Molasses cookies: "These cookies are like crack cocaine!"

Crack cocaine? That's how a coworker described them when I brought a batch into work one day. They're so well received that I typically make a double batch. The directions below are for a single batch... in print and in picture.

MOLASSES COOKIES

Ingredients:

3/4 C butter

1 C sugar (and some more to roll cookies in)

1/4 C molasses

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp ginger

2 C flour

In a mixing bowl, cream butter & sugar.

Beat in molasses & egg.  Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture. Batter will be thick!

Chill for 1 hour or til firm so it will be easier to work with. Once batter it chilled, shape into 1" balls, roll around in granulated sugar, and place on greased baking sheets. (That's what the recipe said, but I have non-stick baking sheets and haven't needed to grease them.)

The recipe says to press them flat til baking: I just let 'em spread out on their own, and they wound up pretty uniform in size (although it took a bit longer than 8-10 minutes to bake them in a preheated 375 degree oven). 

Bake 'em til they're lightly browned. Cool them on wire racks.

Then watch out for the cookie thieves, because they'll be coming! 

From conception to birth (and beyond): treasure life!

In God's hands

When once we have placed ourselves totally in the hands of God, we have no cause to fear misfortune; for if any should come to us, He will know how to make it turn to our good, by ways which we do not know now, but which, one day, we shall know.

– Vincent de Paul

It's hard to get (or give?) good service!

Despite death sentence, escapee receives pardon

In Paterson, NJ, an escapee eluded a sentence of death and, when recaptured, found mercy; the death sentence was commuted.

The condemned individual - who happened to be a 750-pound cow - escaped from the slaughterhouse where she was to be executed. Apparently the bovine bolted without being noticed. Read a description of the result chase from this news article:

The cow ran up and down Presidential Boulevard, spent some time at a basketball court, then continued on River Street, crossing the Arch Street Bridge and wading into the Passaic River.

John De Cando, the city's chief animal control officer, is quoted as saying, "It was like Dodge City. You had five police cars on one side of the street, five on the other and the 750-pound cow looking both ways. When the opportunity came, it booked between the police cars."

But ultimately, the Paterson police - despite being somewhat inexperienced as cowboys - were finally able to corral and tranquilize her.

Perhaps inspired by the once-doomed animal's bid for freedom, the owner of the slaughterhouse promised to spare her and transport her to a farm where, it is to be hoped, she will live out the rest of her days romping in green pastures.

 

Kitty love (with linky)

This guy's good with the bat!

But can he hit?

Crispy Blackened Tofu

I don't remember the website where I found this recipe, but a woman by the name of Emily Malone was credited with developing it. And Emily, wherever you are - KUDOS TO YOU!

 
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients
For the Tofu
• 1 block firm or extra-firm tofu (drained and pressed)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce or Bragg’s liquid aminos
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil (or other cooking oil)
For the Spice Blend
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon corn starch
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions
Start by pressing a block of tofu to drain out the excess water. While the tofu drains, go ahead and make your spice mix. The mixture is spicy, but not over the top. If you can’t handle any heat, scale back on the cayenne and black pepper. The paprika adds amazing richness and flavor to the blend! Add all spices to a shallow bowl, and stir to thoroughly combine.

Once the tofu has drained, slice the block into four even rectangles – once through the width, and then cutting in half through the top. Place tofu in a shallow dish and add soy sauce or liquid aminos – it doesn’t need to be much... just enough to let it soak into the bottom a bit. After a few minutes, flip each piece to coat the other side.

In a sauté pan, heat sesame oil (or other oil of your choice) over medium high heat – you want your pan to really get hot! I prefer to use my non-stick pans for this, but you can try it in stainless as well. Take each piece of tofu and press it into the spice blend, ensuring to coat the whole bottom in a thick crust of spice.Flip it over and repeat on the other side, then carefully place each piece into the hot pan. It should sizzle and pop, and you’ll see immediate color forming around the base of the tofu.

Add all four pieces to the pan and continue to cook over medium high heat. After only a minute or two, the bottom should be pretty dark in color – flip to the other side and cook for another minute or two, until both are crispy and blackened to perfection.

Slice and serve on a bed of rice or quinoa with a side of roasted greens!

There is no resurrection without crucifixion.

The first step is not resurrection, it is crucifixion. It is the crucifixion of pride, narrowness, stupidity, ignorant prejudice, intolerance, fixed viewpoints about other people, laziness, lack of vision, self-satisfaction, conventionality that we need. There is no resurrection without crucifixion. The reason Christ’s Cross is so central is that there is a cross at the center of life anyway: either God’s will is crucified on it so that our will may prevail; or our will is crucified on it so that God’s will may prevail. 

– Samuel M. Shoemaker.

Birdwatchers

THIS is a topnotch high school choir!!

Dear Diary: A Blonde's Cooking Diary (It's fun to cook for Bob)

Monday:
Today I made angel food cake. The recipe said, Beat 12 eggs separately. The neighbors were nice enough to loan me some extra bowls.

Tuesday:
Bob wanted fruit salad for supper. The recipe said, Serve without dressing. So I didn't dress. What a surprise when Bob brought a friend home for supper.

Wednesday:
A good day for rice. Recipe said, Wash thoroughly before steaming the rice. It seemed kinda of silly but I took a bath. I can't say it improved the rice any.

Thursday:
Today Bob asked for salad again. I tried a new recipe. It said, Prepare ingredients, then toss on a bed of lettuce one hour before serving. Which is what led up to Bob asking me why I was rolling around in the garden.

Friday:
I found an easy recipe for cookies. It said, Put all ingredients in bowl and beat it. There must have been something wrong with this recipe. When I got back, everything was the same as when I left.

Saturday:
Bob did the shopping today and brought home a chicken. He asked me to dress it for Sunday. (oh boy) For some reason Bob keeps counting to ten.

Sunday:
Bob's folks came to dinner. I wanted to serve roast. All I could find was hamburger. Suddenly I had a flash of genius. I put the hamburger in the oven and set the controls for roast. It still came out hamburger, much to my disappointment.

Good night, Dear Diary. This has been a very exciting week. I am eager for tomorrow to come so I can try out a new recipe on Bob. If we could just get a bigger oven, I would like to surprise him with Chocolate Moose!

Wordless: Red camelia

Cranberry Salad Dressing (re-post)

Not long ago, we were going to a dinner at the house of a friend from church. Lots of other church friends were going, and we were all bringing something to eat and share. I brought a lovely fresh garden salad and wanted to try a new salad dressing. I was in a real hurry, so I quickly pulled off a recipe from All Recipes dot com. I'm going to share their original recipe here, but let me tell you from the start that I was in SUCH a hurry that I made it wrong... which I didn't notice until much later.

Cranberry Salad Dressing (the original)
1 cup cranberries
1 medium navel orange, peeled and sectioned
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon grated onion
1 cup vegetable oil

In a blender or food processor, combine cranberries, orange, sugar, vinegar, salt, mustard, and onion. While processing, gradually add oil in a steady stream.

As it turns out, the ingredients were listed in two columns, and I was completely oblivious to the second column. In other words, I didn't see that I was supposed to have added salt, ground mustard, grated onion, or oil... and I didn't add any of these ingredients. I didn't have a navel orange, either, so I substituted a Minneola tangerine. And the original recipe didn't specify what type of vinegar, so I decided to use red wine vinegar. And when I was processing, I remembered my longstanding motto:There's no such thing as too many cranberries.

Therefore, here's what I wound up making:

Cranberry Salad Dressing (the OOPS-I-MADE-I-WRONG version)
1 1/2  cup cranberries
1 Minneola tangerine, peeled and sectioned
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar

In a blender or food processor, combine cranberries, orange, sugar, and vinegar.

It got rave reviews, and I had some requests for the recipe. It wasn't until I went to copy the recipe down that I noticed I'd flubbed up the original version.

Next time I make it, I plan to try a few modification. Here's what I'm thinking I'll try:

Cranberry Salad Dressing (the MIGHT-AS-WELL-WING-IT-AGAIN version)
1 1/2  cup cranberries
1 Minneola tangerine, peeled and sectioned
1/2 - 2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar, or may substitute champagne vinegar

In a blender or food processor, combine cranberries, orange, sugar, and vinegar.

So how about you. Have you ever messed up a recipe and found that you really like your adaptation?

The British have junk food, too!

We've had deep fried Snickers bars and deep fried butter. Here's another story of gastronomic excess!

According to this MSNBC article, lucky (?) customers in the U.K. can now order hot-dog-stuffed-crust-pizza, and it will be delivered to their home. And it even comes with free mustard drizzle.

Ugh and yuck.

The case for killing your children...

... is NOT convincing to me. At all.

The case is made by a Canadian mother named Annette Corriveau. Three of her children are disabled, and the disabilities of two of her children would tear any mother's heart apart. I thank God that I've never been in the situation she or her children find themselves in. I can't imagine it.

Two of her children - Janet and Jeffrey - are afflicted with a genetic disorder called Sanfilippo syndrome, in which a critical enzyme which allows the body to metabolize sugar is missing. Both seemed to be developing normally at first, but starting early in childhood, they began to gradually lose function. Now in their 40's, they are both institutionalized, completely dependent on others for their care, unable to express themselves, and alive only because they receive nourishment via feeding tubes.

I happened to be watching a television program the other day in which the mother of these now-grown children was interviewed. After seeing her children deteriorate over time, Ms. Corriveau now wants to be granted permission to "euthanize" her children using lethal injection. She argues that using lethal injection would be more merciful than removing the feeding tubes and allowing Janet and Jeffrey to die of dehydration and starvation over the course of days.

Before addressing the broader question of the merits of allowing someone to affirmatively cause another's death, I want to raise a few points with regard to this particular situation:

• Corriveau stated in the interview that she used to visit her children weekly but over time she finds herself unable to visit more frequently than once a week because she finds it too painful.
• She also acknowledges that she can't be certain that her children are actually suffering.
• Nonetheless, she does not wish to halt feeding and hydrating her children because she believes it to be more merciful to use lethal injection.
• She states that if she were in their position, she would not want to live as they are. 
• “They wouldn’t like to live like this,” she says. “My children were full of life… I just don’t believe that they would want to stay alive the way they are.”

So in this particular instance, it would appear that Ms. Corriveau wishes to be granted the right to euthanize her children in order to alleviate her own discomfort. Although she admits that she isn't certain that Janet and Jeffrey are suffering, it causes her distress to think of allowing them to die by stopping artificial nutrition. While she doesn't know what they think about their lives (or even if they are capable of thought), she thinks she wouldn't want to live like that and thus has decided that they wouldn't, either.

It seems to me that we've started a moral avalanche in which our momentum as deciders of death continues to build. Capital punishment. Morning-after pill. Abortion. "Late-term abortion. Assisted suicide. And now a form of assisted murder in which someone can advocate for the death of another based on one's own discomfiture.

When will it end?

If you'd like to read a bit more about this specific situation, visit here:

• Taking Mercy - the case for euthanizing children with disabilities"

If you'd like to see some history of an extreme way of solving this dilemma, read here:

• Action T4

And if you'd like to see the way one country deals with the conundrum today, click here:

• The Groningen Protocol — Euthanasia in Severely Ill Newborns

And just LOOK who's in the audience!

GOSH, I love James Taylor's music... and somehow Allison Krauss sings one of his "signature songs" and makes it work! And in addition, the guitarist has an intriguing technique.

Great job, guys!

Spring beauty

The examples of spring beauty are everywhere this time of year! Just a few shots from our yard:

Pink azalea

Same azalea, different bloom

Rhododendron coming to life

Some blooms are fully open

The Lenten rose has been blooming since January

Closeup of the Lenten rose

If you like photo challenges, don't forget to check the hops page here on this site - the link is just beneath the header. There are some great ones!

Your opinion, please?

Below you'll find an excerpt from something I posted a while back. I feel strongly about this topic... strongly enough to ask you to indulge me by reading it again. Perhaps if enough of us feel the same way, the message will begin to get through.

I'm tired of being subjected to language that used to be limited to the guys' locker room. Whether simply walking down the street, watching TV, listening to popular music, going to the movies, or surfing the internet, I find myself wincing at the constant barrage of foul language, gratuitous violence, and explicit sexual references. And if I object, I'm labeled a prude or accused of infringing on others' right to free speech.

Look at statistics taken from this news article:

The PTC [Parents Television Council] research study, released in November 2010, reveals a significant increase in both the frequency and harshness of profanity being used on prime-time television. In the past five years alone, TV profanity has increased by almost 70 percent.

The greatest increase in the use of the harshest profanities occurred during the family hour time slot of 7-8 p.m. MST.

Across all networks and prime-time hours, use of the bleeped or muted f-word increased from 11 instances total in 2005 to 276 in 2010 — a 2,409 percent increase.

Use of the bleeped f-word increased from 10 in 2005 to 111 in 2010 — 156 percent increase — across all networks during the family hour of 7-8 p.m.

Use of the bleeped s-word between 7 and 8 p.m. increased from 11 uses in 2005 to 42 in 2010 across all networks — a 281 percent jump.

Use of the bleeped or muted s-word increased from 11 in 2005 to 95 instances in 2010 across all networks — an increase of 763 percent. (This does not include CBS using a bleeped s-word in the title of its sitcom "(Bleep) My Dad Says," or NBC's use of a scripted, unbleeped s-word on the Sept. 23 episode of "30 Rock.")

There were increases in the use of anatomical and sexual references, and use of the words in reference to parts of the female anatomy increased 90 percent.

The Fox broadcast network had an increase of almost 270 percent during prime-time hours over the five-year span. Among the shows displaying more dirty language are Fox's "Hell's Kitchen," "The Cleveland Show," "Family Guy" and "American Dad," and CBS's "(Bleep) My Dad Says."

Doesn't this bother you? We've passed a host of legislation prohibiting smoking in public places to protect others from second-hand smoke. But the language that sails through the airwaves is every bit as obnoxious to me.

Some folks believe swearing is an exercise in free speech. I believe it's evidence of poor vocabulary and a complete lack of consideration and respect for others. I seriously doubt our Founding Fathers intended to unleash a constant stream of profanity when they passed the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Am I being prudish or unreasonable? What do you think?

Can you be pro-abortion "because of your faith"?

First off, let me state that I'm unapologetically pro-life. If you're avidly pro-abortion, you probably won't want to read this post.

I read a post on Acts of the Apostasy which I found disturbing. In it, the author mentioned that an organization called Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) which countered the pro-life "40 Days for Life" with 40 days of prayer for their local abortion clinic.

I was able to hold my lunch down... barely... and decided to investigate by checking out their website. In it I found some things that disturbed me even more that the Acts of the Apostasy article. In a page which gives pro-abortion ministers sample sermons expressing their views, I found the following quotation:

 Most religious people in America are pro-choice because of their faith.

Are you freaking KIDDING ME?

I can understand the reasoning behind being pro-abortion. I used to support Roe v. Wade myself. (Read here for the story behind my change in position). But even then, I never had the audacity to cite my faith as the reason I supported legal access to abortion.

I challenge you to find me scriptural evidence that God is in favor of the deliberate killing the unborn. Until you do, please don't defame God's name by suggesting that's the reason you're in favor of abortions.

Here's another quote from the RCRC website:

I want to acknowledge that some Christians believe that life begins at conception and therefore abortion is wrong. They are entitled to that perspective, even though both the biblical basis and the historical basis for it are flimsy. However, having said that they are entitled to that view, we must also acknowledge that millions of Christians-indeed a majority of Protestants in this country-have a different view, believing instead that a fertilized egg is potential life but not actual life. These Christians hold that the life, health, freedom, and moral agency of the pregnant woman are more important than the potential life in her womb. 

"Moral agency"??? Once again, Are you freaking KIDDING ME? And once again, show me scriptural evidence that God views abortion as a "moral" act. And have fun finding this evidence, by the way.

And if you're not queasy by now, look at the concluding paragraph of one of the sample sermons available through RCRC:

As we carry on this fight, let us not become weary. In the words of James Weldon Johnson's Black National Anthem, "God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who has brought us thus far on our way, Thou who has through Thy might led us into the light, Keep us forever on this path we pray." Brothers and sisters, let us march on until victory is won.

The tears of the so-called "mother" aborting her unborn child are audible. It is the tears of the baby whose life she "terminates" which remain silent.

But God hears them.

Aaaahhh. The country life.

The overstuffed chair on the front porch is a clue that you're in the country, even if nothing else gives it away!

But the outdoor facilities - the are indeed a tipoff!