Weather ~ Picture of the Day ~ Nebraska History ~ Tuna Noodle Casserole ~ Easter ~ Gerard DeRuyte ~ Easter Observed

  

Good 32º Easter Sunday morning.

 

 

Yesterday we topped at 68º.

 

 

Picture of the Day.....Ann Margret

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann-Margret

 

 

 

Interesting about Nebraska....

 

 

State flag^

 

 

Nebraska (/nəˈbræskə/ ^ⓘ nə-BRASS-kə) is a landlocked state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwest; and Wyoming to the west. Nebraska is the 16th largest state by land area, with just over 77,220 square miles. With a population of over 1.9 million, it is the 37th most populous state and the 7th least densely populated. Its capital is Lincoln, and its most populous city is Omaha, which is on the Missouri River. Nebraska was admitted into the United States in 1867, two years after the end of the American Civil War. The Nebraska Legislature is unlike any other American legislature in that it is unicameral, and its members are elected without any official reference to political party affiliation.

 

                                 Lincoln^

Nebraska is composed of two major land regions: the Dissected Till Plains and the Great Plains. The Dissected Till Plains region consists of gently rolling hills and contains the state's largest cities, Omaha and Lincoln. The Great Plains region, occupying most of western Nebraska, is characterized by treeless prairie. Eastern Nebraska has a humid continental climate while western Nebraska is primarily semi-arid. The state has wide variations between winter and summer temperatures; the variations decrease in southern Nebraska. Violent thunderstorms and tornadoes occur primarily during spring and summer, and sometimes in autumn. Chinook wind tends to warm the state significantly in the winter and early spring.

 

Indigenous peoples, including Omaha, Missouria, Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, and various branches of the Lakota (Sioux) tribes, lived in the region for thousands of years before European exploration. The state is crossed by many historic trails, including that of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad through Nebraska and passage of the Homestead Acts led to rapid growth in the population of Euro-American settlers in the 1870s and 1880s and the development of a large agriculture sector for which the state is known to this day.

 

Etymology

Nebraska's name is the result of anglicization of the archaic Otoe Ñí Brásge (contemporary Otoe: Ñíbrahge; pronounced [ɲĩbɾasꜜkɛ]), or the Omaha Ní Btháska, (pronounced [nĩbɫᶞasꜜka]), meaning "flat water", after the Platte River which flows through the state.

 

American settlement and statehood

In 1819, the United States established Fort Atkinson as the first U.S. Army post west of the Missouri River, just east of present-day Fort Calhoun. The army abandoned the fort in 1827 as migration moved further west. European-American settlement was scarce until 1848 and the California Gold Rush. On May 30, 1854, the US Congress created the Kansas and the Nebraska territories, divided by the Parallel 40° North, under the Kansas–Nebraska Act. The Nebraska Territory included parts of the current states of Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. The territorial capital of Nebraska was Omaha.

In the 1860s, after the U.S. government forced many of the Native American tribes to cede their lands and settle on reservations, it opened large tracts of land to agricultural development by Europeans and Americans. Under the Homestead Act, thousands of settlers migrated into Nebraska to claim free land granted by the federal government. Because so few trees grew on the prairies, many of the first farming settlers built their homes of sod, as had Native Americans such as the Omaha. The first wave of settlement gave the territory a sufficient population to apply for statehood. Nebraska became the 37th state on March 1, 1867, and the capital was moved from Omaha to the center at Lancaster, later renamed Lincoln after the recently assassinated President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. The battle of Massacre Canyon, on August 5, 1873, was the last major battle between the Pawnee and the Sioux.

 

If you want to read a whole lot more, go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska

 

 

 

From Mr. Food

SERVES

4

COOK TIME

40 Min

There's something about a tuna casserole that always takes us back to our childhood. It was one of Mom's specialties, and boy did she make it look simple! Luckily, our easy tuna filled version of Mom's Tuna Noodle Casserole is so creamy and delicious, you'll want to make it again and again. Plus, just like Mom used to do with her perfect tuna mixture - we snuck in the peas!

 

• 1 (12-ounce) package medium egg noodles
• 2 (10-3/4-ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 1 (12-ounce) can chunk tuna, drained and flaked
• 2 cups frozen peas
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup coarsely crushed potato chips

 

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Coat a casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. Prepare noodles according to package directions; drain.
3. In a large bowl, combine soup and milk; mix well. Add noodles, tuna, peas, butter, salt, and pepper. Pour mixture into prepared casserole dish then top evenly with potato chips.
4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until bubbly and heated through. Serve immediately.

 

 

Easter is a Christian festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion at Calvary as described in the New Testament.

Easter is the culmination, preceded by Lent, a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. The last week of Lent is called Holy Week, and it contains the days of the Easter Triduum, including Maundy Thursday (also known as Holy Thursday), commemorating the Last Supper and its preceding foot washing, as well as Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Easter is followed by a fifty-day period called Eastertide or the Easter Season, ending with Pentecost Sunday.

Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon following the March equinox. Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on 21 March (even though the equinox occurs, astronomically speaking, on 20 March in most years), and the "Full Moon" is not necessarily the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies between 22 March and 25 April. Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian calendar whose 21 March corresponds, during the 21st century, to 3 April in the Gregorian calendar, in which the celebration of Easter therefore varies between 4 April and 8 May.

Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In many languages, the words for "Easter" and "Passover" are etymologically related or homonymous. Easter customs vary across the Christian world, but attending sunrise services, exclaiming the Paschal greeting (Instead of "hello" or its equivalent, one is to greet another person with "Christ is Risen!", and the response is "Truly, He is Risen", and decorating Easter eggs,

a symbol of the empty tomb,(Easter eggs are special eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide. In Christianity, they symbolize the empty tomb of Jesus.: though an egg appears to be like the stone of a tomb, a bird hatches from it with life; similarly, the Easter egg, for Christians, is a reminder that Jesus rose from the grave, and that those who believe will also experience eternal life.) are common motifs. Additional customs include egg hunting, the Easter Bunny, and Easter parades, which are observed by both Christians and some non-Christians.

 

 

 

Special birthday today, my neighbor Gerard DeRuyte is celebrating. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GERRY!! xo   Gerry with his bride Maria:

 

 

 

 

Historically this date.......

1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.

1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.

1930 – The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film, in the U.S., for the next thirty eight years.

1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

1992 – The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.

 

And births this date include....

1929 – Liz Claiborne, Belgian-American fashion designer (d. 2007)

 

1934 – Richard Chamberlain, American actor

 

1934 – Shirley Jones, American singer and actress (The Partridge Family)

 

1935 – Herb Alpert, American trumpeter and band leader

 

1943 – Christopher Walken, American actor

 

1945 – Gabe Kaplan, American actor and comedian

 

1948 – David Eisenhower, American author and professor

.....David and Julie Nixon Eisenhower...

 

1948 – Rhea Perlman, American actress

 

 

 

All I know. Nuff said. Happy Easter.

xo Sue Mom Bobo

Easter is observed on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox. Considered Christianity’s most important holy day, it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Depending on which calendar a church follows, some will celebrate the holiday earlier than others.

Leading up to Easter Sunday is an entire season of observances beginning with Ash Wednesday, Lent’s official beginning. Lent is a time of fasting and reflection, which represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness for 40 days. Many know this as a time when Christians give something up for Lent.

Then during Holy Week, the Sunday before Easter is known as Palm Sunday. It commemorates Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem on a donkey just five days before the Romans crucified Him. Maundy Thursday remembers Jesus’s last supper; Good Friday is the day of the crucifixion; Holy Saturday is the period between the crucifixion and the resurrection; and Easter Sunday.

HOW TO OBSERVE 

If you choose, you can participate in any number of church services. Some churches conduct sunrise services. Dye eggs with children and have an Easter egg hunt. Local communities hold annual egg hunts as well, so check your local social media, newspapers, and community listings for dates and times. 

EASTER HISTORY

Before Easter (Pascha), Passover was the primary holy day celebrated; however, Christianity closely links the two holidays. Jesus’s last supper was a Passover meal. By the 2nd century, Orthodox Christians also celebrated Pascha alongside Passover as well as pagan spring festivals.

Weather ~ Picture of the Day ~ South Dakota History ~ Taco Casserole ~ National Doctors Day

  

Good 32º morning.

 

 

Yesterday Grants Pass started with some fog.....

Yesterday we had a few rain sprinkles and topped at 60º.

Here is our weather predictions.......

 

 

Picture of the Day...Dick Van Dyke....then and now. He's 98. 

 

 

Interesting about South Dakota....

 

 

 

South Dakota (/dəˈkoʊtə/ ^ⓘ də-KOH-tə; Sioux: Dakȟóta itókaga, pronounced [daˈkˣota iˈtokaga]) is a landlocked state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota Sioux tribe, which comprises a large portion of the population with nine reservations currently in the state and has historically dominated the territory. South Dakota is the 17th largest by area, but the 5th least populous, and the 5th least densely populated of the 50 United States. Pierre is the state capital, and Sioux Falls, with a population of about 213,900, is South Dakota's most populous city. The state is bisected by the Missouri River, dividing South Dakota into two geographically and socially distinct halves, known to residents as "East River" and "West River". South Dakota is bordered by the states of North Dakota (to the north), Minnesota (to the east), Iowa (to the southeast), Nebraska (to the south), Wyoming (to the west), and Montana (to the northwest).

 

Humans have inhabited the area for several millennia, with the Sioux becoming dominant by the early 19th century. In the late 19th century, European-American settlement intensified after a gold rush in the Black Hills and the construction of railroads from the east. Encroaching miners and settlers triggered a number of Indian wars, ending with the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. As the southern part of the former Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with North Dakota. They are the 39th and 40th states admitted to the union; President Benjamin Harrison shuffled the statehood papers before signing them so that no one could tell which became a state first.

 

Key events in the 20th century included the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, increased federal spending during the 1940s and 1950s for agriculture and defense, and an industrialization of agriculture that has reduced family farming. Eastern South Dakota is home to most of the state's population, and the area's fertile soil is used to grow a variety of crops. West of the Missouri River, ranching is the predominant agricultural activity, and the economy is more dependent on tourism and defense spending. Most of the Native American reservations are in West River. The Black Hills, a group of low pine-covered mountains sacred to the Sioux, is in the southwest part of the state. Mount Rushmore, a major tourist destination, is there. South Dakota has a temperate continental climate, with four distinct seasons and precipitation ranging from moderate in the east to semi-arid in the west. The state's ecology features species typical of a North American grassland biome.

 

While several Democrats have represented South Dakota for multiple terms in both chambers of Congress, the state government is largely controlled by the Republican Party, whose nominees have carried South Dakota in each of the last 14 presidential elections. Historically dominated by an agricultural economy and a rural lifestyle, South Dakota has recently sought to diversify its economy in other areas to both attract and retain residents. South Dakota's history and rural character still strongly influence the state's culture.

 

American Settlement & Statehood

In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory, an area that included most of South Dakota, from Napoleon Bonaparte, and President Thomas Jefferson organized the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the region. In 1817, an American fur trading post was set up at present-day Fort Pierre, beginning continuous American settlement of the area. In 1855, the U.S. Army bought Fort Pierre but abandoned it in 1857 in favor of Fort Randall to the south. Settlement by Americans and Europeans was by this time increasing rapidly, and in 1858 the Yankton Sioux signed the 1858 Treaty, ceding most of present-day eastern South Dakota to the United States.

 

^{In 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills during a military expedition led by George A. Custer and miners and explorers began illegally entering land promised to the Lakota. Custer's expedition took place despite the fact that the Sioux had been granted the entire western half of present-day South Dakota (West River) in 1868 by the Treaty of Laramie as part of the Great Sioux Reservation. The Sioux declined to grant mining rights or land in the Black Hills, and war broke out after the U.S. failed to stop white miners and settlers from entering the region. Eventually the U.S. won and broke up the Great Sioux Reservation into five reservations, settling the Lakota there. In 1980 the Supreme Court and Congress ordered compensation but the Lakota still refuse to accept it, insisting on return of their land.}

 

^{South Dakota has several sites administered by the National Park Service. Two national parks have been established in the state, both in its southwestern region. Wind Cave National Park, established in 1903 in the Black Hills, has an extensive cave network and is home to a large herd of bison. Badlands National Park was established in 1978, and features an eroded, brightly colored landscape surrounded by semi-arid grasslands. Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills was established in 1925. The sculpture of four U.S. Presidents was carved into the mountainside by sculptor Gutzon Borglum.}

 

If you want to read a whole lot more,  go here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota

 

 

From Mr. Food

 

SERVES

6

COOK TIME

35 Min

 

Our Taco Casserole is a simple, Mexican-inspired, ground beef recipe that everyone in your family will eat right up. It's got all the tasty taco fillings you and your family love. But best of all, you can make our Taco Casserole in advance, and heat it up when you're ready to eat!

This easy casserole recipes has a special place in the hearts of the Test Kitchen. Why? Because this Taco Casserole is a meal we’ve all sat down to and enjoyed together. When you’re looking to make a meal that will really bring family together, this dinner casserole should be your go-to.  The juicy ground beef is perfectly complimented by the gooey cheese and zesty taco seasoning! And we think the crushed tortilla chips add the perfect crunch. Don’t wait to make this easy casserole recipe; it’s a Tex-Mex favorite the whole family will love!

 

• 1 pound ground beef (see Note)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 (1.25-ounce) envelope taco seasoning mix
• 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup small curd cottage cheese
• 4 cups crushed tortilla chips
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Colby Jack cheese

 

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Coat a 2-1/2-quart casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. In a large skillet over high heat, cook beef and onion 5 to 6 minutes, or until no pink remains; drain off excess fat. Add garlic powder, taco seasoning mix, and tomato sauce to beef; mix and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine sour cream and cottage cheese; set aside.
4. Place half the crushed chips in the bottom of the casserole dish. Add enough meat mixture to cover the chips, then cover the meat with half the sour cream mixture. Sprinkle with half the cheese; repeat layers.
5. Bake, uncovered, 30 to 35 minutes, or until casserole is heated through.

 

***Want to make this casserole a bit lighter? Substitute the ground beef with ground turkey and use low-fat sour cream and cheese.

 

 

Historically this date........

1842 – Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.

1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre, by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.

1981 – President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.

 

And births this date include....

1853 – Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (d. 1890)

 

1926 – Peter Marshall, American game show host

 

1930 – John Astin, American actor

 

 

1957 – Paul Reiser, American actor

 

1965 – Piers Morgan, British journalist and television personality

   

 

 

1968 – Celine Dion, Canadian singer

 

 

 

All I know. Nuff said. Have a good Saturday. Ciao.

xo Sue Mom Bobo

On March 30th each year, National Doctors Day honors the professionals for their dedication and contributions to society and the community. Their dedication puts the patient first time and again. On National Doctors Day, we say “thank you” to our physicians for all that they do for us and our loved ones.

Healthcare today is more complex than ever. With more advancements, tools and information at their fingertips doctors have an overwhelming job to diagnose and treat their patients every day. This is the day to honor the men and women who see us 365 days a year. In every city and hospital, in our military and in our rural communities, doctors pave the way to better healthcare for their patients.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Take the opportunity to thank your physician for responding to late-night phone calls, working long hours and providing unswerving care. Today, more than ever, we know the sacrifices they make to put the health of their communities first.

 

NATIONAL DAY CALENDAR HISTORY

March 30, 1933, was the first observance of Doctors Day in Winder, Georgia.   Dr. Charles B. Almond’s wife, Eudora Brown Almond, wanted to have a day to honor physicians.  On this first day in 1933, greeting cards were mailed and flowers placed on the graves of deceased doctors.  The red carnation is commonly used as the symbolic flower for National Doctors Day.

The first ether anesthetic for surgery was administered by Crawford W. Long, M.D. on March 30, 1842, marking the date for Doctors Day.  On that day, before Dr. Long operated to remove a tumor from a man’s neck, he administered ether anesthesia.  Following surgery, the man would swear that he felt nothing during the surgery and was not aware of anything until he awoke.

On February 21, 1991, President George H.W. Bush proclaimed National Doctors Day to honor the Nation’s physicians for their dedication and leadership. Today, hundreds of thousands of doctors lead the fight against disease and illness in the United States. They specialize and continue to seek advanced treatments and cures for debilitating conditions.