Apple Cheese Torte

1 cup butter

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

8 ounces cream cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

5 to 6 medium yellow delicious apples

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream butter and 2/3 cup sugar.  Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and flour.  Blend well.  Press mixture into bottom and three-fourths of the way up the side of an 8- or 9-inch springform pan.

Beat cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and egg until smooth.  Pour over crust.

Peel, core and thin slice apples.  Combine with 1/3 cup sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice.  Mix well.  Pour apple mixture over top of cheese mixture and sprinkle with sliced almonds.  Using spoon, push crust down on sides until even with apples.  Bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees, then for 25 minutes at 400 degrees.  Serve warm or refrigerated.  Store in refrigerator.  Serves eight.

When I leave an open bag of chewy cookies on the counter overnight, they are crunchy in the morning.  But when I leave crunchy cookies out, they get chewy in the morning.  Why don't all cookies wind up either one way or the other?

The cookie paradox can be explained this way:  Soft cookies have a higher moisture content and more liquid (vs. crystallized) sugars.  When left out, the cookies lose moisture, and the sugars crystallize, causing hardness.  By contrast, hard cookies have less moisture and fewer liquid sugars.  When left out, these cookies absorb moisture and get soft.  So, with time, all cookies wind up somewhere in the middle:  stale.

What single country supplies the United States with the most oil?

Canada, and I'll bet you're surprised!  For the seventh year in a row, it has been the largest supplier of crude oil and oil products to the United States.

Are You Average?

Number of greeting cards purchased annually, per household:  35

Gallons of milk one person drinks annually:  22

Number of times a fridge door is opened each day:  38

Pounds of food one person eats in a year:  185(meat & poultry)  684(fruits & vegetables)

Monthly telephone charges, per household:  $80

Times one person blinks in a year:  3,700,000

Length of a shower:  10 minutes & 24 seconds

Number of dates a person goes on before getting married:  100

Which one of the following does not belong with the others:  binoculars, eyeglasses, goggles, handlebars, jeans, pliers, scissors, shoes, tweezers?

Shoes are the only "pair" that actually has two separate pieces.

I read that a koala bear is the size of a gummy bear when it is born.  Is this true?

Yes!  Right after birth, he heads straight for his mother's pouch, where he stays in hiding for a few months.  And when the baby "bear" first peeks out at the world, he's still only 4 to 5 inches long.  Actually, koalas are marsupials.  So are kangaroos, which are the size of a jelly bean at birth!  And here's a weird bit of trivia you may want to share with your friends:  Wombat dung is shaped like cubes!