Gleanings of the Week Ending November 2, 2013

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Pumpkin and Ginger Scones - New York Times Recipes for Health - Yum! The prospect of the melding flavor of pumpkin, ginger, and maple syrup seems to suit my mood for this season. Since I cooked a whole pumpkin this past week, I have plenty of pumpkin to make these scones.

London’s Health - There is a new website that organizes historical ‘Medical Officer of Health’ reports for London from 1848 and 1972. There are several ways to search. I looked for ‘smallpox’ references as my first search.  

Inside the American Kitchen - An infographic about kitchens. Did you know that the three most popular features for kitchen projects are: islands, roll-outs/pull-outs, and drawers?

Cornell Lab FeederWatch - If you get the urge to enjoy birds at a feeder but don’t have one of your own - enjoy the one at Sapsucker Woods near Ithaca NY. There are almost always birds around (and if they aren’t at the feeder there are bird noises that indicate they are nearby).

Massive 80-Room Tree House Stands Almost 100-Feet-Tall - I enjoyed visiting this Tennessee tree house in summer of 2012….and took some very similar pictures (the one below is mine). It is so large that it is hard to capture the entire structure!

Thawing Permafrost: The Speed of Coastal Erosion in Eastern Siberia Has Nearly Doubled - Coastal erosion in areas there permafrost and sea ice were the norm for large parts of the year until recently is increasing rapidly. The materials used for the article include more graphics about how it occurs.

Take a trip over the surface of Mars - A 4 minute video presentation of images from Europe’s Mars Express that has been orbiting Mars since 2004.

The World's Strangest and Most Magnificent Gardens - I love gardens so couldn’t resist including this on the ‘gleanings’ list for the week.

Message From a 50-Year-Old Flamingo - A conservation success story - for now….but there is a lot that could still go wrong for the flamingos left in this world.

Restoration: Another Layer of History - Some examples of industrial/military areas that are repurposed into more public spaces.

Household Tools - Kitchen (Part 2)

Yesterday I posted about knives and wooden spoons being the most frequently used tools in my kitchen. The whisk, potato peeler and can opener are not used every day - but frequently enough.

I find that I use the whisk when I previously used an egg beater or electric mixer or a fork. It does a better job of combining milk with eggs for scrambling or omelets. And it is a lot less mess and faster that an egg beater or electric mixer for creaming sugar, eggs, and butter for cookies or mixing the pancake ingredients. It’s appealing in its simplicity. The one I use most frequently is an inexpensive one that has lasted for years.

The same can be said of the potato peeler. It is over 30 years old. I don’t use it as frequently as I once did since we no longer are making homemade French fries every week (French fries are infrequent components of our meals now). The most frequent use is to peel sweet potatoes before I cut wedges to roast sprinkled with cinnamon.

The can opener is used much less frequently than when it was originally purchased. We don’t eat as many canned goods as we used to and some of the few that we still buy have flip tops. I still have the can opener in the drawer; its sharpness will last for years and years at the rate it gets used.