December 30, 2012

Today is National Baking Soda Day!

December 26, 2012

In 2008, the top producers of goat milk were India, Bangladesh, and Sudan.

December 25, 2012

The lyrics in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" have both literal and hidden meanings. All the elements are code for Catholic religious symbols, for example: the partridge in the pear tree is Jesus Christ, two turtle doves are the old and new testament  six geese a-laying are the six days of creation, twelve drummers drumming are the twelve disciples. However, this may or may not have been intended initially.

December 24, 2012

Wine corks are made from harvesting bark from cork oak trees, which are mostly found in Spain and Portugal. It is commonly misconceived that this process requires cutting the oaks down, but this is not so. The trees are not harmed, and the cork regrows in between ten and twenty-five years. The bark is then boiled down for sterilization and to flatten it. Corks are punched out of the bark in cross-sections. Fascinating!

December 22, 2012

I love Christmas, and I found some great Christmas trivia! Did you know that in the next 50 years there will be a 90% decline in the availability of Frankincense? And this year's cost of all the items in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is $107,000. Check out some other fun facts here!

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/22/living/christmas-by-the-numbers/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews

December 21, 2012

Tori taught me two things today, but I don't really know how to explain one of them, so we're going with the other! Thomas Jefferson cut portions of the New Testament out that he did not like, such as mentions of miracles and Jesus' divinity that did not follow his naturalist beliefs. The entire "Jefferson Bible" was published by congress in 1904.

December 20, 2012

Today, when discussing chickens with Ali, we started to wonder how long it takes a chicken to develop an egg in its ovaries. Twenty-four to twenty six hours. Isn't that incredible?!

November 11, 2012

Today I learned the power of cuddling and singing a little one to sleep. Well, at least I was reminded of it. Singing baby to sleep is one of the 31 recommended ways to transition babies into nighttime. Other ways include a full (but not too full) tummy, and creating a nighttime routine. These techniques are the same any person should consider when having trouble falling asleep.

July 22, 2012

In honor of reading through all of my old blog posts and feeling nostalgic, I have decided to enlighten the world with a tidbit I learned today. While dining at Amalia's, a Mexican restaurant in Bend, OR, I noticed an ingredient that I did not recognize: "huitlacoche." So I looked it up! Huitlacoche is considered a corn crop destroying plague, but in Mexico it is treated as a delicacy. It comes from a fungus that infects corn, and causes kernels to swell to abnormal sizes. These truffle-like kernels taste like a cross between mushrooms and corn. Fascinating! I wish I had tried a dish with huitlacoche at dinner.