Aaarrrgh Begarrrrr

Shiver me timbers.  Swab the poop deck, matey, piracy is back.  We’ve got our letters of marquee declaring the government backs our actions so hoist sail and hunt the prey.  Grab your fan blades, prime the file cabinets for firing while we hunt.  Arrrrgh…somebody shut that damn parrot up.

Script boy!

‘Time for a rewrite, this scene just isn’t working.’  There is an old saying that the pen is mightier than the sword.  There is something even mightier, the eraser.  Or, in this age, White Out.  (It is called that because paper is white and ink comes in many colors but that’s another rant).  We are seeing a movement today aimed at rewriting history on many levels.  Modern history by portraying the actions of the previous administration as glorious and noble, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.  And early American history so that the founding fathers who, almost to a man, were pretty much secular humanists according to the existing historical records which include reams of personal writings from all of them become staunch supporters of modern day Christianists.

Right of Passage

Yes, the wrong spelling but with malice aforethought.  While there are many rites of passage in many societies, all designed to signal the passage from childhood to adulthood, most are symbolic gestures to remind the participant it is time to put away the toys and move on to become a responsible, productive member of society.  This generally includes such things as accepting responsibilities, performing actions that are not just for personal gratification and realizing the individual is not the center of the universe.  But there is more to it.  It is one of trick questions that inevitably bite one in the keister.  One has the right of passage, you can grow up and stop being a self-centered, spoiled child except with that right also comes the duty of growing up.

Requiem

in pacem. Rest in Peace. Forgive my Catholic upbringing but I truly wish this to our country. We have outlived ourselves. Our country was born in an era where personal freedoms, beyond religious concepts, were the base. The founding fathers had no love for any religion and tried to establish this country on a secular basis. They came from a background where they realized that the Christian religion was so segmented that there was no basis for forming a government on it. They tried to establish a secular government, based on ideals that all men were created equal and that for a government to survive, it needed to be founded on the ideal that people were people. Bless their pea picking little hearts, they thought that succeeding generations would catch on to the idea.

Jambalaya

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter or olive oil

1 cup onions-chopped

1 cup celery-chopped

2 tbsp garlic-minced

2 cups green pepper-chopped

———–

1 cup diced pork

1 chicken breast-cubed

4 oz chopped ham

1 Andouille or Polish sausage-diced

(½ lb raw shrimp)

———–

2 bay leaves

2 tsp oregano

2 tsp basil

2 tsp thyme

2 tsp fresh ground pepper

½ tsp cumin

? Hot sauce

4 Roma tomatoes-chopped

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

16 oz chicken broth

2 cups rice

Potato Pancakes

4 Russet potatoes, peeled

1 onion, quartered

Put these through a grinder, not a food processor.  I picked one up for about $10.

1 egg

1 tsp sugar

1/4-1/3 cup Bisquick or flour

Milk (as needed)

Mix potatoes, onions, egg and sugar in a large bowl.  Add either flour or Bisquick in small amounts to suck up the potato juice and make a batter.  If you get carried away, add milk.  Actually, the best result is a mix of the two on about 2 parts flour to one part milk.

Heat a skillet or pan (medium heat).  I prefer a cast iron with a smidge of oil.  Pancakes should be added with a 1/4 to 1/3 cup.  Cook like regular pancakes flipping when the center is bubbly and the bottom browned.   The edges should get nice and crispy.  (Sorry about the first crack)

Use applesauce, yogurt or jam.  A touch of syrup, real maple is tastier.

WTF?

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBSSunday  Morning Commentary.  (Response follows the crap)

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.  I don’t feel threatened.  I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me.  I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.  In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu .  If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

Mole de Olla

2 lbs meat-cubed. (I like to split mine ½ beef, ½ pork. Buffalo and venison are also options)

¼ cup flour

2 tbsp cooking oil

3 cups beef stock

¼ cup snipped parsley

3 Jalapeno peppers-seeded and minced

2 Poblano peppers-seeded and chopped

8-10 diced Roma tomatoes

1 large onion-chopped

2 cloves garlic-chopped

2 tbsp sesame seed

1/8 -1/4 tsp cumin

2 zucchini or summer squash-chopped

3-4 small red potatoes-cubed

2 ears fresh corn-cut into 1” slices

Shake cubed meat in paper bag with flour and salt and pepper. Brown in dutch oven with oil. Do in two batches. Combine browned meat, stock and parsley and simmer 1 1/2 hours.

In blender place diced tomatoes, onions, garlic, sesame seed and cumin, blend until smooth. Add to pot along with the veggies and taters. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Hint, with the long cook time, don’t waste a high priced cut of meat here. Two hours of slow cook will make a boot tasty.

Just Maybe

I have a very bad feeling about all this. It is like watching one of those cheezy horror flicks where you are screaming at the idiot…”Don’t open that door!” Anyone with even a little sense knows that the monster is just waiting on the other side.

Pico de Gallo

“The Beak of the Rooster” as translated from the Spanish

6 Roma Tomatoes-diced

½ cup Vidalia onion-diced

3 jalapeno peppers-diced & seeded

1 ½ tsp garlic minced

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 tsp chopped fresh oregano

3 fresh limes

Combine first six ingredients. Add the juice of the limes. Salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate in tightly closed container, overnight is best.

There are many variations of this fresh salsa. Any citrus juice will work. For an interesting fruity salsa use orange juice with diced mango, canteloupe, honeydew, apple and pear.