National Frog Month & Pet Frogs

April is National Frog Month and I though it would be the perfect time to tell you a true little frog story and to also talk about pet frogs.

Did you know that American green tree frogs are one of the most popular pet frogs? This delightful little fellow is available in most pet stores and cost between US$10.00-$20.00 each. They are relatively easy frogs to take care of. They need a large (at least ten-gallon) terrarium and do well with bark and pebbles for the bottom and a nice tree branch.

Frogs like plants and will benefit from having live plants in their terrarium. You see the Pothos plant in terrariums at pet stores. Pothos can be left in pots, grown in jars of water or planted directly into soil on the bottom of the terrarium. The plants will provide the frogs with places to perch and will help maintain high humidity. Green tree frogs thrive best at humidity levels around 75%; spray the terrarium once or twice a day using a plant mister filled with pure water to help maintain appropriate humidity levels. Do not use water containing chlorine or heavy metals, as these chemicals can soak into the frogs and kill them. Water should be provided in a shallow non-metal bowl on the bottom of the terrarium. Water in this bowl should be changed often. Captive green tree frogs should be offered small crickets, waxworms and silkworms.

Frog Story
Ok I couldn't pass up telling you my frog story. hahaha!
When I was around 23 years old I had this huge fascination for frogs. One day I noticed a fishing boat in my brothers yard was full of rain water and I thought it would be a good idea to pull the plug and drain it. As I was about to do that I noticed that the boat was full of little black tadpoles. After watching them for a while I just couldn't bring myself to pull the plug and kill all those little fellows so instead I dipped them all out and put them in a bucket. I then took them home with me and placed them in a beautiful fish tank with a nice little island for them to crawl up on once they turned into bull frogs.

This little project was so fascinating. I watched every day my little bullfrogs loose their tails and then grow their legs. One morning I got up and headed to the kitchen to fix some breakfast and noticed that my dining room wall was completely covered in blackish green dots. I thought.... what is that??? I looked closer and OH MY GOD I was in shock. My tadpoles that I thought were bullfrogs that would stay in the tank, were not bullfrogs at all. They were little green tree frogs (you know the ones that have the little suction cup fingers and can crawl up walls) Well they were crawling everywhere! Not just a few either. I had saved at least 400 little tadpoles from the bottom of the boat that day and I had at least 300 out of the tank. They were everywhere! It took me a whole week to get all the frogs out of the house. I couldn't even eat a meal at the table without a baby tree frog coming out of nowhere and leaping on my head. True Pet Frog Story of mine. Giggle~ Pam

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.

It's Eggs Benedict Day

eggs benedict.
Originally uploaded by ktdub.

When the craving hits:

When ever the hubby and I crave eggs benedict we head down to a local cafe in town that serves the very best. I love it with lots of sauce (not thin sauce either, thick sauce) and this cafe in Panama City never skimps on the sauce. It's perfect served with ham and home fries but eggs benedict is de-lish-us with canadian bacon, fish, salmon or any type of seafood like crab or shrimp. This rich sauce is very versatile. Hollandaise sauce is also delicious over asparagus or other cooked vegetables.

The hubby and I had the day off today so we spent a lazy morning drinking coffee and eating eggs benedict. We took our own sweet time and savored every minute of it too. I went for the home fries with mine but the hubby..... well he usually goes for the hashbrowns.

Egg Benedict Sauce Recipe:

* /2 cup butter
* 3 large egg yolks
* 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* dash cayenne pepper or hot pepper sauce
* 2 tablespoons hot water

*1 teaspoon Dijon mustard is a nice additive too!
* finely chopped fresh parsley, if desired

Heat butter in a heavy saucepan until hot and foamy, but not browned. In a small bowl, whisk or beat egg yolks with lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper or hot sauce. Gradually beat in butter, then water. Return mixture to saucepan and beat over very low heat until mixture is slightly thickened. Serve immediately or let stand over warm water for up to 30 minutes. If desired, sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley before serving.
Makes about 2/3 cup of hollandaise sauce.

Microwave Hollandaise
1 can cream of chicken soup
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
1 dash pepper
1/2 cup butter -- melted

Combine soup, egg yolks, lemon juice, mustard and pepper in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth. Slowly add the melted butter to the container while processing. Place in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in microwave on high for 2 minutes, stirring every thirty seconds.

Mock Hollandaise Sauce
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook and stir until heated through. Do not boil.

White Wine Hollandaise Sauce
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon white cooking wine
1 cup butter, melted

In blender, combine egg yolks, lemon juice and cooking wine; blend until smooth. Continue blending, gradually adding butter, until thickened.

Today In History
In 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

Something To Think About
You must not feel the burden of your failure. Go on in faith.

Today Joke
Why did the blonde take a ladder into the bar?
She heard the drinks were on the house.

National Pecan Month

Hey yall it's me Pam. The month of April is National Pecan month and do you know what today is??? Well the calendar says it's National Pecan Day. The calendar also says there a Pecan Day on March 25th as well. Could there be 2 of them?

Pecan Pies are really big in my family especially at Christmas. In fact my research shows that pecan pie is the pie of choice for Thanksgiving and Christmas for most people. Wow..... I would of thought it would of been pumpkin pie or potato pie for Thanksgiving. Which do you choose?

Most all my family has pecan trees growing in their yard so they never have to buy any during the holidays. Maybe that's why we ate pecan pie so much as a child and continue to eat it all year round. The family gathers up the pecans and freezes them until they need them. (National Pecan Pie Day is July 12th.)We also ate a lot of peach cobblers since we had peach trees too. In case you didn't know, yesterday was National Peach Cobbler Day.

Nutrition

Pecans Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 690 kcal 2890 kJ
Carbohydrates 14 g - Dietary fiber 10 g Fat 72 g - saturated 6 g - monounsaturated 41 g - polyunsaturated 22 g Protein 9 g

Wikipedia says Pecans are a good source of protein and unsaturated fats. A diet rich in nuts can lower the risk of gallstones in women. The antioxidants and plant sterols found in pecans reduce high cholesterol by reducing the "bad" LDL cholesterol levels.

Read more about National Pecan Month

April 14, 2008 / Fun Holiday Fact

It's Black Day in South Korea when single people come together and eat noodles with black bean sauce.

Crocodile Sophism

A slim crocodile living in the Nile took a child. His mother begged to have him back. The crocodile could not only talk, but was also a great sophist and stated, "If you guess correctly what I will do with him, I will return him. However, if you don't guess his fate, I'll eat him." What statement should the mother make to save her child?

Discuss this sophism

It's Peach Cobbler Day!

100_2045.JPG Originally uploaded by schlegel_chad

Oh my gosh! This is one dessert that I can sit down with and be in hog heaven. Especially if the cobbler is hot with ice cream on top. I was raised on peach cobbler and there's nothing that beats it in my book. My Nana could bake the best peach cobbler that I ever put in my mouth too. Do you guys like your peach cobbler on the dry side or do you like it on the ooie and gooie side? I love it wet and gooie with lots of custard dough. Do you guys like it with cinnamon or without? I like cinnamon but I don't like it on peach cobbler so I have to vote "without." Here's a link to some peachie recipes. Happy Peach Cobbler Day to all! Pam~

Daisy Flower Month

Daisies Originally uploaded by Dave Ward Photography

What fond memories I have of walking through patches of wild daisies when I was young girl. I use to get a big kick out of laying in the middle of them and watching the wind blow the tall stems all around my head. I always think of this every April when "Daisy Flower Month" rolls around. I think daisies are really pretty. I only wish they smelled as good as they look. Birth Flowers Just as each month has its own gemstone, each month also has its own traditional birth flower appropriate for the month and season. For the month of April, the birth flower is Daisies. Take a look at a complete list of Flowers of the Month. When I was doing my research about Daisies for my website, I found that there are over 1000 varieties of Daisies. Wow that's a lot! The daisy family is one of the largest in the botanical world. Many popular garden plants, such as chrysanthemums, marigolds, dahlias, sunflowers and asters, are all part of the daisy family. The true daisy is bellis perennis; the ox-eye daisy and marguerite are technically chrysanthemums. Some daisies even have healing properties. The Bellis perennis variety is known to be an astringent in folk medicine. For those who don't know what an astringent is, here's the definition for you. Astringent: An astringent (also spelled adstringent) substance is a chemical that tends to shrink or constrict body tissues, usually locally after topical medicinal application. The word "astringent" derives from Latin astringere, meaning "to bind fast".

April 13, 2008

It's New Year all over again! It's the first day of the Thai and Cambodian New Year!

Now before I go..... here's some fun stuff for everyone. Today In History April 13, 1796 1st elephant arrives in U.S. from India April 13, 1796 Battle at Millesimo Italy: Napoleon beats Austrians. April 13, 1933 1st flight over Mount Everest by Lord Clydesdale April 13, 1933 Stanley Cup: New York Rangers beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 3 games to 1 Todays Joke

A man was driving down a quiet country lane when out into the road
  strayed a rooster. Whack! The rooster disappeared under the car in a
  cloud of feathers.
 
  Shaken, the man pulled over at the farmhouse and rang the doorbell. A
  farmer appeared. The man somewhat nervously said, "I think I killed
  your rooster, please allow me to replace him."
 
  "Suit yourself," the farmer replied, "the hens are round the back."

Fun Fact Did you know the original color of Cocoa Cola was green? Make everyday a Holiday! Pam~

Holidays for Second Week in April

Week Two
Harmony Week
Reading is Fun Week
National Guitar Week
National Library Week
National Garden Week
Be Kind to Animals Week
National Home Safety Week
National Building Safety Week
National Medical Laboratory Week
Private Property Week