July is National Ice Cream Month

If you didn't eat some ice cream on National Ice Cream Day (Sunday), you still have the rest of July to indulge...

Vanilla is the most popular ice cream flavor.
There are 273 calories in one cup of vanilla ice cream.
One of the major ingredients in ice cream is air. Without it, the stuff would be as hard as a rock.
The first ice cream parlor in America opened in New York City in 1776.
More ice cream is sold on Sunday than any other day.
It takes 12 lbs. of milk to make 1 gallon of ice cream.
It takes about 50 licks to finish off an ice cream cone.
80% of the world's vanilla bean used for ice cream is grown in Madagascar.
Adults consume nearly ½ of all ice cream novelties.
The United States consumes more ice cream than any other country.
Immigrants at Ellis Island were served vanilla ice cream as part of their welcome to America.
The best temperature to serve ice cream is believed to be 8ºF.
A dairy cow can produce enough milk to make over 9,000 gallons of ice cream.

Perfect Pair

Nothing goes better with summer than water...

we squirt it....

we throw it...

we swim in it...


and, of course, we drink it!

Here are some fun facts about H2O:

One gallon of water, at 20ºC, weighs 8.33 pounds.

There are about 1 million miles of pipeline and aquaducts in the U.S and Canada – enough to circle the earth 40 times.

On average, a person pays 25¢ for water each day.

Of all the erth's water, 97% is found in oceans or seas.
Community Public water supply systems process about 34 billion gallons of water daily.

Enjoy the water, but save some for tomorrow...

Pondering Pasta

Pasta is the Italian word for paste.

All pasta is made from a dough of grain
flour mixed with water. That's the easy part...


The hard part is making it from scratch, or trying to remember
all the different names and uses of each unique pasta shape:
flat, smooth, solid, hollow, twisted, curved, ridged...

The shape of the pasta determines the Italian name of the pasta:

acini de pepe = little peppercorns
anelini = little rings
cannelloni = little tubes
capellini = fine hairs
conchiglie = shells
farfalle = butterflies
fettucine = small ribbons
fusilli = little spindles
gigli = lilies
lasagna = pot
linguini = little tongues
manicotti = pipes
mostaccioli = little mustaches
orecchiette = little ears
orzo = rice shape
penne = quills
quadretti = little squares
ricciolini = llittle turnips
rigatoni = striped furrows
spaghetti = strings
stelline = baby stars...
tortellini = little fritters
vermicelli = little worms

If your a pasta pro, try this Pasta Identification Quiz.
(If you need to study first, go here.)
(I only got 8 right my first try.)