~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
November 17, 2014

★~  Today’s Quote: “How can a nation be great if their bread tastes like kleenex?” – Julia Childs

★~ Homemade Bread Day:

Breaking bread is a universal sign of peace.

Early Egyptian writings urged mothers to send their children to school with plenty of bread and beer for their lunch.

One bushel of wheat will produce 73 one-pound loaves of bread.

In Britain, the ceremony of First Footing is traditionally observed in the early hours of New Year’s Day. A piece of bread is left outside a door, with a piece of coal and a silver coin, and is supposed to bring you food, warmth and riches in the year ahead.

The “pocket” in pita bread is made by steam. The steam puffs up the dough and, as the bread cools and flattens, a pocket is left in the middle.

Murphy’s Law dictates that buttered bread will always land buttered-side down.

The fastest “bun” in the West goes to a team of bakers from Wheat Montana Farms and Bakery who reclaimed the Guinness World Record in 1995. They harvested and milled wheat from the field and then mixed, scaled, shaped and baked a loaf in exactly eight minutes, 13 seconds.

Napoleon gave a common bread its name when he demanded a loaf of dark rye bread for his horse during the Prussian campaign. “Pain pour Nicole,” he ordered, which meant “Bread for Nicole,” his horse. To Germanic ears, the request sounded like “pumpernickel,” which is the term we use today for this traditional loaf.

Legend has it that whoever eats the last piece of bread has to kiss the cook.

I love to make bread! Here are two of my no-fail  bread recipes.

Sally Lunn Bread

Honey Bread

One of the greatest bread making tools is the EZ-Dough. And the web site has great recipes too!

★~ Take a Hike Day:

If the weather is inviting enjoy a hike around your neighborhood or local park. If it’s not inviting consider a hike around the mall or discount club store. Rain or Shine we’ll head out to hike at Prairie Wolf tomorrow!

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1894 – The Daily Racing Form, “America’s Turf Authority…” was first printed — in Chicago, Illinois.

♥~ 1962 – The 4 Seasons, with Frankie Valli as lead singer, began a five-week run at the top with Big Girls Don’t Cry.

♥~ 1968 – The ‘Heidi Game’ happened on TV. The New York Jets/Oakland Raiders football game was cut off to begin a family show (Heidi) on NBC. The TV audience missed Oakland’s two touchdowns (in nine seconds) to win the game 43-32. NBC was flooded with calls and the concept of program delay was instituted immediately by the networks.

♥~ 1973 – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon told an Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando, FL that “people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”

♥~ 1981 – Luke Spencer married Laura Baldwin in what was called “the wedding of the year” on the TV serial General Hospital. An audience of 14 million viewers watched as vows were exchanged on the ABC program.  Did the marriage last?

★~Born Today:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/l-ij_iTQt2w[/youtube]

♥~ 1906 –  Honda Soichiro  was the enterprising auto racer turned businessman who founded the Honda Motor Company, a central part of Japan’s postwar emergence as an economic power.

♥~ 1925 – Rock Hudson (Roy Harold Scherer Jr.) actor: McMillan and Wife, Giant, A Gathering of Eagles, Ice Station Zebra, Magnificent Obsession, Pillow Talk, Written on the Wind; died Oct 2, 1985

♥~ 1938 – Gordon Lightfoot singer: Sundown, If You Could Read My Mind, Carefree Highway, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald; songwriter: Early Morning Rain, Ribbon of Darkness

♥~ 1943 – Lauren Hutton actress: American Gigolo, Lassiter, Paper Lion

♥~ 1944 – Danny DeVito Emmy Award-winning actor: Taxi [1980-81]; Twins, Batman Returns, Hoffa, The Jewel of the Nile, Romancing the Stone, Terms of Endearment, director: Throw Mama from the Train, The War of the Roses, Jack the Bear; married to actress Rhea Perlman

♥~ 1944 – Lorne Michaels Emmy Award-winning writer: The Paul Simon Special [1977], Saturday Night Live [1976, 1977, 1989], Lily [1974]; Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Three Amigos; Emmy Award-winning producer: Saturday Night Live

♥~ 1983- Christopher Paolini, fantasy novelist, his  books have sold more than 20 million copies.  Eragon (2003), Eldest (2005) and Brisingr (2008).

★~ Pope Gallimaufry:

St. Francis. What a Pope. And in case you’re worried I’m pretty sure that any lamb hanging around Pope Francis is protected from sacrifice. He also personally invited Patti Smith  (“Godmother Of Punk”) to perform at the Vatican Christmas concert.  It appears the Pope this is part of his continuing effort to make “Catholicism cool.”

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Glad we are getting it out of the way early! A little more than 50% of the continental U.S. is covered in snow, with more to come in the next week, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This greatly exceeds the average amount at this time of year, and is a more typical reading for late December or early January.

Have a Merry Monday or Bah Humbug Monday  – mine is hanging somewhere in between the two.

Odd Loves Company!