It’s NOT “just like riding a bicycle”
Ya know, I tried riding a unicycle once, but I never could really get a handle on it.
Easy Lemon-Poppy Seed Scones
I’ve been riffing off Christine‘s scones recipes (just go to Morning Coffe and Afternoon Tea and enter a search for scones in her search box–she has several scones recipes) and have a variation on a simple scones recipe that was a big hit with my Wonder Woman.
So, here ’tis:
Ingredients
- 3C regular old white flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup margarine or butter (melted)
- 4Tbs sugar
- 2 eggs_milk to make one cup liquid
- Finely-grated zest of one lemon
- 1Tbs lemon juice
- 1Tbs (more or less to taste) poppy seeds
Procedure
Heat oven to 375F
Optional: also heat well-seasoned cast iron skillet to medium heat
- Mix dry ingredients
- Add melted butter and cut in well
- Mix wet ingredients (this includes the lemon zest), adding the lemon
- juice last
- Mix wet and dry
- Optional: Oil cast iron pan lightly; use metal forms (I use some ideally-sized cans that formerly held wasabi peas–both ends cut out) and add about 1/6 the batter to each form in the cast iron pan. When the bottom has “set” well, remove the forms and turn them to brown the other side. Then transfer the scones to a baking sheet in the oven. I was able to do three at a time this way, easily. The scones will slump a little but that’s OK.
- Make six scones up on a baking sheet (either as above or as with “drop” biscuits)
In about 10 minutes, they’re ready to pull from the oven, butter and disappear down appreciative gullets. The lemon zest isn’t overpowering, and the lemon juice souring the milk adds just a little lightness (acidic reaction with the baking powder) to the finished prooduct. The sugar assures that, eaten without jams or jellies, they’re a lightly sweet treat.
Of course, without the amendments (the lemon zest and poppy seeds—I’d still keep the lemon juice or use vinegar to sour the milk), these are just plain ole scones that can take any number of additions. My next experiment will likely be to out the butter/margarine for applesauce and add cinnamon, a pinch of freshly-ground nutmeg, a wee tad of (freshly-ground) cloves and some raisins. I’m betting that’ll be a hit, too.
Thesis — Antithesis — Synthesis?
Hegel was a jackass.
Consider: any time there is a conflict between Good and Evil and the two reach a “compromise” (a synthesis of the two), Evil wins.
In any argument, when one side is right, marshalls all its facts, makes a sound argument… and compromises with the side that is wrong, marshalls NO facts (unless lies count as facts) and makes spurious arguments grounded only in its own fantsies and feelings, and yet the side that’s right compromises for expediency’s sake (or just to back off and “make peace”) then wrong has won again.
So it is in public policy, in childrearing, in education—darned near every aspect of life: there are truths and lies, rights and wrongs, and when what is true and right compromises with what is lies, wrongs, then the liars win.
Even if it’s only a drop of feces in a glass of milk, the milk’s still unfit to drink.
Hegel was a jackass.
And those who surrender principles, who will feast with the Devil himself if he’d just be civil… become Republican’t Congresscritters. (Yeh, guess what population makes up the Demoncrappic Congresscritters. The inquiry is its own answer. *sigh*)
“American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward to perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt hath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It tends to risk nothing serious for the sake of truth.”– R. L. Dabney
Soup’s On!
Carnival of the Recipes #64 is up over at Pajama Pundits, and it looks like soup recipes dominate this week.
Well, my new experimental soup/stew this week may make it into next week’s canival (I think maybe the parsnips are out), but you’ll find plenty to keep you warm as Fall hits in this week’s carnival. Meanwhile, I’m still tinkering with a chai latte drink. I’ve managed to down a gallon or so of experimental efforts this week, and pretty much liked them all.
Break time
By that, I mean, time for me to break something… Arrrgggghhhh!
Once again, something in Blogger is corrupting my posts. (It’s the devil, I just know it must be. heh) I’ve checked on three computers, each with three different browsers and it’s the same: suddenly, all my posts (except “Snarking… ” below) are all italicized.
I’ve checked the html on several of them, and it’s not i n the posts. I guess I need to check and see how badly corrupted my template is… hpefully just a coupla pieces of code… slog through the template ma while, yeh, that’s the ticket. Now, which part of my trifocals do I wanna try this time… squint and pray, squint and pray… and throw things, too, of course. *sigh*
Oh, great. Decided, “Well Blogger folks are biased toward Firefox for some unfathomable reason, so I’ll try checking stuff using it as my interface. Hmmm, while I’m here, let’s check out that “compose” tab. haven’t looked at that way of submitting posts in a coon’s age. What?!?!? The $%*&%#@ thing’s inoperable even using Firefox?!?!?”
Yeh. I know. Grow up and get a real set of blogging tools. Well, time’s come to beat Blogger into submission again…
Arrrgggghhhh! Just bear with me a while. Line by line through template and posts’ code to find the culprit. Go ahead and read some of the other posts below. Culture comments, “imported” snark, fun with telemarketers, politics and food–it’s all there, somewhere. Have fun. Heck, poke fun at my slow sifting through whatever problem it is that magically appeared bwtween one post and the next with the Blogger stuff. I can handle your snarky comments. 🙂
Yeh, yeh, and for those of y’all who’ve offered me accounts with “real” blogging software, just keep in mind: I love banging my head on a brick wall cos it feels soooo good when I stop.
OK, another hint: the italicizing is ONLY on my front page… When I open the posts individually, all is as it should be (apart from typos and the occasional obscurantist sentence structure and misspelled word :-). Strange, that.
Well, enough of that. Big day Saturday moving Lovely Daughter into her new digs, puttering around the house afterwards, hopefully getting those weekend posts I’ve been mulling over done, waiting for lightning to strike so I can have the arcane voodoo Blogger’s concealing from me revealed… etc.
Snarking in Love
Well-written snark is such a blessing…
I ran across the following (two statements separated by a couple of paragraphs and here conjoined) in an article by Douglas Wilson (who is even better, if that seems possible, at construction of great snark than Prince Lileks):
“…and postmodern hoohah, the last of which could be refuted by three toddlers with kazoos …Leotard defined postmodernism as ‘incredulity toward all metanarratives.’ Of course, this is a metanarrative itself, smirking away as though we wouldn’t notice, and so all we need to do is summon the toddlers and their kazoos.”
As always, Credenda‘s just fulla the stuff.
Bust their chops, any old way you can
Tired of telemarketers trying to work their way around “no call†lists?
Yeh, well, so am I. And as far as I’m concerned, this is a Civil Liberties issue: I feel perfect at liberty to do everything within my power to spike these scammers, liars and cheats (Oh! My!) any old way I can.
Recently, we’ve gotten several calls from a Caller ID-blocked number, an obvious machine-generated voice message, “informing†us that the call “is not a telemarketing call†and “the head of household needs†to call a certain number.
Riiiiight.
Soooo, from a Caller ID blocked phone of my own, I called the number and discovered that it was a company trying to sell debt consolidation.
I tried to warn ‘em… really, I tried.
After a few calls attempting to escalate things to some manager to warn I gave up and called our State Attorney General’s office. Now, ya have to understand, this guy made his bones taking down telemarketers. It’s his main claim to fame. The consumer complaint rep I talked to promised fast action (and from the office’s record, that’s one of the few government bureaucratic pledges I give a little weight) and thanked me for reporting the scam.
Then… heh, then I called the scammers back. Told the person that answered the phone that I had gotten a call telling me to call that number. (True) She asked me what the number where I received the call was (caller ID blocking on the phone I was using).
I gave her our State Attorney General’s consumer complaint number. (OK, a small, wee, teen-eintsy fib)
*click-click-clickety-click* “Oh… “ CLICK, BUZZZZZZ
“Wha-fo’ the dialtone, Boopsy?†thought I.
Heh
“Submitted†at Cao’s Friday Open Trackback Party, Adam’s Blog’s Open Trackbacks, Stop the ACLU’s Open Trackback Weekend and Open Trackbacks at Big Dog’s Weblog.
La mort de la culture
Oxymoron of the day: Corporate Creativity. A mini-rant
First we have this: Grandfather sued for $600,000 for 12-year-okd grandson’s downloads. Yep. The kid downloaded copies of DVDs he already owned and the MPAA is suing his grandfather for owning the computer they were downloaded to, then deleted from.
Kinda makes ya wanna go right out and watch another crappy movie made by Hollyweird, doesn’t it?
Then there’s this: Sony institutes crippling anti-use software on CDs. But here’s the kicker: it’s done so on the recordings of at least one group that it does not “own†(just distributes their independently-produced stuff), a group that has said it does not want the crippling “featureâ€.
Yeh, that’ll encourage sales (and artist creativity thereby, all right. Make it darned near impossible (or damnably difficult) to use a legally purchased CD for legally-allowed uses. Consumers’ll love that!
But this loon takes the cake: 1st Story Line Patent Published. Words fail me. (But that’s probably a good thing, cos someone, somewhere is probably going to patent the thought processes I’d use to comment and then I’d end up being sued outa house and home… oops! There I go… )
Come the revolution (heh, riiiiight), lawyers first in line for the guillotine, followed by the RIAA, MPAA, and all their partners in crime like Fritz Holling (the wholly-owned Senator from Disney) and his ilk.
Convergence/”Lest we forget…”
While our Congresscritters fiddle, Islamic savages are burning whatever is handy. Ya think it won’t happen here if our government’s “Homeland Security” keystone kops routine isn’t amended? Well, maybe… just not likely in America’s Third World Countyâ„¢
In a convergence of thoughtful pieces, Committees of Correspondence’s Dan Kaufman posts “Lest we forget“* reminding us that November 2 also marks the anniversary of Theo van Gogh’s brutal murder at the hands of an Islamic savage, while Big Lizards’ Dafydd ab Hugh notes the emminent collapse of Old Europe in the face of Islamic savages with “Arms For the Poor“.
Dafydd ab Hugh (I just love typing that Welsh name 🙂 does note a potential way for European leaders to enable their peoples to withstand the armed Islamic barbarians in their midst, but I hardly see the elite of Old Europe’s political rulers vigorously encouraging something like our Second Amendment rights… heh
********************************
*Noting the meme in Dan Kaufman’s post title, perhaps it’d be helpful to repost Kipling’s
“Recessional”
God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle-line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine –
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
Lord of our far-flung battle-line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine –
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and the kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
The captains and the kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet.
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet.
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law –
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law –
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And, guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word –
The Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And, guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word –
The Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
— Rudyard Kipling
What to get a Liberalist for Christmas
Heck, get me some-a this, too, wouldya?
I don’t often do this, but in fortuitous (or well-planned) simultaneity with Michelle Malkin’s latest book, Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild, comes Do As I Say (Not As I Do) : Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy
These books seem like a nice coupla stocking-stuffers for Liberalist realtives (I have more of those, over-educated, under-exposed to the real world Northern Exposure relatives. God love ’em).
I got an email blurb about Do As I Say (Not As I Do) : Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy and after reading just the blurb, I decided to steal the promo copy and re-post some of it here. If it’s any indication at all of the contents, I’d like to tie Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Teddy Kennedy and their ilk down and force-read it to them until their faces turn blue and their heads explode.
I’ll be the one wearing the hazmat suit. Herewith the blurb:
Among the eye-opening revelations of “Do As I Say”:
- Filmmaker Michael Moore insists that corporations are evil and claims he doesn’t invest in the stock market due to moral principle. But Moore’s IRS forms, viewed by Schweizer, show that over the past five years he has owned shares in such corporate giants as Halliburton, Merck, Pfizer, Sunoco, Tenet Healthcare, Ford, General Electric and McDonald’s.
- Staunch union supporter Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has received the Cesar Chavez Award from the United Farmworkers Union. But the $25 million Northern California vineyard she and her husband own is a non-union shop.
The hypocrisy doesn’t end there. Pelosi has received more money from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union than any other member of Congress in recent election cycles.
But the Pelosis own a large stake in an exclusive hotel in Rutherford, Calif. It has more than 250 employees. But none of them are in a union, according to Schweizer, author of “The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty” and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other periodicals.
The Pelosis are also partners in a restaurant chain called Piatti, which has 900 employees. The chain is – that’s right, a non-union shop.
- Ralph Nader is another liberal who claims that unions are essential to protect worker rights. But when an editor of one of his publications tried to form a union to ameliorate miserable working conditions, the editor was fired and the locks changed on the office door.
- Self-described socialist Noam Chomsky has described the Pentagon as “the most vile institution on the face of the earth” and lashed out against tax havens and trusts that benefit only the rich.
But Chomsky has been paid millions of dollars by the Pentagon over the last 40 years, and he used a venerable law firm to set up his irrevocable trust to shield his assets from the IRS.
- Air America radio host Al Franken says conservatives are racist because they lack diversity and oppose affirmative action. But fewer than 1 percent of the people he has hired over the past 15 years have been African-American.
- Ted Kennedy has fought for the estate tax and spoken out against tax shelters. But he has repeatedly benefited from an intricate web of trusts and private foundations that have shielded most of his family’s fortune from the IRS.
One Kennedy family trust wasn’t even set up in the U.S., but in Fiji.
Another family member, environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr., has said that it is not moral to profit from natural resources. But he receives an annual check from the family’s large holdings in the oil industry.
- Barbra Streisand has talked about the necessity of unions to protect a “living wage.” But she prefers to do her filming and postproduction work in Canada, where she can pay less than American union wages.
- Bill and Hillary Clinton have spoken in favor of the estate tax, and in 2000 Bill vetoed a bill seeking to end it. But the Clintons have set up a contract trust that allows them to substantially reduce the amount of inheritance tax their estate will pay when they die.
Hillary, for her part, has written and spoken extensively about the right of children to make major decisions regarding their own lives. But she barred 13-year-old daughter Chelsea from getting her ears pierced and forbid the teen from watching MTV or HBO.
- Billionaire Bush-basher George Soros says the wealthy should pay higher, more progressive tax rates. But he holds the bulk of his money in tax-free overseas accounts in Curacao, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
Schweizer writes: “Liberals claim to support affirmative action but don’t practice it. They support higher taxes but set up complicated tax shelters to avoid paying them. They claim to be ardent environmentalists but abandon their cause when it impinges on their own property rights.
“The reality is that liberals like to preach in moral platitudes. They like to condemn ordinary Americans and Republicans for a whole host of things – racism, lack of concern for the poor, polluting the environment, and greed.
“But when it comes to applying those same standards to themselves, liberals are found to be shockingly guilty of hypocrisy.
“The media and the American people need to hold them accountable.”
I guess I’ll be putting these books on my Amazon Wishlist along with this:
…and this:
