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Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

California Corn Bread Mix

Posted in Gift Ideas, Holidays, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Tucked away in a cabinet are holiday beverage napkins that read, “We Like To Give Homemade Gifts For Christmas. Would You Like One Of Our Kids?”  Whatever prompted me to purchase those particular napkins is a mystery to me. It’s true, I like to give homemade gifts. But even on my worst parenting days, I’ve never considered giving away any of my kids! I can only guess that a combination of the “HOLIDAZE” that normally takes over me at this time of year and too many “Calgon-take-me-away” moments of motherhood had something to do with it! This upcoming holiday season, my kids can rest assured that my homemade gifts will be in the forms of food mixes and baked goods. Food mixes, such as this one for corn bread, are gifts of time-saving convenience and are much appreciated by busy hostesses. Make this corn bread mix, put it in a cute airtight container, type and print up the instructions, and tie them on with a festive holiday ribbon. A voucher for some of your favorite homemade chili would make a great accompanying gift!

California Corn Bread Mix
Adapted from a recipe by Diane Phillips

Ingredients:
2 cups Bisquick baking mix
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder

Directions:
In a large bowl, stir all the ingredients together. Store the mix in an airtight container.

Instructions to be included with the mix:

California Corn Bread
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the corn bread mix in a large mixing bowl, and add the eggs, milk, and butter. Blend until the mixture is smooth. Pour into a well-greased 8-inch baking pan and bake for 30 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.

Enjoy!

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Roasted Butternut Squash with Lime Juice

Posted in About me, Holidays, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 21, 2011| 2 Comments »

Fists would bang on the table! Endless whining would begin! And a cacophony of complaints would strike my ears! All those reactions would occur, well maybe not the fist banging, if I deviated too much from my family’s traditional Thanksgiving menu. Whining would definitely begin if I were to roast a turkey any way other than my dad’s way and complaints would be nonstop if I did not make my family’s ultimate favorite side dish – a Chinese form of “stuffing” made with rice, Chinese sausage, mushrooms and dried shrimp. I am granted a little bit more leeway, though, with the rest of the Thanksgiving menu. Because I like to try out new recipes, our Turkey Day menu varies a little bit from year to year. Being more health conscious now, I have replaced recipes that are loaded with fat and sugar and opted to prepare more healthy ones. Gone is the sweet potato casserole with its butter, eggs and brown sugar. This year’s replacement for that is Roasted Butternut Squash With Lime Juice and I think my family will enjoy this dish with its combination of sweet, savory and tangy flavors. No additional sugar is necessary in this recipe, because the natural sugar in the squash is brought out when it is roasted. Fresh chopped rosemary lends the dish a certain earthiness and the little bit of lime juice adds an interesting layer of depth. Top all of that with the fact that this dish can be made ahead earlier in the day and reheated just before serving!

Roasted Butternut Squash With Lime Juice
Adapted from a Epicurious recipe by Sara Foster

Ingredients:
3½-pound butternut squash
3 tablesppons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 teaspoons fresh lime juice, plus 1 lime cut into wedges for garnish
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Cover two rimmed baking sheets with foil.
3. Peel butternut squash and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices and then cut the large rounds into quarters. Set aside.
4. Mix together in a large bowl the olive oil, butter, and the lime juice. Place squash into this mixture and toss thoroughly to coat all sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss again.
5. Divide squash evenly between the baking sheets, arranging them in a single layer.
6. Roast for 20 minutes. Turn squash pieces over and roast until soft and golden brown, about 20 minutes longer.
7. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with chopped fresh rosemary. Serve warm with lime wedges.
8. Do Ahead: Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let it stand at room temperature. Rewarm in 400 degree oven until hot, about 10 minutes.

Serves 6.

Linnell’s Notes:
1. For easier peeling, stick the whole butternut squash in the microwave oven on high for about two minutes, then proceed with peeling.
2. When cutting the squash try to cut the pieces the same width and approximate size. This will promote even baking and enhance overall appearance.
3. I like to chop the rosemary just before serving, so that it keeps its fresh color.

Enjoy!

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Southwestern Chopped Salad

Posted in About me, Holidays, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2011| 2 Comments »

Throwing a football party at your house? Got kids coming home for the holidays? Going to a potluck dinner soon? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you will want to make this colorful, flavorful, and healthy salad. It’s the type of salad you can make for two and have leftovers, but it more easily feeds a crowd! There are few hard and fast rules in this great recipe; it is a salad after all! Like avocados? Put them in! Don’t like jicama? Leave it out! Want to serve it as a main dish? No problem, just add some protein in the form of diced chicken breast, bacon, shrimp, taco meat or hard-boiled eggs. Want to make it ahead of time? Prepare the ingredients the night before and store them in airtight containers. Assemble it right before serving. This salad travels well, too. Put the prepared ingredients in separate zip-type plastic bags or small plastic containers and then arrange them over the bed of greens when you arrive at your destination. Other than for the spicy southwestern-inspired salad dressing, there are no specific measurements for this salad. Adjust the amounts of the salad add-ins proportionally to the amount of greens you use. For the sake of giving you some parameters, I am giving you rough estimates of what I would serve as a side salad for six to eight people.

Southwestern Chopped Salad

Southwestern Ranch Salad Dressing (Adapted from a recipe found on Food.com):
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1-2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons minced tomatoes
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons canned diced jalapeno peppers
1 tablespoon finely minced onion
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon honey or real maple syrup

Directions to Make Salad Dressing:
1. Note: The flavors in this salad dressing need time to meld, so it should be made three to four hours ahead of serving time.
2. Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl, except for the milk.
3. Add milk to thin, as needed.
4. Cover and chill.

Salad Ingredients:
3 heads of romaine hearts or 1 head of iceberg lettuce
1/2 red onion, diced
2 cups frozen corn
1 (15 ounce) can of black beans
1 medium can sliced black olives
1 red or orange bell pepper, diced
1/2 medium-sized jicama, diced
1 bunch cilantro
1-2 cucumbers, diced
Shredded cheddar cheese
Corn chips or toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
2 avocados, peeled and cubed (optional)
1-2 fresh tomatoes, diced (optional)

Directions to Make the Salad:
1. Wash lettuce leaves and spin or blot dry. Stack three or four leaves at a time and cut into 3/4-inch-wide ribbons. The large leaves should be stacked and cut in half down the spine before slicing into ribbons.
2. Finely dice half of the red onion.
3. Place frozen corn in a strainer and run cool water over it until the kernels are thawed. Drain thoroughly.
4. Pour the can of beans into a sieve and rinse with cold water. Let drain.
5. Drain olives.
6. Dice the red pepper.
7. Peel and dice the jicama.
8. Wash and spin or blot dry the cilantro, pick leaves off and put into a small bowl.
9. Dice the cucumbers.
10. Break corn chips into coin-sized pieces, reserving whole pieces for garnish along the edge of your bowl.
11. When ready to assemble, place lettuce ribbons into a large, shallow bowl.
12. Except for the red onion, cilantro leaves, cheese, and corn chips, arrange each ingredient in concentric rings on top of the greens, beginning with the ingredient you have the least of and ending with the ingredient you have the most of. Try to balance the colors.
13. Sprinkle the onions, cilantro leaves, cheese, and corn chips decoratively on top of the salad.
14. Place whole corn chips on edge of salad bowl.
15. Serve with dressing on the side.

Linnell’s Notes:
1. Romaine lettuce is more nutritious than iceberg, so it is always my fist choice.
2. All diced items should be diced approximately the same size for a uniform appearance.
3. Taco-flavored Doritos are really good in this salad!
4. Diced fresh tomatoes can be added or substituted for the red bell pepper. I leave out the tomatoes if the salad is to be made in advance or if I’m traveling with it. The red bell peppers provide enough color with out getting juicy like the tomatoes.
5. The salad dressing recipe only makes one cup, so if you’re serving a crowd, multiply the salad dressing recipe as needed.
6. The spicy-heat of the salad dressing can be adjusted by adding fewer jalapenos and less cayenne pepper. Remember to let the dressing sit for a couple of hours before you decide to adjust any of the flavors!
7. The salad dressing makes a great dip for vegetables, too – just don’t thin it out with the milk.

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

Posted in Holidays, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on November 8, 2011| 1 Comment »

It’s not too early to plan your menu for the Thanksgiving holidays, especially if you are having overnight guests. These pumpkin muffins have a lot going for them: a moist, subtle-pumpkin-flavored cake with a little cream cheese surprise tucked in the center and topped with a nutty, crunchy streusel. All that deliciousness, plus you can do the preparations the night before and quickly throw them together the next morning. Your guests will wake up to the smell of freshly-baked muffins! A word of caution, though, with food coming out of the kitchen like this, your guests may never want to go home!

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
Adapted from a recipe found on Pumpkin Nook

Ingredients:
1/2 cup pumpkin purée
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 ounces cream cheese, cut into 12 cubes

Streusel Topping Ingredients:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1-2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and put paper liners into a 12-cup muffin pan.
2. In a bowl, combine egg, milk, pumpkin, oil and mix well.
3. In a another bowl mix together flour, baking powder, sugar, and spices.
4. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients just enough to moisten the dry ingredients. The batter will be lumpy.
5. Fill each muffin cup about 1/2 full of batter.
6. Place one cube of cream cheese on top of each muffin cup of batter.
7. Add remaining batter on top of the cream cheese, distributing the batter evenly.
8. Combine streusel topping ingredients, mixing well. Sprinkle over the muffins.
9. Bake for 18-22 minutes until golden brown.
10. Serve warm.

Makes 12 muffins.

Linnell’s Notes:
1. Do not over mix the batter when incorporating dry into wet ingredients. Too much stirring overdevelops the gluten in the flour, resulting in rubbery and dense muffins.

2. If you like nice, crusty muffins (tops and sides), forgo the paper liners and grease the muffin tins thoroughly, even the top surface.

3. For the best flavor, use butter instead of margarine when making the streusel topping and use freshly ground nutmeg if you can!

4. To do ahead for Thanksgiving morning: prepare the wet, dry, and streusel ingredients in separate bowls. Cover and refrigerate. Cut the cream cheese into cubes and place in airtight container and refrigerate. As soon as you get up the next morning, heat the oven and then proceed with the recipe directions.

5. Watch the muffins towards the end of the baking time. Muffins are baked in a hot oven to get “crunchy” tops, but muffins topped with streusel can also burn easily.

Enjoy!

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Friday’s Fresh Five! ( 10/28/11)

Posted in Art and Crafts, Creativity, Entertainment, Health, Helping Others, Holidays, Husbands, inspiration, Recycling, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 28, 2011| 1 Comment »

She: “This photo is kind of gross.”
He: “What’s the photo of?”
She: “A close-up I took of a pumpkin.”
He: “What’s gross about a pumpkin and why’d you photograph it anyway?”
She: “Because it reminded me of something.”
He: “Reminded you of what?”
She: “Rolls of abdominal fat and stretchmarks . . . .”
He: “But it’s only a pumpkin!”
She: “Yeah, but it’s a pumpkin with PUMPKIN ROLLS!”
He: “No comment.”

#1 – Pumpkin Art
If you haven’t carved your pumpkin yet and you’re looking for inspiration and amazing examples of pumpkin carving, check out the galleries on the sites below. You’ll find yourself saying, “How did they do that?”

Ray Villafane and Andy Bergholtz
Pumpkin Gutter

#2 – Reuse It!
Don’t you dare throw away used aluminum foil – that is not until you’ve used it a few more times! Here are several ways to reuse aluminum foil:

Scrunch it up into a ball and use it to scrub baked-on food off of oven racks, barbecues, grills, pots and pans.

Wipe it down with soap and water and reuse it. Aluminum foil that has not been in contact with raw meat can be used to cover other foods again.

Sharpen scissors and garden shears by folding a piece into several layers and cutting through it with scissors or shears. Paper punches can be sharpened in this way as well.

Stuff clean used foil in your shoes and boots to help them keep their shape.

Deter birds, deer and other unwanted pests by hanging strips of foil around your garden.

Throw a crumbled piece of foil into the clothes dryer with your clothes to reduce static electricity.

Place some under your ironing board cover to reflect heat and iron more efficiently.

Save it for arts and craft activities: make cards, pretend jewelry for your kids; mold it into a sculpture; use it to create interesting textures in paint.

Stuff some around pipe holes to prevent rodents from entering your home.

Clean your silver by putting aluminum foil in your sink with salt, baking soda and hot water.

Wrap some around stripped screws before screwing it in for a quick, temporary fix.

Click on links to read entire articles:
Chasing Green
How to Make Silver Polishing Dip
SF Gate

#3 – Oh My Aching Back!

My lower back and hip area was stiff and achy from standing all day. I mentioned this to my husband and before I could finish my sentence, he ran out of the room to get something. A few minutes later he came back with two tennis balls duct-taped together. “Here,” he said, “Roll on this, it will really help!” I looked at him incredulously and said, “Seriously?” But he was right, after a minute or two of rolling on the tennis balls and enduring shiatsu-massage-type discomfort, my back pain significantly diminished. If you suffer from back and hip pain, don’t let the simplicity of this gadget fool you and do give tennis ball therapy a try!

#4 – Sushi Cat
Halloween conjures up images of black cats, but Sushi Cat creates FAT CATS! Sushi Cat is a fun computer game that combines pinball-like skills with eating sushi! Drop a cat from the top of your screen and watch him eat sushi as he eats his way around obstacles. He must eat the prerequisite number of sushi pieces at each level to become a FAT CAT or else you must try again!

#5 – The Simplest Words
“All the great things in life are expressed in the simplest words: friends and family; purpose and meaning; love and work; caring and community; appreciation and gratitude.” – Dan Zadra

Enjoy this last week of October!

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Caramel Corn

Posted in About me, Gift Ideas, Holidays, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 25, 2011| 5 Comments »

The sweet scent of caramel corn permeates my kitchen and transports me back in time. As a young child I remember shopping with my mom at Valley Fair Mall. Back in those days it was an outdoor mall anchored by big stores called the Emporium and Joseph Magnin. While walking from store to store, we would always pass a little caramel corn shop and be seduced by the smell wafting out of the door. My sister and I would beg our mom to stop and buy us some. Having a sweet tooth of her own, my mom usually consented. Carrying a cardboard carton bearing a capital “K”  filled to the brim with the most delicately-coated, buttery- sweet, caramel popcorn imaginable, my sister and I would lag behind mom while grabbing handfuls of the treat and stuffing our faces. Valley Fair is now an enclosed mall and the Emporium and Joseph Magnin stores are long gone, as is the little caramel corn shop whose name I can no longer remember. I make my own caramel corn now and it seems fitting that this great recipe came from my sister. With butter, brown sugar, and its secret ingredient – Mrs. Butterworth’s Original Syrup – it’s almost as good as the caramel corn of my youth!

Caramel Corn
Adapted from a recipe from my sister Nancy

Ingredients:
12 cups popped popcorn
1 cube butter
1/4 cup Mrs. Butterworth’s Original Syrup
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups Wheat Chex
1 cup cocktail peanuts

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

3. Put popped popcorn, Wheat Chex, and peanuts in a large bowl and toss to mix. Set aside.

4. Using a medium-large saucepan with high sides, melt the butter, syrup, and sugar on medium heat until bubbles form on the side of the pot. Heat for 5 minutes longer. DO NOT OVERCOOK!

5. Remove pot from heat and stir in salt and baking soda. The mixture will get foamy.

6. Pour caramel foam over popcorn mixture and quickly stir to coat evenly.

7. Spread mixture onto the two baking sheets.

8. Bake for one hour, stirring the caramel corn every 15 minutes.

9. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

10. Store in an airtight container.

Linnell’s Notes:

1. Be very careful with the hot caramel. Being hot and sticky, it can cause a bad burn! One time I accidentally got some on my knuckle and ended up with a pretty significant burn blister.

2. If you do not want to add the cereal or the nuts, use 15 cups of popped popcorn instead. Also, any type of Chex-type cereal can be substituted for the Wheat Chex.

3. Containers of this caramel corn make great gifts. When my husband and I were poor college students we often made several big batches of this caramel corn, packaged it in cute containers and gave them away as Christmas gifts.

ENJOY!!

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Pumpkin Flower Pots

Posted in About me, Art and Crafts, Creativity, Gardening, Holidays, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 18, 2011| 1 Comment »

It all began this morning after I spotted a pot of unruly Corkscrew Grass sitting on a shelf in a grocery store. I thought to myself, “That would make a great head of hair for something.” Then in a Martha Stewart-moment, I turned my shopping cart around and went outside to find a head, or a pumpkin to be more specific. After selecting three “perfect” pumpkins and taking them home, the five-year-old in me began sawing away at them with no special design in mind. That’s not to say, though, that I didn’t have a purpose in mind. With a pumpkin carving saw in hand, I cut classic sawtooth edges around the tops of each pumpkin. And after a gentle tug on each stem, the lids came off to reveal a stringy mass and a cache of seeds. I imagined this must be similar to what a neurosurgeon feels after he’s removed a piece of skull and gets his first look into the brain!

Although a session of pumpkin carving interrupted my morning schedule, I felt very satisfied after I put my three pumpkin flower pots on my door steps. Nothing ingenious or original about this project, but the look of autumn has finally come to my house!

Pumpkin Flower Pots
Materials:
Pumpkins
One plant for each pumpkin
Tape measure
Push pin
Knife or pumpkin carving saw
Bowl for seeds
Wood excelsior, optional

Directions:
1. Wash and dry exteriors of pumpkins.
2. Decide which plant will go into which pumpkin.
3. Measure diameter of the top of each potted plant container.
4. With tape measure, center the number of inches of the pot’s diameter across the pumpkin top. Using a push pin, poke holes in the pumpkin to serve as a cutting guide.
5. Carefully cut a sawtooth pattern around the top.
6. Remove lid and scoop out seeds. Save the seeds for roasting or making Pumpkin Brittle.
7. Clean inside of pumpkins thoroughly. Using a spoon’s edge, scrape the sides of the pumpkins interiors until all stringy fibers are gone. Put that stringy stuff into your compost pile!
8. Cut a hole in bottom of the pumpkins, around the blossom spot, for plant drainage.

9.  Either take the plant out of the pot and plant it directly into the pumpkin – recognizing that after Halloween, you are going to plant the whole thing, pumpkin and all, into the ground – or position the potted plant, plastic pot and all, into the pumpkin. If you find the pot does not fit, take a sharp knife and trim away some of the pumpkin flesh on the inside.

10. It’s optional, but I elected to put a little wood excelsior between the edges of the pots and the pumpkins to soften the look.

Update: These pumpkin pots will last longer if you spray the interiors with a disinfectant like Lysol before placing potted plants inside them.

Enjoy!

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Friday’s Fresh Five! (10/7/11)

Posted in About me, Creativity, Health, Holidays, In The Kitchen, inspiration, Photography, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Sitting at my desk and admiring the sleek beauty of my iMac computer, I think with sadness about the passing of Steve Jobs. His combination of creative intelligence and technological genius definitely put the “ding in the universe” that he so wanted. He challenged and inspired us with his innovations and changed the world forever.

#1 – Inspirational Quotes by Steve Jobs
Take a moment and read the 20 Most Inspirational Quotes By Steve Jobs.

#2 – Picture Perfect
Using the site iPiccy, I downloaded the graphic of Steve Job’s silhouette and the Apple logo, quadrupled the image, selected colors, and added text all within 15 minutes. Because iPiccy is so easy to use and is fun to experiment with, you’ll find yourself searching your photo library for more photos on which to test techniques and effects. Why not plan ahead and create something interesting for your holiday cards?

#3 – Apple Trivia
Apple season is here, so check out how much you know about this popular fruit:

• Over 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States and 7,500 varieties are grown worldwide.

• Apples are grown in all 50 states.

• The first recorded apple tree planting was in 1629 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

• Americans eat about 19.6 pounds of fresh apples annually, compared to about 46 pounds consumed annually by residents of European countries.

• Apples are a member of the rose family.

• A medium-sized apple contains about 80 calories.

• Apples float because 25% of an apple’s volume is air.

• Two pounds of apples make one 9-inch pie.

• Apples contain no fat, cholesterol, or sodium.

• Apples are a great source of pectin, a water-soluble fiber found to reduce levels of cholesterol by removing it from the blood stream.

• Apples contain boron, an essential trace element that helps to harden bones, which may reduce the onset of osteoporosis.

• Apples are best stored in a plastic bag in your refrigerator.

Read more apple facts at:
Knouse Foods
Sweetwater Cellars
FoodReference.com

#4 – Color Quiz
I wasn’t expecting much after I took this quick and simple Color Quiz. I knew color selection affects behavior and learning styles, but I didn’t really appreciate how much it could reveal about a person’s emotional state. Maybe it was just my mood yesterday, but my test results were interestingly accurate. Take the quiz and find out what color selection says about you?

#5 – Happiness
“The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Have a lovely weekend!

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Friday’s Fresh Five! (7/1/11)

Posted in Creativity, Entertainment, Health, Helping Others, Holidays, In The Kitchen, inspiration, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Screaming Piccolo Petes, juicy cold watermelons, friends and family gathering for barbecues, and patriotic displays of red, white and blue are all things we look forward to as our country celebrates its Independence Day. Having the freedoms we have in America should never be taken for granted. So as we celebrate this weekend, let us not forget just what we’re celebrating and why we need to celebrate.

#1 – A Free Love Story
Telling a love story using coordinating split screen images is a creative idea, but what I found even more creative about JW Griffiths’s short movie was that it was shot entirely with a mobile phone. To view Split Screen: A Love Story click here.

#2 – Be Free of Stinky Fingers
If you’re entertaining this holiday weekend and plan on dicing onions and mincing garlic, try these tips to remove their odors from your fingers:

-Immediately after handling onions or garlic wash your hands with regular soap and water and then rub your fingers on something made of stainless steel.

-Wash your fingers with a mixture of salt and vinegar (or lemon juice), but first make sure you don’t have any cuts or hangnails, because it will sting!

-Wash your hands with a paste of baking powder.

#3 – Be Free of 100 Calories
“Losing weight can be as simple as cutting out a meatball here and an egg roll there.” ~Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.

Ms. Somer provides a list of 100 Painless Ways to Cut 100 or More Calories, which involves practical substitutions. According to Ms. Somer, if 100 calories were eliminated each day for a month from our diets, each of us would lose a pound of fat in a month!

#4 – The Price of Freedom
Americans have gone to war to win their independence, expand their national boundaries, define their freedoms, and defend their interests around the globe. This exhibition examines how wars have shaped the nation’s history and transformed American society.

Those words preface the Smithsonian Museum’s exhibit The Price of Freedom: Americans at War. I can think of no better way to appreciate and to celebrate our country’s Independence Day, other than to fully understand the history of the domestic and international conflicts which engaged our country. Enter the exhibit, select a conflict from the timeline, watch and listen to the brief video, look at the photos of objects in the exhibit, and then say thank you to all the brave people who fought for freedom.

#5 – To Be Free
“You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can be free only if I am free.”
Clarence Darrow

Have a safe and happy Independence Day!

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Friday’s Fresh Five! (5/27/11)

Posted in Entertainment, Health, Helping Others, Holidays, inspiration, Recycling, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

How observant are you? Do you see two identical rocks in this photograph? Of course not. Nature fashioned every one of these rocks to be unique and each one should be appreciated for its individual qualities. The same goes for us. No two persons are alike in this world. Each of us is one-of-a-kind and each of us brings to the world unique gifts. We should appreciate our differences and as I always remind my children, “The world would be a boring place, if we were all the same.”

#1 – Taking Care of the Earth
Tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions are happening with greater frequency. Whether you believe in global warming or not, statistics are hard to refute. Sometimes seeing is believing. The Breathing Earth accomplishes that by providing a real-time simulation that ” . . . displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates.” And after you digest the astounding statistics, go to Global Footprint Network to determine your ecological footprint and to get the answer to “How many planets does it take to support your lifestyle?”

#2 – Word Bubbles
Think you had a difficult time playing the Raindrops game that I posted a link to in a previous edition of Friday’s Fresh Five? Perhaps, math is not your forte. Try playing Word Bubbles instead. Word Bubbles “challenges your language skills and flexibility.” You’re given one minute to form as many words from the three-lettered stem provided. If you enter three words that are the same length, the bubble containing that number of letters will bubble out of the water. If at first you don’t succeed, “bubble” luck next time!

#3 – Who Called?
If you’ve observed that you frequently receive phone calls from unfamiliar phone numbers and if you want to find out just who keeps calling you, there are a few sites that can be of help. Go to 800notes, Who Called Us, or Who Calls Me and type in the phone number and click search. By doing this, I’ve often found out enough information about the caller to contact the source and request that they remove me from their call lists.

#4 – Memorial Day
Observe our country’s flags on Memorial Day. Wikipedia, provides these reasons for the different positions of our flags on that day:

On Memorial Day the flag is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon. It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day.

The half-staff position remembers the more than one million men and women who gave their lives in service of their country. At noon their memory is raised by the living, who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise up in their stead and continue the fight for liberty and justice for all.

The true meaning of Memorial Day is lost on many Americans. How easily some forget the ultimate sacrifice of others. The ads in the newspapers train us to think that it’s a weekend devoted to shopping the sales or barbecuing. No Greater Love is a “non-profit organization that for 40 years is dedicated to honoring those who died to keep us free.” In 1997 this organization initiated and Congress established the National Moment of Remembrance. No Greater Love asks that wherever you are at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, May 30th, to “Stop for a moment and observe the ‘Moment’ in your own way. It can be a simple gesture such as, placing your hand over your heart, bowing your head, or offering a prayer, and making the following promise: “I promise to make myself, my community, my country, and the world better in memory of America’s fallen.”

#5 – Shine
“As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
— Nelson Mandela

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend, but remember to take a moment to give thanks to all who have served our country!

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