Types of Bacon Sandwiches

 A bacon sandwich (also known in parts of the United Kingdom and New Zealand as a bacon butty or bacon sarnie, in Ireland as a rasher sandwich, and as a bacon sanger in Australia and parts of Scotland is a sandwich of cooked bacon between bread that is usually spread with butter or margarine, and may be seasoned with ketchup or brown sauce. It is generally served hot. The BLT is a popular variant of the bacon sandwich with the additional ingredients of lettuce and tomato, but served cold. It is also called piece 'n bacon, bacon cob (made with bread roll rather than slice), grilled bacon and cheese.

A Fool's Gold Loaf, mostly in Colorado, US consists of a single warmed, hollowed-out loaf of bread filled with one jar of creamy peanut butter, one jar of grape jelly, and a pound of bacon.

Bacon Gerber in Saint Louis, Missouri, US half section of Italian or French bread with garlic butter, containing ham, provolone cheese, topped with paprika, then toasted.

Hot Brown in Louisville, Kentucky, US open-faced with turkey and bacon, topped with Mornay sauce, and baked or broiled

Bacon sandwiches are an all-day favorite throughout the United Kingdom. They are often served in greasy spoons, and are sometimes recommended as a hangover cure. Australian hamburger shops sell a bacon sandwich, which is made much like a traditional Australian hamburger with fried bacon, fried onions, lettuce, tomato, tinned beetroot and barbecue sauce or tomato sauce. In some places the sandwich is made from bread toasted on only one side and other establishments serve it on the same roll as used for hamburgers. In Toronto, Canada, peameal bacon (rolled cured and trimmed boneless loin in dried and ground yellow peas) is served on a Kaiser roll.

Irish formula - Place at least three carefully chosen bacon rashers on grill pan. Insert grill pan under grill (broiler). Cook until sizzling, then turn over (the rashers, not the pan), and cook other side until sizzling.
In the meantime, cut two hunks of Kelly's small loaf. Butter liberally with real butter (none of that low cal crap). According to taste, apply your chosen sauce to the bread. Evenly spread the rashers (still sizzling) onto the bread. Apply the upper part of the sandwich. Turn off the TV and the radio. Tell the wife / girlfriend / dog etc to go away.

Perfect Bacon Sandwich - Experts at Leeds University discovered the secret to the ideal sandwich, after four researchers at the Department of Food Science spent more than 1,000 hours testing 700 variations of a traditional bacon sandwich. They tried different types and cuts of bacon, cooking techniques, types of oil and a range of cooking times at different temperatures. They found that two or three back bacon rashers should be cooked under a preheated oven grill (broiler) for seven minutes at about 240C (475F). The bacon should then be placed between two slices of farmhouse bread, 1cm to 2cm thick. They concluded  that is not only the taste and smell of bacon that consumers find most attractive, but that texture and how crispy and crunchy rashers are. Side note - A rasher of bacon can also be used to mean a "portion" or "serving" of bacon, not just a single slice. Also, streaky bacon is the British term for American style bacon.

Borrow a Drone

Students at the University of South Florida, US are now able to borrow quadcopter drones from the school library. The university allows students to check out one of the library's two remote control devices for supervised flights. The small white drones come fitted with a video camera. The university says they will be useful for students studying a range of disciplines. Students need to complete a course in drone operation before checking the devices out, and their use is to be monitored by staff members standing over the students' shoulders.

What's in a Name, Bronx

A seventeenth century Scandinavian man by the name of Jonas Bronck immigrated in 1639 to New Amsterdam (now New York), which was right next to the Bronx River, that was later named after him.

Jonas owned a 680 acre farm called 'Bronck’s Land' and the river abutting it 'Bronck’s River'. Various people owned this property and kept the name, until Colonel Lewis Morris acquired it and renamed it the 'Manor of Morrisania'. The river next to it continued to be called Bronck’s River. From the river’s name, the modern-day name of 'Bronx' extended to the region directly around it.

The spelling change happened around the same time there was a big push for the simplification of English, such as thre names of the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox, from 'Socks'.

Holiday Thought

Get out there and have some fun!

Happy Friday

You can't pull happiness from your neighbor's garden, you must grow your own.

I grow my own happiness and it blossoms every time I enjoy a Happy Friday!

In the Middle

We all look at records for first and last, top and bottom, largest and smallest, and left and right. Sometimes it is its own reward to be in the middle. Here are a few examples of things that celebrate being in the middle.

Next week, July 2, at noon is the exact middle of the year. It has 182 days before it and 182 days following.

There is a obelisk monument located at U.S. Highway 2 and North Dakota Highway 3, in Rugby, North Dakota, United States  that claims to be the middle of North America. Rugby was named after the town of Rugby in Warwickshire, England (yes, where rugby football was born). It is approximately 15 miles (24 km) from the geographic center of North America, but that is close enough according to locals. (The Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States is located about two miles northwest of Lebanon, Kansas.)

A view of the picture below shows a monument in Ecuador dedicated to being the center of the globe. It commemorates the 200th anniversary of the French Geodesic Mission which charted the equator and measured the shape of the earth. The San Antonio de Pichincha, Mitad del Mundo also has a  painted line on the pavement marked Latitude 0° 0' 0", where visitors take a photo straddling both hemispheres. The original calculations have been proven incorrect by more accurate modern technology and the actual equator line runs about 240 meters north of the monument, but that is close enough for locals.

At exactly 45 degrees latitude, 90 degrees longitude, in  the town of Rietbrock, Wisconsin, Untied States is the exact center of the Northern half of the Western Hemisphere. It is here that the 90th Meridian of Longitude bisects the 45th Parallel of Latitude meaning it is exactly halfway between the North Pole and the Equator and is a quarter of the way around Earth from Greenwich, England. The marker is about 1063 feet away from the actual 45x90 spot, but that is close enough for the locals.

The equator monument, is at Pontianak on the Indonesian side of the island of Borneo. This monument marks where the exact middle of the world used to be.

Due to constant global shift, the true Equatorial line was recorded a short distance south of the monument and, according to GPS readings, the line continues to move south, but that is close enough for the locals.

Before you ask, there is no middle of the universe. According to standard theories of cosmology, the universe began about 14 thousand million years ago and has been expanding ever since. Expansion is the same everywhere, it is not expanding out from a center into space, but is expanding equally at all places. So I have come to the end of the middle, Happy July.

Tragus

Speaking of middle, here is where the tragus is located.

Sleep Juice

New research  finds drinking tart cherry juice twice a day can help you sleep nearly 90 more minutes a night. Cherry juice is a natural source of the sleep-wake cycle hormone melatonin and amino acid tryptophan. The ruby red pigments in tart cherry juice, contain an enzyme that reduces inflammation and decreases the breakdown of tryptophan.

Researchers from Louisiana State University had seven older adults with insomnia drink eight ounces of Montmorency tart cherry juice twice a day for two weeks, followed by two weeks of no juice, and then two more weeks of drinking a placebo beverage. Compared to the placebo, drinking the cherry juice resulted in an average of 84 more minutes of sleep time each night.

Another thing you might try is kiwi. Eating two kiwi fruits an hour before bed was shown to increase sleep time by 13% and decrease mid-sleep waking periods by 29% after just four weeks. Zzzzzz

What's in a Name, Salisbury Steak

This dish was created by and named after James Salisbury in 1886 as a treatment for many afflictions such as gout, bronchitis, and tuberculosis. He believed that well-done ground beef should be eaten three times a day and a glass of hot water be taken before and after each meal.

J.K. Rowling

In 2004, she became the first person to become a billionaire by writing books. I plan to be the second, as long as I can hang in there for about 542 more years.

Color Me Purple

Purpura is the Latin name of a particular kind of shellfish which, when ground up, produces a bright purple dye, which in turn was taken from the Greek word porphura to describe the same sea creature. The word purpura later began to refer to the dye, and eventually the color of this dye. This dye was very expensive, and purple was considered a color of royalty throughout Europe. When this dye was exported to England, the word purple was imported into English as well. Today "purpura" is used by doctors to describe purplish discolorations of the skin.

The Egyptian queen Cleopatra loved purple. To obtain one ounce of Tyrian purple dye, she had her servants soak 20,000 Purpura snails for 10 days.
In Thailand, purple is worn by a widow mourning her husband's death.
A “purple heart” is a U.S. military decoration for soldiers wounded or killed in battle.
Purple is a royal color.
Purple robes are an emblem of authority and rank.
“Purple speech” is profane talk.
“Purple prose” is writing that is full of exaggerated literary effects and ornamentation.
Leonardo da Vinci believed that the power of meditation increases 10 times when done in a purple light, as in the purple light of stained glass.
Purple in a child's room is said to help develop the imagination, according to color theory.
Richard Wagner composed his operas in a room with shades of violet, his color of inspiration.

Ten Crazy US Driving Laws

In Alaska it is illegal to tie a dog to the roof of your car.
In San Francisco it is illegal to dry your car with used underwear.
In Florida, if an elephant is tied to a parking meter, the attendant must deposit money in the meter.
In Nevada it is illegal to ride a camel on the highway.
In Alabama it is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle.
In Illinois it is illegal to change clothes inside a car, except during a fire.
In Montana it is illegal to leave a sheep unescorted in a truck.
In Georgia it is illegal to drive through playgrounds.
In Oklahoma it is illegal to read a comic book while driving.
In Massachusetts it is illegal to drive with a gorilla in the back seat of your car.

Sweet Potato vs. White Potato Myth Debunked

The differences are much less than some experts would have us believe. These two tubers are very similar. The myth seems to stem from the fact that people tend to eat sweet potatoes baked or boiled, not fried, but more than a third of all white potatoes are consumed as either chips or French fries, so the sweet potato would appear to be less fattening by cooking style, not nutritional fact.

In a 100-gram portion, the white potato has 92 calories, 21 grams of carbs, 2.3 grams of fiber, 2.3 g of protein and 17% of the recommended daily value of vitamin C. White potatoes are higher in essential minerals, such as iron, magnesium, and potassium.

The same amount of sweet potato has 90 calories, 21 grams of carbs, 3 grams of fiber, 2 grams of protein, 35% of the recommended daily value of vitamin C and 380% of the daily recommended value of vitamin A.

Another difference is that sweet potatoes have a lower glycemic index than regular potatoes. The glycemic index is a measure of how quickly blood glucose levels rise after eating. Foods that have a low glycemic index do not cause a quick spike in blood sugar. As a result, people do not experience the same sugar highs and lows, which can lead to hunger and the consumption of extra calories. In other words, foods with lower glycemic indexes, like sweet potatoes and brown rice, make you feel full longer. However, baked white potatoes typically are eaten with cheese, sour cream, or butter. These toppings all contain fat, which also lowers the glycemic index of a meal.

Bottom line, the form in which you consume a potato, such as baked vs. fries is a more important difference than the type of potato.  Yams and sweet potatoes are not the same, but they are cousins and come from a different plant family.

Happy Friday

You can't be a liver of life to the fullest if your liver won't let you.

I live my life to the fullest every time I enjoy a Happy Friday!