Archive for October, 2011
Halloween Superstitions
- On Halloween, a girl can divine the name of her future husband by paring an apple and tossing the peel over her shoulder. The peel will fall into the shape of the man’s initials.
- If a girl stands in front of a mirror in a darkened room holding a candle, the face she sees in the reflection over her shoulder will be the face of her future husband.
- Black cats were originally thought to protect witches’ power from negative forces.
- To keep spirits away from your house, place a bowl of food outside to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.
- Light a candle to guide your loved one home from the spirit world
- Ringing a bell scares away evil spirits.
- If you see a spider on Halloween night, it could be the spirit of a loved one watching you.
- To meet a witch on Halloween night, put your clothes on inside out and walk backwards.
- Do not look at your shadow in the moonlight. Doing so on All Hallows Eve will guarantee a death in the near future.
- If you see a ghost, walk around it nine times, and it will disappear.
- If you hear 3 knocks and no one is there, it usually means someone close to you has died. This is called the 3 knocks of death.
- If you kill a black cat on Halloween, you will have 7 years of bad luck.
- If you hold your breath while you drive by a cemetery, evil spirits can’t enter your body.
- If a black cat meows on your porch or near a window, a death will soon occur in the family.
- When bobbing for apples, it is believed that the first person to bite an apple would be the first to marry.
- If you go to a crossroads at Halloween and listen to the wind, you will learn all the most important things that will befall you during the next twelve months.
- If a person lights a new orange colored candle at midnight on Halloween and lets it burn until sunrise, he or she will be the recipient of good luck.
- A burning candle inside a jack-o-lantern on Halloween keeps evil spirits and demons at bay.
- If a candle flame suddenly turns blue, there’s a ghost nearby.
- Walk around your home three times backwards and counterclockwise before sunset on Halloween to ward off evil spirits.
- Girls placed hazel nuts along the front of the firegrate, each one to symbolize one of her suitors. She could then find out who her future husband would be by chanting, ‘If you love me, pop and fly; if you hate me, burn and die.’ The nut that popped out of the fire instead of burning up when she named her suitor would indicate her future husband.
- Gazing into a flame of a candle on Halloween night will enable you to peer into the future.
Halloween Decorations
Decorating your home for Halloween can be as simple or complex as you like. In recent years, companies have created strings of lights that you can hang outside your home like Christmas lights, but in the orange of Halloween. Inflatable yard decorations depicting Jack-o-Lanterns, black cats, and spooky ghosts are another quick and easy way to dress up your yard for the holiday. Carving pumpkins is both a fun Halloween activity and a traditional means of decorating. The flickering glow of Jack-o-Lanterns in the night is always a spooky sight.
If you would like to put more effort into really scaring trick-or-treaters and party guests, design your decorations around a theme. Scary graveyard and haunted house are two of the most popular themes. For a graveyard, buy premade fake tombstones at your local party store or make your own by cutting out and spray painting Styrofoam. Add skeletal remains, open coffins, ghosts and dark spirits hanging from the trees. If you really want to splurge, a fog machine will create fantastic atmosphere, and glowing colored lights placed on the ground will seem eerie in the mist.
The trick to creating a good haunted house is to make it look long abandoned. Spiderwebs, fake bugs and bats, and tattered curtains fluttering in the wind work very well. You can add to this with flickering black candles in the windows, torn wallpaper, old paintings or photographs of people who are obviously long dead—the possibilities are endless. There are dozens of premade items for sale that make decorating on this theme quick and easy, but you can also do it yourself by creating spiderwebs from torn cheesecloth and using baking flour to create fake dust.
Of course, there are many other decorating themes if you use your imagination. A vampire’s lair, witch’s castle, or mad scientist’s laboratory are some other traditional Halloween themes, but why not go for something more unique? Given the current popularity of the Zombie Apocalypse scenario, you could go wild creating a post-apocalyptic look that would thrill trick-or-treaters. No matter what theme you choose, the important thing is to be creative!
Halloween Costumes
Trends in Halloween costumes change every year—after all, no one wants to be seen in the same costume they wore last year. However, costumes always fall into one of several categories:
Cute
The cute costumes are usually for infants and younger children, and are often similar from year to year. Most costumes for very young children dress them up as an adorable animal like a monkey, bunny, or dinosaur. There are also miniature versions of costumes for older children, which can range from devils and angels to witches and pirates, or whatever else is popular for older kids that year.
Silly
Funny costumes are for all ages, kids and adults both. Many silly costumes are foods or other inanimate objects, and there are also sets that go together for couples, like Fork & Knife or Ketchup & Mustard. Many costumes in this category are a play on words, like A Chick Magnet being someone dressed as an actual magnet with rubber ducks attached to it. The possibilities are endless, and this is a great way to show off your creativity.
Scary
By far the most popular category, scary costumes play on the long tradition of Halloween superstitions and ghost stories. Old stand-bys like vampire, witch, werewolf, and mummy remain prevalent each year, but every year also sees new ideas that push the envelope of what is frightening. Masks, makeup, and costumes are becoming more and more realistic so that it is very easy to come up with a hideous persona that will startle your friends and neighbors.
Sexy
Sexy costumes for women have become very popular in the last decade. Many of these play on traditional sexy characters, like French maid and belly dancer, while others take characters from movies and children’s TV shows and create a more flirtatious version of their outfits. Stick Rainbow Brite in a short skirt and stockings or modify Lara Croft’s costume just a little, and you’ve got the perfect sexy costume.
Pop Culture
This category is the most ephemeral of all, for it shifts with every trend. Costumes can portray currently popular entertainers like Lady Gaga, political figures, characters from recently released movies, or play on a trend like the vampire craze started by Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. For Halloween 2011, the Zombie Apocalypse will be a huge trend, popularized in books, graphic novels, movies, and TV shows like The Walking Dead. Many boys may want to dress as Thor or Captain America this year. Steampunk continues to flourish in a smaller portion of the populace, and is an excellent choice for creative and detailed costuming.
Paneer Cheese and Its Health Benefits!
Paneer, also called Indian cheese, can be produced from the milk of sheep, goats, cows, and other mammals. It is prepared by heating raw whole milk and then adding food acid (usually lemon juice, vinegar, or citric acid) to it to separate the curds from the whey. When the milk coagulates, the curds are drained and the excess liquid is pressed out. It is similar to Ricotta cheese except that it is in block form. The resulting paneer is dipped in chilled water for 2–3 hours to give it a good texture and appearance.
From this point, the preparation of paneer in India diverges based on its use and regional variation. In most cuisines, the curds are wrapped in cloth and placed under a heavy weight, such as a stone slab, for 2 to 3 hours and then cut into cubes for use in curries. Pressing for a shorter time (approximately 20 minutes) results in a softer, fluffier cheese.
In Eastern Indian and Bangladeshi cuisines, the curds are beaten or kneaded by hand into a dough-like consistency. In these regions, it is distinguished from ponir, a salty semi-hard cheese with a sharper flavor and high salt content. Hard ponir is typically eaten in slices at teatime with biscuits or various types of bread, or deep-fried in a light batter. In the area surrounding the Gujarati city of Surat, surti paneer is made by draining the curds and ripening them in whey for 12 to 36 hours.
Health Benefits
Paneer, prepared by the most simple method, has many health benefits and it is good to know about them. Indian cheese is a treasure of good nutritional elements. It is easy to digest and can be used in a number of preparations. It is used in most Indian homes. Paneer can be used in sweets, savories, and in gravies of dishes too.
Indian cheese is a rich source of calcium. This helps in building strong teeth and bones. Paneer has the health benefit of helping to prevent osteoporosis, which is a curse of old age. Women who have attained menopause and men above the age of 65 should make it a rule to include such foods in their diet to get 25% of calcium through food.
Paneer eaten in moderation could help reduce weight. It is good to note that many people who wish to lose weight include Indian cheese in their daily diet.
Paneer also gives the health benefits of reducing the development of Insulin Resistance Syndrome. Hence, it is all about tackling the problem of insulin-dependent diabetes.
Including paneer in one’s daily diet helps to give the health benefit of providing the protein required by the body for growth and renewal.
It is, however, also interesting to note that Indian culture believes that paneer cheese provides protection against cancer. Equally interesting is Indian culture states that this cheese helps prevent stomach disorders in people as they grow older. One thing that health practitioners can agree on is that paneer is a storehouse of calcium, which has the benefit of making bones stronger and helping prevent brittle bones as we age. Since it promotes strong bones, paneer also helps to prevent and reduce back and joint problems.
To conclude, anyone who has realized the health benefits of paneer should make it a rule to include this delightful cheese in their diet. The ways in which Indian cheese can be used are many and varied and most people would enjoy the taste and flavor also. We definitely enjoy cooking with paneer here at Mountain Valley View Farm, Inc. and the Getaway Studio.
Please note that Mountain Valley View Farm, Inc. is working very hard to become a licensed WSDA Grade A Dairy! We are currently following all their guidelines to produce safe goat milk and goat milk products. We are following the law here at Mountain Valley View Farm, Inc. and we will not sell any goat milk until our WSDA license is finalized and approved. In the meantime, we are making and testing various cheese recipes for our family. When our license is finalized we will know exactly which is the best recipe to sell to our customers.
Please pre-order Paneer Cheese from Mountain Valley View Farm, Inc.
We will not sell any cheese until we officially receive our WSDA Grade A Dairy license. Until then, we are keeping a waiting list of all future customers so we can also evaluate the volume of cheese we will need to plan for once we have our license.
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Mountain Valley View Farm, Inc.
Your Source for Northwest Farm Fresh Foods Shipped Worldwide
4301 South Chapman Road
Greenacres, Washington 99016-8732 USA
Phone (509) 928-1800 | Fax (509) 922-9949
Email: sales@mountainvalleyviewfarm.com
Website: www.mountainvalleyviewfarm.com
Online Store: www.mountainvalleyviewfarmstore.com
Blog with us at www.mountainvalleyviewfarmblog.com
Mountain Valley View Farm Hours:
Monday – Saturday
8:00 a.m. – Noon; 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. (Pacific Time)
Closed Noon – 1:00 p.m.
Other farm hours by advance appointment only.
Please call (509) 928-1800 to schedule an appointment.
Getaway Studio Dining Room
& Bed and Breakfast
Phone (509) 928-8900
Directions to Mountain Valley View Farm, Inc.
From I-90 East or West
Take the Sullivan Exit (291B) – South for about 3 miles
Turn left on Saltese (east), and continue straight for .5 mile
Turn right on South Chapman Road (south), and proceed .9 mile
The farm will be on the left-hand side of the road – 4301 South Chapman Road
Fun Facts About Halloween
- Halloween is one of the oldest celebrations in the world, dating back over 2000 years to the time of the Celts, who celebrated it as Samhain
- When the Roman Empire came to Britain, they combined two of their festivals with Samhain: Feralia, which commemorated the passing of the dead; and the festival of Pomona, goddess of fruit and trees.
- Pomona’s symbol was an apple, and it is believed that the tradition of bobbing from apples derives from Roman festivities.
- Several centuries later, the spread of Christianity to the British Isles further changed the old Celtic holiday by blending it with All Saints Day and All Souls Day, which took place at the same time of year as Samhain and was celebrated in much the same way, with bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as devils, angels, and saints.
- All Saints was also called All-hallows, and the night before it All Hallow’s Eve—the traditional night of Samhain. Over the centuries, All Hallow’s Eve gradually became known as Halloween.
- The celebration of Halloween was not widespread in America at first due to the strict religious beliefs of the colonists. Instead, festivities marked the harvest and the coming of autumn, and were celebrated by dancing and telling ghost stories.
- Trick-or-treating originally began as an Irish tradition in which people who dress up in costumes and go door to door asking for food or money. This tradition came to America in the mid 1800’s with the flood of Irish immigrants into the country.
- Halloween parties started during the Victorian era, when people began to move away from the more superstitious and religious overtones of the holiday. By the 1920’s, the holiday was entirely secular.
- Today, Halloween is the second largest commercial holiday in America.
Come back tomorrow for some great ideas for Halloween costumes!
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