Wordless Wednesday: This is what turkey leftovers become.

A big pot of turkey gumbo!

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.


Today is:

Bairns Day -- Scotland (Begins the runic half-month of Eoh, the yew tree, which signifies the dead, and is now associated with the Slaughter of the Innocents of Christian tradition, so today is considered by some the unluckiest day of the year, and no work should be undertaken today.)

Call a Friend Day -- just to catch up a bit

Card Playing Day -- internet generated, enjoy a fun game with friends and family; "Go fish!"

Childermas a/k/a Holy Innocents Day -- (Patrons of babies, children's choirs, foundlings)
     various Christian traditions celebrate under many names and in various ways
     Els Enfarinats -- Ibn, Valencia, Spain (flour fight, and if it's anything like the tomato throwing in other towns of Spain, it's probably lots of fun)
     French Childermas tradition interpreted what the Norse saw as evidence of the Wild Hunt of Odin as the spirits of the Holy Innocents running from King Herod
     Inocentes -- Mexico, and sometimes celebrated as Mexican December Fool's Day (Herod fooled himself into thinking he had gotten rid of his rival king born in Bethlehem.)

Dyzemas Day -- Northhamptonshire, UK (an unlucky day to begin any new undertaking, "what is begun on Dysemas Day will never be finished")
     origin unknown, but often translated as Tithe Day, being very close to the Portugese word for tithe

Eat A Vegetarian Day -- an internet generated joke; yes, the vegetarian in question can be a cow

Endangered Species Act Day -- US (act passed 1973; a day to mourn species already extinct)

Fairy Academy of Window-Frosting Winter Exhibition -- Fairy Calendar

Fourth Day of Christmas

Incwala Day -- Swaziland (the biggest day of the 8 week Ncwala Festival, which loosely translates as "first fruits", although today's tasting of the first of the harvest by the King is only a portion of the many days of ceremonies)
      always on 28th?

Kayin New Year -- Myanmar (The Kayin, or Karen, are the second largest ethnic minority in the country, and their New Year is an extra holiday with traditional costume and lots of celebrating)

King Taksin Memorial Day -- Thailand

Kwanzaa, Day 3, Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)

National Chocolate Candy Day

Proclamation Day -- South Australia (trad.)

Return a Gift for the Cold Hard Cash Day -- and good luck, these days

Runic Half-month Eoh (yew) commences

Take a Drive and Enjoy the Christmas Lights Day -- before they are gone for another year

Unluckiest Day of the Year -- various traditions state no work should be started today, for whatever is started today will never be finished!  In Olde England, nothing of importance was ever undertaken on Childermas, because it would prove unlucky


Anniversaries Today:

Billy Ray Cyrus weds Leticia Finley, 1994
The US Pledge of Allegiance is formally adopted, 1945
Iowa becomes the 29th US State, 1846


Birthdays Today:

David Archuleta, 1990
Sienna Miller, 1981
John Legend, 1978
Joe Mangianello, 1976
Todd Richards, 1969
Malcolm Gets, 1964
Denzel Washington, 1954
Edgar Winter, 1946
Don Francisco, 1940
Maggie Smith, 1934
Nichelle Nichols, 1933
Martin Milner, 1931
Johnny Otis, 1921
Sam Levenson, 1911
Lew Ayres, 1908
Cliff Arquette, 1905
Earl "Fatha" Hines, 1905
Hendrik Meijer, 1883
Woodrow Wilson, 1856
John Molson, 1763


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Gulag Archipelago"(Publication date), 1973
"Last of the Red Hot Lovers"(Play), 1969
"Night of the Iguana"(Play), 1961
"On the Town"(Musical), 1944
"Tip-Toes"(Musical), 1925
"St. Joan"(Play), 1923
"Cyrano de Bergerac"(Play), 1897


Today in History:

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, a/k/a Westminster Abbey, is consecrated, 1065
The reign of Emperor Hanazono of Japan begins, 1308
Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star, 1612
King Taksin is crowned as king of Thailand and establishes Thonburi as a capital, 1768
Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (present-day Toronto, Ontario), 1795
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes Echigo, Japan, killing 30,000+, 1828
John Calhoun becomes the first US Vice President to resign (over differences with President Andrew Jackson), 1832
Spain recognizes independence of Mexico, 1836
South Australia and Adelaide are founded, 1836
Rangoon Burma, destroyed by fire, 1841
The United States claims Midway Island, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits, 1867
The LumiËre brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines, marking the debut of the cinema, 1895
The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco, California, 1912
The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park, 1950
Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes "Gulag Archipelago", 1973
Winnie Mandela is banished from South Africa, 1976
The first American "test-tube baby", Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born in Norfolk, Virginia, 1981
U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years, 2000
At 115 years old and 266 days, Jiroemon Kimura of Japan becomes the world's oldest living person, 2012

What's Left Over?

Sometimes happiness comes from the simplest things.

Saturday was very busy from very early, but one simple thing made me happy.  Sweetie, who was a chef at one time, and who used to swear that leftovers were against his religion, didn't just make his own brunch (which he does many weekends), he used leftovers!

Now around here, he's gotten used to the fact that we don't have the money to throw away food, so anything left over will be served for his lunch the next day.  If there's more left, it will get reused, turned into another meal, until there is nothing left from the original meal to be found.

When he fixes things for himself, though, he's not too keen on using leftovers.  As a chef, all that time ago, he was used to the best and freshest ingredients, and he would still love to be able to use only the finest of everything.  Instead, he's stuck using what we can afford, but he still tries to be fancy.

Not yesterday, when he decided on an omelet.  He made the biggest, fanciest omelet he has ever made, and in it he included everything but the kitchen sink.  Leftover chicken from quesadillas.  Leftover beef from soft tacos.  Leftover sauteed vegetables, leftover spaghetti (!), leftover chopped fresh veggies that hadn't been eaten with the tacos.

He topped it with leftover home made pico de gallo and salsa and he had so much he saved half for today, he couldn't finish it all.

It doesn't look like leftovers to me!

The good thing is, not only does it make me happy to see him getting the hang of using leftovers himself instead of me having to do it, or the kids, but now i have no leftovers!

Tonight, for dinner, a fresh meal, hamburger steaks with gravy, and a few sides that i will decide on as i go along.  And if i have more burgers left over that he doesn't take with him for lunch at work on Monday, maybe i'll even ask him what ideas he has for how to use them.  Which is nice, because after this busy week end, the only thing i think is going to be left over in my brain is cobwebs.




Today is:

Blessing of the Boats -- Whitby, North Yorkshire, England

Champagne Day -- internet generated holiday, probably created by someone who wanted an excuse to celebrate

Coast Guard Day -- US (anniversary of founding in 1790)

Constitution Day -- Cook Islands

Fairy Drying-Out Day -- Fairy Calendar (makes sense, as we washed them yesterday. Now it begs the question, how does one dry a fairy?)

Festival of the Dead; Sunset Ceremony -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Fiestas de la Virgen Blanca -- Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Basque Country, Spain; through the 9th

Fiestas Patronales -- El Salvador (through Tuesday)

International Forgiveness Day -- sponsored by the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance

International Friendship Day

Joust of the Quintana -- Asciku Piceno, Italy (reenactment of a medieval jousting tournament)

Loch-mo-Naire Pilgrimage -- Loch mo Naire, Scotland (tonight from midnight to 1am tomorrow is the magical hour, complete the ritual there to be healed by the waters because of magic stones in the water that a Celtic priestess put there)

Matica Slovenska Day -- Slovakia (main Slovak cultural institution, established 1863)

National Friendship Day -- US (designated by Congress in 1935)

National Lasagna Day

Nicole Robin Day -- St. John, USVI (unofficial celebration her safe return, with the crew, to the Virgin Islands after being held by Cubans.)

Single Working Women's Day

Sisters' Day® -- celebrating the bond between sisters, as begun by Tricia Eleogram

Swiss Volksfest -- New Glarus, WI, US (celebration of Swiss Independence Day)

St. John Baptist Mary Vianney's Day (Cure of Ars; Patron of confessors, parish priests; Dubuque, Iowa; Kamloops, BC; Kansas City, KS; Saint Paul and Minneapolis, MN)

Vigil of St. Oswald -- Anglo-Saxon holy day, commemorates the day before King Oswald's death in 642

Zuni Corn Dance -- the Zuni Native Americans give thanks to Mother Earth, the Kokos (Nature Spirits), and the Corn Maidens for the maize harvest; through the 7th


Birthdays Today:

Cole and Dylan Sprouse, 1992
Roger Clemens, 1962
Barack H. Obama, 1961
Billy Bob Thornton, 1955
Maurice "Rocket" Richard, 1921
Louis Armstrong, 1901*
Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, 1900
Louis Vuitton, 1821
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792


Today in History

The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, 70
A supernova is observed in constellation Cassiopeia, 1181
The first printing of Zohar (Jewish Kabbalah), 1558
A hurricane in the Carribean kills thousands in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Christopher, 1666
Dom Perignon invents champagne (traditional date), 1693
First edition of the Saturday Evening Post, which was published until 1969, 1821
The family of Lizzie Borden is found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home, 1892
The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens, 1902
The Supreme Court of Japan is established, 1947
The Billboard Hot 100 is founded, 1958
American civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21, 1964
The African republic Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso, 1984
Operation Storm begins in Croatia, 1995
Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean will be Canada's 27th Governor General, 2005
California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state's voters in 2008, is overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 2010


*In several interviews, Satchmo claimed to have been born on July 4, 1900. Historians always disputed that claim, saying it was too neat and tidy, and his baptismal records, found in a church basement, proved otherwise. Some biographies still give the July 4, 1900 date in error.