Archive for the ‘Cooking’ Category

11/27/2025 “FOODIES WELCOME HERE”   Leave a comment

NOT NICE TO FOOL MOTHER NATURE

Today is the perfect day as we sit around waiting for the bird to be cooked for a “Foodie Quiz”. These questions are all related to food and drink in some fashion or another. I suppose if we could answer six of these ten incredibly difficult questions we would be considered something of an “foodie” expert. As always the answers will be listed below.

  • The father of what American poet invented peppermint Life Savers?
  • How many pounds of roasted, ground coffee does one coffee tree produce annually?
  • What product did Mother Nature personally endorse in a television commercial, and who played the role?
  • How tall was celebrity chef Julia child’s?
  • How many lemons does the average lemon tree yield per year?
❤️THE CAFFEINE MACHINE❤️

  • What is Bombay duck?
  • What American city lead all others in per capita consumption of pizza in 1990?
  • How long would a 130 pound person have to walk at a leisurely pace to burn off the calories in a McDonald’s Big Mac?
  • How much money did American Airlines claim it saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each of the salads served in first-class?
  • A pound of ground coffee yields 50 cups. How many cups does a pound of tea yield?
BIG MAC ATTACK

This is my favorite since I’m an avid fan of ice cream and a so-so fan of religion.

How did the ice cream sundae get its name?

❤️YUM, YUM, YUM!❤️

Answers
Hart Crane son of Clarence, Just one, Chiffon Margarine; Dena Dietrich played Mother Nature, 6’2″, 1500, Dry, salted fish, Milwaukee, Two hours and 1 minute, $40,000, 200, **My Fav: The sundae was created in Evanston, Illinois, in the late 19th century to get around a Sabbath ban on selling ice-cream sodas. It was dubbed Sunday but spelled with an “e” instead of a “y” to avoid religious objections.

I SUCKED – SCORING ONLY THREE CORRECT

(Happy Thanksgiving)

09/18/2025 🧑🏻‍⚕️DOCTOR’S👩🏻‍⚕️   Leave a comment

I’ve spent the last five and a half years being tended to by a score of doctors and nurses and it saved my life. It’s given me time to really examine their profession and the the abilities they have to save lives. Todays post will introduce odd facts and historical information where the roots of our current medical treatments began. Some of it is a little strange and also a little frightening but that’s how we’ve learned the skills being used today.

  • The first image of the doctors stitching up a wound can be found on the Edwin Smith Papyrus (1600 B.C.).
  • Ancient Egyptian medicine was considered so advanced that the rulers of neighboring kingdoms would often bribe, cajole, or even send someone to kidnap the Pharaoh’s best doctors.
  • The 3000-year-old “Ebers Papyrus” was written on a 65 foot long scroll and describes treatments for the eyes, skin, extremities, and organs. It also lists medicinal plants such as mustard, saffron, onions, garlic, thyme, sesame, caraway, and poppy seed, and offers more than 800 recipes for their use.
  • The Egyptians used opium as crude forms of anesthesia when operating on patients. They also created a milder painkiller by mixing water with vinegar and adding ground Memphite stone. The resulting “laughing gas” was inhaled.
  • The first known surgery for cataracts was performed in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in about A.D. 100.

  • A collection of 37 surgical instruments is engraved on the wall in the Egyptian Temple of Kom-Ombo (2d century B.C.). Some show amazing similarities to modern surgical instruments and includes scalpels, scissors, needles, forceps, lancets, hooks, and pincers.
  • The original Hippocratic Oath was written by a school of philosophers known as the Pythagoreans and was actually a reaction against the writings of Hippocrates. The Pythagoreans were conservative and even backward looking in many ways forbidding many medical practices, including the surgery.
  • The Romans considered cabbage to be a magically protective food. The philosopher Cato wrote that Romans should not only eat cabbage at every meal, but also drink the urine of someone who’d eaten cabbage two days before.
  • In both ancient Greece and Rome, doctors didn’t need licenses or any formal training to practice. Anyone could call himself a doctor. If his methods worked, he attracted more patients, if not, he found himself another job.
  • Most Roman surgical instruments were made of bronze, or occasionally of silver. Iron was considered taboo by both Greeks and Romans and was never used for surgical instruments on religious grounds.

I’M FEELING BETTER ALREADY . . . HOW ABOUT YOU.

09/16/2025 “🍅FOOD QUIZ🍅”   Leave a comment

I thought today I would offer up a short quiz on Food. I was motivated by spending a few hours yesterday with my better-half making some of our good old down-home hot salsa with many of the ingredients coming from our garden. I sliced and diced veggies until my hands cramped but as always it was well worth the effort. The end result was 21 pints and three quarts of killer hot salsa. We’ve spent years creating and adjusting the recipe and we make a batch every Fall for our own use and gifts for family and friends during the holidays. As always the answers to this quiz will be listed below. Let’s see how you do.


1. What breakfast food gets its name from the German word for “stirrup?”

2. What drink is named for the wormwood plant?

3. What two spices are derived from the fruit of the nutmeg tree?

4. What product was introduced in Japanese supermarkets after a survey showed half the country’s young people weren’t able to use chopsticks?

5. What flavor ice cream did Dolly Madison serve at the inaugural festivities in 1812?

6. What did the homesick alien get drunk on in Steven Spielberg’s hit film from 1982, E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial?

7. What popular treat did 11-year-old Frank Epperson accidentally invent in 1905 and then patent in 1924?

8. What favorite recipe of her and her husbands did First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy have taped to the wall in the White House kitchen?

9. What popular soft drink contained the drug lithium-now available only by prescription-when it will was introduced in 1929?

10. What food product is named after Hannibal’s brother Mago?

🥒🫘🥕🍅

Answers
Bagel, Vermouth, Nutmeg & Mace, Trainer Chopsticks, Strawberry, Coors Beer, The Popsicle, The Daiquiri, 7-Up, Mayonnaise.

I ONLY MANAGED FOUR CORRECT

08/09/2025 “SEMI-DIRTY JOKES”   Leave a comment

I thought today since its rather comfortable and cool I should leisurely look through my archives for a few dirty jokes to make you smile. We are expecting a rather nasty heat wave heading our way and I won’t be smiling much longer. Also, these are really just off-color jokes rather than the plain old filthy and dirty jokes I’ve posted previously.

A boy was walking down the street when he noticed his grandpa sitting on his porch in his favorite rocking chair with nothing on from the waist down. “Grandpa, what the hell are you doing?”, he asked. The old man looked off in the distance and didn’t answer him. “Grandpa, what are you doing sitting here naked below the waist?, he asked once again. The old man slowly looked at him and said, “Well, last week I sat out here with no shirt on, and I got a really stiff neck. This was your grandma’s idea.”

Q. What’s the difference between your wages and a penis?
A. You don’t have to beg your girlfriend to blow your wages.

A wife went to see her therapist and said, “I’ve got a big problem, Doctor.” Every time we’re in bed and my husband has an orgasm, he lets out an earsplitting yell.” My dear, the shrink said, “that’s completely natural. I don’t see what the problem is.” The problem is dammit, it keeps waking me up.”

There are three girls, and their boyfriends who all have the same name. So in order to keep them from getting confused, they decided to give their boyfriends nicknames. The first stated, “I call my man Seven Up.” They asked her, “Why do you call your man that?” She says, “Because he has 7 inches and it’s always up.” They then asked the second girl what she calls her man. She says, “I call my man Mountain Dew.” Why on earth do you call him that?” She says, Because he likes to mount and do me.” They then asked the third girl the same question and she replied, “I like to call my man Jack Daniels.” They look at her in a puzzled way, Why do you call your man that? Jack Daniels is a hard liquor!” She stated emphatically, “EXACTLY!”

THE WORD OF THE DAY IS LEGS

Spread the word!!

04/10/2025 🐈‍⬛DISGUSTING FOODS🐶   Leave a comment

I’ve always considered myself a “foodie”. I’ve always loved cooking and found it a very relaxing activity. I’ve always been willing to try just about any new dish at least once even if it initially appears disgusting. Spending two years in Japan and Korea certainly expanded my palate but not always in a good way. Today’s post will be both interesting and possibly a little disgusting. Believe me when I say I’m not recommending most of these dishes, this post is just informative.

😹😹😹

  • Coconut-Cream-Marinated Dog (Indonesia) . . . Pieces of dog are marinated in a coconut cream and then broiled on skewers.
  • Fried Calf’s Head (Hungarian) . . . The head is sliced, breaded, and fried.
  • Grilled Rat (French) . . . The rodent is brushed with olive oil and shallots and then broiled.
  • Baked Bat (Samoa) . . .First the bat is torched to “dehair” it. Then it is cleaned, and baked or fried with salt, pepper, and onions.
  • Stewed Cat (Ghanaian) . . . Sliced cat is fried in peanut oil and butter then simmered in a pot with red peppers.

🐀🐀🐀

  • Sun Dried Maggots (Chinese) . . . Fly larva are dried in the sun and then eaten as a snack or as a side dish with the meal.
  • Pigs Face and Cabbage (Irish) . . . Then blanched face is baked with seasonings and served with boiled cabbage.
  • Fried Turkey Balls (American) . . . The gonads are coated with breadcrumbs and then fried in olive oil or butter.
  • Lamb Brain (Mexican) . . . The lamb’s brain is chopped up, fried with onions, tomatoes, and chilies, and then used as a taco stuffing.
  • Broiled Puppy (Hawaiian) . . . The puppy is broiled flat over hot coals and served with sweet potatoes.

🐶🐶🐶

BON APPETITE

02/01/2025 “QUIZ TIME AGAIN-FOOD”   Leave a comment

We woke up to five inches of snow this AM. I was forced into snow-blowing the driveway at 7:15. I’m really glad I didn’t wait because the snow was slowly melting and getting heavy making the snow-blower work extra hard. The driveway is now clear making it possible for my shopaholic better-half to get out and about. I really haven’t decided what to post today so taking a tip from some of my teachers of years ago, when in doubt they just gave us a pop quiz. Since food always seems to interest everyone, here are ten questions for you foodies out there. The answers will be listed below.

  • What animal is the source of milk used in making Roquefort cheese?
  • What part of the banana is used to make banana oil?
  • Two states have official beverages. Florida is orange juice, what is the other?
  • What words are found on the three rings of the Ballentine beer label?
  • How many quarts of milk does it take to make one pound of butter?

  • How much money did American Airlines claim to have saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each of it’s salads served in the first-class sections?
  • What fruit did the Visigoths demand in ransom when they laid siege of Rome?
  • What is the BRAT diet to eliminate diarrhea?
  • What do Eskimos use to prevent their food from freezing?
  • If you ordered the Five B’s breakfast in New England, what will you be served?

Answers

The Ewe (female sheep), None-banana oil is a synthetic, Ohio-tomato juice, Purity-Body-Flavor, 9.86 quarts, $40,000.00, 3,000 lbs. of peppercorns, Bananas-Rice-Applesauce-Toast, Refrigerators, Boston Baked Beans and Brown Bread

12/31/2024 “HAPPY NEW YEAR”   Leave a comment

Well, it’s New Years Eve once again. This was a fun holiday when I was in my teens and twenties but these days not so much. I never really understood what the big deal was and still don’t. It’s just a day and night made for drinking, carousing, and avoiding sobriety check points. I hope none of you become victims of that stupidity and cause an accident that may harm yourself and others by drinking and driving. In my years as a police officer, I made a point of not working on this holiday. I took the day off and then occasionally drank too much, caroused too much, and got really stupid. I managed to survive but only just.

This year I’m housebound and safe from the fits of holiday stupidity. Please be safe . . . and not too stupid. I wouldn’t want to be reading about any of you on “the day after”. Let me bring a few smiles to your lips before you decide to begin your celebration by taking a little trip to the 1980’s for some occasionally rude and hilarious humor.

  • If the shrimps come in on a shrimp boat, how do the crabs come in? On the captain’s dinghy.
  • Why did Miss Piggy miss her last concert? She had a frog in her throat.
  • What happens when you moon in bumper-to-bumper traffic? You wind up with your ass in a jam.
  • What’s the difference between a counterfeit dollar bill and a skinny girl? The counterfeit bill is a phony buck.
  • What’s the definition of a real lady? Someone who doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink, and only curses if it slips out.

  • Why did they name the new feminine hygiene spray SSY? Because it takes the PU out of pussy.
  • What happens when a guaranteed condom breaks? The guarantee runs out.
  • What’s 138? Dinner for four.
  • When do you know you’ve had the world’s best head? You have to pull the sheet out of your ass.
  • What’s the difference between frustration and panic? Frustration is the first time you find out you can’t do it the second time, and panic is the second time you found out you couldn’t do it the first time.

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE

12/28/2024 “X-MAS FOOD COMA”   Leave a comment

Christmas is gone . . . thankfully. I love all the presents, and I love all the decorations (if I’m not forced into putting them up), but my downfall is all the damn food. I’m what you might call a “taster”. I love tasting everything and this year was the worst since last year. I swear we had enough food for twenty people but unfortunately, there were only seven of us. That means that I’ll be eating reheated holiday leftovers for at least the next two weeks. Also, let’s not forget the large influx of food anticipated on New Years Eve and again on New Years Day. I have absolutely no willpower and I’ll probably be found dead with a large slab of lukewarm ham hanging out of my mouth. With that cheery thought in mind, I’ll be posting a few tidbits of trivia about food as I sit here eating blueberry donuts and cherry lifesavers.

  • Animal Crackers were introduced in 1902 as a Christmas novelty item and packaged with a string for a handle. It made it easier to hang them on the Christmas tree as an ornament.
  • Coffee was officially recognized as a Christian drink by Pope Clement VIII in 1592.
  • Most of the egg rolls sold in grocery stores in the United States are actually produced in Houston, Texas.
  • The American city that consumes the most ketchup is New Orleans.
  • Eighty-seven percent of whole milk is water.

  • Miss Piggy of Muppets fame was once quoted, “Never eat more than you can lift.”
  • The term “Surf & Turf” was coined by gastronome Diamond Jim Brady and was first served to him at a waterfront restaurant in Brooklyn, NY, in the late 1880’s.
  • The name Lorna Doone was the name given to a shortbread cookie in 1869 based on a novel by the same name.
  • Baskin-Robbins introduced an ice cream, Lunar Cheesecake, in 1969 to commemorate the moon landing.
  • Salsa overtook the ever-popular ketchup as the top selling condiment in 1991.

BRING ON NEW YEARS, I’M NOT TOO AFRAID

12/19/2024 “X-MAS HOMEBREW”   Leave a comment

I’ve been a homebrewer for more than thirty years. I’ve made thousands of bottles of wine over the years because I’m just not a big fan of beer. My few attempts at making beer were miserable failures or that’s what I’ve been told by the “Beer” people. It was a fun hobby and mostly kept me at home and out of trouble for years. When I notice something related to home brewing, I always save it for later use. This post has been in my files for a lot of years, and I can’t even remember where it came from, so I dusted it off, and here it is. Maybe next Christmas it might motivate some of you “Beer” people give it a try.

“TWAS THE HOMEBREWER’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS”

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
Every creature was thirsty, including the mouse…
The steins were empty, and the bottles were too
The beer had been drunk with no time to brew.


My family was nestled all snug in their beds
While visions of Christmas Ale foamed in their heads.
Mama in her kerchief lamented the drought,
She craved a pilsner and I, a large stout.


When out on the lawn, there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my chair to see what was the matter.
Away to the kitchen, I flew like a flash,
Opening the door with a loud bang and crash!

I threw on the switch and the lights, all aglow,
Gave a luster of mid-day to the brew-pot below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear
But Gambrinus himself, the patron of beer.


With a look in his eye, so lively and quick,
He said, “You want beer? Well, here, take your pick.”
More rapid than eagles, his recipes came
As he whistled and shouted and called them by name.

“Now, Pilsener! Now, Porter! Now, Stout and Now Maerzen!
On, Bitter! On, Lager! On, Bock and On Weizen!”
“To the top of the bottles, the short and the tall,
Now brew away, brew away, and fill them all!”


As dried hops before a wild hurricane fly,
And then, without warning, settle down with a sigh,
So towards the brew-pot, the ingredients flew,
Malt extract, roasted barley and crystal malt, too.

And then in a twinkling, I heard it quite plain,
The cracking open of each barley grain.
As I drew in my head and was turning around,
Into the kitchen, he came with a bound.

He was dressed like a knight, from his head to his toes,
With an old family crest adorning his clothes.
A bundle of hops, he had flung on his back,
And the brewing began when he opened his pack.


His hops were so fragrant! His barley, how sweet!
The adjuncts included Munich malt and some wheat.
The malted barley was mashed in the tun,
Then boiled with hops in the brew-pot ’till done.

Excitement had me gnashing my teeth,
As the sweet smell encircled my head like a wreath.
Beer yeast was pitched, both lager and ale,
The wort quickly fermented; not once did it fail.

It was then krausened, or with sugar primed,
And just being bottled when midnight had chimed.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know, I’d be shortly in bed.

He spoke not a word but kept on with his work,
And capped all the bottles, then turned with a jerk.
And laying a finger alongside his nose,
He belched (quite a burp!) before he arose.

Clean-up was easy, with only a whistle,
And away the mess flew, like the down on a thistle.
And I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he left me the beer,
“Merry Christmas to all and a HOPPY New Year!”

11/28/2024 “HAPPY THANKSGIVING”   Leave a comment

🦃TURKEY DAY🍗

The human body is an amazing organism. It can create miracles by healing itself to survive unbelievably nasty injuries. That doesn’t change the fact that it can also be truly disgusting as we all know. Today’s Thanksgiving post will review some gross facts about the human body and the things that it has the ability to produce after eating a turkey and all the side dishes. A little gross but what isn’t. This should be on your mind as you chow down on your big meal today. LOL

URINE

The average person produces approximately 3 pints of urine a day. In the normal adult the bladder rarely holds more than about 3/4 of a pint of urine, with the urge to urinate coming at the 1/2-pint mark. More than one pint causes pain and an intense urge to urinate immediately.

FUN FACT: In Roman times gladiators would brush their teeth with urine and then gargle with it too. They believed it was good for their gums.

SPIT

Most people produce approximately 8 cups of spit a day. It’s produced by three sets of salivary glands around the mouth area. That works out to about 50,700 pints produced in the average human lifetime. Thats enough to fill a couple of large swimming pools.

VOMIT

In humans very often after one person begins vomiting, it triggers vomiting in others (emetophobia). Compared to other animals, humans are relatively light on vomiting. Big vegetarian whales vomit every 7-10 days to help get rid of anything inedible they may have swallowed by accident. Dogs not only vomit frequently, but they’ll also eat their own vomit. Probably the most vomitus animals, however, are cows, who digest otherwise in edible grass by regurgitating it into their mouths, chewing it for a bit, and then swallowing it over and over again.

FUN FACT: Emetophobia is the fear of vomiting and of being around others who are vomiting. It is the fifth most common phobia according to the International Emetophobia Society.

SNOT

Snot is a defensive function, stopping for example germs, dirt and pollen from getting into your lungs. The average person produces approximately 1/2 pint of snot per day. When you sneeze, up to six pints of air is blasted out of your lungs at approximately 100 miles per hour, along with any germs you may be carrying at the time. Sneezing is also the main way that illnesses like colds and flu are spread among humans.

FECES

If you add up all the time spent eating and drinking by an average human over the course of their entire life, it comes to approximately 5 years. This adds up to 33 tons of food, which is equivalent to eating six entire elephants. Unfortunately, what goes in must come out. Most of that mass is water that you lose through sweating, breathing, and peeing, or carbon that you breathe out in the form of carbon dioxide, while a lot of the rest goes into making new bits for your body that need replacing. The result is that during your lifetime you will produce a pile of feces about the size of a car.

FUN FACT: According to the World Toilet Organization, the average person visits the toilet approximately 6-8 times a day, or 2500 times a year, and spends three years of their life sitting on the toilet.

EAT UP, ENJOY YOUR MEAL, AND GO NAP ON THE SOFA!