Saturday Snippets…24th April 2021…

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Welcome back to Saturday Snippets where I indulge my whimsy and my passions… maybe a tune or two…something which has caught my eye this last week…just anything out of the ordinary or extraordinary…

We are back with covid restrictions as cases have taken a hike upwards…travel between provinces is discouraged unless absolutely necessary and the wearing of masks is now mandatory although most people do wear them here…Locally we are waiting to hear what else will be put in place as there have been cases here and very close to us…which means we will not be going out unless absolutely necessary…

April’s full moon rises on the night of Monday, April 26. Traditionally called the Pink Moon, this full Moon will also be a spectacular supermoon!

Is it really pink? Of course not…this “Super Pink Moon” won’t actually look “super pink”—or any hue of pink, really. The Moon will be its usual golden colour.

There is nothing magical as to how the pink moon got its name …it was named after a seasonal connection to the beautiful early springtime blooms of a wildflower called creeping phlox or moss phlox and also called moss pink…

As a child, I remember the lovely flowers of the Phlox they are so very pretty but didn’t know of the connection until recently to the “Pink Moon”

British Beef Week: 23/4/2021-30/4/2021…

There is nothing like some good British Beef and I appreciate it much more now although faced with a lump of steak I can’t eat but a nice Beef and Brocolli stir fry now that goes down a treat…

Beef and Brocolli…is on the menu next week…

Today we celebrate ...National pigs in blankets day...they are a global tasty treat and come in many names and many forms…

In the US, pigs in blankets refer to hot dogs or Vienna sausages wrapped in a biscuit or croissant dough. They are also called “franks in a blanket” or “franks in blanks.”

The first time the name appeared in the US was in 1957 in Betty Crocker’s “Cooking For Kids” recipe book.

It is unknown exactly who invented pigs in blankets as variations have existed for hundreds of years across the globe.

In the UK, pigs in blankets are small cocktail sausages or chipolatas wrapped in bacon, of course, they do that is the only way to eat a pig in a blanket…However, in the UK, National Pigs-in-a-Blanket day is on December 12, and it isn’t a registered national day.

This is because in the UK, pigs in blankets are often eaten alongside a roast turkey, and in particular, they are served as part of a Christmas dinner. However, as they are delicious, I will forgive anyone who wants to eat them any time.

Pigs in Blankets:

8 thin slices of smoked bacon
• 16 chipolata sausages
• I tsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
• 2 tbsp clear honey.

To prepare

Mix honey, thyme and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl, add sausages and make sure they are coated in the mix. Cut bacon down the middle longways. Wrap bacon around sausages.

Put sausages on a baking sheet well spaced apart.

Cook on 180 for about 30 minutes until nicely browned and bacon is crispy.

In Mexico, pigs in blankets are called “Salchitaco’s.”

In Germany, they are called “Würstchen im Schlafrock,” which means sausage in a dressing gown.

China has its own variation called Lop Cheong Bao.

Conservation Corner:

Conservation organisations purchase a 950 sq km biodiversity hotspot, helping to secure a vital wildlife corridor.

Trees will no longer be cut down in this 950 sq km (236,000-acre) area after the land was bought by a coalition of conservation organisations to save one of the world’s last pristine rainforests from deforestation. “The forest will now be protected in perpetuity,” says Kay.

The news is timed to coincide with Earth Day, the annual event established in 1970 to mobilise action on environmental issues.

The newly named Belize Maya Forest is part of 150,000 sq km (38m acres) of tropical forest across Mexico, Belize and Guatemala known as the Selva Maya, a biodiversity hotspot and home to five species of wild cat (jaguars, margay, ocelot, jaguarundi and puma), spider monkeys, howler monkeys and hundreds of bird species.

Protecting large areas of pristine rainforests will help mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis.

Let’s have a tune:

24 April 1959…Buddy Holly was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the Paul Anka song ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.’ A No.1 hit six weeks after Holly’s death.

A great loss to the music industry but what a legacy he left…

Our spring has come at last with the soft laughter of April suns and shadow of April showers. April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go….In the northern hemisphere April is a most confusing month; rainy and wet one day, the next full of a warm promise of green growth to come. Besides the weather, the month is full of surprises and contradictions…

The smaller animals that hibernate for the winter in the Northern Hemisphere usually start coming out of their burrows in April.

April is also the month that the birds migrate north and settle down for the summer to mate.

Did you Know?

Noah Webster:

The famous language expert Noah Webster was a bit of an April fool: one of his dearest wishes was to reform English spelling for Americans, to make it simpler and more obvious. While millions of school children could go for that; Webster’s proposals included removing all double vowels. Bread would be spelt bred; friend would become frend; tuf for tuf, laf for laugh, kee for key, and speek for speak. He also wanted us to spell machine masheen, and pique peek.

His successes included changing plough for plow and draught for draft; but if you’re a poor speller, you might just peek your frends and attribute that to your fondness for April’s Noah Webster.

Noah Webster learned twenty-six languages, including Old English (Anglo-Saxon), Greek, Hebrew and Latin.

Noah Webster was a Christian and famously said “Education is useless without the Bible.” His dictionary contains seventy thousand words and over six thousand Bible references and remains one of the only mainstream dictionaries to use Bible references to demonstrate the meaning of words. His dictionary is an essential tool for anyone studying the Bible.

He sounds like a fascinating man and scholar and I would invite him to my dinner table…

Quote of the week:

“We were young, we were foolish, we were arrogant, but we were right.” –Daniel Ellsberg.

That’s all for today thank you for dropping in I hope you enjoyed my whimsy… I would love to hear from you in comments as you know how I love to chat…Love Carol xx

 

37 thoughts on “Saturday Snippets…24th April 2021…”

  2. Pingback: CarolCooks2 weekly roundup…18th April-24th April 2021…#Recipes, Whimsy, Music and Lifestyle Changes | Retired? No one told me!

  8. Jennie

    Noah Webster was right! At lease he has success with a few words. I may have to make pigs in a blanket today. Yum! And tomorrow I’ll be looking up at the pink moon. Welcome spring!

    Liked by 2 people

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  10. Liz Gauffreau

    I’m sorry to hear that Covid is on the rise again in Thailand. Pigs in blankets were a special treat when I was little. They were wrapped in bacon and cheese before the biscuit blanket went on.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓
  14. petespringerauthor

    Webster’s Dictionary is my preferred one. So much in English doesn’t make any phonetic sense. Sounds like he was trying to help.

    It’s interesting to contemplate how the milpa farmer figured out better ways to grow crops.

    Yes, to pigs in a blanket! Such a funny term. I had no idea it is relatively new.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓
    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      I know, Pete but it is still my preferred spelling in some cases but I suppose it is what we are used to…I also know that English is a hard language to learn for some…but then I struggle sometimes with Thai but that is more of a pronunciation problem and again it is learnt as we all do from birth but interesting the different nuances…I am getting there …sigh.. Have an enjoyable Sunday 🙂 x

      Liked by 2 people

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  15. beetleypete

    So it is Webster’s fault that Americans cannot spell English properly? He has a lot to answer for!
    I reserve the eating of pigs in blankets for the Christmas season. Otherwise there is nothing special anymore. 🙂
    Best wishes, Pete. x

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply ↓
    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      I agree about saving some things for Christmas and Easter.. Many foods I remember only having at Christmas and Easter are now available year round and don’t get me started on store opening hours… x

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply ↓
  17. Darlene

    In our Canadian Germans from Russia family, we call cabbage rolls (rice and hamburger wrapped in cabbage and baked in tomato juice), pigs in blankets. Mom made the best and they were served alongside the turkey at Christmas but at other times as well. Sorry to hear you are back in lockdown again, sigh. Thanks for Buddy Holly!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply ↓
    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      I know lockdowns seem a fact of life now even our shops are deserted when I do venture out I think everyone is buying online here…I’m sure those businesses are thriving…I’m fan of Buddy Holly …happy you approve, Darlene 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  18. Jim Borden

    what a nice variety of snippets. fascinating video of the Mayan Garden – it’s good to know people are working on sustainability. and you can’t go wrong with Buddy Holly tune, although I wasn’t familiar with this one. And thanks for all the fun facts about Noah Webster. I guess he would want his name to just be Noh…

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply ↓

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