Welcome to the July Edition of "Whats Cooking" Cooking on a Shoelace Newsletter                                 According to the Gregorian calendar, July is the seventh month. On the Roman calendar, it was the fifth month and it was called 'Quintilis', menaing 'fifth'. Julius Ceasar gave the month 31 days in 46 B.C. The Roman Senate named it 'Julius', in honor of Caesar. July is usually the hottest month of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. July is one of the winter months in the Southern Hemisphere. The climate is mild in most of the Southern Hemisphere, with the exception of the COLD Antarctica, and the cold,rainy part of South America. During July, when there isn't much rain, the grass often loses it's greenness. Some flowers are abundant in July, because they thrive on the heat. Also, insects are abundant as well - life is thriving in July! Independence Day is observed in the United States on July 4th.On that day in 1776,the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence...                   July Gem---Ruby                  July Flower--Water Lily                   July Tree----Hawthorne                                                               Water Lily    ____________________________________________                                                                          1_`A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction. 2. Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. 3. Most of the relationships fail because of love, not the absence of love but because one loves too much and the other loves too many!! 4. In fact I am quite snappy and irritable, and I don't know if I'd like to make myself worse in that respect. 5. Committee--a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done. 6. The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us. 7. I think, therefore I'm single. 8. Friday is really FRYday 9. Show me a good loser and I will show you an idiot.. To Exercise or Not Exercise 1. It is well documented that for every mile that you jog, you add oneminute to your life. This enables you, at age 85, to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $5,000 per month. 2. My grandmother started walking 5 miles a day when she was 60. She is now 97 and we don't know where the hell she is. 3. The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again. 4. I joined a health club last year, spent about $400. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to show up. 5. I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I am doing. 6. I don't exercise at all. If God meant us to touch our toes, he would have put them further up our body. 7. I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. 8. I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them. 9. The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier. 10. If you are going to try cross country skiing, start with a small country                         _______________________________________________________   Happy  July 4th As with many holidays, the 4th of July celebration includes food, drink and the realization of how fortunate we are as a nation. As of 1999, 66 million Americans said they had taken part in a barbeque during the previous year and 32 million in a picnic. It's probably safe to assume a good number of these events took place on the Fourth. Though we do not have a fixed menu for the celebration of the Fourth, you can almost count on traditional favorites, such as hamburgers and hot dogs, chicken, ribs, garden salads, potato salad, chips and watermelon. Following is a summary of where these foods are produced: * The beef on your backyard grill could have come from Texas. It was the leading state in the production of cattle and calves, accounting for 7.5 billion lbs. of the nation's total production of 42.8 billion lbs. in 2000. * Your hot dogs and ribs may have originated in Iowa. The Hawkeye State had a total inventory of 14.9 million hogs and pigs as of March 1, 2002 -- about one-fourth of the nation's total. * The chicken on your barbecue grill may have come from one of the top six broiler-producing states: Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama, North Carolina, Mississippi and Texas. The value of production in each of these states exceeded $1 billion in 2001. These states combined for well over half of the nation's broiler production. * The lettuce in your salad or on your hamburger probably was grown in California, which accounted for nearly three-quarters of the value of this product in 2001. * The fresh tomatoes in your salad or the ketchup on your hamburger or hot dog most likely come from Florida or California, which combined for nearly two-thirds of U.S. tomato production in 2001. * Your side dish of baked beans or pork and beans may very well come from North Dakota or Nebraska, which, combined, produced nearly half of the dry, edible beans in 2001. * As to the potatoes in your products such as potato salad or those used in making your potato chips, Idaho and Washington combined for one-half of potato production in 2001. * For dessert, some mouth-watering watermelon might really hit the spot. Five states -- California, Florida, Georgia, Texas and Arizona -- combined for almost three-quarters of the crop. __________________________________________________________ Motivational Thoughts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. Albert Einstein -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity. General Douglas MacArthur -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison   _____________________________________________________-   What's Cooking Index" Page 2: Group News Page 3: Mouthwatering Recipes and Tips for summer