~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
July 30, 2014

★~ Today’s Quote:  If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.

★~Cheesecake Day:

Say cheese…cake!

Cheesecake often reflects the region it is from. New York-style cheesecake uses heavy cream and cream cheese in its recipe, while Pennsylvania Dutch-style cheesecake uses a tangy, curdy cheese called farmer’s cheese. Chicago cheesecake is another cream cheese version that has been made popular by Eli’s Cheesecake Company. This style of cream cheese cake is firm on the outside and creamy inside.

Alan Rosen, owner of the Famous Junior’s Cheesecake in Brooklyn shared his top tips for the perfect cheesecake, plus the famous Junior’s original recipe so you can recreate the cake at home. (Or, if you’re feeling a little lazy, just order one off their website with discount code CHEESECAKEDAY14 for a $5 discount.)

“My grandfather opened Junior’s in 1950 in downtown Brooklyn with my father and my uncle, and he said, ‘If we’re going to be a great restaurant in New York, we have to have great cheesecake,’” Rosen told ABC News. “So he went around tasting and testing different cheesecakes and experimented with his baker, Eigle Peterson. Finally they hit upon a formula that they were happy with, and that’s the same recipe we use today.”

Rosen’s cheesecake baking advice:

Start with the best ingredients. “We use Philadelphia cream cheese. There are different types of heavy cream; we use 40 percent, while some people use 36 percent or don’t use it all because it’s expensive.”

Don’t skimp on the blend. “Use a paddle attachment on slow speed so you don’t incorporate a lot of air.”

The water bath is key. “We bake all of our cheesecakes with a water bath so each pan is surrounding by about ¾ -inch of water, and that adds moisture to the oven and gives us the ability to bake them without burning them.”

Don’t be afraid of a nice golden brown. “A lot of people take it out too soon because they think it should look white, but it should not. It should be golden brown about the edges.”

Let it rest. “When cheesecake’s baked, it rises out of the pan like a soufflé, and if you start to mess with it right after, it’ll crack. So we let it settle down. We let it cool on the counter and we refrigerate it overnight in the pan. Most people are so anxious when they bake a cheesecake at home they want to get into it right away, but that’s not a good idea.”

Click here for the Junior’s Original New York Cheesecake Recipe.

Cheesecake Factory is offering is offering any slice of Cheesecake for 1/2 off the July 30-31st.

★~Father-In-Law Day:

My FIL was a gem. The other day I was going through a box and found a bunch of the pez dispensers he has given Cole  over the years. The candy was long gone, but the action figure and Disney character dispensers lived on.  My FIL always showed up with two pez dispensers, and let Cole  pick one and he would take the other one. He would then light up his cigar and the two of them would sit on the patio pushing candy out of the dispenser and discussing the shapes of the candy and counting them. When Cole was into measuring everything, a skill near and dear to his grandpa heart, they measured the dispenser along with each piece of candy and my FIL noted each measurement on the back of a business card. I was the perfect audience for his stories about working with the fire department. “Katybeth”, he would say, “Fireman are good looking, but not very bright. Think about it. We rush into burning buildings.” and then the story would go on until I was laughing so hard my side hurt.

The other day I walked by our patio table and could swear I smelled his cigar smoke and it made me smile. God Bless Father-In-Laws.

★~Paperback Book Day:

Don’t let all those Kindles, IPads and Nooks fool you—paperbacks are still quite en vogue. Paperback Book Day celebrates the look, texture and experience of reading paperback classic or as my Dad likes to call them a paperback penny dreadful.

★~ Today in History:

♥ ~ 1835 – Paperback books introduced. Although books bound in soft covers were first introduced in 1841 at Leipzig, Germany, by Christian Bernhard Tauchnitz, the modern paperback revolution dates to the publication of the first Penguin paperback by Sir Allen Lane at London, England, in 1935. Penguin Number 1 was Ariel, a life of Shelley by Andre Maurois. 

♥~1894 – Corn flakes were invented by Will Kellogg.

♥~ 1898 – Scientific American carried the first magazine automobile ad. The Winton Motor Car Company of Cleveland, OH invited readers to “Dispense with a Horse.”

♥~ 1956 – The phrase “In God We Trust” was adopted as the U.S. national motto.

♥~ 1975 – Former Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared.  Hoffa was declared legally dead seven years later. His car was abandoned in the parking lot of a restaurant outside Detroit.

♥~ 1998 – A world-record Power-ball jackpot of $295.7 million was won by a group of 13 machinists who worked together in Westerville, Ohio. The group chose the cash option, and received a lump-sum payment of $161.5 million dollars.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1818 – Emily Bronte author: Wuthering Heights; died Dec 19, 1848

♥~ 1863 – Henry Ford’s  name is synonymous with Detroit, the car industry, and the assembly line.

♥~  1934- Allan “Bud” Selig ran a Ford dealership in Milwaukee before becoming the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, and later commissioner of baseball.  He  was born, one year after the birth of actor Edd Byrnes, best known as hot-rod driver and parking attendant “Kookie” on the TV series “77 Sunset Strip.”

♥~ 1946 – Jeffrey Hammond musician: bass guitar: group: Jethro Tull: Locomotive Breath, Minstrel in the Gallery, Steel Monkey, Living in the Past, Sweet Dream, The Witch’s Promise

♥~ 1947 – Arnold Schwarzenegger actor: Eraser, The Terminator, Predator, Twins, Conan the Barbarian, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, True Lies, Last Action Hero; married to Maria Shriver; 5-time Mr. Universe; part owner of Planet Hollywood restaurants; governor of California [2003-2011]

♥~ 1950 – Frank Stallone actor: Rocky series, Staying Alive, Ten Little Indians, Hudson Hawk, Tombstone, Doublecross On Costa’s Island; brother of actor Sylvester Stallone

♥~ 1956 – Delta Burke actress: Delta, Designing Women, Filthy Rich, Chisholm; Miss Florida

♥ ~ 1958 – Kate Bush singer: Experimental IV, Running Up That Hill, The Man with the Child in His Eyes, Wow, Wuthering Heights

♥~ 1963 – Lisa Kudrow actress: Friends, Mad About You, The Opposite of Sex, Analyze This, Dr. Dolittle 2

★~ Amusing Gallimaufry: 

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Cole and I are branching out and taking a short road trip to visit a tree farm and perhaps adopt a tree. You know, the tree we’ve been talking about for the last two years? It’s a big decision. A very big decision. Our tree has to be interesting year around, not shed anything messy or harmful and be able to hold its own as our pups race around it and christen it regularly. We will know our tree when we see it and if we don’t see it we will wait another year. I’ll keep you posted.

Have a wonderful Wednesday,

Odd Loves Company,