Odd Chicken Salad/Sandwich

Made ya think, didn’t I? What is “odd” about this recipe? (Or, rather, what’s more odd than usual about this recipe? heh)

Ever wonder what to do with odd chicken parts? The way I learned to cut up a chicken from my mom and both grandmothers (who all did it in pretty much the same way), I’m usually left holding some pieces with notalotta meat and a whole heckuva lotta bones: the neck, a coupla different pieces of the back; you know, a lotta trouble for a little meat.

Mother’s solution was to save all these “extras” in the freezer, then, every now and then, pull out a bagful and boil up some chicken stock, then assign one of us kids to bone the necks and backs—really dig out all the tiny lil pieces of meat, which could then be used in making chicken soups, chicken and dumplings, casseroles, chicken salad/sandwich spread, etc.

Well, that still works, but I prefer using my pressure cooker.

Bottom of prssure cooker: odd ends of onions, carrots, celery, etc. (odd ends and pieces frozen and saved for making stock, etc.—you do do that, don’t you? :-).Maybe some garlic and other herbs or spices to your taste. Dump in “odd” chicken parts. A lil salt and lotsa freshly ground pepper. Maybe a half cuppa water. Cook under high pressure for about 10 minutes, then remove from heat and run cold water over the pressure cooker to depressurize it. Remove the chicken and store in the fridge to cool. Strain and store the stock in the fridge. (You can easily skim the fat off later if that’s a concern.)

When the chicken’s cooled in the fridge, take it out and debone it. (Why do “debone” and “bone” mean the same thing? Is it like “flammable” and “inflammable”? I am soooo confused!)

Now, you can make one of my fav sandwich spreads. And it’s sooooo easy you’ll not begrudge all the drudgery of getting enough freshly-cooked, juicy chicken by cooking and deboning necks and backs and unmentionables, oh my!

Ingredients only: no amounts. (This is what makes it sooo good—no matter what I say here, you’ll feel completely free to take this as a skeletal framework and fill in as you wish. 🙂

  • Chicken, boned, in small pieces
  • Mayo
  • Sweet pickle relish
  • Celery, diced finely
  • Celery seed (soak ahead of time if you’re not going to let the chicken spread come together for a few hours before using it)
  • Minced onion
  • Freshly-ground pepper
  • Shredded carrots
  • MAYBE some fresh dill weed, if ya have it (but probably best added as sprigs to sadnwiches when made).

Combine all the stuff above in proportions that suit your taste and then cover the resultant (oh so good) mess and store it in the fridge for a few hours.

Variations/additional ingredient suggestions:

halved grapes
cooked, crumbled bacon
shredded cheese (If you do this, consider NOT using the mayo and adding enough cheese to make a grilled chicken salad sandwich work! Great in one of those lil hot sandwich presses.)

Bread, leaf lettuce and spread. A good sammich, eh?

Get creative with this and let me know how it goes, eh?

Hear the Fear

[Bumped up cos, well, this is Stop the ACLU Blogburst day. Read on down for more Thirsday posts, rants and rambles]
Stop the ACLU
The ACLU claims to be the guardian of our rights. Riiight. Whereas the First Amendment specifically allows for freedom of religious speech and practice, free political speech and press, assembly and petition, the ACLU asserts (and in faux-liberalist dominated activist courts have generally won its assertions) that the First Amendment “protects” us from religious speech and practice (except Islamofascist hate speech), free “expression”—NOT speech—and a press unfettered from any responsibility, and freedom of assembly and petition only that agrees with its communist agenda.
Where the ACLU shows its colors in completely wacko nutjob clarity, though, is in this FAQ that completely misrepresents (blatantly lies about) a loose affiliation of folks who simply want free and open scientific inquiry into a wide range of questions. In doing so, the ACLU is joined with the liars comprised of Mass Media Podpeople and Loony Left Moonbats for who freedom of speech and open inquiry mean only freedom to speak their collective groupthink and explore the textus receptus of their accepted precepts. (Oh, and sadly, the ACLU is also joined by some whack-job “religious right” fun-damn-mentalists in slandering the same folks… just for different purposes. *sigh*)
What loosely affiliated group—which BTW has widely diverse ideas within its own ranks—has garnered such opposition, thus earning some degree of automatic respect by the enemies it has made?
People who want to explore the possibility of intelligent design having some greater or lesser part in the origins of the universe or of life or both.
But the ACLU is afraid these folks who simply want open inquiry into the questions of the origin of the universe and the origin of life will corrupt the sheep._1_, _2_, _3_ Its fear is evident in the fact that it continually misrepresents intelligent design (just as weak-faithed creationist liars do). Read the FAQ linked above, then read this rebuttal, ACLU Intelligent Design FAQ: An Analysis and Response.
I’ll not outline Intelligent Design theory or research. There’s plenty of pro con argument available to you on the web, and reasonable people can make reasonable assessments. But to say, as the ACLU (along with th MMP and LLMs) does that one side of a debate ought not to be heard reveals the truth behind the ACLU’s “free speech” committment: it only stands when the speech involved advances the ACLU’s agenda.
The ACLU (and the faux “liberals” or liberalists in the Loony Left Moonbats—hereafter known as the majority of the Democratic Party—and the Mass Media Podpeople) has no connection to the classical Liberalism that sprang forth in the 19th Century from writers and political activists such as the quintessential Liberal, John Stuart Mill.
“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”—JSM, On Freedom
The ACLU is on the aide of supression of free thought and speech and open inquiry. The ACLU is the enemy of freedom.

Stop the ACLU Blogburst Blogroll

**A Lady’s Ruminations
**A Tic In The Mind’s Eye
**American Dinosaur
American Patriot 9/12
American Warmonger
An American Housewife
**Angry Republican Mom
Birth of a Neo-Con
Blog Talker
Blogicus
**Blonde Sagacity
California Conservatives 4 Truth
**Cao’s Blog
Christmas Ghost
**Conservative Angst
Conservative Dialysis
Conservative Rant
Craig’s Reflections
Crosses aCross America
Daily Inklings
**Elephant In My Coffee
**Euphoric Reality
**Evil Conservative Blog
Freedom Of Thought
Freedom-Of
**Fundamentally Right
**GINASRANTINGS
GM’s Corner
**Gribbit’s Word
Hooah Wife
In My Right Mind
Info 4 Beer
Is It Just Me?
Is This Life?
It Is What It Is
**JackLewis.net
Jo’s Cafe
Just Mitch
Kender’s Musings
Kill Righty
Lady Madonna- Headlines
**Mad tech
Making Tomorrow’s Military Today
Mean Ol’ Meany
Merri Musings
Middle America’s Worldview
More Sense Than Money
**Mr Minority
**Museum Of Leftwing Lunacy
**Musing Minds
My Political Soapbox
MyView
**NIF
**NY Girl
Obiter Dictum Blog
Oderint dum metuant
**Ogre’s View
Parrot Check
Patriots For Bush
PBS Watch
Pirate’s Cove
Pulpit Pounder
RAGE 4 Truth
**Ravings of John C. A. Bambenek
Real Teen
Red State Rant
Regular Ron
Right On! A Conservative Opinion
Right Wing Nation
**Smithereen’s Files
Steve’s Blog
Stop The ACLU
**Swap Blog
Sweet Spirits of Ammonia
The American Patriots
The Conservative UAW Guy
**The Kevin Show
The Lesser of Two Evils
The Life And Times
The Nose On Your Face
The Original Gobbleblog
**The Uncooperative Blogger
The View From Firehouse
**The Wide Awakes
third world county
This Space For Rent
Time Hath Found Us
TMH’s Bacon Bits
**Twenty First Century Paladin
Undiscovered Country
Vista On Current Events
What Attitude Problem?
**White Lightning Axiom: Redux
**Xtreme Right Wing
Zipcard2’s Blog

Killing with “kindness”

For God’s Sake, Please Stop the Aid!

That’s Kenyan economist James Shikwati speaking.

“… it has to be the Kenyans themselves who help these people. When there’s a drought in a region of Kenya, our corrupt politicians reflexively cry out for more help. This call then reaches the United Nations World Food Program — which is a massive agency of apparatchiks who are in the absurd situation of, on the one hand, being dedicated to the fight against hunger while, on the other hand, being faced with unemployment were hunger actually eliminated.”

(“apparatchiks”—now that’s telling it straight!)

Just read it all.

Then read, Let Africa Sink by Kim du Toit. One piece of macabre humor from Let Africa Sink:

My favorite African story actually happened after I left the country. An American executive took a job over there, and on his very first day, the newspaper headlines read: “Three Headless Bodies Found”.

The next day: “Three Heads Found”.

The third day: “Heads Don’t Match Bodies”.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Just read it. Now, what was that I was saying about “Killing with ‘kindness'”? (Yeh, Daniel Patrick Moynihan tried to warn us about our social welfare programs doing just that… to blacks in this country… more than 40 years ago.)

It’s the little things…

Curmudgeon mode: ON

Ever notice that sometimes it’s the little things that are most irritating?

“Big things” are sometimes—sometimes—less of an irritant than little things. Threre’s a BIG difference between the death of a loved one and someone pulling out into traffic and driving slowly in front of folks who have sonmewhere to go. The death of a loved on isn’t irritating, though. And, really, we all know that we and our loved ones will die one day, but there’s no excuse for pulling out into traffic and driving slowly… (I just irritated myself by misspelling “traffic”. Twice. Ick. Misspelled “driving” too. *sigh*)

🙂

One of the “little things” I find to be irritating is when I ask someone why they did such and so and they essentially tell me, “The King of Spain told me to do [something completely irrelevant to your question].”

Huh? I didn’t ask you about [something completely irrelevant], I asked you about such and so. And what does your stated reason have to do with anything under the sun?

It’s as though with their answer they were saying,

1.) “Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah [fingers in ears], nahhhht listening to you.”
2.) “You’re so stupid, you’ll never notice my answer is complete nonsense.”
3.) “Huh? If this is Tuesday [or Wednesday, Thursday, Friday… etc.], I must have my head up my… ”
4.) “Hey! Ever seen my impression of Edgar Allan Poe on Prozac? ‘Pretty bird… ‘.”

…or any combo of the above.

*sigh*

If someone doesn’t want to answer a question, the honest way to deal with it is, “I don’t want to answer that.” If they don’t understand the question, “Could you rephrase that?” If they didn’t hear it, “Could you repeat the question?”

Babbling nonsense is insulting.

But slowly, very slowly, I am learning that pointing out to such people what they have done is useless, a complete waste of my time. (Not a waste of their, cos they’re already doing that.)

Well, since it’s August and I’ve already seen Christmas products out in one store (yep: there’s another rant), perhaps I can let Bill Engvall talk about some “little” irritants and a program to address them:

Here’s Your Sign Christmas
I took my son to the mall the other day to see Santa Claus
The woman in line behind me says “hey is that Santa Claus up there”?
I said “no ma’m, it’s a Kenny Rodgers stunt double”
Here’s your sign
The other day I bought a wreath to go on our front door
as I was walking out the store a man stopped me and said
“hey, are you going to hang that on your door”?
I said “no sir, it’s a Christmas toilet seat cover, got the idea from Martha Stewart”
(Chorus)
Here’s your sign, Here’s your sign, Here’s your stupid sign
You acted dumb, so have some fun and wear your stupid sign
Oh! Here’s your sign, Here’s your sign, Here’s your stupid sign
you lost your mind, so pay the fine and wear your stupid sign
I hung those little Christmas lights on my house, you know the kind that blink on and off
My neighbour comes over and says
“Bill how do you get those to blink on and off like that”?
I said “I’ve got my son inside plugging and unplugging it, plugging and unplugging it”
Here’s your sign
I took my family to buy a Christmas tree the other night
When we walked onto the lot this guy walked up to me and says
“hey, y’all here to buy a Christmas tree?”
I said, “no sir, my son needs to go to the bathroom and these trees looked really inviting”
(Chorus)
Here’s your sign, Here’s your sign, Here’s your stupid sign
You acted dumb, so have some fun and wear your stupid sign
Oh! Here’s your sign, Here’s your sign, Here’s your stupid sign
you lost your mind, so pay the fine and wear your stupid sign
Here’s your sign, Here’s your sign, Here’s your stupid sign
have no fear when you’re spreading cheer during Christmas time
The other night my family and I were walking through the neighbourhood looking at all the Christmas decorations
when we came across this house that had a manger scene
now there was this whole group of people looking at it when I overheard this one guy say
“hey, are those the Three Wise Men”?
I said “no sir that’s ZZ Top doing a farming concert
(Chorus)
Here’s your sign, Here’s your sign, Here’s your stupid sign
You acted dumb, so have some fun and wear your stupid sign
Oh! Here’s your sign, Here’s your sign, Here’s your stupid sign
you lost your mind, so pay the fine and wear your stupid sign
Here’s your sign, Here’s your sign, here’s your stupid sign
(have no fear when you’re spreading cheer during Christmas time)
And finally my wife and I were in a grocery store the other day and I heard a woman ask the clerk
“do you know what time Midnight Mass starts on Christmas Eve”?
And in the holiday spririt I walked over and said “Here’s your sign”
Happy holidays everybody!
Curmudgeon mode: OFF (maybe… )

Think on this and get back with me…

From The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald:

‘But if you want me to know you again, ma’am, for certain sure,’ said Curdie, ‘could you not give me some sign, or tell me something about you that never changes – or some other way to know you, or thing to know you by?’

‘No, Curdie; that would be to keep you from knowing me. You must know me in quite another way from that. It would not be the least use to you or me either if I were to make you know me in that way. It would be but to know the sign of Me – not to know me myself. it would be no better than if I were to take this emerald out of my crown and give it to you to take home with you, and you were to call it me, and talk to it as if it heard and saw and loved you. Much good that would do you, Curdie! No; you must do what you can to know me, and if you do, you will. You shall see me again in very different circumstances from these, and, I will tell you so much, it may be in a very different shape. But come now, I will lead you out of this cavern; my good Joan will be getting too anxious about you. One word more: you will allow that the men knew little what they were talking about this morning, when they told all those tales of Old Mother Wotherwop; but did it occur to you to think how it was they fell to talking about me at all? It was because I came to them; I was beside them all the time they were talking about me, though they were far enough from knowing it, and had very little besides foolishness to say.’

It was precisely this kind of allegory that led Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and others to draw inspiration from George MacDonald’s works.
Posted also at Whistling in the Light

Idiots! Dolts! Speech-impaired Piscines*!

(*Dumb Basses)
Who am I talking about? See this story (yeh, it’s all over the place).
Worm strikes down Windows 2000 systems
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A fast-moving computer worm Tuesday attacked computer systems using Microsoft operating systems, shutting down computers in the United States, Germany and Asia.
Among those hit were offices on Capitol Hill, which is in the midst of August recess, and media organizations, including CNN, ABC and The New York Times. The Caterpillar Co. in Peoria, Illinois, reportedly also had problems…
Idiots. Dolts. Doofuses, one and all. I mean, what’s so hard about hitting “patch Tuesday”? The vulnerability this worm depends on was patched by all non-brain-dead Win2K users before this thing was ever seen “in the wild.” CNN, ABC, NYT and “offices on Capitol Hill” are to be expected to have idiots for IT guys, though. But Caterpillar? Gee, how can they stay in business if their IT department’s that incompetent?
Anyone in IT who, after years and years of “shrink-wrap betaware” from Microsoft and almost weekly discoveries of vulnerabilities in their products, does NOT take every opportunity to review and patch the MS products their company uses should be fired. With “extreme prejudice”. Removed from the gene pool as too stupid to reproduce.
Dumb. Simply too dumb to be allowed to pollute the gene pool…
A small number of computers in an administrative office at San Francisco International Airport also crashed, but they were not essential to the airport’s operation, spokesman Mike McCarron said._*_
“Crashed”—not a word you’d want to hear associated with ANY airport’s systems, is it?

Tell the Copyright Office to take a hike

But do be a tad more polite about it…

Rich, over at The English Guy, cites a Nikolaos S. Karastathis (NSK Blog) post about the plan the Copyright Office has to implement a copyright pre-registration site that will ONLY work with Internet Exploder.

Nikolaos links to the specific notification by the Copyright Office and suggests writing a letter (the Copyright Office won’t accept emails on this). Below is the letter I’m sending. They require five copies to be sent. May I humbly suggest sending eight? Five to the Copyright office and CCs to your congresscritters (representative and senators)? Oh, and do note the CCs on the copies sent to the Copyright Office…

🙂

Oh, and spread the word, eh? Locking a fedgov website down for ONE company’s product smacks of something a tad fishy. Maybe the Justice Department should look into the monopoly aspects. *LOL*


Office of the General Counsel

U.S. Copyright Office

Copyright GC/ I&R

P.O. Box 70400

Southwest Station

Washington, DC 20024-0400

Dear Reader:

At this Web address: http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2005/70fr44878.html I just read that the Copyright Office is planning to implement copyright preregistration via the web ONLY for those using Internet Explorer web browser.

Are you sure that’s wise? Internet Explorer is the least standards-compliant major web browser. It is also historically the least secure—in fact, Homeland Security has recommended people switch!— most “attacked” by malicious users and is available for use ONLY by Windows users. In fact,

“… market dominance is not the only reason for the Microsoft browser’s disproportionate share of attacks. Art Manion, Internet security analyst for US-CERT, the operational arm of the National Cyber Security Division at the Department of Homeland Security, says IE’s unique features increase its online vulnerability.” [PC World Magazine online, “Is It Time to Ditch IE?” October 2004)

Anyone who is competent can build a secure website that does not require the use of proprietary, non-standards-compliant software such as Internet Explorer. Standards-compliant (W3C-compliant) browsers abound, and standards-compliant websites can be read and interacted with by users of all popular web browsers, including Internet Explorer.

I urge you to maintain openess at the Copyright Office and eschew the use of unsafe, proprietary, non-standards-compliant software such as Internet Explorer as your benchmark.

Sincerely