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MUNDANE MYSTERIES: The Difference Between Herbs & Spices

*MUNDANE MYSTERIES is brought to you by Airtron Heating & Air Conditioning!

We all know of that one particular brand of chicken made with its “famous blend of 11 herbs & spices”. But, have you ever stopped to think not what those exact herbs & spices are, but what herbs & spices exactly are?

Herbs & spices have a lot in common. Both should have dinner guests begging for the recipe after they reach for their 2nd & 3rd helpings of each dish on the table. But, herbs & spices can also completely change your mind about Brussels sprouts, broccoli, or other not-as-widely-loved veggies (y’know…the ones we’ve all hated since we were kids).

While herbs & spices both come from plants, they don’t all come from the same parts of plants. Herbs are the leaves of a plant (think parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, etc.). Spice, however, is any seasoning harvested from any other part of the plant (roots, bark, seeds, rhizomes, bulbs, buds, and others). Some spicy examples: Cinnamon sticks are really bits of Cinnamon Tree bark, while Cloves are dried flower buds from the Clove Tree.

Some plants can be both an herb and a spice, which can make things a bit complicated when it comes to naming those products. The leaves of the Coriandrum sativum plant are known as cilantro, which is definitely an herb. But, we call the seeds of the same plant coriander, which is a spice. However, cilantro & coriander are both common names for the whole plant (since “cilantro” is really just the Spanish word for coriander). Dill is another example: dill weed refers to dill leaves (an herb), while Dill Seed (which is actually not a seed, but the tiny, brown fruit of the dill plant) is a spice.

If you find yourself talking about herbs with a botanist instead of a chef, however, they won’t refer to just the leaves of the plant as an herb. Botanically speaking, herbs are whole plants with no wooden parts like trees & bushes. But, let’s hope you’re cooking with a chef, and not a botanist, to at least keep things as simple (and delicious) as possible.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].

{Katie’s Kitchen} Easy Shrimp Scampi

Brought to you by Catoctin Mountain Orchard.

I was looking for something to make the other night for dinner and realized I had most of the ingredients for shrimp scampi. My version is dairy free, too, which was exciting to me!

I used a 1lb of peeled frozen large shrimp and defrost them in cold water. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Then, I cooked my angel hair pasta according to the box. You can use any kind of pasta you like for this recipe. Set aside.

In a large pan, add olive oil, butter (optional)- I used vegan butter, minced garlic and red pepper flakes (optional)- saute for a few minutes.

Add shrimp to the pan, sprinkle with italian seasoning mix. Add 1/4 cup of chicken broth (if you have white wine, you can substitute this.) Then, add lemon juice. Let juices reduce a bit.

Add in your pasta and toss with sauce and shrimp, sprinkle parsley on top. Add salt to taste.

Add parmesan on top…DONE!

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup ,Shrimp,small size,cleaned,deveined
  • 1 Tbsp,Olive Oil
  • 6 Cloves,Garlic,chopped
  • Salt,as needed
  • 1/2 tsp,Black Pepper Powder
  • 1/2 Pack of Italian Seasoning Mix
  • 1 Tbsp,Parsley,fresh
  • 1/2 Cup,Parmesan,grated/powdered
  • 1/4 Cup,Chicken Stock
  • 4 oz, Linguine/Angel Hair Pasta
  • 3 Tbsp,Butter (optional)
  • 1 Tbsp,Lemon Juice

 

 

{Katie’s Baby Blog} Halloween Recap

We had a great Halloween! We did our little trunk-or-treat party and froze our butts off, but it was so much fun!!!

My little Abby Cadabby loved trick or treating, but made me carry her from car to car to get candy. Once she got the idea that she was getting things by stopping at each car, she wanted down so she could grab the candy herself!

Now Mommy and Daddy have a lot of candy to snack on 😉

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Do You Really Swallow 8 Spiders Per Year In Your Sleep?

No one…literally no one…wants to even think about this. But it’s been a pervasive statement for as long as I can remember.
Luckily, that “fact” you may have heard about people swallowing 8 spiders in their sleep each year…it ain’t true. Not even close, really, as it genuinely flies in the face of the biology of both spiders & humans. So, it’s highly unlikely a spider would ever even end up in your mouth to begin with.

There are 3 or 4 spider species that live in most North American homes, and you’re likely to find them either tending to their webs or hunting in non-humany areas. When they are out & about, they usually don’t intentionally crawl into your bed. Why? Because it doesn’t usually have any prey for them (unless it has bed bugs, in which case…you have a bigger problem to worry about). Spiders also have no interest in humans; they look at us like they would a big rock, because we’re so large to them. We’re really just part of the landscape.

More than anything, spiders probably find snoozing humans terrifying. A slumbering person breathes, has a beating heart, and likely snores, which are all things that create vibrations warning spiders of danger. So, a spider would not intentionally approach a sleeping person.

The myth also seems ridiculous from a human biology standpoint. If someone sleeps with their mouth open, they’re probably snoring, which would scare off any 8-legged interlopers. Plus, most folks would, more than likely, get woken up by the sensation of a spider crawling on their face, even more so their mouth.

Spider experts do admit that a sleeping person could plausibly swallow a spider, but it would be a strictly random event. But, people who claim to have swallowed spiders never seem to have any concrete evidence (since most humans race to flush spiders down the toilet whenever they have the chance). Nor are there ever any eyewitnesses for such a frequent event as 8 spiders a year would be. So, even if you heard or read that 8-spider-per-year statistic from what you’d consider a trustworthy source (y’know, like your fishing buddy or a Snapple cap), you can rest assured that it doesn’t have a leg to stand on…or 8 legs, as the case may be.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Is A Leg Cramp Called A “Charley Horse”?

Ever experienced a Charley Horse, the painful leg muscle spasm or cramp? If you have, then you know they can hurt like nobody’s business! And, once the pain subsided, you probably found yourself asking, “Who’s this Charley fella & why’s his horse hurting my leg?

Healthline.com says that leg cramps are “generally treatable at home” through stretching, massaging, or icing the affected area, though the associated muscle pain can hang around for possibly another day or so. But, as far as the name “Charley Horse” goes, we have baseball to thank for that term. Its etymology isn’t 100% certain, but archived newspaper articles from the time suggest that it was coined by a baseball player in the 1880s. However, which player or why they said it, we’ll likely never really know.

“Charley Horse” was a phrase well-known to baseball players around 1887, but not the average Joe. Though it was mentioned in a bunch of newspapers across the US during that time, almost every one of the mentioning publications had a different account of the term’s origin.

The most likely version revolves around John Wesley “Jack” Glasscock, a shortstop for Indianapolis, who’d strained a thigh tendon during a game & went home to his family farm afterward. His father, who’d been looking after a lame old horse called “Charley”, saw his son limping along & reportedly said, “Why, John, my boy, what’s the matter…you go just like the old Charley horse?” John allegedly shared the funny phrase with teammates, and it spread from there.

Some said it had nothing to do with a live animal, but instead that, while running, an injured player resembles a rocking horse or a kid riding a wooden hobby horse.

Another theory had some players going to the races & betting on a horse named Charley who “pulled up lame in the final stretch”. The next day, when a player pulled a tendon, he was said to resemble “our old Charlie horse.”

It could also relate to the old workhorses that pulled rollers across the infield. Often in the 1800s, old workhorses kept on the grounds of ballparks were called Charley. So, the movements of injured, stiff-legged ballplayers were likened to the plodding old horses, with the injury itself becoming known as a “charley” or “charley horse”.

So there you have it. While we may never know the exact origin of the charley horse, at least the next time you get a sharp pain in your leg you’ll be able to thank an old-timey baseball player for making your affliction sound ridiculous.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Can You Vote From Space?

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins officially voted earlier this week from a makeshift booth aboard the International Space Station. As cool as it might’ve been for her to have had her ballot zoomed back to Earth by a tiny rocket, it was actually much more boring than that…it basically got sent to her county clerk digitally as a PDF.

According to NASA, you can vote from space! It begins the same way as voting anywhere else here on Earth. Astronauts are like military members & other American citizens living overseas: they have to first submit a Federal Postcard Application to request an absentee ballot. Once they’re approved, astronauts can blast off knowing their ballot will be right behind them.

The astronaut’s county clerk completes a practice round with folks at the Johnson Space Center in Houston before starting the actual voting process. The astronaut receives 2 electronic documents: a password-protected ballot sent by mission control, and a password email sent by their county clerk. The astronaut then fills out their ballot & “downlinks” it back to Space Center attendants via satellite signal, who forward it to the county clerk. Since a password’s required to open the ballot, that clerk is the only other person who sees the astronaut’s votes. They then copy them onto a regular paper ballot & submit them with all the rest.

When Americans first started visiting space more than 50 years, those early trips weren’t really long enough to have to worry about voting while in orbit. But, in 1996, astronaut John Blaha missed out on voting in the general election because his spaceflight to Russia’s Mir space station happened in September, before absentee voters received their ballots. He didn’t return until January 1997, so he wasn’t able to vote. So, NASA officials collaborated with Texas government leaders to pass a law allowing astronauts to cast their ballots from space. In the Fall of 1997, David Wolf became the first astronaut to submit his vote from a space station. The law is specific to Texas, since most active astronauts reside there, but NASA says the process can be done from other states if need be.

We have it a lot easier, so there’s no excuse not to get out & vote on Tuesday!

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: When Does A President’s Term Actually End?

Most people are vaguely aware that U.S. presidents take over the office at some point in January (the 20th, to be precise). But, did you know that it’s actually illegal for an outgoing president to continue serving after January 20th? Per law, a presidential term must be exactly 4 years long, down to the hour. Since the 20th Amendment took effect, there have been 3 times where January 20th fell on a Sunday. In those cases, the presidents took their oaths of office in private ceremonies on the 20th, before a public inauguration was held on the 21st.

That 4-year term limit’s been a part of the Constitution since the beginning. But, January 20th wasn’t always the official start/end date, it used to be March 4th up until 1933. The Constitution had been adopted in June 1788, and the U.S. Congress didn’t begin until March 4th, 1789, and George Washington wasn’t sworn in as our first president until April 30th. But, as of Washington’s 2nd term, the official presidential Inauguration Day was moved up to March 4th.

Fast forward to the early 20th century, and America was starting to have problems with how long it was taking for officials to actually start their job after winning election. Congressional delegates, who were elected in November, didn’t start their first session until the following December…a full 13 months later! Then, their 2nd session, which started the December after that, was only allowed to last until their terms ended on March 4th. So, in the 1930’s, Congress passed the 20th Amendment, which ordered congressional terms to begin & end on January 3rd, around 2 months after the election. Oh, and the president’s inauguration day also got shifted to January, as well (the 20th, to be precise).

The 20th Amendment also laid out what had to happen if a president wasn’t chosen by January 20th. The sitting president wouldn’t just stay in office by default; Congress either has to appoint someone to serve in the interim, or choose another way of selecting someone. Then, that person would serve until a President or Vice president qualified. But, that’s never happened before, so we don’t really know just how that might all play out.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].

{Katie’s Kitchen} Halloween Spider Cookies

Brought to you by Caoctin Mountain Orchard.

Need an easy treat to take to a Halloween party, last minute?! Here you go…

I grabbed a package of break apart peanut butter cookies from Reeses and baked them according to the package.

Right out of the oven, I placed cold (out of the freezer) Reeses Cups upside down on top in the middle of the cookie while they were still hot.

Then, you could either use melted chocolate (chocolate chips) or icing, like I did, and put a little on the back of your candy eyes and place on top (or sides) of your Reeses cups. Next, add your spider legs! Again, you can use melted chocolate and put it in a baggie and cut a small hole from the corner to pipe the legs onto the cookies….or you can use a tube of icing.

Place them in the refrigerator for a few minutes to set and you’re done!

INGREDIENTS:

-Peanut butter cookies (homemade or pull apart)

-Reeses cups (25-30 count)

-melted chocolate chips/ icing

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