Tag: stupid is as stupid does

Again with the free speech clause…

Betsy Newmark points to Tinker v. Des Moines, today. Here’s the nub of the decision:

” …in our system, undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression. Any departure from absolute regimentation may cause trouble. Any variation from the majority’s opinion may inspire fear. Any word spoken, in class, in the lunchroom, or on the campus, that deviates from the views of another person may start an argument or cause a disturbance. But our Constitution says we must take this risk, Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949); and our history says that it is this sort of hazardous freedom – this kind of openness – that is [393 U.S. 503, 509] the basis of our national strength and of the independence and vigor of Americans who grow up and live in this relatively permissive, often disputatious, society.”

OK, the case of kids wearing black armbands as a “statement” against the Vietnam War barely qualifies in my book as “speech” (but does qualify, because they widely publicized that was the purpose), so, qualifying, it’s simply not the business of ANY agent of a governmental body in any way recieving funds from Congress to promulgate a regulation “abridging the freedom of speech.” Period. And any agent of the feds (or person or body who recieves moneies from the feds in any way, shape, fashion or form) who says differently is itching for a fight.

And I’d be happy to oblige them.

Of course, the Thousands Standing Around will clap you in irons if you make a political observation in their presence that disagrees with their tender sensibilities…

Maybe I’d better not fly anywhere for a while…

You didn’t really think I’d pass up a chance to be pedantic, did you?

First, the tutorial, then the recipe.

I’ve had a couple of folks ask me about the “Do I need to do a clinic on using a chef’s knife to chop an onion?” comment in the Green Chicken Casserole recipe below. Apparently I do need to.

1.) Hold the chef’s knife like this: thumb and index finger gripping the blade up toward the top 1/3 of the blade, near the handle; other three fingers firmly wrapping the blade. This gives you a firm grip and stabilizes the blade in three dimensions.
2.) Place the onion on your cutting board reserved for vegetable processing laterally, with the root end toward the hand you use to hold the knife (left for lefties, right for righties).
3.) Hold the knife above the onion, right-to-left in front of you (or left-to-right, for lefties). Place your non-knife-wielding hand on top of the blade (with your fingers splayed out on one side and your thumb also well-clear of cutting area on the other), reach down with your non-knife-wielding hand and grasp the onion.
4.) Place the tip of the chef’s knife on the cutting board in front of the onion and, continuing to hold the knife blade on the onion with your non-knife-wielding hand and simply lower the hand holding the knife toward the board. The onion in halved vertically.
5.) Now, place one half face down on the cutting board with the root end away from your knife-wielding hand. Cut off a small portion of the shoot end of the onion but leave the root end uncut. Peel the onion skin off.
6.) Now, with the chef’s knife blade held parallel to the cutting board and your non-knife-wielding hand holding the onion, make several parallel cuts into the onion from the shoot end almost to the root end. The more cuts, the finer chopped the onion will be in the end. The fewer cuts, the larger the onion pieces will be.
7.) Now, rotate the knife so that the blade is perpendicular to the cutting board and the blade points toward the root end. Make several vertical cuts across the grain of the onion making sure not to cut all the way through to the root end.
8.) Lastly, place the knife so the blade is perpendicular to the board and pointing directly away from you, across the onion. Make several cuts all the way through the onion and what falls way will be perfectly chopped or diced or minced onion pieces, pepending on how many (and how fine) the cuts you have made are.

BTW, don’t throw the root or stem ends you have left away. Can anyone say, “Freeze and keep for stock”?

It’s a lot simpler to show (and maybe I ought to make a slideshow of it), and very simple and quick to do. So simple and quick, that I’ve aced out scores of grannies in the kitchens of church socials over the years. *heh* Of course, nobody seems to like cutting onions, anyway, so maybe they were shining me on… (on the onion tears thing, another post, another time, maybe. It’s a non-issue.)

Now, the side dish. I alluded to “Spanish” rice in a couple of posts. Here are a couple of different recipes, depending on the taste buds of the folks eating.

1.) Moderately mild, with a tiny kick:

Gringo “Spanish” rice

Simple. Just grind some cumin (do NOT use the pre-powdered stuff. May as well use finely ground sawdust *sigh) from seed. Yeh, buy a coffee grinder just for your spices. Open a can (a can!?!?! yes, a can) of Rotel’sâ„¢ tomatoes and chiles. Cook some rice as you normally would, just substitute the Rotel’sâ„¢ for part of the water and add the cumin powder with the rice when the water/Rotel’sâ„¢ is at a boil. I’m not going to dictate your rice cooking procedure. Mine won’t work for you unless you have some so-called “waterless” cookware, anyway.

You notice I did not specify amounts on the rise, water or cumin—or really the Rotel’sâ„¢. That’s what makes this so customizable for taste. Experiment to achieve what best suits your family. Even add more chiles, or other peppers, if your family likes it spicy. Make it your recipe. I sometimes add some of my own enchilada sauce to the mix.

2.) “Spanish” rice for babies and really green gringos

Wimpy “Spanish” rice

Just substitute your favorite tomato-based pasta sauce for the Rotel’sâ„¢ in the above recipe. That ought to make it mild enough for all but the tenderest stomachs.

There. A clinic on chopping an onion and two easy recipes. (Anyone noticed that the theme of all my recipes is EASY? *s*)

Dydd Gwyl Ddewi (St David’s Day), in honor of the other Celtic saint

For the life of me, I can’t understand why Patrick is so honored (though mostly in the breech, as it were) and David so seemingly forgotten—at least outside of Wales. Ah, maybe that’s it: the Irish, so unsuccessful in their own land, have huge swarms of folk in this, the most media-stricken land on the globe, and so Patrick just gets too much press.

“…Saint David, or Dewi Sant, as he is known in the Welsh language, is the patron saint of Wales. He was a Celtic monk, abbot and bishop, who lived in the sixth century. During his life, he was the archbishop of Wales, and he was one of many early saints who helped to spread Christianity among the pagan Celtic tribes of western Britain.”from Saint David and Saint David’s Day

If I can find it, I’ll also post a short hymn I wrote considering the likes of Sts David and Patrick, tune name: DEWI SANT.

And this puppy’s also going in over at Whistling in the Light.

So grab yourself a leek or a daffodil to wear and be ready. (So much better than some lame shamrock, eh? And what’s with wearing sham rocks? Can’t the Irish find some real rocks to wear? *heh*)

Saint David’s Day is March 1.

It’s not as bad as you’d think from the title. 🙂

“Green Chicken Casserole”

Doesn’t that name conjure a pretty picture? *heh* It’s a pseudo-Mexican/Southwestern dish that’s easy for gringo taste buds to handle. It’s a nice, mild dish with a moderate Southwestern flavor for those with tender taste buds who can’t take hot foods. And since you can assemble it almost all from pre-packaged ingredients, it’s easy for kids (or non-kitchen oriented spouses) to make. The only potentially non-kid-friendly part—depending on age, experience, apptitude and temperament—is chopping the onion, and if one really HAD to, one could use a food processor for that… well, that and “hot dish from the oven” skills.

2-10oz cans of GREEN enchilada sauce
2-4oz cans (or one 10oz, if you can find it) chipped mild green chiles
one can cream of chicken soup
3 medium (or 2 large) cooked chicken breasts, cubed (or a coupla cans of chicken *s*)
One-half large YELLOW onion, chopped
24 corn tortillas
about 2C shredded cheese. A colby/jack cheese mixture is good. I like a little mozarella thrown on top.
Leaf lettuce
Sour cream
325F Oven (About 165C)

Fire up the oven.

Mix the green enchilada sauce, chopped green chiles, cubed chicken and cream of chicken soup to make the sauce.

Grease or oil a 9″X12″ baking dish. Bacon grease is great, unless you live with a cardio patient as I do, otherwise, a good olive oil will do.

Chop the onion. (Do I need to do a clinic on using a chef’s knife to chop an onion? I thought not. I use my 10″-blade Sabatier for almost all veggie processing. Faster than having to assemble, disassemble, clean, etc., a food processor by LOTS.) Chop all the onion, but just use half in the dish. The rest can be part of a garnish or refrigerated in a plastic bag to “sweeten” for another meal.

Assemble the dish as so:

Layer the bottom of the 9X12 baking dish with six overlapping tortillas; cover with sauce; sprinkle on chopped onion; cover in shredded cheese; next layer…

Top layer as before, but no onion on top layer. 24 tortillas yields four layers of six flat “enchilladas”—more than enough for four pigs, easily will serve six as the main dish in a full meal. For an empty nest, 3 or 4 days’ meals. Freeze or refrigerate leftovers, cos it warms up nicely in oven or microwave.

325 oven for 35-45 minutes, depending on how much browning you want on the top layer of cheese.
Top with chopped onion, shredded leaf lettuce and sour cream, if desired. Add sides of refried beans, “Spanish” rice, and chips to scoop the rice and beans, etc.

Four More Years! (Thx in part to the Moore-ons in Hollyweird)

From Professor Bainbridge (via a link from Moxie). I retitled the file (hope that’s not some sort of infringement *sigh*) from the obscurantist file name given by his camera. I think it fits.

Missed it again…

For the second week in a row, I’ve missed getting a recipe into the Carnival of the Recipes. But that’s not going to keep me from sucking the marrow out of this week’s submissions. I always get at least one good recipe I can try out immediately (have to make another batch of “Cinabons” soon!), and my recipe folder is filling up with enough goodies to put back on the 50 pounds I’ve taken off, if I’m not careful.

Check it out, over at Inside Alan’s Mind.

I think next week will feature some of this week’s Carnival recipes, such as

Italian Potato Leek Soup
Elotes (Mexican Corn) Salad
Posole (although I have another very good recipe for Posole from DNW—thanks Dave!)
and
“Mad Scientist” Chicken Casserole (yum!), at the very least.

See the rest of this week’s entries here.

No, my name is NOT John Edwards

See: Whistling in the Light

*heh*

“I’m number nine! I’m number nine!”

It just doesn’t have the ring of “I’m number one!”

*sigh*

Googled “Third World County” and out of 1,360 hits, this blog came in at the number nine spot.

*profound sigh*

I just have to do something to trade y’all in on a new readership.

🙂

Hanging out the wash: Is this what the death of art looks like?

Strange thing… all the articles I’ve seen on the web that praise this washer-woman’s nightmare have been strangely devoid of pictures. Maybe that’s because the gushing praise would sound even more inane in the face of such crap. John Podhoretz’s article, “Masterpiece,” in the New York Post sums up my estimation of this blotch/”art” better than I can.

“So what if walking through the park simulated nothing so much as traveling through a car wash without the car?”

And that’s the highest praise he has for this piece of… work.

Naturally, the “art world” is agog. The ninnies.

The tip of the iceberg

Mark Steyn pegs the corruption that goes by the name “U.N.” in a piece filed yesterday, “UN Forces—Just a bunch of Thugs?”

“… corrupt organisations rarely stop at just one kind. If you don’t want to bulk up your pension by skimming the Oil-for-Food programme, don’t worry, whatever your bag, the UN can find somewhere that suits – in West Africa, it’s Sex-for-Food, with aid workers demanding sexual services from locals as young as four; in Cambodia, it’s drug dealing; in Kenya, it’s the refugee extortion racket; in the Balkans, sex slaves.”

Read the whole thing.