Greek Pasta and Beef
From Taste of Home

This delightfully different casserole gives everyday macaroni and cheese an international flavor. A co-worker who’s a pro at Greek cooking shared the recipe years ago. It brings raves whenever I serve it. -Dorothy Bateman, Carver, Massachusetts

INGREDIENTS

1 package (16 ounces) elbow macaroni

1 pound ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

SAUCE:

1 cup butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

SERVINGS 12

CATEGORY Main Dish

METHOD Baked

PREP 30 min.

COOK 45 min.

TOTAL 75 min.

DIRECTIONS

Cook macaroni according to package directions. In a large skillet, cook beef, onion and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the tomato sauce, water and seasonings. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain macaroni.
In a large bowl, combine the macaroni, egg and Parmesan cheese; set aside. For sauce, in a large saucepan, melt butter; stir in flour and cinnamon until smooth. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat. Stir a small amount to hot mixture into eggs; return all to pan, stirring constantly. Stir in cheese.
In a greased 3-qt. baking dish, spread half of the macaroni mixture. Top with beef mixture and remaining macaroni mixture. Pour sauce over the top. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until bubbly and heated through. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Yield: 12 servings.

Le Printemps
par Théophile Gautier

Regardez les branches
Comme elles sont blanches,
Il neige des fleurs.

Riant de la pluie
Le soleil essuie
les saules en pleurs.

Et le ciel reflète
Dans la violette
Ses pures couleurs…

La mouche ouvre l’aile
Et la demoiselle
Aux prunelles d’or,
Au corset de guêpe
Dépliant son crêpe,
A repris l’essor.

L’eau gaiement babille,
Le goujon frétille
Un printemps encore !

Translated by Monique and Mamalisa…

Springtime
By Théophile Gautier

Look at the boughs,
How white they are,
It’s snowing flowers!

Scoffing at the rain,
The sun dries
The weepy willow.

And the sky reflects
In the violets
Its pure colors…

The fly opens its wings
And the dragonfly
With the golden pupils,
And the wasp-like corset,
Unfolding its silky wings,
Has resumed its flight.

The water happily babbles,
The tiny fish wriggles
It’s Springtime again!

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A STONE AGE MAN

It was a warm spring morning on the tenth of May; it was five forty five in the morning and the date was 4050 BC. I first awoke from my small mat on the floor and took off my animal hide rug and had a breakfast consisting of barley beer and bread. This was made of five hundred grams of barley flour, five hundred grams of stone ground wheat flour, one tablespoon of salt and two hundred and fifty grams of butter and beer. To mix you had too mix the flours and salts together and rub in the butter, add enough beer to make a soft dough and shape into small cakes, cook on a hot stone until firm this makes a very light bread. The small community that we had wanted to start early on laying the crops as we left it a bit late last year and duly suffered in the winter. It was also our last year on this site as the ground is becoming infertile and we shall have to move next spring. There was much to do and every one had their own jobs. I had the menial task of preparing the ground, which had suffered a beating over the winter months.

After loosening some of the soil and removing weeds from the surrounding area it was time for a short well earned break. “ If I do not say so my self”, I said as I settled down on a rock and spoke about the forthcoming months to my neighbours and how they will be crucial to the move which will be made. I ate a little more of my barley beer bread wanting to save as much as I could because food was scarce at the moment.

Continuing on with my work, which was hard manual labour, many of my fellow workers suffered from terrible arthritis as well as back problems and malnutrition, which hampered everyone’s energy levels. We all worked late in to the evening with the dying sun bearing down on us. It was soon time to finish. With the lack of light it turned into an impossible task.

Back at home I meet the wife who had been preparing dinner and cleaning our one roomed house. With no children it was lonely, as all the rest of the community normally have many children by my age of twenty-six. With people normally living to the ripe age of thirty-five for men and thirty for women we looked destined never to bear children. Our house was dull and dark made out of dried mud bricks with the mortar made from a mixture of lime and clay. The roof was supported by internal timber frames stretching across the main roof span. The roof itself was made out of thickly layered clay. Later in the year the wife will cook and prepare food on top of the roof, which reduces the smoke in the house, which makes it become very claustrophobic. The only way the smoke can escape is through the ladder hole in the centre of the house. Plaster surrounds the inner walls with an initial thick layer and a thinner layer applied afterwards. This is repeated through out the year.   

Samuel J Moase

Author:

Michael Yin, MD

New York

Presbyterian

Hospital

- Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons

Medically Reviewed On: March 31, 2006

What is an orgasm?

Orgasm is an emotional and physical experience that occurs during a normal sexual response cycle. During this cycle, pleasure peaks and is then accompanied by a sense of release from sexual tension. During orgasm, both men and women experience involuntary, rhythmic contractions of the pelvic muscles. The mind senses these contractions as pleasurable, but the intensity of these sensations differs from person to person. Each orgasm can also differ in intensity from one time to the next for the same person. For example, an orgasm could feel like warm, gentle throbbing in the genital area one night, and then tomorrow it could feel like an explosion that causes the whole body to become rigid and the mind to momentarily black out.

The four phases of sexual response are as follows: Arousal, Plateau, Orgasm, and Resolution. Arousal, or feeling "turned on," is a combination of mental arousal and physical changes, such as a racing heart, rapid breathing, flushing, increased sensitivity in the genital area, erection of the penis, and swelling and lubrication of the vagina. During the plateau phase, sexual and muscular tension intensifies. During orgasm, sexual pleasure peaks and sexual tension is released. The fourth stage is resolution, during which there is a gradual return of the body to its baseline state accompanied by a sense of warmth, pleasure, and relaxation. After orgasm and ejaculation, most males are unable to have another orgasm for a period of time. This refractory period depends on age (younger men can need only minutes to fully "recover" and older men may need an hour or more) and differs widely between men.

What is the difference between a male and female orgasm?

The most obvious difference in orgasms is that male orgasms are usually accompanied by the ejaculation of semen. Ejaculation involves the secretion of semen into the urethra (urinary tube) and a rhythmic contraction of pelvic muscles that forces the semen out of the urethra. In males, however, orgasms can occur with or without ejaculation. When men have orgasms without ejaculation, the pelvic muscles contract and you feel like you’re having an orgasm, but the semen is prevented from being secreted into the urethra. Less commonly, the semen is pushed backward into the bladder during orgasm and appears as milky fluid that comes out during urination after sex. This is called retrograde ejaculation and happens occasionally when men try to prevent ejaculation during orgasm and is usually not a sign of a disorder. However, retrograde ejaculation does happen more frequently in people with diabetes or after surgery, causing damage to the nerves around the penis.

A man who is driving a car is stopped by a police officer.

> The Officer: "You were going at least 75 in a 55 zone."
> Man: "No sir, I was going 60."
> Wife: "Oh, Harry. You were going 80."
>
> Officer: "I’m also going to give you a ticket for your broken tail light."
> Man: "Broken tail light? I didn’t know about a broken tail light!"
> Wife: "Oh Harry, you’ve known about that tail light for weeks."
>
> Officer: "I’m also going to give you a citation for not wearing your seat belt."
> Man: "Oh, I just took it off when you were walking up to the car."
> Wife: "Oh, Harry, you never wear your seat belt."
>
> Man turns to his wife and yells: "Shut your damn mouth!"
> Officer turns to the woman and asks, "Ma’am, does your husband talk to you this way all the time?"
> Wife: "No, only when he’s drunk."

A Woman’s 3 Wishes

Three women were out golfing one day and one of them hit her ball into the woods. She went into the woods to look for it and found a frog in a trap. The frog said to her, "If you release me from this trap, I will grant you three wishes."

The frog then inquired about her third wish, and she answered,
"I’d like a mild heart attack."

Boobs & Willies

A family was sitting around the supper table. The son asked his father, "Dad, how many kinds of breasts are there? The father surprised, answered,” Well, son, there are three kinds of breasts. In her twenties, a woman’s breasts are like melons, round and firm. In her thirties to forties, they have looked like pears, still nice but hanging a bit. After fifty, they are like onions."

"Onions?"

“Yes, see them and they’ll make you cry."

This infuriated the wife and daughter, so the daughter said: "Mum, how many kinds of willies are there?" The mother, surprised, smiled and looked at her daughter and answered, "Well, dear, a man goes through three phases. In a man’s twenties, his Willy is like an oak tree, mighty and hard. In his thirties and forties, it is like a birch, flexible but reliable. After his fifties, it is like a Christmas tree.

“A Christmas tree?"

"Yes, of course, dead from the root up and the balls are for decoration only."

"Ooo… what’s a pity…. Only decoration, Dad?"

HAVE A NICE TIME !!!

"Extrinsic motivation is motivation to engage in an activity as a means to an end. Individuals who are extrinsically motivated work on tasks because they believe that participation will result in desirable outcomes such as a reward, teacher praise, or avoidance of punishment." –Paul R Pintrich & Dale H. Schunk, Motivation in Education 

"One thing I have learned as I visit schools and talk to teachers is that most teachers prefer to use outer motivational resources. Many teachers hold pessimistic attitudes about the utility or even the wisdom of motivating students via inner motivational resources. There is something there that teachers simply do not trust. Behind this mistrust I hear three reasons. First, some teachers actually do not want a theory of motivation; rather they want a theory of performance. …Second, many teachers prefer to take a short-term, moment-to-moment approach to motivation instead of a longer term developmental approach…. Third, teachers find motivation via inner motivational resources to be suspicious because it does not correspond to how others motivate them."  –Johnmarshall Reeve, Motivating Others