Sunday, October 23, 2005
Saturday, October 22, 2005
SHORT CRUST PASTRY
12 tbsp butter, chilled and cut into 1/4 inch bits
3 c all purpose flour
4 Tbsp lard, chilled and cut into 1/4 inch bits
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
6-8 Tbsp ICE water
3 c all purpose flour
4 Tbsp lard, chilled and cut into 1/4 inch bits
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
6-8 Tbsp ICE water
For one 9 inch double crust.
In a large, chilled bowl, combine the butter, lard, flour, sugar, and salt with fingertips until they look like flakes of coarse meal. Do not let the mixture become oily. Pour the ice water over the mixture all at once, tossing together lightly with your fingertips. Gather the dough into a ball. If the dough is crumbly, add the remaining ice water by drops until the particles adhere. Dust the pastry dough with a little flour. Wrap it in wax paper. Refrigerate for at least a half hour before using.
This is especially good for fruit pies. Spread softened butter over the bottom crust before filling with fruit mixture.
RHUBARB-STRAWBERRY PIE
Pastry for 2-crust pie
2 c rhubarb, cut in thin slices
2 c strawberries
1 1/4 c sugar
3 Tbspflour
2 c rhubarb, cut in thin slices
2 c strawberries
1 1/4 c sugar
3 Tbspflour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp butter
2 tsp butter
Roll out half of pastry, line 9 inch pie plate. Combine rhubarb and strawberries. Combine sugar, flour and salt; sift over fruit and combine lightly. Roll out remaining pastry and cut in strips. Turn filling into pastry lined pie pan. Dot with butter. Weave pastry strips on top.
Start in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes and then turn down to 350 degrees for 30 minutes longer. Pie should bubble and have golden crust. Serve warm.
Why the Children in Iraq Make No Sound When They Fall
We've snuffed out innocent lives in numbers that insurgents and terrorists could only dream of. But we avert our eyes. We bury our heads in the sand and turn a blind eye to our moral cowardice, thus pulling off the amazing feat of being ostriches and chickens all at once. We owe this marvel of ornithology to the inexorable fragility of human illusions. To quote James Carroll, "we avert our eyes because the war is a moral abyss. If we dare to look, as Nietzsche said, the abyss stares back." George Bush, the philosopher, has updated Berkeley's riddle: Do Iraqi children scream when the bombs fall if there is no one in the White House to hear them?
The celebrity of the month, the tsunami victim, has hogged newspaper headlines nationwide with stomach-churning photo spreads of wailing mothers and floating cadavers. Like his unsung Iraqi brethren, the victim has reminded us that calamity always strikes the poor, the sick, and the helpless first. It's invariably those with the least to lose who lose the most. At the great banquet of cataclysms, rich Westerners get served last. Bush would have us believe that we've suffered so much from terrorism the world owes us undying compassion. In truth, our induction into the Misery Hall of Fame is still a long way off. With our sustained assistance, however (coddling Saddam while he was gassing Iranians, slapping sanctions that killed half a million children, and fighting two wars in twelve years), Iraq made it on the first ballot. Who ever said that we didn't have a big heart?
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
This is, of course, old. The newest victims are from hurricanes and earthquakes. Not that that changes anything. . . .
Some days, one just has to be angry. That's all.
Mem’ries,
Like the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures,
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time re-written every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we? could we?
Mem’ries, may be beautiful and yet
What’s too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget
So it’s the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember...
The way we were...
The way we were...
Friday, October 21, 2005
Sung by the Beatles, of course
The Fool On The Hill
by Unknown
Day after day alone on the hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
And he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around
Well on his way his head in a cloud
The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him
Or the sound he appears to make
And he never seems to notice
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around
And nobody seems to like him
They can tell what he wants to do
And he never shows his feelings
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around
Round and round and round
He never listens to them
He knows that they're the fools
The don't like him
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around
From Think Progress
His observation:
This image has not been altered. It’s not clear whether the caption is an error or a sudden decision by NBC to raise their standards of accuracy.
A Land Not Mine
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Thursday, October 20, 2005
"Get Together"
Love is but a song to sing
Fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
Some may come and some may go
We shall surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moment's sunlight
Fading in the grass
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
If you hear the song I sing
You will understand (listen!)
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It's there at you command
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now
THE YOUNGBLOODS
Well, guess I need to say this someplace other than the comments.
My feelings are hurt. As hard as I try to credit my sources, some of ya'll just will not click.
I thought about saying click this, click that, every time I post, but decided ya'll were grownups, you can tell when your cursor turns from an arrow into a hand. . . .
Guess not. Sorry.
So: CLICK THIS! CLICK THAT!! CLICK THE OTHER!!!
That holds until revoked.
Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
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you probably got this from The Smoking Gun. The least you could do is give them some credit instead of stealing it from them...
4:32 PM, October 20, 2005
If you click the picture, it takes you right to The Smoking Gun.
Helps if you use your cursor. . . .
6:24 PM, October 20, 2005