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Lasagne

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Lasagne

Is the lasagne making your mouth water?

  • Lasagne is a type of pasta-based dish typically made using a mixture of layered pasta and sauces, and is generally served hot as the primary component of a main meal.
  • ‘Lasagne’ is technically the plural term for ‘lasagna’, although both terms are not always used grammatically correctly.
  • The ingredients of lasagne commonly include meat, cheese, vegetables, and pasta, and the dish typically includes a tomato based sauce.
  • Lasagne possibly has its origins in Ancient Greece and Rome, as a flat bread, although the Italians in Naples are believed to have first produced the modern style dish in the medieval period.
  • Classic Italian versions of lasagne generally consist of the traditional sauces, béchamel – a white sauce, and ragù – a meat and vegetable sauce, along with Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano).
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Lasagna
Image courtesy of Elin B/Flickr
  • Large sheets of rectangular shaped pasta, that are generally flat or sometimes corrugated, are most commonly used in the making of lasagne.
  • The term ‘lasagne’ is thought to have originated from either the Latin or Greek languages, most likely from the words ‘lasanum’ or ‘laganon’, the former meaning ‘pot’ in Latin, while the latter meaning ‘cut strips of pasta’ in Greek.
  • Lasagne is typically made by layering sheets of pasta between layers of cooked sauce; topped with grated cheese; and then baked in an oven.
  • The first recipe book to feature a modern lasagna recipe, believed to have been written by an Italian and named the Liber de Coquina, ‘the book of cookery’, was published in the 1300s.
  • The meat sauce used in lasagne often contains minced beef or other ground meat, although vegetarian versions are not uncommon, with layers of vegetables used as a meat sauce substitute.
Bibliography:
A Brief History of Lasagna, n.d, Pagliacci, http://www.pagliacci.com/blog/news/post/a-brief-history-of-lasagna
History of Lasagna, n.d, Jamie Oliver Blogs, http://www.jamieoliver.com/bloggers/viewtopic.php?id=79027#lEs8WDkwD4Uz1Mb2.97
Lasagne, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasagne

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Cookie Cutter

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Cookie Cutter

Cookie cutters are sweet additions to your kitchen.

  • Cookie cutters are somewhat sharp objects used in food preparation to easily cut an edible item into a specific shape.
  • Most often cookie cutters are used to cut cookie dough, although they can be used to shape bread, cake, vegetables, fruit and fondant icing, although this can depend on the material the cutter is made from.
  • ‘Cookie cutters’ are also known as ‘biscuit cutters’; while moulds, rather than cutters, were used from 2000 BC for shaping dough, and these were used by Ancient Egyptians.
  • Cookie cutters are most often used to make batches of shaped cookies that are to be consistent in shape and size, and are commonly utilised for special occasions or seasons, such as parties or Christmas celebrations.
  • Materials typically used to make cookie cutters include plastic, or a metal such as tin, stainless steel, aluminium or copper.

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  • Cookie cutters are generally used by pressing the cutter into a food, which typically cuts, but may also imprint, designs.
  • Before use, cookie cutters are often coated thinly with flour or oil to prevent them sticking to the food to be cut.
  • Cookie cutters are said to have originated as early as the 15th century, although as a result of the rise of shaped gingerbread cookies in the 17th century in Europe, there was an increase in demand for an easy way to shape the biscuit or cookie, making cutters more popular.
  • Cookie cutters come in numerous shapes and sizes, ranging from basic shapes like circles, to popular shapes like gingerbread men, and more intricate shapes like detailed snowflake designs.
  • Cookie cutters are popularly collected and clubs exist for enthusiasts, while some museums are dedicated to historical cutter collections.
Bibliography:
Audet M, Collecting Antique and Vintage Cookie Cutters, 2013, HubPages, http://hubpages.com/hub/Collecting-Vintage-Cookie-Cutters
Cookie Cutter, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_cutter
Cookie Cutter History, n.d, Karen’s Cookies, http://www.karenscookies.net/Cookie-Cutter-History_ep_136-1.html

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CN Tower

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CN Tower

The CN Tower is quite a flabbergasting architectural achievement.

  • The CN Tower is a very tall structure built for media reception and communications, and it houses restaurants – one of which revolves, a theatre and a shop, and also features a number of observation decks.
  • Erected in Canada’s Ontario, in North America, the CN Tower was built in the middle of a disused train shunting yard, in the Railway Lands of Toronto, at a cost that totalled $63 million Canadian Dollars, and it has become a popular tourist attraction.
  • The ‘CN Tower’ is also known as the ‘Canadian National Tower’, ‘Canada’s National Tower’ and ‘Tour CN’, the latter in French; and ‘CN’ stands for ‘Canadian National’, the company who initially owned the tower.
  • The CN Tower has a central hexagonal column that has three large supports at the base, with an antenna spire at the top, and totals 553.33 metres (1,815.4 feet) in height, and has 147 floors.
  • The concept of the CN Tower was first proposed in 1968 by the Canadian National railway, who were the original owners of the tower and had the structure built, although it was not until early 1973 that construction commenced.

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CN Tower
Image courtesy of elPadawan/Flickr
  • When officially opened on 1 October, 1976, the CN Tower was the tallest tower and the tallest freestanding structure in the world; and it held these positions for more than three decades, while in 2014, it ranked third and sixth respectively.
  • The total concrete volume used to construct the CN Tower was around 40,500 cubic metres (52,972 cubic yards), and the concrete was all made at the construction site.
  • Before the use of LED lights, that were installed in 2007 and are controlled in Ontario’s Burlington, the CN Tower used the original incandescent lights until around 1997, and discontinued the use of them due to expensive running and repair costs.
  • Ice can form on the CN Tower, which can prove hazardous in winds, as the ice can fall away from the tower and smash glass and damage objects, including cars.
  • The CN Tower attracts lightning due to its height, and in one year, it is hit by lightning around 75 times; and to protect against this, pieces of copper run from the top of the tower to the base and are used to direct the electrical energy into the ground.
Bibliography:
CN Tower, 2012, World Federation of Great Towers, http://www.great-towers.com/towers/cn-tower/
CN Tower, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower
CN Tower, n.d, Canada Lands Tower, http://www.cntower.ca/site_Files/Content/PDF/Facts_at_a_Glance_2013.pdf

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Falcon

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Falcon

Falcons are not like all the rest, but they are faster!

  • Falcons are birds of prey found all around the world excluding Antarctica, and the genus contains more than 35 species.
  • A falcon has the scientific name Falco and it is from the family Falconidae, the family of birds of prey that includes said birds and caracaras.
  • Falcons typically are 22 to 40 centimetres (9 to 16 inches) in height and have a wingspan of between 51 to 110 centimetres (20 to 43 inches) across and weigh between 0.7 to 1.2 kilograms (1.5 to 2.6 pounds).
  • The feathers of falcons are generally a combination of colours that vary between species, that can include black, white, grey, and brown, many of which have various patterned markings; and sometimes the area around the eyes, beak or feet are coloured yellow.
  • The eyesight of falcons is extremely powerful, and they are able to see roughly 2.6 times better than humans.
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Peregrine Falcon
Image courtesy of Frankzed/Flickr
  • A falcon’s diet, depending on the species, can consist of birds, bats, insects, reptiles and smaller mammals, such as rodents and rabbits.
  • Falcons have tapered wings that allow the bird to reach speeds that are faster than all extant animals, at 322 kilometres per hour (200 miles per hour).
  • Female falcons lay eggs in high, elevated locations, that are difficult for predators to reach, and around three eggs are laid over one period.
  • Normally, birds of prey would kill using their feet claws, however this is not the case with falcons, as they use their sharp beak and the extra point or ‘tooth’ that they have on the side of it.
  • Falcons generally live by themselves in areas where there are cliffs, mountains or places that have significant height; and some species are endangered, vulnerable or near threatened.
Bibliography:
Flacon, 2013, A-Z Animals, http://a-z-animals.com/animals/falcon/
Falcon, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon

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Chicken Nugget

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Chicken Nugget

Chicken nuggets are a favourite, but are they really made of chicken?

  • Chicken nuggets are a poultry-based food, that are generally small pieces of crumbed covered meat, and are eaten as a snack or part of a main meal.
  • Chicken nuggets are typically pieces of processed or ground chicken, or chicken breast meat, and the crumbed batter is often made of breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes or similar, or a wheat flour mixture.
  • The inventor of the chicken nugget was Robert C Baker, a professor of Cornell University, qualified in food science, who published the recipe in an academic paper in the early 1960s.
  • The cooking process of chicken nuggets generally involves deep frying, pan frying, or baking in an oven, while deep frying is more common in fast-food settings.
  • Chicken nuggets have been highly popularised in takeaway restaurants, especially the symbolic Chicken McNuggets of McDonalds, and the first nuggets to be sold by McDonalds was in 1980.

Chicken Nugget, Food, Homemade, Crispy, Delicious, Hot, Ten Random Facts, Pile, Savour, Food, Culinary

Chicken Nuggets
Image courtesy of Andrea Parrish – Geyer/Flickr
  • To cater for vegetarians, some chicken nuggets are made without meat but instead use bean or vegetable substitutes.
  • Empire Kosher Poultry, a chicken producer in the United States, set the world record in 2013 for making and cooking the largest chicken nugget, which was almost a metre (3.3 feet) in length and weighed 23.2 kilograms (51.1 pounds).
  • Chicken nuggets are commonly bite sized or slightly larger, and are generally coloured yellow to brown on the exterior, and they are sometimes served with a sauce, of which a variety of flavours are used.
  • Traditionally, chicken nuggets are crude cylindrical shapes of meat, although they can be made into specific shapes, and they often have a slightly bumpy appearance.
  • Originally, the meat of many commercial chicken nuggets was said to be ‘mechanically separated meat’, a processed paste that uses scraps from chicken carcasses, although many companies now make their nuggets from chicken breast meat, or other ‘white’ chicken meat.
Bibliography:
Chicken Nugget, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_nugget
McKenna M, The Father of the Chicken Nugget, 2012, Slate, http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2012/12/robert_c_baker_the_man_who_invented_chicken_nuggets.html
What’s Really in that Chicken Nugget?, 2012, National Chicken Council, http://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/whats-in-those-chicken-nuggets/

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Beehive

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Beehive

Beehives house busy bees.

  • Artificial beehives are an invention used for raising and managing honey bees, that use the hive as a shelter.
  • Cells, shaped as hexagons, form honeycomb that can be found in a beehive, and this is used by bees to store pollen and honey, and care for the young.
  • Beehives are typically used to attract bees so that they can produce honey for commercial or domestic purposes; to attract them for plant pollination purposes; to support bees in areas where habitat destruction has occurred; or to attract bees for the production of bee products.
  • Ancient Egyptians are said to have raised bees in constructed hives, from as early as 2400 BC, and archaeological evidence of hives used in large-scale beekeeping, has been found in Israel’s Jordan Valley, in the Middle East, that dates back to the 9th and 10th centuries.
  • Traditionally, humans used natural materials to create beehives, like mud, tree hollows, clay and straw, while the latter was often used to make basket-like skeps, although many of these hives were used once only, due to the difficulty of accessing the honey, which often resulted in significant disturbance or death of bees, and/or honeycomb destruction during the harvesting process.

Beehive, Invention, Bee, Honey, Farm, Cultivating, Modern, Box, Ten Random Facts

  • Many ideas for more practical beehives surfaced around the 1700s, although it was not until the 1850s that American clergyman Lorenzo Langstroth, also an apiarist and noted for his significant contribution to the beekeeping industry, invented the now famous beehive that had movable frames; a design on which most modern hives are based upon.
  • If a beehive is to be approached, smoke is usually puffed into the hive to disguise the emissions of chemicals that bees release to alert danger, thus keeping the bees calm.
  • Modern beehives are generally reused for many years, and often feature removable frames, that contain and protect the honeycomb, and are easily removed for inspection and for harvesting honey.
  • Before the use of modern beehives, corridors were sometimes built within hives to direct the queen bee’s egg laying habits and discourage her from using the honey harvesting areas.
  • A new form of beehive, known as the ‘Flow Hive’, enables the user to extract honey direct from the hive without removing the especially designed frames, and it was released to the public in early 2015 via a crowd-funding initiative with huge success, raising $12 million dollars during its initial release, and is set to be popular among backyard beekeepers, due to its convenient honey harvesting method.
Bibliography:
American Beekeeping History, n.d, John’s Beekeeping Notebook, http://outdoorplace.org/beekeeping/history1.htm
Beehives, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive

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