These are random musings of my life journey, the people, animals, places, and events which have woven, and continue to weave, a tapestry that is me. We all know there is no real destination, only the ongoing experiences which blend together, creating the trail. Each step gives a glimpse of what is to come, without allowing me to see the end result. It is exciting. I have a home base that is mine, that gives me a place to rest. This is it. This is where my heart is, no matter where I journey...................

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Tuesday's Tardy Trivia

I'm a bit late today. I've been, uh, preoccupied!

Here it is. Today's topic if something we all love. Some of us luuuuuuuuv it! It is our sustenance and also our downfall. It is ....

FOOD

HOW FOOD DISHES GOT THEIR NAMES
Beef Wellington - A national hero for defeating Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, Arthur Wellesley was made the first Duke of Wellington. He loved a dish of beef, mushrooms, truffles, Madeira wine, and pate cooked in pastry, which has been named in his honor.

Peach Melba - Chef Auguste Escoffier created a dessert of poached peach halves, vanilla ice cream, and raspberry sauce in honor of Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba. A Frenchman, Escoffier worked at the Ritz Hotel in London in the early 1900s, the period when Melba performed regularly at the Covent Garden opera house. Escoffier also created Melba toast in her honor.

Waldorf Salad - In 1896, Oscar Tschirky, the maitre d'hotel of the famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, created a salad of apples, celery, and mayonnaise. Immediately popular, the new dish was called Waldorf Salad. Chopped walnuts later became an ingredient.

Chicken Marengo - On June 14, 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Austro-Hungarian army at the village of Marengo, in northern Italy. After a ferocious battle, the victorious French were ravenous. Chicken Marengo was made from whatever ingredients they were able to take from the village.

Caesar Salad - In the 1920s, Caesar Cardini, owner of an Italian restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico, and his brother, Alex, invented a salad of romaine lettuce, anchovies, coddled egg, lemon juice, grated Parmesan cheese, and garlic-flavored croutons tossed with a garlic vinaigrette flavored with Worcestershire sauce. At first it was called Aviator's Salad, but later Cardini named the dish after himself.

Beef Stroganoff - A combination of beef, mushrooms, and sour cream, Beef Stroganoff was the prize-winning recipe created for a cooking competition held in the 1890s in St. Petersburg, Russia. The chef who devised the recipe worked for the Russian diplomat Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov, a member of one of Russia's grandest noble families.

ABOUT DRINKS
The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; '7' was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. 'UP' indicated the direction of the bubbles.

The difference between apple juice and apple cider is that apple juice is the juice of the fruit only, and apple cider is the whole apple-skins, seeds, and all- which gives it the fuller body and deeper color. The juice is pasteurized and the cider is not.

The most expensive bottle of wine sold for $300,000. It was a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafitte claret engraved with the initials of Thomas Jefferson.

COFFEE:
Germany is the world's second largest consumer of coffee in terms of volume at 16 pounds per person.

Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator between the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn.

An acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. That amounts to approximately 2,000 pounds of beans after hulling or milling.

The percolator was invented in 1827 by a French man. It would boil the coffee producing a bitter tasting brew. Today most people use the drip or filtered method to brew their coffee.

Up until the 1870s most coffee was roasted at home in a frying pan over a charcoal fire. It wasn't until recent times that batch roasting became popular.

Each year some seven million tons of green beans are produced world wide, most of which is hand picked.


A FEW MISCELLANEOUS TIDBITS (and I love the last one)
Fast food restaurants use yellow, red, and orange because those are the colors that stimulate hunger.

Passion fruits have a tranquilizing effect on the body.

A one-third pound stalk of broccoli contains more vitamin C than 204 apples.

It takes about three hours for food to be broken down in the human stomach.

Chocolate contains the same chemical, phenylethylamine, that your brain produces when you fall in love.

Blueberries have more antioxidents than any other fruit or vegetables.

The McDonald’s at Toronto’s ‘SkyDome’ is the only McDonald’s location that sells hot dogs.

The average speed of Heinz ketchup leaving the bottle is 25 miles per year.

Are you hungry now? I am starved!!

13 comments:

  1. I love the Heinz kethcup speed! Ha! That means that someone actually measured that and calculated... oh, to have that much time on your hands. ;-)

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  2. Melissa, not only that, but they probably got paid for it!! I want that job!

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  3. very interesting facts burger king in canada sells mac and cheese

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  4. that last comment was to say bobbie

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  5. Bobbie/Anon, I didn't know that about Burger King!

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  6. Blueberries are the healthiest thing you can eat, I'm cuckoo for blueberries. The most super of the Superfoods.

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  7. Sandra, they are one of my favs, too. I have them n a bowl of Malt-O-Meal several times a week.

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  8. Well, now I'm glad I spend all that money on frozen organic blueberries. Sounds as if it's money well-spent.

    Hugs,
    Betty

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  9. Betty, probably one of the best foods readily available for all of us!

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  10. I hadn't thought about them getting paid for it. Wow, we are in the wrong lines of work, girl! ;-)

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  11. No shiloski, Melissa!!! I could do that!

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  12. LMAO what Melissa said.. and I wonder how much $~!

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  13. Hey, Patti, ya wanna join our little research group???

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If you have something to say about it, just stick out your thumb, and I'll slow down so you can hop aboard! But hang on, 'cause I'm movin' on down the road!!! No time to waste!!!