Apples, who cannot help but love the versatile fruit? …(well besides Suzi)… Seeing how it’s National Trivia Day, a bit of trivia about the common place fruit.
Apples are a member of the rose family.
A bushel of apples can produce 20-24 quarts of applesauce.
They reduce the risk of stroke.
Apples are fat free and a great source of fiber.
To keep potatoes fresh and to prevent them from sprouting, add an apple to the bag.
The average person eats about 19 pounds of apples a year, which is roughly an apple a week.
The only apple native to North America is the crab apple.
There are over 7,000 varieties of apples worldwide. Approximately 2500 varieties exist in the US.
Washington is the number one producer of apples in the US. New York is second.
Apple trees can grow up to 40 feet tall.
An apple floats because 25% of its volume is air.
The largest apple ever picked tipped the scales at 3 pounds.
In ancient Greece, tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage. Catching it was her acceptance.
Now all of this talk of apples has me thinking maybe I should plant another apple tree. The only problem is that I have found out the hard way, that Japanese beetles love them. A good source for older apple tree varieties is: Heirloom Fruit Trees for Home & Farm-Trees of Antiquity rooted organic
I now may have to go ditch my plans on housekeeping and consider making something appley with my last 6 apples in the crisper drawer. Unless something else distracts me and leads me in another direction. See what a bad influence you all can be? I know it certainly can’t be me!
I had planned to make these cookies at Christmas time but since we got together so early in December to celebrate, I ran out of time. Yesterday I whipped up a batch of them. They are a softer type of gingerbread cookie.
MOLASSES COOKIES
3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 and 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
Cream together butter and brown sugar, add molasses and egg, beating well after each addition. Mix in the flour, soda, and spices thoroughly. Roll into balls and into granulated sugar and bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes. Cool slightly and remove from cookie sheet.
If dough is too sticky, chill first before rolling into balls. Check oven after 8 minutes as all ovens bake differently. And if you are going to all of the trouble to make homemade cookies, go ahead and make a double batch!
I had planned on posting a different song for today’s Music Monday. Being the start of the new year, I had thought about going with a song with a theme about time. But I changed my mind. I think as we age, time becomes more and more present in our consciousness. It passes by quicker, days turn to weeks, which turn to years, then decades and what seems like it what was just yesterday was actually eons ago. Everything seems to be measured in time, and today I am not going to go with those limitations.
Today’s Music Monday choice is a song by Imagine Dragons that came out several years ago. I hope you enjoy it. As always, feel free to join in with today’s Music Monday theme and post a song of your own choice on your blog. Let’s rock in the new year even if it’s only quietly humming along.
Well, here we are, the last day of 2023. For some, this evening will be a night of celebration, partying, and ringing in the new year with a bang. I don’t know if I have ever been all that excited about ringing it in. I remember as a kid feeling a bit more of the anticipation, but truth be told, I think it was more about the excitement of getting to stay up really late, watch tv, and eat popcorn and feeling rather indulgent and rebellious.
Funny how we age, and those intense feelings dim down dramatically. I don’t have any of those feelings or even desires to see or ring anything new in. It’s all another day, with nary a noticeable difference except the turning of the calendar page.
This coming year though will be different. A lot of changes, a lot of uncertainties, a lot of anxiousness. Actually, it has started already, and I am at the point of where looking to the New Year, I just hope to survive it mentally and physically.
I guess it’s just a case of hope for the best and expect the worst. Which really does sound like any other day doesn’t it?
Happy New Year a day early in case I party/nap too hard and miss it.
It doesn’t take much for me to get lost and fall down the rabbit hole of Google looking for information about the most random of things. The other day I came across a group post of Bohemians of Nebraska which originally had me thinking of Bohemian lifestyle, or a type of clothing style. It is in fact a group for the large Czech population we have in Nebraska. One isn’t required to be in Nebraska to join, and I am assuming one wouldn’t have to be Czech to join, but it is geared towards the culture of that people.
I am not Czech, but I did snoop thru their group page a bit. Kolache are a big thing around here, with the popular pastry coming in various flavors. Different areas and factions have their own variations of those pastries, with prune, poppyseed, apricot as some of the more traditional flavors. Some Bohemians also make a topping or a type of streusel for the top, where others are staunch in their views on what makes a real kolache. There is even quite the discussion on the spelling and what constitutes a kolache and if it is actually called by something else.
Reading further on their group page, a lot of the main dishes echoed a lot of German type dishes with pork, schnitzel, sauerkraut being big game players in their daily menus. One dish that was mentioned and echoed with enthusiasm by many was “liver dumpling soup”. Which then sent me on a journey further down the rabbit hole to find a recipe and see if it sounded as unappealing as it sounded….(my apologies to any and all liver lovers.)
Yes, there are NUMEROUS recipes for the concoction and the pictures look like giant meatballs made of liver in a broth. Which sort of reminded me of matzo ball soup, or Italian wedding soup. Balls of meat, floating in broth seems to be very common in many cultures. However, it isn’t something I ever remember any of my older family members ever making.
But I went ahead and delved into Youtube and watched a few videos on how to make kolaches (they sounded better than the liver balls) and then I hopped over to watch a couple of videos on how to make Kringle which isn’t Czech but Danish. And from there, well…I really had no rhyme or reasoning to my video choices. I watched some video on bread making that had a filling of cottage cheese, sour cream and raisins that was formed into logs and then those logs were braided and by the time all of the intricate work was done, and it was sliced open, there really wasn’t a distinct filling center, but it was incorporated pretty much thru out the dough pastry. It might have been German? Maybe French? I’m not sure, all of the comments weren’t in English either.
But then I got distracted, there was a new video by Jolly, Xiaman (or however the guy Ari spells it), and a curious look at what Mr. Beast was up to lately and I had forgotten all about anything liver-ish. I watched a few “shorts” and then curiosity got the better of me, as I wanted to know a song or two used in the background of those short clips, and off I went with a few snippets of the song to find them.
I will warn you now, do NOT go to East Idaho News to watch their Secret Santa videos or you will be wanting to binge watch all of them to feel the Christmas magic and lift your spirits a bit. Basically, a secret Santa has them go to visit people who are nominated who could use a little help thru the holidays. They might give them gift cards for food and gas, they might give them new furniture, give them a check to pay for bills, gift them a new car, or pay for a headstone for a family member who recently died. It’s ridiculous how many I can watch when I don’t even know anyone or have ever been to Idaho. But evidently Santa lives there and not at the North Pole like we were originally told.
I watched a video the other day about old timey recipes and one recipe was “Ginger Drop Cakes”. Perfect, a cross between gingerbread and cookies. So I watched it, wrote down the recipe, then went googling for other recipes for the same thing which led me to other gingerbread type cookies, and well to make a long story short. I copied down or saved several recipes and still haven’t made them. It’s like my Pinterest page. Tons of stuff looked at, saved, and gathering dust with nary a chance of them seeing fruition.
Perhaps that should be my New Years resolution for next year? That is, if I go to all of the work to look or read up about something to actually try or do it in the end. That sounds like quite the challenge actually. No excuses just do it. Or maybe I should start off with something smaller, like limit my time on Google, Youtube, or wear some sort of blinders so I don’t see anything bright and shiny or have me itching to go look it up.
So my New Years resolution is to not do anything that would make me not do anything. So I would then do nothing to begin with?… Yeah, that sounds like me. Boy I am getting off to a good start for the upcoming new year, I can feel it!
Well Christmas is finally here. It’s quiet here at the moment and will be for most of the day. I do have some family coming around noon for lunch. Thankfully I don’t have to make it, they are bringing soup. I was going to whip up some cookies real quick or some gingerbread, but I changed my mind. They will have to make do with two tins of shortbread cookies that Santa brought early this year. There is also the panettone that we didn’t get into and try.
I hope each of you are doing well and keeping warm and safe on this holiday. I’ll leave you with something different for today’s Music Monday. A Christmas advert that came out a few years ago. I watch it a few times at this time of year to get into the Christmas spirit. As always, feel free to join in with a favorite song of your own.
For today’s Music Monday, a song I relate to every year. I swear it’s not my fault though, people are a bad influence on me! Or someone is ratting me out to Santa. Have a good week ahead bloggers, Christmas is only a week away. Take some time to chill out and listen to some Christmas music or just music in general. As always, feel free to join in on Music Monday and post a favorite song of your own on your blog!
Well, it is done and over with. My family had their Christmas get together last night and for the most part it went off without a hitch. It was a bit hectic in trying to get it all done, but thankfully I had done the majority of the shopping early.
I didn’t get much accomplished in the way of baking though, a few standards like fudge, peanut butter balls, haystacks, almond bark pretzels, etc. I didn’t get any cookies baked though. With our town working on the water all week, and long stretches on some days of no water, and doctors’ appointment this week as well, it seriously cut into my time. But I have one of my brothers and his wife coming over Christmas day, so maybe I will manage some gingerbread or molasses cookies and some sugar cookies.
Nahi, sad news, I was going to send you that pineapple fruitcake you mentioned in a comment the other day but they are sold out! Who knew pineapple macadamia nut fruitcake was so popular or even such a thing. I have never heard of it or tried it before. I did buy some Panettone for Christmas, but it didn’t get opened, so that will be on the menu for Christmas day as well. As near as I can figure out, it’s like a fruitcake bread instead of a cake. I’ll give a review when we try it.
Still offering to send Suzi and Dio a regular fruitcake for Christmas! I can hear the screams from here…come on people give it a try you know you want too! (Stop giving me “that” look, it’s good I promise!
Popular gifts last night for the little ones aged 3-6 were anything involving dinosaurs, transformers, and Paw Patrol. For the older kids, Pokemon was the word. Good grief, who knew that stuff was still so popular?! Grab bag gifts for the adults ranged from camping stuff, books, Arby’s gift cards, and gourmet coffee and a host of other things. A gift or two might have been stolen in the process.
I think it was an enjoyable experience for all, with lots of reflections on what will most likely be mom’s last Christmas with us given her latest diagnosis. Even though I didn’t get all of my plans done of what I wanted accomplished, at the end of the day you just hope it was enough. It is what we all hope for in life, that it is/was enough.
Morning Civatar, hard to believe that Christmas is only 2 weeks away. Or in my family’s case, it will be celebrated this coming Saturday so it will be a busy week of baking and cleaning, along with two days of doctor appointments. Everything seems to always come at once.
I chose this peppy Christmas song to get you all in the mood and get your toes tapping for the upcoming holiday season. Have a favorite Christmas song? Feel free to post it for this Music Monday. If you are not into Christmas or don’t celebrate the holiday, feel free to post a song of your own choice!
Is it too early for Christmas music? I thought it was too early for Christmas music. I originally thought about posting Christmas music for the whole month of December, but it can be overwhelming at times to hear Christmas music for weeks. So, I opted for another route.
I came across this singer on Youtube and he has quite a lot of views and followers. His voice is definitely amazing with its range, and I picked this song of his that he sings because of the feel of it. It’s an old Tennessee Ernie Ford song, but he gives it a bit of a jazzy feel.
Have a favorite song? Feel free to post it for today’s Music Monday!
