Thread:61Storm/@comment-29709319-20181110010804/@comment-29709319-20190110014223

January 10: National Bittersweet Chocolate Day, National Cut Your Energy Costs Day, National Save The Eagles Day, and National Sunday Supper Day

🍫National Bittersweet Chocolate Day! Chocolate comes from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao, which has been cultivated for at least three millennia, is grown in Mexico, Central America and Northern South America. The earliest known documentation of use, of cacao seeds, is around 1100 BC. The cacao tree seed has an intensely bitter taste that must be fermented to develop the flavor. Once the seeds have been fermented, the beans are then dried, cleaned and roasted. After roasting, the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The cacao nibs are then ground into cocoa mass which is pure chocolate in rough form. The cocoa mass is usually liquefied then molded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The chocolate liquor may then be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Bittersweet chocolate is chocolate liquor to which sugar, cocoa butter and vanilla have been added. It does have less sugar and more liquor than semisweet chocolate. However, the two of them may be interchangeable when baking. Studies have revealed that there are certain health benefits from eating bittersweet chocolate in moderation, such as lowering blood pressure and helping to protect the heart.

♻️National Cut Your Energy Costs Day encourages people to look for ways to reduce energy costs and save on their energy bills. It is often in the little things that you do that can save you big money on your energy bill, such as: Weatherproof your home. Replace old windows with new energy-efficient windows. Replace old furnace with new energy-efficient furnace. Properly maintain furnace. Use solar heat if possible. Turn down thermostats. Turning off lights when leaving a room. Use energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs. Run dishwasher and washing machine only when fully loaded. Lower water heater temperature. Take shorter showers. Unplug unused appliances. And carpool whenever possible. The above list is just a few of the many ways to conserve energy. Use these tips, along with others you may already have in practice and you will be able to create energy and financial savings the entire year.

🦅Save the Eagles Day! Some species of eagles are on the endangered list. However, due to the work of scientists and the public, the Bald Eagle was removed from this list in June 2007. There are more than 70 species of eagles throughout the world. The only exception is Hawaii, where no species of eagles reside. Poaching, pesticides and other dangers continue to threaten eagle populations.

🍽National Sunday Supper Day! These days families are busy with after-school activities, jobs and homework. Sunday supper has been a disappearing tradition around the country and the Sunday Supper Movement aims to bring families back together in the kitchen and around the dinner table one Sunday at a time. National Sunday Supper Day is another step toward this goal. Isabel Laessig is the founder of the Sunday Supper Movement and the Food and Wine Conference. A mother of four, she was inspired to start her blog, Family Foodie, when her oldest left for college and the things she would miss most about home would be the times spent in the kitchen and around the table with family. In 2012 Laessig and eight other bloggers and their families celebrated the first virtual Sunday Supper with a progressive dinner. According to Laessig, she and these eight bloggers are “passionate about bringing families together to cook and eat together.”

I love chocolate but not bittersweet chocolate. We try practicing energy cost cuts, like turning off lights, running the dishwasher when full, unplugging thing when not in use if possible and keeping the thermostats down. We change the filter in the furnace regularly and it doesn't need any more maintenance on it, we just replace the mother board in it. We have a pair of eagles that have staked out our area as their territory. Beautiful birds of prey! When I was at home we had no need for just a Sunday dinner. You ate when mom put it on the table. If got hungry later you got leftovers if there was any or you fixed what you could find and you didn't get to leave the mess either, you cleaned it up because there were consequences if you didn't. However, the Sunday dinners I miss the most were the ones when I was little, we used to have at my grandmothers house.🙁 Fond memories!

We reach 30 degrees today with a wind chill of 17. A complete turn around from the day before of 50+ degrees.

Sending warm hugs!🐶💕❄️💕