Tuesday Quickies

A tax break I can get behind and not only because I have two dogs.  Shai Shai saved mom's life many years ago.  She didn't do anything special, she gave mom something to believe in and care for after finding the body of a friend of hers.  Both my dogs lower my blood pressure and give me high quality love and affection.  In addition to reducing the blood pressure of their owners, dogs also require exercise and they enjoy etting it with their owners.  This helps owners lose weight because while it may take three weeks for exercise to become a habit for humans, for dogs it's about three days.  Cats are great too, I just find it impossible to breathe around them.

Booman, while Obama was a slightly better choice than the McCain/Palin ticket that doesn't make him the best president and when he consistently behaves the way I predicted he would, I reserve the right to point that out.  He is Bush lite and that isn't good for the country.  I'm happy he got the Nobel and I understand the committee's reasoning, but that doesn't make him the be all and end all.   Obama's latest volley at the people who supported him and naively expected he was going to help them instead of himself doesn't surprise me in the least.  If he wants us to be sycophants, he has another think coming.

I enjoy Dollhouse.  A lot.  Yeah you have to think and pay attention, but as much as I enjoy the alphabet shows I occasionally want a little more.  I find the supporting players and the premise on Dollhouse to be intensely interesting as well as thought provoking.  Watching Enver Gjokaj's portrayal of the character Kiki last week was absolutely brilliant and eminently believable.  And Topher?  My favorite.  As Boyd (Harry Lennix, the guy most likely to portray Obama in a future movie) points out, when Topher has ethical problems you know you're in trouble.

Here's hoping that Christian Slater doesn't become the new Eric Balfour (another one bites the dust, I like him but his track record sucks) of primetime television.  I enjoyed My Own Worst Enemy and was sad to see it go, but The Forgotten is a rehash of Cold Case except without the music.  Hopefully the characters will develop and the show might get a full season.

Orly, Orly, Orly.  You need a good psychiatrist.  And medication.  Lots of medication.  Something heavy duty like lithium to help ground you and bring you back to some semblance of reality.

Saturday night has been pizza night lately and it's been a lot of fun.  I make my own sauce, I vary the toppings and mom gobbles it up.  It's raining today so I think I'll make some homemade bread to go along with the split pea soup for dinner.  I've only made bread once before and I don't have a bread machine so I think I'll start with something easy.
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What I Did Yesterday

First, I spotted a Smart Car in the wild.  Isn't she pretty?  I really want one these babies.  It's all I need to get around town and parking looks like it would be a breeze.

Then, after making sure that all of the stop lights in San Jose were working, I went to my friend's house and we started pickling less than a peck of peppers. So we threw in other veggies.  Cucumbers, cauliflower, onions and garlic and soaked them in a salt bath.

 Then we filled the jars and topped them off with a brining solution that had Orange Muscat Champagne vinegar from Trader Joe's.

 

And put them in the water bath.

 

Voila' the finished project.  All the jars popped nicely and are now resting on various peoples shelves.

In the last few weeks I learned how to bottle my own barbecue sauce and salsa to store for the winter and now I'm working on learning how to pickle my veggies instead of letting them go to waste.  Next year should set me up nicely to weather the Depression.   Even if I don't have a home, I can still eat relatively well, as long as the jars don't break.

As a side note, finding jars was somewhat of a mission.  Between the economy and Alton Brown's pickling lessons this week, most stores were out of stock.

All in all, it was a fun day.

BBB

Wednesday Night Musings

Old news.  The Food Network ran a biography of Julia Child and at the very beginning it states that she worked for the OSS during wartime and that she met her husband there.  After they were married, he was stationed in Paris and she attended cooking classes and finally learned how to cook.  The information was out there if you were paying attention.

Somehow, I don't think Russia cares.

Mom is almost a walking example.  Especially since she has difficulty walking.  Add a good breeze and she falls over easily.

I thought Kissinger was the worst, but this is a new century and there is always someone trying to see how low they can go.

What A Crock!

Only because they aren't looking in the right places.   This is just like when they redefined hunger as food insecurity.  In less than half a mile on Seventh Street in San Jose there are currently 11 motor homes or 5th wheels currently parked and being lived in.  Then there are the side streets with one or two vehicles that are also occupied.  In the Bush economy it is possible to have a job and not have a home or a drug problem.

“It affirms the very significant change in policy shift that took place over the in the last six years,” said Mr. Culhane, who studies homelessness trends and policy, of the decline in the numbers of chronically homeless. “We’re moving in the right direction, without a doubt.”

I'll just bet everything is going according to plan.  The plan to transfer everything of value from the have nots to the have mores.

I just want to be your stepping stone.  So much for the myth of serving the public.  It's always about the benjamins, isn't it?

Major tactical error.  He should have gone to see the troops by himself, they deserved it.  But then you would have to have spent some lonely time in a hospital bed to understand that.  CNN gets interviews and soundbites all the time, these guys are still suffering the initial shock of being wounded.

Great, just great.  275 minutes a week.

Why aren't Republicans looking for another candidate?  Melanoma of the head and face are the most fatal of skin cancers and McCain has had more than one occurrence.  Between this and his encroaching senility, the odds of him finishing his term as Senator, much less President, is seriously in doubt.

The Food Network, the one that used to show you how to cook but now mainly shows you people eating at places you can't get to, has replaced the disgraced Robert Irvine with the Giggler on Dinner Impossible.  Instead of letting the ripped off John Besh handle the duties, they are forcing Michael Symon down our throats.  Well, I'm not swallowing.  And I'm not watching either.  Bring back Robert Irvine or let Besh do it. Who cares if Irvine stretched his resume, he did the job he was hired to do.  If Symon is the Iron Chef for the week, I skip it and now it looks like Dinner Impossible has become Dinner Unwatchable.  The giggle and the soul patch are just the tip of the iceberg. I miss the old Food Network, the one that gave me ideas for dinner, not dining out.

BBB

In The Garden

My garden isn't fancy and it isn't even in the ground (too many toxic chemicals), but it is growing despite the fact that Shadow is constantly digging in either the Jetsetter tomato pot or digging up my peas and green beans.

Facing away from the beans and peas are the tomatoes.  The right side has the Early Girls, Purple Cherokee and Ace.  The Girls are starting to ripen, as is the Cherokee.

On the left, under the bougainvillea the landlord won't let me trim,  are the Jetsetter, Green Zebra and Brandwine.  None of them are ripe because they aren't getting enough sunlight and I can't move them because the trellis is supporting them as they grow.

Then there are the serranos, of which I have flowers but no peppers.

Last and certainly not least, are the herbs, beets and chard.  I've let the cilantro go and now it's producing coriander seeds.    And you can't really see the out of control chives behind the basil that isn't doing as well as I would like.  The empty spot is where Shadow has dug up whatever she felt like chewing on.  Like the dead green bean plant on the side of the trellis.

I can hardly wait until I have enough ripe tomatoes of all sorts so I can make the Heirloom Tomato Tart.  I admit I cheat and use frozen pie dough that I add lots of cracked pepper to before blind baking it and I substituted goat cheese for the mozzarella.  It rocks!



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