For one day only, put aside your concerns about bad breath and indulge in twenty-four hours of delicious, garlicky goodness – it is Garlic Day, a day to recognize this pungent little clove. The origins of this obscure holiday might not be entirely clear, but its purpose is obvious: take to the kitchen and celebrate the many uses of garlic by cooking up a feast of festivity!
Try your hand at whipping up a much loved classic – perhaps toasty garlic bread, or tender roasted garlic – or get creative and go for a more outlandish recipe (garlic-infused ice cream anyone?). True fans will also relish the opportunity to promote garlic’s health benefits, as this wonderful bulb has been proven to aid the management of high blood pressure and cholesterol. So what are you waiting for – why not join in the celebrations and pop a clove or two into your meal today?
Actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III about to receive the gift of a
white dove on the day of their civil wedding.
Word of the Day
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| Definition: | (verb) To lie or creep in a prostrate position, as in subservience or humility. | ||
| Synonyms: | cower, cringe, fawn | ||
| Usage: | The prisoners groveled before the emperor, hoping that he would commute their sentences. | ||
History
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 | Foot binding originated during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in the wealthiest parts of China. By the end of the practice's thousand-year history, it had spread to all classes and was viewed as a status symbol. Young girls' feet were wrapped in tight bandages that restricted growth, causing breakage and deformity. Most often, the men that foot binding was intended to impress would never see the woman's bare feet, as they were concealed within tiny "lotus shoes." | ||
1770 - Captain James Cook discovered New South Wales, Australia. Cook originally named the land Point Hicks.
1861 - Thaddeus S. C. Lowe sailed 900 miles in nine hours in a hot air balloon from Cincinnati, OH, to Unionville, SC.
1897 - The first annual Boston Marathon was held. It was the first of its type in the U.S.
1943 - The Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi rule began. The Jews were able to fight off the Germans for 28 days.
1956 - Actress Grace Kelly became Princess Grace of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco. The civil ceremony took place on April 18.
1960 - Baseball uniforms began displaying player's names on their backs.
1977 - Alex Haley received a special Pulitzer Prize for his book "Roots."
1982 - NASA named Sally Ride to be first woman astronaut.
1982 - NASA named Guion S. Bluford Jr. as the first African-American astronaut.
1987 - The last California condor known to be in the wild was captured and placed in a breeding program at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.
Born , 1933
Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967)
Born , 1933
Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967)
Actress, singer, and sex symbol Jayne Mansfield had numerous Hollywood
credits including “The Girl Can’t Help It” (1956), and “The Wayward Bus”
(1957).
credits including “The Girl Can’t Help It” (1956), and “The Wayward Bus”
(1957).
As a child, Mansfield was a talented pianist and violinist who would often
give impromptu concerts in her family’s driveway.
give impromptu concerts in her family’s driveway.
Mansfield was only 34 when she died of head injuries received in an automobile
accident while on her way to an early-morning TV interview in New Orleans.
accident while on her way to an early-morning TV interview in New Orleans.
78 Today
Donahue is best known for her portrayal of Betty Anderson on the
CBS/NBC family sitcom “Father Knows Best” (1954-1960).  |
If You Were Born Today, April 19
You have a dual personality - you can be tough and determined, but also sensitive and obliging, and you can draw upon either when suitable. You are unlikely to be financial wanting for very long. Perceptive and bright, you quickly size up a situation and are particularly intuitive when it comes to others' motivations. Famous people born today: Kate Hudson, Dudley Moore, Ashley Judd, Tim Curry, Hayden Christensen, Jayne Mansfield.
A Life Apart
Photograph by Mohd Irman Ismail, National Geographic
“The Sanskrit term sadhu (‘good man’) refers to renouncers who have chosen to live a life apart from or on the edges of society to focus on their own spiritual practice,” writes Mohd Irman Ismail, who made this portrait in Kathmandu, Nepal. “I was visiting Pashupatinath Temple and saw this lone sadhu relaxing near the bank of the river that passed through the temple. I smiled at him and gestured at the camera, asking for his permission, and he nodded. I lifted the camera and captured him with [this] deep and steely look.”
knit
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5mm Needle Square Patterns pattern by Knitting Pretty
This is a PDF document containing ideas that could be used to make 6inch by 6inch squares knitting with 8 ply/DK weight yarn on 5mm (US Size 8) needles.
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knit, 3 - 6 yrs
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knit
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Simple Garter Stitch Slippers pattern by handepande
A simple garter stitch slipper pattern knitted flat and seamed with neat crocheted finishing. The pattern is written for women’s size large but the size is easi...
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knit
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knit (in spanish, use translator)
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Ideas fáciles para tejedoras novatas: perrito.
Instrucciones y fotografÃas para tejer un perrito utilizando dos agujas.
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crochet
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crochet
crochet
crochet
crochet
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RECIPE
Honey Horseradish Chicken
the nosher
Yield:
4 servings |
Ingredients
1, 5-pound whole chicken, rinsed well and with innards removed
½ lemon
5 bulbs garlic
½ white onion
5 fresh rosemary springs
¼ cup prepared horseradish
¼ cup kosher
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
Parsley for garnish
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Rinse the chicken under cold water and dry thoroughly with paper towels. Then put the chicken breast side up on a roasting rack in a roasting pan.
Stuff chicken with the lemon garlic, onion and rosemary sprigs.
In a small bowl, whisk together horseradish, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread all over the chicken, making sure to get under the skin as well.
Truss the chicken, or tuck the wings under the body and tie together the legs.
Roast chicken for 1 hour and 20 minutes, and then turn the oven up to 450 degrees F to brown the skin. Continue cooking about 20 more minutes until the internal temperature near the thighbone is 160 degrees F and the juices run clear (it should continue to cook once removed from the oven until the temperature is 165 degrees F).
Let chicken rest for 20 minutes covered with aluminum foil before carving. Garnish with parsley if desired.
CROCKPOT RECIPE
stephanie o'dea
Acorn Squash CrockPot Recipe
The hardest thing about this recipe is cutting through the squash. My mom told me (too late, I had already plopped the pieces in the crock) that she usually microwaves squash for a few minutes to soften the skin before cutting. I look forward to trying that next time. I ended up using the little orange serrated knife that comes with the jacko'lantern carving kit to get through the tough skin. The Ingredients.
--acorn squash
--2 T brown sugar
--2 T butter
--2 tsp cinnamon
--4 pinches of salt
The Directions.
I use a 4 quart crockpot. Cut the squash in quarters, and scoop out the seeds and stringy pulp. I gave the innards to the guinea pigs; they were thrilled.
Put 1/2 T of butter and 1/2 T of brown sugar into each quarter. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of cinnamon onto each brown sugar pile. Add a small pinch of salt to each quarter.
Lower the pieces into your crockpot. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours, or on low for about 3. The squash is finished when it is fork tender and peels away from the skin easily.
The Verdict.
My mom and I ate this, and liked it a lot. I was able to get one kid to try a bite, and she liked it, but I think she mostly got brown sugar. Adam doesn't like squash, but ate a few bites to be nice.I will make this again. It was simple, tasty, and smelled wonderful. I'll just share with my mom.
PUZZLE
CRAFT
CHILDREN'S CORNER .. coloring
QUOTE
REVEREND PLAYS A 900 PIECE DRUM SET
He can hit every drum, cymbal or cow bell without moving from his seat, even though some pieces are 8 ft (2.4 m) apart.
Rocking Reverend Mark Temperato, who plays under the stage name RevM and stores the kit in his church, estimates that it takes him an hour to strike each piece in turn.
He spent over 20 years building up his collection, which weighs in excess of 5,000 lb (2,270 kg) and requires 17 hours of maintenance per week.
'where's the bathroom?' in Scottish - CÃ ite a bheil an taigh beag?
CLEVER
Homemade Liquid Miracle Grow Concentrate!
$0.35 a bottle
Ingredients:
- 1 gallon of water
- 1 tbsp Epsom salts (contains magnesium, essential for plant growth)
- 1 tsp baking soda (natural, safe pesticide)
- 1 tbsp powdered milk (promotes root growth, stimulates plant growth, and can help prevent powdery mildew.)
- 1/2 tsp ammonia (Contains nitrogen, and is essential for plant growth)
- 2 drops blue food coloring (helps distinguish product in contains for safety)
Here’s how to make this concentrate:
- Simply mix all ingredients together, except for the powdered milk
- Add 1 tablespoon of powdered milk to each feeding, to prevent spoilage.
- Store labeled, in a cool, dry area within your home.
- Also, I add two drops of blue food coloring, which is non-toxic for your lawn and plants, to indicate that this is a mixture which should not be consumed; the idea being that if it resembles miracle grow, and is placed in my original miracle grow concentrate containers, cross contamination or accidental injection would be limited.
Application suggestions:
- Spray Bottles: Mix 1 ounce of concentrate (1/8 cup), 1 tablespoon powdered milk, with three cups water.
- Manual Feedings: Mix 2 ounces of concentrate to 1 gallon water 64 ounces) of water, with 2 tablespoons of powdered milk.
- For Hose Attachment Garden Feeders: Add 8 ounces (1 cup) to your feeder, add 3 tablespoons of powered milk, and water accordingly; this method feeds my entire garden, yard, and various beds for six feedings.
Please note, the mixture can be made ahead of time, and you should add the milk, only when ready to feed, or will use the blended concentrate within one month, to prevent spoilage. Also worth noting, every ingredient is needed, necessary, and is purposeful in this post.
EYE OPENER
6 Unexpected Benefits of Knitting
sheep & stitch
Sure, knitting is fun and creative, but it can also reduce stress, jump start literacy, and reform inmates. Studies show that knitting can even keep Alzheimer’s at bay! Who would've thought that this seemingly innocuous craft also moonlights in health, education and wellness? Let’s investigate the benefits of knitting, shall we?1. Knitting Reduces Stress
The repetitive and rhythmic motions that make up knitting could be the key to relaxation. Dr Barry Jacobs of Princetown University found that animals who perform repetitive motions trigger a release of serotonin, the neurotransmitter associated with calmness and well-being. This could explain why most devoted knitters swear by knitting as a de-stresser: doing it may cause a spurt of serotonin!
For English physiotherapist Betsan Corkhill, she saw the positive results of knitting in her patients. Those who had been sluggish, stressed and depressed were able to soothe themselves through knitting. The more they knitted, the less worried and fearful they became.
“The rhythmic repetitive movements induce a form of meditation similar to mindfulness – that pleasant state of mind when you’re existing ‘in the moment’, not mulling over the past or fretting about the future” said Corkhill. “Knitters find they can ‘zone out’ – and escape into the sanctuary of a quiet mind” [The Daily Mail]
For Corkhill’s patients, knitting was a way to self-manage destructive thoughts and behaviors, which could explain this awesome bag:
2. Knitting Can Help Kids Read
At the alternative Waldorf School, first-graders learn how to knit before they learn to read! According to WBEZ:
“The process of knitting is like threading a story. Kids are learning focus and concentration. They’re gaining fine-motor skills, needed for writing. They’re seeing patterns. They’re moving from left to right, the same way you read. They’re gaining confidence.”
The Waldorf School has been incorporating handicrafts like knitting and weaving into its curriculum since its inception in 1919. To this day, knitting is part of the curriculum.
3. Knitting Can Keep Alzheimer’s at Bay
Mental exercises like playing board games, reading and knitting can lower the risk of dementia according to a study by the New England Journal of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic. Although inconclusive, researchers believe that activities that stimulate the mind can create networks of connections between brain cells. If some of these connections break down, the theory goes, others will take over. No damage done!
4. Knitting Teaches Important Life Skills
Lynn Zwerling, along with her friend, Sheila Rovelstad, started Knitting Behind Bars in 2009. It’s a program that teaches inmates in a minimum security prison in Maryland how to knit. So far, the program has been a resounding success with an eager and growing wait list. To date, over 400 inmates have gone through their weekly knitting class.
Why did Zwerling start Knitting Behind Bars?
“I thought I could give a calming influence to people who really need this,” said Zwerling. “I thought what it takes to do knitting are skills vital to human existence — setting goals, completing a project, giving to somebody else…And I thought, maybe when they get back in the world, these men might choose to be calm and do something worthwhile.” [Baltimore Sun]
No one was more surprised with the results than Margaret M. Chippendale, the prison’s warden and resident skeptic. She noticed lower rates of violence among the men who knit. “It’s very positive because you can see when you go into the room, the dynamics of their conversation; very calm, very soothing,” she says. “It radiates even when they leave the room and go out into the institution.”
[The most adorable part of this video, among many adorable moments: some inmates are peer-pressured to attend the knitting class!]
In the weekly class, men knit comfort dolls for traumatised children and hats for themselves, their own children and loved ones. It’s a chance to socialise, open up and forget about troubles. For former inmate Richy Horton, knitting was the only peace he found in prison.
“People can’t really understand [that in prison] you’re completely separated from anything normal or real in the world,” he said. “You’re always told what to do and when to do it, so to have people come in and treat you like a human being means so much. [Zwerling and Rovelstad] came in and they were like my mom.” [Good]
Today, Knitting Behind Bars is still going strong, and thank goodness for that! Check out their blog here.
5. Knitting Helps You Overcome Addiction
The irony is that knitting itself is addictive, but the key is in swapping a truly self-destructive addiction for the relatively tame addiction of knitting. Knitting support groups like this one in Massachusetts and Australia’s Knit to Quit group for smokers have been transformative, largely because of the community support and knitting’s inherently soothing quality (see #1).
Fun Fact: Perhaps the most high profile addict-turned-knitter was Susan Gordon Lydon. One of the founders of Rolling Stone magazine and a luminary of the women’s movement, Lydon became addicted to heroin in later life and found healing through knitting. Her meditations on the craft are collected in The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice and the follow-up, published a year before her death in 2005, Knitting Heaven and Earth: Healing the Heart with Craft. Both a little woo-woo, both pretty awesome.
6. Knitting Encourages Community
From knitting circles to Ravelry (aka. Facebook for knitters) to local Stitch ‘n Bitchs and Knitting Behind Bars, no knitter is an island. Today, as in ancient times, knitting is more social than ever, and everyone involved seems to love it. A study published by the British Journal of Occupational Therapy reports that knitters who knit frequently are calm, happy and experience higher cognitive functioning. Win-win!
Have you experienced any of these benefits while knitting? I sure have!
Betty Anderson (fictional name) still has a great smile! Very labor-intensive way to mark the deck--LOL!
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