How do clams reproduce?

Search: oysters bivalves procreate



Why: On reddit, Oyster eggs:

Answer: Bivalves (clams, cockles, mussels, oysters, scallops, etc.) reproduce by external fertilization!

Marine bivalves reproduce by releasing prodigious numbers of eggs and sperm into the water, where external fertilization occurs. The fertilized eggs then float in the surface plankton.



Within 48 hours after fertilization, the embryo develops into a minute, planktonic, trochophore larvae. This stage is followed by another larval form, the veliger, which settles to the seabed and transforms into an adult.



In freshwater bivalves, the eggs are retained in the gill chambers of the female, where they undergo fertilization and develop into a peculiar larval form, the glochidium.



Upon its release, the larva attaches to passing fish, and lives as an ectoparasite for several weeks before settling.

Oyster eggs are commonly sold as food for coral in saltwater aquariums.



Source: Science



The More You Know: But how do pearls form? First, anatomy:

Then (from HowStuffWorks):

As the oyster grows in size, its shell must also grow. The mantle is an organ that produces the oyster's shell, using minerals from the oyster's food. The material created by the mantle is called nacre. Nacre lines the inside of the shell.

­The formation of a natural pearl begins when a foreign substance slips into the oyster between the mantle and the shell, which irritate­s the mantle. It's kind of like the oyster getting a splinter. The oyster's natural reaction is to cover up that irritant to protect itself. The man­tle covers the irritant with layers of the same nacre substance that is used to create the shell. This eventually forms a pearl.

So a pearl is a foreign substance covered with layers of nacre. Most pearls that we see in jewelry stores are nicely rounded objects, which are the most valuable ones. Not all pearls turn out so well. Some pearls form in an uneven shape -- these are called baroque pearls. Pearls, as you've probably noticed, come in a variety of various colors, including white, black, gray, red, blue and green.

So basically, pearls are cysts that the oysters make to protect themselves from foreign objects. Some farmers even irritate their oysters on purpose to create "cultured pearls"!

Fun fact: Oysters are among the only frutti di mare that I don't eat.

How do you remove chewing gum from glass?

Search: gum off a window



Why: I had an accident. Man, that new Mentos gum sure is sticky.

Answer: There are 4 ways!

1. Use canned air. You can buy it at an office supply store to shoot dust and crumbs out of your keyboard. Blast some on the gum, and it should harden and pull right off.
2. Freeze it. Rub an ice cube along the gum, holding it in place until the gum freezes and the ice cube melts. The gum should come right off.
3. Zap it with bug and tar remover. Sold at auto supply stores, this stuff is designed to removed smushed bugs and tar.
   
   
4. Use official gum-remover like they do at movie theaters. You can buy it at an industrial cleaning supply store.
   
   

Source: eHow



The More You Know: Canned air comes out at -26 degrees Celsius / -14.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Here's a list of 101 Things to Do with It!

Fun wine labels

Alex and I had a few people over for wine and cheese last night, and, just as a twist, we made personal wine labels from Pinhole Press. I used a photo of Paris and the words, "Have a magical evening."

P.S. I'd also love to make this next time, haha :)

Candy bars

How many of these candy bars can you identify? (I can see Snickers and Payday, that's about it!) They look delicious.

(Via I'm Revolting, via TeenAngster)

What are Omega Fatty Acids supposed to do?

Search: omega fatty acids

Why: I went into Costco to get a lifetime supply of paper towels, and I came out with 180 of these.

Answer: Oh, lots. For example!:

• Build healthy cells!
• Boost the immune system!
  
• Maintain brain and nerve function!
• Lower the risk of heart disease! and stroke!
  
• Protect against type 2 diabetes! and Alzheimer's disease!
• Reduce symptoms of hypertension!, depression!, ADHD!, joint pain!, and some skin ailments!

High praise indeed! In fact, they are so important that they're called essential fatty acids. But here's the kicker! Our bodies can't produce them; we can only get them from food. So much for intelligent design.

Here's a secret: Saturated fats, which come mostly from animal sources, raise LDL, the form of cholesterol that clogs arteries. Unsaturated fats from vegetable oils, nuts, and fish can help lower cholesterol levels. To up your omegas and down your saturated fats, switch from butter to vegetable, olive, or canola oil. This is what the hell canola looks like, btw (it's genetically modified rapeseed, developed to resist herbicides):

Each canola seed is approximately 40% oil. According to this warrior:

Initially, the rapeseed plant was used to create oil for lubrication, particularly in World War II. After the war farmers were left to figure out what to do with their surplus. Rapeseed oil contains high levels of Erucic Acid which is toxic to humans, so scientists began to create, cross-breed, and use selective breeding to create a consumable oil. Originally called LEAR (low erucic acid rapeseed), someone thought about their brand image and changed it to Canola Oil. The name ‘canola’ was derived from ‘Canadian oil, low acid’ in 1978.

Source: WebMD (also this one)

The More You Know: Do you have any idea what cholesterol is? Me neither. Let's learn from KidsHealth:

Cholesterol is a type of fat found in your blood. Your liver makes cholesterol for your body, and you can get it from foods you eat.You need some cholesterol to help your brain, skin, and other organs grow and do their jobs in the body.

But eating too much of it is a bad idea, especially for people whose bodies already make too much cholesterol. It floats around in your blood and can get into the walls of the blood vessels and stay there. If you have too much cholesterol in your bloodstream, a lot can collect in the blood vessel walls, clog the blood vessels, and keep blood from moving freely the way it's supposed to. If the clogging gets worse over many years, it can cause damage to important body parts, like the heart (heart attack) and brain (stroke).

Two Types of Cholesterol

There are two main types of cholesterol: HDL and LDL. Most cholesterol is LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is more likely to clog blood vessels because it carries the cholesterol away from the liver into the bloodstream, where it can stick to the blood vessels. HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol, on the other hand, carries the cholesterol back to the liver where it is broken down.

Here's a way to remember the difference: the LDL cholesterol is the bad kind, so call it "lousy" cholesterol — "l" for lousy. The HDL is the good cholesterol, so remember it as "healthy" cholesterol — "h" for healthy.

I hope you wrote that down.

Pea pasta

We're going to make this pea pasta from Smitten Kitchen tonight. I'm embarrassingly excited! Deb is a genius with her simple, delicious recipes.

What are your favorite places to find good recipes? Cookbooks? Blogs?

Make your own cheese!

Claudia Lucero moved to Portland in search of slower, happier life. She started pickling vegetables and making cheese, and now she runs an etsy shop with DIY cheese kits! You can make the fresh cheeses in your kitchen in under an hour with just a gallon of milk.

I'd LOVE to try these, wouldn't you?

P.S. More on stinky cheeses...

PB&J bar

Oh my goodness, who wants a bite of this PB&J candy bar?!

P.S. Remember this...

What are Hunky Dorys?

Search: hunky dorys

Why: On Reddit, "Storage Conditions":

"Treat Hunky Dorys like Gremlins. Keep them cool, dry & away from bright lights."

Answer: Thick crinkle-cut "crisps" from Ireland! Available in 6 strong flavours.

Hunky Dorys is known for its fun, extrovert and cheeky nature with strong flavours, including the infamous Buffalo flavour, inspired by the herd of Buffalo based near the factory in Co. Meath.

Infamous!

Source: Largo Foods

The More You Know: But look at this racy ad campaign:

Is that how female rugby players really dress? Do girls even play rugby? (No; yes.)

What does "sushi" mean?

Search: sushi meaning

Why: On this CBS News list of "25 Genius Tumblrs You Should Be Following":

People Who

Blogger "Wireless G" admits to have started the People Who Tumblr out of anger. "I felt there were too many different sorts of people out there who had not been clearly identified, nor held to account for being themselves - people who post sideways photos, people who insist sushi means 'raw fish' in Japanese, people who make sure you're aware that they don't own a television," explains Wireless G.

It just so happened that I ate at a sushi place last night, except I did not have sushi. I had soup and crab and Asahi Supaa-doraiiii.

Answer: It means two things: When you're talking about the food, it means "seasoned rice," but literally, it's an archaic word that means "sour-tasting."

The vinegared rice is called shari. The other ingredients - usually fish or other seafood - are called neta.

(Dama means "ball.)

There are many different kinds of sushi that all have shari and neta:

• Makizushi, ""rolled sushi"
  
• Nigirizushi, "hand-formed sushi"
• Temaki, "hand rolls"
  

The kind like California rolls, with the rice outside and all that, are "Western style" and uncommon in Japan. They are still makizushi.

And sashimi is just sliced fish all by itself, no rice. I have never even seen someone get it at a restaurant.

And... starving.

Source: Essortment, AllWords, Kikkoman.com, Wikipedia

The More You Know:

French fries

French fries are irresistibly delicious, don't you think? Well, Chelsea just shared this recipe for making your own, and it looks super easy. You could give it a Belgian twist and serve them with mayonnaise!

(Photo by Lisa Warninger)

What is yerba maté?

Search: yerba mate

Why: We are trying to eat like cavemen, so I've been going to Whole Foods a lot and trying various expensive healthy-looking things. On the back of the Guayaki Yerba Mate $3 organic "Pure Mind" drink thing:

In 1996 after our co-founding Argentine partner passed us our first mate gourd, we immediately felt the balanced, nourishing and unparalleled energy.

In college, I had some Yerba Mate Latte All Night Samba tea that I skulled during all-nighters. I pictured the plant behind it to look like coffee beans, not like a gourd.

Answer: First, the yerba maté plant is a South American evergreen shrub related to holly. The fruit is a red drupe. (Do you know this word? Drupe? More importantly, do you know the word drupelet? Every little bubble on raspberry or blackberry is called a "drupelet." Impress your friends.) The leaves of the plant contain caffeine.

The drink maté (also chimarrão or cimarrón) is just the leaves of the yerba mate plant put inside a hollowed-out calabash gourd. You drink it with a silver straw.

And there are more modern versions that use modern materials. Progressive!

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: Speaking of Whole Foods / eating like cavemen, if you like to make homemade kale chips single every night (and why wouldn't you?), try these awesome things from Kaia.

They are crunchy as all get-out, super tasty, and sickeningly good for you.

Deep dish cookies

Ooooh, yes please.

(Thanks, Kathryn)

How can I make rock candy at home?

Search: make rock candy

Why: I don't know if I've mentioned this (I have), but we've been making our own sweet tea vodka at home because Firefly, while goddamn delicious, is also goddamn $20 a bottle. The only real ingredients are tea, vodka, and simple syrup. A few weeks ago, Chandler made some simple syrup on the stove, and then we abandoned our apartment to dogsit at his sister's house.

We've been back many times, of course - poor Maddie is there all alone. Just last night, I noticed that the simple syrup - still sitting on the stove - had hardened into a thick shell with some liquid underneath. (like this, kind of)

And now I have a hankering for rock candy. (I would eat what's in there, but it has pieces of basil in it from a different experiment, and possibly a few dead flies. Plus it's been sitting there for literally 3 whole weeks.)

Answer: Oh god, it's so easy! There is a nice photo tutorial here, but I will show you how simple it is first. All you need is:

• Water
• Granulated sugar
• Flavoring extract or oil (optional)
• Food coloring (optional)
• Glass jar
• Thread or skewer
  

And here is what you do:

1. Wet the thread or skewer and roll it in the sugar. This will give the sugar crystals something to "grab" when they start forming.

2. Make some simple syrup by dissolving sugar in boiling water.

3. Add coloring & flavors. (Sidenote: We just got a SodaStream - which is awesome - and I wonder if those flavor syrups would work with this. I WONDER.)

4. Fill the jar with the simple syrup.

5. Dangle the thread or skewer inside the surp (tie it to a pencil or pin it) so it hangs about an inch above the bottom of the jar. Don't let it touch the sides.

6. Put in a cool, dark place. Crystals should start to form in 4-6 hours. Allow to grow to the size you want; larger candy can take up to a week.

Or you can just get a kit. It looks like a really good garnish, either way.

Source: Candy.About.com

The More You Know: Wait, is everyone thinking about "hankering" now? What is the origin of the word "hankering"? Me too. To "hanker" means:

c.1600, of unknown origin, probably from Flemish hankeren, related to Du. hunkeren; perhaps an intensive of M.Du. hangen "to hang." If so, the notion is of "lingering about" with longing or craving.

Weird fruits

German artist Uli Westphal started noticing how lawfully enforced standards of agriculture made every lemon, lime and tomato look exactly the same. "The complete absence of botanical anomalies in our supermarkets has caused us to regard the consistency of produce there as natural," he wrote. So, he went to Berlin farmer's markets and photographed a dazzling array of fruits and vegetables, in an effort to document the "last survivors of biological variety." I had no idea!

(You can buy the print here.)

P.S. Have you ever seen Food, Inc.?