The Genius Way to Make Instant Gravy Taste as Good as Homemade

Let’s say you’ve set a gorgeous holiday table, transferred everyone’s favorite dishes onto elegant platters, lit the candles, crossed your t’s and dotted your i’s, but you forgot to make gravy. Deep in the recesses of your pantry, you find a gravy packet. With time running out, it’s a no-brainer — but will people notice that you cut corners? There’s no reason why gravy shouldn’t taste homemade, even if it came from an instant packet. There’s one simple ingredient swap that will save the day. Just follow the directions on the packet, but instead of using tap water as directed, use vegetable, chicken, or beef stock. If you don’t have any stock, just whisk flavored bouillon into tap water to create a flavorful broth substitute. In no time at all, you’ll have a rich, flavorful gravy. If you’re feeling adventurous and have a few extra minutes, don’t stop at broth alone. Use ingredients you probably have on hand from cooking and prepping. Whisk butter to the pan drippings and mix that with your gravy mixture for a cohesive flavor that ties the whole meal together.

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Boy's Unique Genetic Disorder Caused Kidney to Grow in His Leg

Hamish Robinson (above, age 10), from Manchester, England, is believed to be the only person on the planet who's missing a chromosome named 7p22. It’s a condition that has no name, so physicians refer to it simply as the “Hamish syndrome.” The condition resulted in a structural malformation that left a fully functioning kidney at the top of his right thigh. His other kidney is in the correct location and functions normally. Doctors say having an ectopic kidney — when an organ is not in the right place — is extremely rare, occurring in about 1 in every 900 people. First diagnosed when he was 17 months, Hamish is now 17 years old. Despite the medical issue he’s had to deal with his whole life, Hamish refuses to let his complex medical needs hold him back. He participates in trampoline, ice skating, and martial arts, and one day hopes to have a career working with dogs. 

 

 

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The “Grandpa Gang” — Guilty of the Biggest Burglary in English History

In a plot three years in the making, three men broke into the vault of the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit building in London’s jewelry district during a long Easter holiday weekend. They entered an elevator shaft and climbed down to the vault, where they used heavy equipment to drill through a thick concrete wall. Initially thwarted, they returned the following day and ransacked 73 deposit boxes, stealing jewels, gold and cash worth £14 million ($20 million). Only about a third of that has ever been recovered, including some that was hidden under headstones in a London graveyard. Because most of the perpetrators were senior citizens, they were dubbed the “Grandpa Gang." Brian Reader (76) actually rode a bus to the crime scene using a senior citizen free travel pass. Other gang members included John Collins (75), Terry Perkins (67), Daniel Jones (58), William Lincoln (60), Carl Wood (58), and Hugh Doyle (48). Despite their old-school planning, the gang was tracked down by police using modern surveillance, CCTV, vehicle tracking, and hidden listening devices. Most of the members pleaded guilty and received 7-year prison sentences in 2016. The mastermind was an alarm specialist known only as “Basil.” He evaded capture for nearly three years before being identified as 58-year-old Michael John Seed, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

 

Top row: John Collins, Daniel Jones, Terry Perkins, Michael John Seed

Bottom row: Carl Wood, William Lincoln and Hugh Doyle

 

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If You See a Wild Turkey With Unusual Colors, Don’t Worry

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources happened to catch an unusually-colored turkey on a trail camera in Richland County. The photo shared on social media shows the mostly-white turkey with black and gray markings on its lower body. DNR officials say if you see a wild turkey sporting some unusual colors, don’t worry — it’s just a phase, specifically a color phase. The turkey in the photo is an example of a “smoke phase,” where the bird’s feathers lack the usual amount of brown and reg pigments, so the animal appears mostly white or light gray with dark gray and black markings. Other wild turkey color phases include erythristic, when the bird's feathers have an excess of the pigment pheomelanin and appear mostly rusty-red, and melanistic, when an excess of the pigment eumelanin makes the feathers appear almost entirely black. The department said turkeys with similar unusual coloration are sometimes mistakenly assumed to be hybrids of wild and domesticated turkeys, but all of these color mutations are natural variations that occur in completely wild populations.

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