~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
December 18, 2o13

 ★~ Today’s Quote:  “To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” – Aristotle

★~ Bake Cookies Day:

“Just the thought of homemade cookies invokes that visceral, comforting thought of home, sweet home. Whether you came home like ‘The Beaver’ to a warm plate of cookies after school, or you pop refrigerated, ready-made dough into the oven late at night, fresh cookies just make a person feel warm and cozy . . . with milk, don’t forget the milk!” Emily Collins.  There is nothing like the smell of home-baked cookies. Whether they are gingerbread or chocolate chip, frosted or fruity, cookies have a way of bringing people together.

★~ Roast Suckling Pig Day (or not) :

Remember this little piggy from last year? Don’t roast him. Have a cookie instead and toast him with a glass of milk. Or, if you must, have a piece a bacon, but please don’t roast the little piggies. Thank you.

★~ Today in History:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/GbevQH1B9ic[/youtube]

♥~ 1936 – Su Lin arrived in San Francisco, California. She was the first giant panda to come to the U.S. from China. The bear was sold to the Brookfield Zoo for $8,750.

♥~ 1972 – Helen Reddy received a gold record for the song that became an anthem for women’s liberation, I Am Woman. The song had reached number one on December 9, 1972.

♥~ 1982 – Daryl Hall and John Oates reached the #1 spot on the music charts for the fifth time with Maneater. The song stayed in the top spot for four weeks, making it Hall and Oates’ most popular hit.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1778 – Joseph Grimaldi clown: ‘father of clowns’, ‘greatest clown in history’, ‘king of pantomime’: Joey the Clown; singer, dancer, acrobat; died May 31, 1837

♥~ 1916 – Betty (Ruth Elizabeth) Grable the original ‘Pinup Girl’: actress: Whoopee!, Hold ’Em Jail, Probation, The Gay Divorcee, Follow the Fleet, College Swing, Down Argentine Way,Tin Pan Alley, Moon Over Miami, Song of the Islands, Springtime in the Rockies, Sweet Rosie O’Grady; her famous legs were insured by Lloyds of London for somewhere between a quarter million and a million dollars; died July 2, 1973

♥~ 1946 – Steven (Allan) Spielberg born in Cincinnati, Ohio (1946). His parents had a difficult marriage, and young Spielberg escaped the house during the day and made amateur movies with his father’s Super 8 camera. He made two films about World War II, and a movie about a UFO invasion, starring his sisters as victims. Steven Spielberg became famous with Jaws (1975),  and topped his success seven years later with E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), about a young boy recovering from the breakup of his parents’ marriage when he befriends an alien left behind by his spaceship. The movie, E.T., became fourth-highest-grossing film of all time.

♥~ 1963 – Brad Pitt actor: 12 Monkeys, Seven, Legends of the Fall, A River Runs Through It, Thelma and Louise, Cutting Class, Head of the Class, Dallas, Twelve Monkeys, The Devil’s Own, Meet Joe Black, Fight Club, Ocean’s Eleven

♥~ 1978 – Katie Holmes actress: Dawson’s Creek, Wonder Boys, The Gift

♥~ 1980 – Christina Aguilera singer: Genie in a Bottle, LP: What a Girl Wants; actress: MMC

★~Good to Know:

In America, a cookie is described as a thin, sweet, usually small cake. By definition, a cookie can be any of a variety of hand-held, flour-based sweet cakes, either crisp or soft.

Each country has its own word for “cookie.” What we know as cookies are called biscuits in England and Australia, in Spain they’re galletas, Germans call them keks or Plätzchen for Christmas cookies, and in Italy there are several names to identify various forms of cookies including amaretti and biscotti, and so on. The name cookie is derived from the Dutch word koekje, meaning “small or little cake.” Biscuit comes from the Latin word bis coctum, which means, “twice baked.”

Today the chocolate chip cookie remains a favorite choice among cookie connoisseurs. The term “toll house” has become a part of the American language.

The first chocolate chip cookies was invented in 1937 by Ruth Graves Wakefield (1905-1977), of Whitman, Massachusetts, who ran the Toll House Restaurant. The Toll House Restaurant site was once a real toll house built in 1709, where stage coach passengers ate a meal while horses were changed and a toll was taken for use of the highway between Boston and New Bedford, a prosperous whaling town. The Wakefields sold the restaurant in 1966. It burned down on New Year’s Eve in 1984.

One of Ruth’s favorite recipes was an old recipe for “Butter Drop Do” cookies that dated back to colonial times. The recipe called for the use of baker’s chocolate. One day Ruth found herself without a needed ingredient. Having a bar of semisweet chocolate on hand, she chopped it into pieces and stirred the chunks of chocolate into the cookie dough. She assumed that the chocolate would melt and spread throughout each cookie. Instead the chocolate bits held their shape and created a sensation. She called her new creation the Toll House Crunch Cookies. The Toll House Crunch Cookies became very popular with guests at the inn, and soon her recipe was published in a Boston newspaper, as well as other papers in the New England area. Word of the cookie spread and it became popular.

Ruth sold all legal rights to the use of the Toll House trademark to Nestle. On August 25, 1983, the Nestle Company lost its exclusive right to the trademark in federal court. Toll house is now a descriptive term for a cookie.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie is the official cookie for: Massachusetts, Pennsylvania.

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I’ve been living vicariously through my sweet mother as she baked cookies and other goodies all week. My box is a little later than usual this year, but I know they will be wonderful. Ok. Fine. I baked cookies too. My malted chocolate chips cookies. I even sent some with Cole to school to share with his classmates and teachers. I am just full of the holiday baking spirit. Not.

If you are so inclined Check out Coles new blog post. Video included. It’s not his usual fare. Challenge: Mini-Project Outside My Comfort Zone

Speaking of Mini I am heading downtown to pick-up some mini campers. And get this—are you ready?? One is named Cookie! Ha. How fun is that. Fun, very fun…..really fun!!!

Oh wait, late breaking news it is also the annual celebration of: Wear A Plunger On Your Head Day. How  on earth could I have forgotten. Forgive me.  Tip: Make sure it hasn’t been used. 

What is your favorite cookie? I think some of you have answered this question before but indulge us….

Odd Loves Company!