Animal Cracker Day

Arky Arky Originally uploaded by ~ Paige ~ will hopefully be back on Friday

Did everybody eat animal crackers as a kid or what? I know I sure did and I thought the circus them of the box was great too. I played with the box as much as I played with the cookies before I ate them. These little cookies are just slightly sweet but fun to eat. I remember floating them in milk and pretending they were swimming across a river. haha! Then I would eat them. I was reading up on Animal Crackers and found out that they are sometimes called "Circus Crackers", other times simply "Animals." 1902 the now-familiar box was designed for the Christmas season with the innovative idea of attaching a string to hang from the Christmas tree. This idea took off and is now popular today but we like to use the sting as a handle to tote the crackers around with. It was a neat gimick idea to hang it from a christmas tree though. Fun Animal Cracker Facts

1. More than 40 million packages of Barnum's Animal Crackers are sold each month.
2. In total, there have been 54 different animals represented by animal crackers since 1902.
3. Animal Crackers are exported to 17 countries worldwide.
4. There will probably always be lions and tigers, bears and elephants.
5. Today each package contains 22 crackers with a variety of animals.
6. The Koala Bear joined the 18 other animals in September 2002.
7. There have been three different and limited edition boxes produced in the last decade Endangered Animals box in 1995, the Chocolate Zoo in 1997 and the Marine Collection in 1998.
8. Purity of the ingredients: Flour, sugar, shortening, corn flour, whey solids, salt, leaving and oil-of-lemon combine to make a not-too-sweet-cracker/cookie.
9. In 1948 the company changed the product name to Barnum's Animal Crackers a designation still used today.
10. The crackers are baked in a 300 foot long traveling band oven. They are in the oven for about four minutes and are baked at the rate of 12,000 per minute.

Bear Cookie Jar with Animal Crackers Wilton Animal Crackers Pan Animal Cracker Recipe

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1/4 cup buttermilk

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the blended oats, flour, baking soda and salt. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or your fingers until the butter lumps are smaller than peas. Stir in the buttermilk and honey to form a stiff dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart onto cookie sheets.
2. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, until edges are lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grind oats until fine using a blender or food processor.

Todays Joke A hack golfer spends a day at a plush country club, playing golf and enjoying the luxury of a complimentary caddy. Being a hack golfer, he plays poorly all day. Round about the 18th hole, he spots a lake off to the left of the fairway. He looks at the caddy and says, "I've played so poorly all day, I think I'm going to go drown myself in that lake." The caddy looks back at him and says, "I don't think you could keep your head down that long." Quote of the day Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. - Paul Valery A Life Suggestion Take control of your life by using your thoughts to visualize your future as you want it to happen.