you are happy!
Although I’m part Italian, I never got into zucchini. It’s just not a veggie I like.
Ah, the Cubs’ first night game. I’d have loved being there.
That goldfish really lived 43 years?? And here, I thought I was taking good care of mine when they lasted one year!
What makes me happy? Oh, so many things (that happiness society must have been formed with me in mind!). My precious son, my precious fur-child, music, sunshine, holidays, clients who pay on time, and the list goes on!
The first night game was a very big deal. Lots of give, take and bribes but they got it done. It still amazes me that we have a ball field the size of Wrigley in the middle a Chicago upscale neighborhood. Of-course at one time it wasn’t upscale. 😀
Debbie the poster child for happy. Nice!
neighbor just gave me a yellow and green zucchini last night,so will fry them up with a little bacon and onion. You already know what makes me happy….puppies and little kids between the ages of 2-5. They are so cute and innocent and eager to learn. So are puppies!
Neighbor must have known today was Zucchini day! Share and Share alike. Your recipe sounds tasty. Of-course bacon makes everything tasty!
I like Zucchini, especially Zucchini bread. I have two Gold fish that are almost 14 years old. My sister-in-law and I won them at the state Fair. They were probably only an inch long when I brought them home. Now they are huge and live in our waterfall outside.
Congratulations Joanne! That’s wonderful.
TTFN
MJ