ABigSlice Your Daily Bread

Being a Great Guest

At A Big Slice we talk a lot about being a great host. We research recipes and wines. create craft projects and provide background information that can make you confident and relaxed. But hosting is only half of the story.

Last week we were sitting around talking about people that we met at parties and began to recognize some reoccurring gaffes made by the guests. Some were completely innocent, and some could have been avoided with t quick lesson thoughtfulness.

1. Don't greet other guests with "And who might you be?" This sounds very pretentious, almost as if you expect the answer to fall short of your expectations, no matter what.

2. Don't greet other guests with "What do you do?" Yes, we agree that often someone occupation is fascinating, and there is always the opportunity to make a connection. But a better ice breaker might be, "Hi, my name is Ted Field, how did you meet our host?"

3. Leave your ego on the door step. Think of the party as a gift that was lovingly prepared with you in mind. Of the host is a bundle of nerves, and your criticism is not going to help. 

4. Be a good listener. If you want to be the most popular person in a room, just listen.

5. Ask if you can help clean up. Especially is the party is breaking up rather late, help the host out so they can get some much needed rest.

6. Thank the host as you leave and extend an invitation to your house for the next get together.  

Have fun and don't be afraid to show it!

Ted

Life's a Banquet, Grab A Big Slice

That's 30 for Tonight

The other evening I was having a converstaion with my mom. She ended the conversation with the saying "That's 30 for tonight." I told her that I had never heard that before. What did it mean? She said that she remembered it from radio days. The news broadcast "The Richfield Reporter" would always close with "That's 30 for tonight."

We talked about possible meanings and then she said, "You are always looking for topics for your blog, why don't you look it up and add it to that?" Thanks mom! I will do just that.

The symbol "-30-" if often typed at the bottom of a reporter's article. It has been used by journalists for years although many no longer use it, and most probably don't even know what it means.

The Language Log Blog had also taken on this search. Their findings were not conclusive, but they did offer the following explanations:

1. In the American West, dispatches were delivered from the telegraph office to the newspaper. The telegraph office closed at 3am. And so the operator would write at the end of the last dispatch “3 o’clock”—which became “3o’c”, and then “3o”, and finally “30”.

2. Telegraph operators would mark the end of their transmissions with “xxx”—later misread as the Roman numeral for thirty.

3. Handwritten newspaper stories used “x” to mark the end of a sentence, “xx” to mark the end of a paragraph, and “xxx” to mark the end of the story.

4. 30 ems was the maximum length of a line typeset on a linotype machine and so “30” came to designate end of line, and subsequently, end of story.

5. The Associated Press initially allowed their member papers only thirty telegrams a day. The last of the daily quota was labelled “30”.

6. Press wires closed half past the hour, or thirty minutes past the hour.

7. The end of the reign of the “thirty tyrants” appointed by the Spartans at the close of the Pelopennesian War to rule Athens was an occasion of great rejoicing. As is the end of a story—“30”.

8. In Bengali, “so” means farewell. A report of the East India Company misprinted this as “30”.

9. Telegraph operator number 30 stayed at his post reporting news of some disaster and Death supervened.

10. A reference to the thiry pieces of silver that led to Jesus’ death.

I had no idea how fascinating this search would be. One of those little tidbits of history that need to be remembered.

If you have other ideas on the origins of the "-30-" symbol please inform us. We would love to here from you.

Ted

Life's A Banquet, Grab A Big Slice

-30-

10 Ways to Waste Gas

I was looking for tips on how to save gas to print here in the blog. I decided to check out Edmunds.com and found these ten tips on how to waste gas. They are pretty informative. Check them out.

1. Stand on the gas! There's little a carbon stomper enjoys more than blasting along at 90 mph — other than doing it in a Suburban while towing a big trailer. You can get about 5 mpg if you try. On the highways I travel, there's no shortage of huge SUVs and other vehicles travelling at or near that speed. My personal observation is that the average speed on the German autobahn is no faster than that on Interstate 40 in Tennessee or Interstate 85 in Georgia. The government says most cars get their best fuel mileage between about 40 and 60 mph. For a big SUV or pickup truck, those numbers drop 10 mph or more. Because air drag (wind resistance) increases with the square of speed, going a little bit faster really increases the impact of that carbon stomp.

2. Use E85 ethanol. Ethanol significantly drops fuel mileage because alcohol contains less energy than gasoline. The EPA says you'll get about 7 mpg less with E85 (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline) than with 100 percent gas. In our own tests comparing E85 and gasoline, we observed similar gas-mileage differences. But that's not all. To grow corn to make ethanol, American farmers are plowing up native prairie grass that is the primary breeding ground for waterfowl. Simultaneously, Brazilians are burning down virgin rainforests to grow sugarcane for ethanol and soybeans for biodiesel. Also, some studies say it requires more fossil fuel energy to make ethanol than the alcohol contains. In addition, ethanol must be transported by truck or railroad rather than the traditional gasoline pipeline system. Oh, and it makes your food more expensive. Stomp!

3. Idle. A car gets zero miles per gallon while it sits motionless with the engine running. You can make a Corolla get the same gas mileage as an 18-wheeler by sitting in the car with the air-conditioner running while waiting in an elementary-school pickup line. A main way hybrid-electric cars reduce fuel consumption is by switching off their engines while stopped in traffic. For modern, fuel-injected vehicles, the break-even point for turning off the engine and then restarting it right before traffic begins to flow may be as little as 10 seconds, even when considering extra wear on the starter motor, battery and other components. Expect honks and rude gestures from drivers behind you.

4. Enter the stoplight drags. Establish your dominance by being the first to the next stoplight. It's a race: Don't let the rats win. By accelerating hard, you're burning much more gas than you would by gently gaining speed. And you get to waste even more while idling at the next stoplight until the slow-accelerating driver arrives. Often, the light turns green right as the slowpoke arrives. Then you really have to gas it to beat him to the next light.

5. Cruise. Driving around aimlessly is such a relaxing and enjoyable way to waste gas. Harley riders, snowmobilers and teenagers have this down to a science. Some cities still boast 1950s American Graffiti-style cruising where people circulate in an intentional traffic jam around a city square — doesn't that sound fun? Gas hogs love traffic jams and lots of idling.

6. Choose max-performance tires. There's little like the thrill of blasting around a freeway transition ramp on super-grippy max-performance tires. However, sticky tires take more energy to move down the road than do most original equipment tires. Tire engineers call it rolling resistance, and ultra-high-performance tires almost always have a lot of it.

7. Never use cruise control. A great way to burn extra fuel when driving down the interstate is to accelerate until you pull far past another car. Then slow down until that car passes you and gets a half-mile lead. Next, gas it until you're a quarter-mile in the lead. Repeat. Not only does this drop gas mileage, it'll make you one of the world's most aggravating people. There's more than one way to heat up the planet.

8. Use regular gas when your car calls for premium. The Lexus College says using 87-octane fuel in its vehicles that require 91 octane will reduce fuel mileage by about 6 mpg. This is partially because the lower-octane fuel requires the engine to work harder to achieve the same performance. It's unclear whether this is true for all makes. Try it for yourself to find out which gets worse mileage.

9. Keep your trips short. Engines don't operate at maximum efficiency until warmed up. So you'll burn more fuel if you drive two or three miles and then stop and let the car cool down before making another short trip. To make sure you burn the most gas, never drive first to your furthest destination and make your other stops on the way home. Best of all, drive all the way home after each errand and never even think about walking or riding a bike.

10. Ignore maintenance. A clogged air filter does a wonderful job of wasting fuel, but it's nothing compared to a malfunctioning oxygen sensor. If the "check engine" light illuminates, a small piece of black tape will allow you to keep wasting gas without the annoying nagging. Out-of-spec suspension alignment will burn more fuel, as will adding heavier-weight oil like 10W-40 rather than the automaker-recommended 0W-20. Finally, make sure your tires are underinflated — this will not only burn excess amounts of oh-so-plentiful gasoline, it'll also prematurely wear out your tires and create deadly driving situations!

Here are some other things you can do to waste gas: Install a wing, roof rack, running boards, fender flares or brush guards. Be sure to keep that ski rack on all summer.

Chocolate Pots

I have always heard my mom speak of her chocolate pot. It is a graceful ceramic pot with matching cups that I thought was indistinguishable from a coffee pot. So I decided to do a little research on the subject.

With the colonization of America, the New World provided the Spanish with enough gold and sliver to make the Habsburgs the most powerful family in Europe. But it also introduced many new food items into the European diet. One of the most popular, of course, was chocolate.

At this time there was no cocoa powder. Cocoa beans were ground and boiled with milk or water and sugar and this new beverage, hot chocolate, became a sensation. By the 1600's wealthy Europeans began enjoying hot chocolate in specially designed Limoges porcelain services including a lidded pot with a short spout placed high up on the side. Incidentally, this is a good way to tell a coffee pot from a chocolate pot. The spouts on coffee pots are typically longer, and have a small "filter" in the inside where the spout joins the vessel. There are no filters on chocolate pots because it would get clogged by the cocoa butter as the pot was emptied.

Antique chocolate pots can still be found, many in precious metals. The oldest will have a handle that sticks out in a right angle to the pot. To pour the chocolate, you turn the handle with a twisting motion. The invention of cocoa powder meant that modern chocolate pots are identical to coffee pots. Cocoa butter is no longer a problem.

In case you have a chocolate pot, and are looking for a traditional chocolate recipe, get ready indulge, pinkies up style:

6 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tbs sugar
2 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 cups light cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
Cinnamon, whipped cream and orange zest
Preparation:

Add sugar and cocoa to milk and heat in a saucepan until dissolved. Add the cream, cinnamon and vanilla. Heat until almost boiling. Mix well and serve, topped with whipped cream and a bit of orange zest.

Halloween in September?!?

It's hard to believe that we have not officially "done" Halloween. By that I mean posted it to abigslice.com. Especially when it is one of our favorite holidays. We have so much fun thinking up great party ideas. One year we did an elaborate mystery featuring the murder of the infamous witch Kay Syrah Shiraz. Participants had to wine taste their way through a series of clues to discover the culprit - the evil genie Chianti!

Anyway, somehow these events have never found their way on to the pages of A Big Slice. That is about to be rectified! The October newsletter will be all things Halloween. We will have some great craft ideas, as well as recipes and decorating tips. (click on the picture to get a larger view of one of the bone chilling spider napkin rings)

Here's the weird thing, for us Halloween has already begun - and it's only September. In order to get things on the web in a timely manner, they must be shot at least a month early. With the photo shoot only about one week away and we are in the midst of a Halloween extravaganza! Pumpkins and witches and skeletons have put us in the mood. I guess it is only fitting though. Come Halloween, we will be cooking a Thanksgiving turkey!

Life's a Banquet - Grab A Big Slice

July 17 : National Peach Ice Cream Day

The botanical name of the peach is prunus persica. I am no botanist but this would lead me to believe that this wonderful, sunset colored fruit is actually a persian prune! Neither of which is entirely correct, of course. The peach is actually native to China where it was hailed in writings as old as the 10th Century. The Emperors of China started a royal love affair with the fruit that was to cross, the ages as well as national borders.

Once discovered cultivation of the peach spread to the Middle East and Persia. From there it was introduced into the Roman Empire and of course Europe. Hence we get the "persica" part of the name - the persian apple as they called it. France and Spain became the first European countries to cultivate the peach and the French soon shortened the name to "peche" and from there it is a short step to peach. Louis XIV's patronage resulted in several new varieties being developed all of which were named after women due to their remarkable beauty. The loveliest was given the title Teton de Venus, or Nipple of Venus.

The Spanish brought the peach to America, and it thrived in the American Southeast. American Indians are credited with spreading cultivation westward and now, even though Georgia is called the Peach State, California is actually the nation's largest producer. In fact, after the apple, peaches represent the second largest commercial fruit crop in America.

So here's to the peach, the fruit in the beautiful fuzzy coat. Keep reading for a great peach ice cream recipe!

July 6 : National Fried Chicken Day

Fried chicken, when it’s done well, is one of my favorite dishes. Sometimes I absolutely crave it, calories be damned! Being from the south, I grew up with aunts, uncles, and cousins crowded around the Sunday dinner table feasting on a pile of heavenly fried chicken. So it could very well be that the cravings are not solely a matter of hunger, maybe I am longing for those long past Sunday dinners.

Fried chicken probably came to America with the Scottish immigrants. There was a tradition of frying chicken in fat in Scotland that was unique in the British Isles . The English preferred boiled or baked chicken. But the African slaves took the dish and made the dish their own. Typically they were not allowed many possessions, but they were allowed to keep chickens. On special occasions, the chickens were deep fried and served steaming hot. But what set their dish apart from the Scots was the introduction of spices and herbs which added to the flavor of the chicken. Sunday dinner and fried chicken continue to go hand in hand in the south. And because it is delicious hot or cold, fried chicken has become a picnic and Fourth of July staple.

A little fried chicken trivia:
Kentucky Fried Chicken's consumers eat enough chickens for them to be laid end to end and circle the equator eleven times. The same amount of chickens would also equal the distance from earth to over 50,000 miles past the moon.

Keep reading for a wonderful Southern Fried Chicken recipe, and Tips for Perfect Fried Chicken every time!

June 21 : The Summer Solstice

June 21 is the official first day of summer – although the temperature outside might convince you otherwise! Summer begins (so we are told) on what is called the summer solstice. A solstice occurs twice a year, June and December. Due to the fact that the earth’s axis of rotation tilts, in June, the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, while in December it is the southern hemisphere that gets the most direct rays.

The word solstice come from the latin noun sol, meaning sun and the verb sistere or to stand still. During a solstice, the hours of daylight for the sun tilted hemisphere, is at its maximum. The sun seems to stand still in the sky. In other words before June 21 the hours of daylight grow, after, they get shorter.

Have you ever looked at a globe and wondered what are those strange lines called the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn? These lines mark the extent of the path of the sun on the respective solstices. This means that if you were standing on the Tropic of Cancer during the summer solstice, the sun would be directly overhead. However, these “tropics” are no longer correctly named. Due to what is called the processions of equinoxes (slight variations that occur between the actual day of the solstice and the calendar) these lines should more correctly be called the Tropic of Taurus and the Tropic of Sagittarius! There’s a little trivia for you!

Ancient agricultural societies built huge structures used in part to determine the solstice. Stonehenge is one such structure. On that day, celebrations featuring dances and bonfires, marked the beginning of summer and more importantly, the growing season. Cultures that depended on a plentiful harvest for survival needed to be sure that when the seed was planted, there would be no more days of frost. The summer solstice meant warmer days ahead, and safe planting.

Of course, most of these celebrations are in our distant past. In fact by the time June 21st rolls around I am usually thinking, “Hasn’t summer already started? Can it get any hotter?” Well, it can and certainly will. So find a cool tree, a nice beverage (see below), and a fan. It’s hot as sin, and not even summer yet!

May 13, 2007: Mother's Day

As with most holidays the lineage of our modern American Mother’s Day has its roots in ancient pagan rituals. The Greeks had a custom of mother worship that was specifically dedicated to the goddess Cybele, the personification of the fertile mother earth. A little late, the Romans pretty much adopted Greek religion lock, stock, and barrel. They celebrated a similar feast dedicated to Juno called Matronalia on March 1, which was, coincidentally, the first day of their new year. On this day women would receive gifts from their husbands and daughters, a tradition that, amazingly, seemed to catch on.

Our present holiday was more recently derived from the British holiday called Mothering Sunday. Taking the British custom as her starting point, activist Julia Ward Howe issued a call for woman to become the instruments of peace in this post Civil War era. The author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” penned a Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870 calling for peace and disarmament. Howe never succeeded in getting official recognition of Mother’s Day. That was up to the Appalachian mother/daughter team of Ann and Anna Jarvis. In 1914, largely through their efforts, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first National Mother’s Day. Now it has grown to become one of the most commercially successful holidays in the US. And, according to the National Restaurant Association, the most popular day of the year to dine out!

History of the Christmas Tree

When you really stop to think about it, the idea of bringing a live tree indoors, festooning it with delicate glass ornaments, and tiny colorful lights, seems a little ridiculous. A tradition that odd must have its roots in the ancient past. And now we do it because, well, we've always done it. I, for one, won't settle for that explanation. So I did a little digging. Here is a brief glimpse into the evolution of the Christmas Tree.