Just Truly Amazing

So amazing I had to share...

A row of corn always has an even number.

• An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows.
  
  
• A pound of corn consists of approximately 1,300 kernels.
  
  
• 100 bushels of corn produces approximately 7,280,000 kernels.
  
  
• Each year, a single U.S. farmer provides food and fiber for 129 people - 97 in the U.S. and 32 overseas.
  
  
• In the U.S., corn production measures more than 2 times that of any other crop.

Random Facts About Thanksgiving (Food)

1. President Jefferson called a federal Thanksgiving proclamation “the most ridiculous idea ever conceived.”
2. Held every year on the island of Alcatraz since 1975, “Unthanksgiving Day” commemorates the survival of Native Americans following the arrival and settlement of Europeans in the Americas.
3. The famous “Pilgrim and Indian” story featured in modern Thanksgiving narratives was not initially part of early Thanksgiving stories, largely due to tensions between Indians and colonists.
4. The turkeys typically depicted in Thanksgiving pictures are not the same as the domestic turkeys most people eat at Thanksgiving. Domestic turkeys usually weigh twice as much and are too large to fly.
5. The average long-distance Thanksgiving trip is 214 miles, compared with 275 miles over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday.
6. Americans eat roughly 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.
7. The Pilgrim’s thanksgiving feast in 1621 occurred sometime between September 21 and November 1. It lasted three days and included 50 surviving pilgrims and approximately 90 Wampanoag Indians, including Chief Massasoit. Their menu differed from modern Thanksgiving dinners and included berries, shellfish, boiled pumpkin, and deer.
8. Now a Thanksgiving dinner staple, cranberries were actually used by Native Americans to treat arrow wounds and to dye clothes.
9. In 2007, George W. Bush granted a pardon to two turkeys named May and Flower The tradition of pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys began in 1947, though Abraham Lincoln is said to have informally started the practice when he pardoned his son’s pet turkey.
10. Not all States were eager to adopt Thanksgiving because some thought the national government was exercising too much power in declaring a national holiday. Additionally, southern States were hesitant to observe what was largely a New England practice.
 
11. Thanksgiving football games began with Yale versus Princeton in 1876.
12. Established in 1924, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ties for second as the oldest Thanksgiving parade. The Snoopy balloon has appeared in the parade more often than any other character. More than 44 million people watch the parade on TV each year and 3 million attend in person.
13. Baby turkeys are called poults. Only male turkeys gobble and, therefore, are called gobblers.
14. In 2009, roughly 38.4 million Americans traveled more than 50 miles to be with family for Thanksgiving. More than four million flew home.
15. Thanksgiving Day is actually the busiest travel day, even more so than the day before Thanksgiving, as most people believe.
16. Thanksgiving can occur as early as November 22 and as late as November 28.^d
17. The Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday largely because stores hope the busy shopping day will take them out of the red and into positive profits. Black Friday has been a tradition since the 1930s.

Turkey Day

Some interesting facts about the Star of Thanksgiving, the Turkey!!!

• The Guinness Book of Records states that the greatest dressed weight recorded for a turkey is 39.09 kg (86 lbs), at the annual "heaviest turkey" competition held in London, England on December 12, 1989.

• Fifty percent of Americans put the stuffing inside the Turkey.

• Fossil evidence shows that turkeys roamed the Americas 10 million years ago.

• 91% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day.

• Turkeys have heart attacks. When the Air Force was conducting test runs and breaking the sound barrier, fields of turkeys would drop dead.

• Turkey is the traditional dish for the Thanksgiving feast. In the US, about 280 million turkeys are sold for the Thanksgiving celebrations. There is no official reason or declaration for the use of turkey. They just happened to be the most plentiful meat available at the time of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, starting the tradition.

• The preliminary estimate of the number of turkeys raised in the United States in 2005 is 256 million. That’s down 3 percent from 2004. The turkeys produced in 2004 weighed 7.3 billion pounds altogether and were valued at $3.1 billion.

• Turkeys were one of the first animals in the Americas to be domesticated.

• A spooked turkey can run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. They can also burst into flight approaching speeds between 50-55 mph in a matter of seconds.

Something a little weird to think about...

The flavor of bubble gum comes from the fusion of vanilla, wintergreen and cassia, a form of cinnamon. 

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Did you know?

Chips are probably one of my favorite snack foods, so I found this fact incredibly interesting!!!!

In the United States, a pound of potato chips costs two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes.

      Cost of 1lb. of potato chips  = 200 x Cost of 1lb. of Potatoes 

A Twist On Mac-N-Cheese

I posted before on how much family means to me. Recipes are often passed down through members of the family. One recipe I have in my collection is an original twist on Mac-N-Cheese. My fiance's Grandmother shared this recipe with me, and I immediately fell in love. And I bet if you try this recipe too, you will love it too!

For this recipe you will need:

 

Tomato Sauce, Macaroni Noodles, and American Cheese

Once you have those ingredients, you need to boil the water to cook the noodles. 

While the water is reaching the boiling point, you should set your oven for baking. 

 After about 10 minutes in the boiling water, your noodles will be cooked to al dente (the noodles will still be a little chewy). Drain the water from the noodles, and place then in a baking pan. Mix in the tomato sauce.

Once you covered the noddles with sauce, you should add the American cheese to the top. (If you like, you can add more cheese, or less.)

Place the entree into the oven for about 15 minutes until the cheese is completely melted and the tomato sauce is bubbling. Then you can enjoy this delicious twist on a traditional meal.

Thanks Grandma!