National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day

Five Food Finds about Almonds

• The protein in almonds is more like the proteins in human breast milk of all the seeds and nuts, which is why it is the choice of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine as the base for its baby formula.

• Almonds are the most nutrient-dense tree nut. One ounce of almonds (20-25 almonds) contains 160 calories and only 1 gram of saturated fat and no cholesterol.  Almonds are also an excellent source of vitamin E and magnesium, and a good source of protein and potassium.

• The Jordan almond is a large plump variety of almond from Malaga, Spain, considered to be the finest cultivated almond. The are frequently sold with a hard colored sugar coating, or salted.

• It takes 1000 pounds of almonds to make 1 pint of almond oil.

• The world’s largest almond factory is in Sacramento, California. It processes 2 million pounds of almonds a day.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1497 Vasco de Gama left Lisbon with four ships, to search for a sea route to India. He was the first European to sail there (notwithstanding Columbus’ valiant try), and he opened the area to Portuguese trade (and colonization).
(Pondering Point: Columbus sailed to America on his way to India. Wrong Way Corrigan flew to Scotland on his way to California).

1810 Gabriel Gustav Valentin was born. This German-Swiss physiologist was the first to discover the digestive activity of pancreatic juice. (Something I’ll bet you always wanted to know!).

1831 John Styth Pemberton was born. Pemberton was the pharmacist who invented Coca-Cola in 1885. (Pharmacists used to have a much more interesting life!)

1844 Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln was born. She was the author of the original Boston Cooking School Cook Book, before Fanny Farmer took it over.

1887 A riot breaks out at the saloonkeepers picnic in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1881 The Ice Cream Sundae was invented. Edward Berner of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, supposedly invented the Ice Cream Sundae, when he served a customer ice cream topped chocolate syrup (used to flavor ice cream sodas). It was a Sunday, and flavored soda water was not served on Sundays to respectable people.

1886 It rained snails in Cornwall, England. (Sounds like a description of a Monty Python skit). July is one of the best months for raining all sorts of living creatures.

1949 Wolfgang Puck was born. Chef, formerly of Spagos in Los Angeles.

1957 William Cadbury, chocolatier died at age 89.

1989 ‘Good Thing’ by Fine Young Cannibals is #1 on the charts