Old School Goulash Recipe, Fascinating Facts & Trivia + Dazzling Fall Art
Good Morning and Happy Wednesday –
Today is an opportunity to shine brightly in the middle of the week. I’m embracing it.
How is November and Daylight Saving time working out this first week of the eleventh month?
I’m loving November so far.
Especially because I’m doing the countdown to Thanksgiving when I will see my family!
Excited!
I’m adjusting to the whole Daylight Saving Time thing quicker this year than I have in the past.
Not sure why. But ’tis true.
Super duper line-up today to present for Wednesday Reader.
Beginning with:
LESLIE ELMAN’S TRIVIA AND FASCINATING FACTS
I always love all of her interestings.
However, today – my favorite is her interesting about the topaz stone which is November’s birthstone. Who knew?
QUICK QUESTION
What have I always wanted to learn?
How to weld. ha
I seriously always have.
So many cool things to make with steel pieces bonded together.
You?
I *HEART* MOTHER TERESA’S WISDOM PIECE
All are spot on and timeless and a make ya think read.
OLD SCHOOL GOULASH RECIPE
Nothing new – but, seriously, when’s the last time it crossed your mind to make for suppertime?
Taking a tiny bit of extra time to make the popovers – will be well worth it. Dynamic Duo stuff!
TRACY BECKERMAN’S RAVIOLI COLUMN
Once again scores a touchdown with her slice-of-life humor.
I can so relate!
WE ARE GRATEFUL
For spending a piece of your Wednesday with us + sharing + engaging!
CATCH YA FRIDAY
Same time
Same place
ENJOY THE READ!
POP QUIZ
- IN THE BRAIN, BROCA’S AREA IS MAINLY ASSOCIATED WITH WHAT PHYSICAL FUNCTION?
a) Balance
b) Hearing
c) Sight
d) Speech - WHICH ARCHITECT DESIGNED THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME IN CLEVELAND AND THE PYRAMID-SHAPED EXPANSION OF THE LOUVRE IN PARIS?
a) Frank Gehry
b) Zaha Hadid
c) Richard Meier
d) I.M. Pei - ON A SAILING SHIP, WHAT ARE A CUNNINGHAM, A SHEET AND A HALYARD?
a) Lines (or ropes)
b) Navigational devices
c) Rescue equipment
d) Sails
QUICK QUESTION
WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU’VE ALWAYS
WANTED TO LEARN HOW TO DO?
POP QUIZ ANSWERS
- In the brain, Broca’s area is mainly associated with speech.
- I.M. Pei designed the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the pyramid-shaped expansion of the Louvre in Paris.
- On a sailing ship, a cunningham, a sheet and a halyard are ropes, or, more properly, lines.
~ COPYRIGHT 2024 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
THOUGHTS OF MOTHER TERESA
- The Most Beautiful Day:
Today - The Easiest Thing:
Equivocate - The Biggest Obstacle:
Fear - The Gravest Error:
To Give up, to Despair - The Root of All Evils:
Egoism - The Most Beautiful Occupation:
Work - The Worst Route to Follow:
Faintheartedness - The Best Teachers:
Children - The First Necessity
To Communicate - The Greatest Happiness:
To Be Useful to Others - The Greatest Mystery:
Death - The Worst Defect:
Bad Temper - The Most Dangerous Being:
The Liar - The Most Wretched Feeling:
The Grudge - The Most Beautiful Gift:
Forgiveness - The Most Indispensable:
HOME - The Quickest Way:
The correct one
- The Most Comfortable Feeling:
Inner Peace
- The Most Powerful Weapon:
The Smile - The Best Remedy:
Optimism - The Greatest Satisfaction:
The Duty Done
- The Most Powerful Force:
Faith - The Most Needed Beings:
Parents
- The Most Beautiful of All:
Love
~ Poetic Expressions.co.uk
reprinted with permission
Thanks Mike and the Team!
VISION IS THE ABILITY TO
SEE THINGS INVISIBLE.~ JONATHAN SWIFT ~
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED:
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH —
LAUGH
RIDDLE ME THIS
WHAT HAS EARS BUT
CANNOT HEAR?
OLD SCHOOL GOULASH
This recipe is tried and true and chilly weather comfort food five star suppertime delish.
Adults and children have loved goulash (the name is so much fun to say) as long as I can recall.
We enjoyed it around our home throughout our childhood numerous times when the snow was falling outside and there was a bite of cold in the air. Mom served it with popovers ** recipe for popovers here **.
HERE’S HOW WE MAKE GOULASH
INGREDIENTS:
- 3 TBSP vegetable oil
- 2 cups small diced white onion
- 1 green bell pepper, small diced
- 1 red bell pepper, small diced
- 2 pounds ground beef (80/20)
- 1 TBSP garlic, minced
- 2 x 15 ounce cans tomato sauce
- 2 x 15 ounce cans crushed tomatoes
- 3 cups beef stock or broth
- 3 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 TBSP Italian seasoning
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
NOW:
IN A LARGE SOUP POT WITH A LID
- Saute onions and peppers in vegetable oil
- Add ground beef
- Break up ground beef with a wooden spoon and brown until cooked through – drain off any fat
- Stir in cans of tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes
- Stir in beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning, bay leaves, dry elbow macaroni
- Bring to a boil and cook about 5 minutes, stirring frequently
- Reduce heat to medium – so mixture is at a light boil
- Loosely cover with pot lid
- Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender/al dente
TURN OFF HEAT
Remove Bay leaves
Gently stir in cheddar cheese
LADLE INTO SERVING BOWLS
And enjoy with popovers or chunks of favorite fresh artisan bread
RIDDLE ANSWER
A CORNFIELD
LOST IN SUBURBIA
THAT’S THE WAY THE RAVIOLI ROLLS
BY TRACY BECKERMAN
“Hi! Would you like to try a delicious, gluten-free, dairy-free ravioli?” asked a woman standing behind a small table in the pasta section of the grocery store. The table was set with a dozen small cups that each contained one ravioli. She raised one of the cups and thrust it at me with a fork. The ravioli looked innocuous enough, and I had skipped lunch to go grocery shopping, so I was hungry. But I paused before accepting the offering. I had been on the receiving end of grocery story samples before, and they had typically never been a good experience.
“Sure,” I finally said, thinking it was just one ravioli; how bad could it be?
I took the cup and popped the ravioli in my mouth.
Two seconds into chewing I realized I had made a terrible mistake. The ravioli tasted like a soggy sock. Not that I had ever eaten a sock before but it’s what I imagined a sock would taste like. My dog, of course, loves socks, which often makes me wonder, when I found him glomming on one that he stole from the laundry basket, if I was, in fact, missing out on something by by not eating a sock. But since the dog also eats rocks and slugs, I don’t think he’s a very good barometer of things that taste good.
I looked around to see if there was a way I could extricate the ravioli from my mouth without calling attention to it and insulting the ravioli lady. There were napkins on the table. Next to the table, there was a small garbage can with the remains of the ravioli cups and some wadded-up napkins. I wondered how many of those wadded-up napkins contained the remains of other people’s ravioli who had come before me and decided, like me, that the ravioli tasted like a soggy sock and was not something they wanted to ingest.
The ravioli lady looked at me expectantly.
She held up another cup and smiled. “Would you like another?”
I couldn’t answer because the ravioli was still in my mouth, and I realized I was going to have to do something drastic.
I swallowed it.
I immediately realized I should have spit it into a napkin and thrown it out instead, but I was concerned about hurting the ravioli lady’s feelings. I’m not sure why I worried about that. I was pretty sure she didn’t make the ravioli herself or hold stock in the ravioli. I assumed it was just her job for the day to hand out samples of ravioli and entice people to buy the product. But then again, maybe she volunteered for the job because she liked to make people happy with free food. If that were the case, however, maybe, I should let her know that she might make people happier if she gave out samples of chocolate instead.
The lady held out another cup of ravioli for me, clearly mistaking my grimace for pleasure.
“Would you like one more?” she repeated. “We have plenty.”
I shook my head as politely as I could.
“Thank you, no,” I said as I began to move away from the table. “I’m full.”
~ Tracy Beckerman is the author of the Amazon Bestseller, “Barking at the Moon: A Story of Life, Love, and Kibble.
COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM
Fascinating Stuff
+ When Mary Whiton Calkins earned her doctorate in psychology from Harvard in 1894, the university refused to award it. Even though her work had been supervised by a Harvard professor, Harvard didn’t admit women as students. Instead, she was offered a degree from Radcliffe, Harvard’s “sister school.” She declined that offer. Nevertheless, by 1903, she was an eminent psychologist, and in 1905 she became the first woman to be president of the American president of the American Psychological Association.
+ The first woman to legally vote in the Unites States was Lydia Chapin Taft of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, who cast her ballot Oct. 30, 1756. That was 164 years before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed American women the right to vote — and 32 years before the Constitution itself was ratified. The ballot issue was whether to allocate town funds toward the French and Indian War. As the widow of the town’s biggest landowner (and therefore its biggest taxpayer), Mrs. Taft represented the family. She voted to support the troops.
+ If you’re a fan of guitar rock, you’ve probably heard people refer to an electric guitar as an axe. But the first use of “axe” as slang for a musical instrument was by jazz musicians in reference to a saxophone — maybe because “axe” sounds like “sax.” Then it was applied to a trumpet. Later it made its way into the rock music world.
+ November’s birthstone is topaz, which folk wisdom credits with bringing prosperity and popularity, enhancing physical strength, counteracting magic spells, alleviating anger and madness, controlling wild animals and even making a person invisible. Most topaz is a golden sherry color. Gemologists can change the stone’s natural color — from gold to pink or colorless to blue — by exposing it to heat or radiation.
+ The regional office of the National Fisheries Development Board in Hyderabad, India, is housed in a building shaped like a fish. Opened in 2012, the plump, tubular fish building has landed on a handful of “bad architecture” lists, but locally it’s a landmark that people seem to like.
~ COPYRIGHT 2024 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
Daymaker’s art illustrations continue to thrill me and of course the personal touch brought to us by Cheryl.
So you ask, “What have I always wanted to learn?” That’s easy, I’ve always wanted a better understanding of electricity and how to repair simple things like replacing the wobbly hardware from overuse of plug in activity in the kitchen or bathroom. One might say I’m curious and find a nice challenge to my mind in observing mechanical things.
Have a nice day!
Indeed, welding is a great skill to have and also a great art. I also would like to master it
Mother Teresa’s wisdom is spot on.
The cool temps we’ve been experiencing beg for a good, nourishing goulash and your recipe is a must try. Soon!
Ahhh!
I love goulash it looks so yummy as a cozy comfort meal this fall ! Tracy has some of the best funny reads😄 thanks for another great blog
Goulash!!! Yes! Amazing Artwork!