This is pretty neat.
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759...
6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.
You should have a three digit number
The next two numbers are 
YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!) 
THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2009) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS.
The Chocolate Comes to the U.S.
The earliest chocolate manufacturer in what is today the United States is believed to have been an Irishman, John Hannon, who came to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1765. although much information about Hannon remains unsubstantiated...he apparently had learned how to make chocolate in London. In Dorchester Hannon got financial backing from a man name James Baker.
Hannon's fate is a mystery. He was reportedly lost at sea...Leaving his company in the care of James Baker. Baker bought our Mrs. Hannon and thus was born Baker's Chocolate, a company that is still around. Today it's owned by Kraft Foods. (pg 80)
It's July. I'm on vacation. You all know that!!! What you may not know is that I am behind in my reading. For Christmas I love to read a good "Christmas Mystery." The truth is I got two books this year and only got to read one of them. So, since we are on the road and I have time to read I decided to read the one I hadn't finished. So here is a partial review of my "Christmas in July" mystery.
It's called The Chocolate Snowman Murders by JoAnna Carl. (She is also the author of The Chocolate Jewel Case.) Though it's certainly not close to the season mentioned above, there is never a season or time of year when CHOCOLATE or a GOOD mystery is not appropriate.
I will not tease you with the plot...but I will tease you with the chocolate trivia!
Really Ancient Chocolate
Among the big anthropological news of the early 2000's was the report that scientist had proved use of chocolate by humankind began five hundred years earlier that previously thought.
An analysis of ancient pottery from Honduras found traced of chocolate at least three thousand years old. This is five hundred years earlier than any earlier evidence of the use of the heavenly substance.
A professor of anthropology at Cornell University, John Henderson, and his colleagues made chemical analyses of residue on bits of broken pottery dating from 1100 B.C., pottery found in the Ulua Valley of Northern Honduras. The scientists discovered theobroma, and alkaloid present only in cacao.
Scientists speculate that the vessels had been used to drink a fermented 'beer' made from the pulp that surrounds the cacao beans used to produce chocolate.
The pottery was of the type used for important ceremonies, the researchers said."
So there you have it.Today have your chocolate and PARTY! Perhaps more trivia tomorrow!
~~~^j^~~~
Thanks be to God!
If you love a good mystery and chocolate Diane Mott Davidson has also written a book called Dying for Chocolate.
The lovely picture is by oreolla.
| 5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. |
A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at
a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now
retired.
During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress
in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the
professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot
chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some
plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help
themselves to the hot chocolate.
When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:
'Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving
behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only
the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot
chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases
even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot
chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups...
And then you began eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and
position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and
contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality
of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail
to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us.
God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people
don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything
that they have. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.
And enjoy your hot chocolate!
