Weather ~ Geese ~ Picture of the Day ~ Barefoot Marathon Runner ~ American Goulash ~ Peace Officers Memorial Day

Good 42º foggy morning. 

Yesterday the gloom...... and we had rain on and off all day.

And way up in the pasture were all these geese....

Since being brush-hogged, the pasture is not pretty green anymore. 

Sunshine has been predicted for today!

Picture of the Day... LOL, perfect timing! 

Interesting....

Abebe Bikila (August 7, 1932 – October 25, 1973) was an Ethiopian marathon runner who was a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion. He won the first gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot and the second gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. In Rome, Abebe purchased new running shoes, but they did not fit well and gave him blisters. He consequently decided to run barefoot instead.

He is the first sub-Saharan African Olympic gold medallist. At Tokyo in 1964, Abebe became the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title. He was a member of the Ethiopian Imperial Guard, an elite infantry division that safeguarded the Emperor of Ethiopia. Enlisting as a soldier before his athletic career, he rose to the rank of shambel (captain).

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

From Mr. Food

There's no wrong way to make a goulash -- and this version is super easy and full of flavor. We just know you'll fall in love with our American Goulash after just one bite!

This American goulash recipe is super easy to make for a weeknight dinner. It's made with elbow macaroni, spaghetti sauce, and plenty of mozzarella cheese for a quick and easy goulash recipe that can't be beat. Just toss the dish in the oven and let it bake! Although there are lots of delicious goulash recipes out there, this is one of our favorites. It's a classic recipe, and enjoying it reminds us of the hearty meals that we used to enjoy as kids. We hope you'll enjoy this easy American goulash recipe as well. Dig in!

 

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds ground beef
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (24-ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 8 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese

 

1. Preheat oven to 350º.  Coat a 2-1/2-quart casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown ground beef, bell pepper, and onion 6 to 8 minutes, or until no pink remains in the beef, stirring frequently. Drain off excess liquid. Add remaining ingredients except cheese; mix well. Place in prepared casserole dish.
3. Cover and bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven, stir, and top with cheese. Return to oven and bake, uncovered, 15 to 20 additional minutes, or until thoroughly heated and the cheese has melted.

Mr. Food Test Kitchen Tip!

• American Goulash is a perfect dish to make ahead and freeze. You can even freeze it in individual portions so the kids can microwave a dish after school or anytime they need a quick meal.

Historically this date.....

1905 – Las Vegas, Nevada, is

founded when 110 acres (0.45 km), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.

1928 – Mickey Mouse premiered in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy

1940 – McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.

1969 – People's Park: California Governor Ronald Reagan has an impromptu student park owned by University of California at Berkeley fenced off from student anti-war protestors, sparking a riot called Bloody Thursday.

1970 – President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army Generals.

2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.

... just amazing at 16 years of age!

And births this date include...

1895 – Prescott Bush, American banker, politician and member of the Bush family (d. 1972) (GHW's dad)

1936 – Anna Maria Alberghetti, Italian-born actress

1937 – Trini López, American musician

1941 – K. T. Oslin, American musician

1955 – Lee Horsley, American actor

All I know. Nuff said. Happy TGIF. Ciao.

xo Sue Mom Bobo

Every May 15th Peace Officers Memorial Day pays tribute to local, state, and federal law enforcement officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice or been injured in the line of duty. The observance takes place during Police Week.

According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, more than 800,000 law enforcement officers serve in the United States today. Each year, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial adds new names to the wall, on average 163 deaths per year. Fallen law enforcement officers represent all levels of law enforcement, including local, state, federal, tribal, and military law enforcement. They’re family members, husbands, wives, parents, sons, and daughters.

The day honors fallen LEO across the nation and offers support to their surviving family members and officers.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Many organizations, government agencies, and private citizens fly flags at half-staff in memory of those officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Services honoring the fallen are conducted across the country, including Washington, D.C. Attend a memorial near you. Support families of fallen and injured law enforcement officers.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial wall in Washington, D.C., features the names of more than 22,000 law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty. 

PEACE OFFICERS MEMORIAL DAY HISTORY

On October 1, 1961, Congress asked President John F. Kennedy to designate May 15th as a day to honor peace officers. President Kennedy declared Peace Officers Memorial Day on October 1, 1962.  In 1994, Bill Clinton made an amendment through Public Law 103-322 that directed the United States flag to be flown at half-staff on May 15th in honor of the day.

An annual Memorial Service gathering began in 1992 in Senate Park and later became known as Police Week.

Rain ~ Throw Back Thursday ~ Picture of the Day ~ J. Paul Getty ~ Apple Cinnamon Dump Cake ~ National Buttermilk Biscuit Day

Good 48º cloudy drizzling rain morning. 

Yesterday the rain came on and off and occasionally it came down hard. 

Throw Back Thursday ... 1959 ballet show I was in... far right me and my partner Ron...

Picture of the Day ... really odd trees....

Interesting.....

Jean Paul Getty  (December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976), known widely as J. Paul Getty, was an American-born British petrol-industrialist, and the patriarch of the Getty family. He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American, while the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1.2 billion. At his death, he was worth more than $6 billion (approximately $21 billion in 2018). A book published in 1996 ranked him as the 67th richest American who ever lived, based on his wealth as a percentage of the concurrent gross national product.

Despite his vast wealth, the billionaire was infamously frugal. He is remembered for two things: placing a pay phone in his home, and refusing to pay his grandson's $17 million kidnapping ransom. Getty placed dial-locks on all the regular telephones, limiting their use to his staff. A coin-box telephone was installed at his mansion for guests to use so that he would not be billed for their calls. As for his grandson's kidnapping, Getty ended up paying the $2.2 million portion of the ransom that was tax deductible, and loaned the remaining $800,000 of the ransom to his son (at 4% interest) to pay the kidnappers.

Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities. His collection formed the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, and more than $661 million of his estate was left to the museum after his death. He established the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1953. The trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, and operates the J. Paul Getty Museum.

From Mr. Food

Don't have a lot of time to put a fancy cake together? Have you ever tried a dump cake recipe? Our Apple Cinnamon Dump Cake recipe is as easy as 1-2-3 and tastes as yummy as "O-M-G!" Apple Cinnamon goodness, all from the simplicity of a dump cake recipe, means that this apple dump cake is the best thing that's ever happened to your  dessert list!

 

• 2 (21-ounce) cans apple pie filling
• 1 (16.5-ounce) box yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup cinnamon chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

 

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Coat a 9- x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spoon pie filling into baking dish.
2. In a medium bowl, combine cake mix, cinnamon chips, walnuts, and cinnamon. Sprinkle dry mixture evenly over pie filling, then drizzle with butter.
3. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbly. Serve warm or cold.

 

***This Apple Cinnamon Dump Cake tastes even better when it's topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream. Yum!

Historically this data....

1939 – Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five. SO bizarre!

1948 – Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

1961 – American civil rights movement: The Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the civil rights protesters are beaten by an angry mob.

1973 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.

And births this date include...

1936 – Bobby Darin, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1973)

  

1944 – George Lucas, American director

1984 – Mark Zuckerberg, American computer programmer and internet entrepreneur, co-founder of Facebook

All I know. Nuff said. Happy TBT. Ciao.

xo Sue Mom Bobo

May 14th ushers in National Buttermilk Biscuit Day to celebrate this high-rising breakfast staple.

Biscuits are made using baking powder or baking soda as a leavening agent rather than yeast.  A typical buttermilk biscuit recipe contains flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, and buttermilk.  They are often referred to as a “quick bread,” indicating they do not need time to rise before baking. While being made, the dough is beaten and folded to incorporate air, which expands while baking, causing the biscuit to rise. 

Before the American Civil War, biscuits emerged as an inexpensive addition to meals. This sturdier bread product soon became popular as people realized it absorbed the gravy on their plate better than plain bread. Soon a new family favorite, biscuits and gravy, was created.

Alexander P. Ashbourne patented the first biscuit cutter in 1875.

Supermarkets offer canned biscuits that are refrigerated until ready to be baked. In 1931, Ballard and Ballard patented these refrigerator biscuits.

Biscuits have been a staple of the Southern United States cuisine for many years and are often made with buttermilk.  Traditionally served as a side dish with butter, they are also served at breakfast with molasses, light sugarcane syrup, maple syrup, sorghum syrup, honey, jam or jelly, or as a breakfast sandwich.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Share your favorite recipes and biscuit combinations. Aside from biscuits and gravy, give these biscuit ideas a try:

• Make biscuit breakfast sandwiches with eggs and cheese.
• Serve biscuits with your favorite soup. It’s better than dumplings!
• Use biscuit dough to make pizza crust. Partially bake the dough before adding toppings.
• Warm biscuits with butter and jelly satisfy every time.
• Serve biscuits with pork chops, pork loins, or pulled pork.
• BBQ and biscuits hit the spot, too. They soak up the juices quite well.
• Whenever you have fresh fish, serve homemade biscuits. Catfish and biscuits are particularly delicious.
• Who likes tomato sandwiches during the summer? When fresh tomatoes ripen on the vine, slice them up while they’re warm. Add a little bit of mayonnaise and sprinkle of salt and sandwich them between two warm biscuits.
• Don’t forget dessert. Biscuits make an excellent base for strawberry shortcake. Just add a little sugar to your dough to sweeten it. You’ll make up the rest of the sweetness with the strawberries and whipped cream.

If you’re looking for a recipe, try the one of the recipes below.

Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits
Easy Biscuits

Rain ~ Picture of the Day ~ Graham Crackers ~ Chopstick Veggie Fried Rice ~ National Apple Pie Day

Good 46º cloudy morning. 

Yesterday started off rainy and it rained on and off all day and we had super high winds! We topped at 63º.

Picture of the Day... ha ha ha... sharing...

Interesting...

Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister, invented the graham cracker as part of a comprehensive diet and lifestyle system in response to what he deemed to be the single greatest health scourge facing Americans: sexual desire. Graham believed that a vegetarian diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, and his "cracker" would result in an end to lustful behavior. For the last two decades of his life, Graham preached that his diet, later called the Graham Diet, would help those who followed it (called Grahamites) abstain from sexual activity, and, in particular, from self-love, which Graham argued led to insanity and blindness.

Silvester Graham was born in West Suffield, Connecticut in 1795 and died in 1851. His early life was marked by such poor health that he chose the ministry as a less stressful profession. In the 1830s, Graham was a minister in Newark, New Jersey. There he formulated his radical ideas about diet and health—much of which he adhered to for the rest of his life.

Graham was a fan of abstinence in many forms. From sex, sure, but also from meat (he helped to found the American Vegetarian Society), sugar, alcohol, fat, tobacco, spices, and caffeine. He also insisted on bathing and brushing the teeth on a daily basis (before it was necessarily commonplace to do so). Graham held a wide variety of beliefs, recommending not only the varieties of abstinence outlined above but also hard mattresses, a lot of open fresh air, cold showers, and loose clothing.

In the hard-drinking, hard-smoking, and hard-breakfasting 1830s, vegetarianism was regarded with deep suspicion. Graham was attacked repeatedly (in person!) by bakers and butchers, who were offended and threatened by the power of his reformist message. In fact, in 1837 he was unable to find a place to hold a forum in Boston because local butchers and commercial, additive-loving bakers were threatening to riot.

Ironically, today’s Graham crackers wouldn’t meet the minister’s approval at all. Made largely of refined flour and loaded with sugar and trans fat (in this case called "partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil"), most are pale imitations of Graham’s soul-saving biscuit.

 

If you want to read more about this man... go here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_Graham

From Mr. Food

No need to pick up Chinese take-out when it's easy as can be to make some of our favorites, like vegetable fried rice! Our Chopstick Veggie Fried Rice can go from your skillet to your table in just minutes. It's loaded with veggies and you can add any type of protein you like best. Save on take-out and have perfect fried rice at home!

 

• 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (16-ounce) package frozen peas and carrots, thawed
• 3 cups cold cooked rice
• 1/4 cup soy sauce

 

1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil. Add eggs and scramble, then break up scrambled eggs into small pieces. Remove from skillet and set aside.
2. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in skillet; add garlic, peas and carrots and cook 3 minutes. Add rice and soy sauce and cook 3 to 5 minutes or until heated through, stirring frequently. Stir in scrambled egg pieces and cook 1 to 2 additional minutes, or until heated through. Serve immediately.

 

***This is a great dish to make when you have leftover rice, or the next time you make rice, just make extra so you'll have some ready to go for this dish.

If you would like a healthier version of this recipe, try using brown rice instead of white rice. 

Historically this date.....

1846 – Mexican–American War: The United States declares war on Mexico.

1861 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the Confederacy as having belligerent rights.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Resaca: The battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.

1865 – American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch: In far south Texas, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory

1913 – Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft.

1958 – Ben Carlin becomes the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over 17,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) by sea and 62,000 kilometres (39,000 mi) by land during a ten-year journey.

1994 – Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman.

And births this date include...

1588 – Ole Worm, Danish physician (d. 1654)
 He had 3 sons, one was 'Inch', 'Tape', and one was 'Wiggle'.

1904 – Louis Duffus, South African cricketer (d. 1984)
He had 1 son, 'Big'.

1922 – Beatrice Arthur, American actress (d. 2009)

1941 – Ritchie Valens, American singer (d. 1959)

1950 – Stevie Wonder, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer

1961 – Dennis Rodman, American basketball player, wrestler, and actor AND FREEKING WEIRDO!

 

All I know. Nuff said. Happy Hump Day. Ciao.

xo Sue Mom Bobo

National Apple Pie Day, America’s favorite dessert, is observed annually on May 13th.

The first apple pie recipe printed was in England in 1381. The list of ingredients included good apples, good spices, figs, raisins, pears, saffron, and cofyn (a type of pastry crust).

While the apple pie existed well before the Pilgrims landed on the eastern shores of what is now The United States, Americans wax poetic about how American apple pie is. The phrase “as American as apple pie” has been around for more than 100 years.

During the turn of the 20th century when whole toasted cereals were becoming the ‘health food’ fad, pie gained a bad reputation.  Apple pie saved the day of sorts, being more nutritious than other pies according to some.

Teddy Roosevelt was impressed to have a taste of home when he was served an American apple pie while traveling in Africa.

Soldiers during World War II were often quoted they were fighting “for Mom and apple pie.”   In 1970, advertisers used the patriotic connection with a commercial jingle “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet.”