Random Thoughts From Marybeth

Ringback Tones

I think of my cellphone as a handy but not-so-good digital camera that also happens to be a phone. I don't make or receive that many phone calls but I do like being able to personalize my phone's ringtones (see here). I want to have something distinctive that I immediately recognize as my phone when (on the rare occasions) I'm out and about. I can keep the ringer volume fairly low this way too.

It's not that I get that many calls but the ones I do get are usually from my husband or my kids so I want to make sure I get the calls without having to check every time I hear any cellphone ring. It's also handy to have different ringers for different people so if the phone rings while I'm working, I can decide whether or not to answer. (I always do answer, but I like keeping my options open.)

Now companies are offering ringback tones. This is the sound you hear when calling someone else. The person you are calling gets to pick the song you hear instead of the usual ring.

I don't like this idea. Or, I should say the "good" Marybeth doesn't like the idea of imposing my musical tastes on people who are calling me. The "bad" Marybeth is considering the possibilities. Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 for when the kids' schools call. The U of L Fight Song for all my friends whose allegiance lies with other schools. As soon as my oldest son turns 16 I could set his ringback to Get a Job.

Anyone know of a song that orders the listener to clean their room or do their homework? I could really use some songs like that too.

If others think the way I do, what they spend on ringback tones will more than be made up for in the decrease of incoming call minutes that they will have to pay for.

Carnivals Coming to a Blog Near You

Next week's Carnival of the Recipes will be hosted by Angela of Fresh as a Daisy.

If you want to submit an entry, make sure to send an email with a link to your post to recipe.carnival(at)gmail(dot)com by midnight Thursday. If you don't have a blog, you can still make a submission by emailing the complete recipe to the same email address. The host of the week will post the recipe for you.

Beth, the originator and Carnival of the Recipes Queen, has a list of future Carnival locations through the end of the year.

Carnival of the Recipes #15

Thanks to everyone who sent in entries for this week's Carnival of the Recipes!

Main Dishes:

Marinated Pork Tenderloin from Christina of Feisty Repartee. The pork is marinated in a soy/bourbon/sugar mixture and served with a creamy mustard sauce.

Slow-cooked Pork Roast from Anywhere But Here.

Fried Chicken Strips coated in a spiced flour and oatmeal mixture from Jay of Accidental Verbosity. (Includes photos.)

Jeff from Trub. The sediment of life. has a recipe for Augiesala. This is a spicy dish of chicken and peppers served with angel hair pasta.

A Thai recipe for Sweet Chicken in Green Curry Paste comes from Amanda of Aussie Wife.

VW of One Happy Dog Speaks shares a recipe for Chicken Tetrazzini, a dish of chicken and mushrooms in a cream sauce served over pasta. It sounds like an Italian dish but it's really American, created for the opera star Louisa Tetrazzini.

I had never heard of talapia until this week when I received two recipes using this type of fish.

Allan of Inside Allan's Mind gives us his recipe for Citrus-Jerk Talapia. (Includes photos.)

Pan Seared Tilapia from The Laughing Wolf. The pan-fried fillets are served with a Cream Sauce.

Homemade Pizza from the Organic Baby Farm. The recipe makes enough for two to three pizzas which makes it easier for those of us who have to cater to kids' finicky appetites.

Sides:

One of the best recipes for Mashed Potatoes that I've ever read comes from The Flying Space Monkey Chronicles. This is his first Carnival of the Recipes entry and the post ends with the comment, "Update: This is not a recipe blog." Deny it all you want, just keep posting your recipes!

Amy of Prochien Amy offers a recipe for Granny's Noodles, a perfect comfort food for winter.

The Laughing Wolf has two recipes for side dishes to go with the Tilapia I mentioned in the Main Dish section - Roast Garlic and Cheddar Mashed Potatoes and Peas.

Triticale has a recipe for Spaceman's Legs Pasta Salad. He also has recipes for two pies but you'll have to wait until we get to the dessert section of today's menu for more information about those.

Soups:

Marvie from Marvie's Crochet Corner has a recipe for Potato-Cauliflower Soup.

Songstress7 of News from the Great Beyond has a recipe for Pumpkin Soup. You can make this soup using fresh or canned pumpkin.

Sweets:

Cinnamon Pie from CalTech Girl of Not Exactly Rocket Science. A slice of this pie served with a cup of hot tea or coffee would revive even the most fatigued holiday shopper.

As promised above, 6.283185307178 - two pi(e)s from Triticale - Peanut Butter Oatmeal Pie and French Silk Chocolate Pie.

A different kind of Pumpkin Pie from Anywhere But Here. It's a crustless pie baked in a 13"x9" pan with a crumb topping made of cake mix and chopped nuts.

Chris’s Pumpkin Cheesecake finishes up the meal at The Laughing Wolf (see entries for Tilapia and the side dishes above.)

Churros by Bothenook of A Geezer's Corner. These are Spanish doughnuts rolled in cinnamon or powdered sugar and they go great with hot chocolate.

Alert the media, The Glittering Eye has a recipe for Fruitcake that is not just edible but actually good!

Denise from Grandma's House has a recipe for Potato Candy rolled up jellyroll-style with a peanut butter filling.

Punctilious of Like News but Tasty has a recipe for Raspberry Walnut Chocolate Chip Brownies. The recipe was a last minute inspiration (aka what's available in the pantry) birthday cake.

My recipe this week, part of my series of Christmas Cookie recipes, is for Tiny Holiday Tarts. These are raspberry and almond flavored tarts cooked in mini muffin tins.

Leftovers:

Faced with leftovers from your Thanksgiving feast?

Thanksgiving Pizza from Gullyborg of Resistance is Futile.

Find a variety of ideas for Thanksgiving Leftovers at BookLore.

Carnival of the Recipes: Tiny Holiday Tarts

I made these last Christmas for the first time and will probably make them again this year.

Tiny Holiday Tarts

3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 pound butter, softened
1 cup flour
1/3 cup raspberry preserves
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond paste, crumbled
In an electric mixer, cream cheese and butter until fluffy, add flour. Mix just until blended. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours or overnight.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Press ball into a greased mini muffin pan or you can also use the mini muffin paper cups in the muffin pans instead. Divide the preserves among the pastries (about 1/2 tsp. in each.)

Beat together the egg, sugar, and almond paste. Spoon 1 level teaspoon of the almond mixture over the preserves in each pastry.

Bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until edges begin to brown.

Remove pan from the oven. Cool in slightly pan on a wire rack, then remove from pan to continue cooling. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Store in an airtight container.

Makes 2 dozen

Take Your Chocolate, It's Good for You

"An ingredient found in cocoa beans was nearly a third more effective than cough medicine in stopping persistent coughs, researchers at Imperial College London found. The ingredient, theobromine, contributes to the bitter taste of cocoa. It works by suppressing vagus nerve activity, which is responsible for coughing."

I made the mistake of reading this to my oldest son who then coughed a couple of times and used that as an excuse to raid my stash of Hershey bars.

The bars only have 74mg of theobromine. It would take 13 of them to get as much theobromine as was used in the study.

Complicated and a Bit Mushy

Found via Drumwaster's Rants:

You Are the Stuffing

You're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together. People miss you if you're gone - but they're not sure why.

Print vs. Pixels

Instapundit mentions a Dave Barry post about an article on blogging by Greg Hill (director of Fairbanks North Star Borough libraries) that begins:

Will Rogers noted in a New York Times article 80 years ago that "everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." That seems even more true today.

The author goes on to prove this by misspelling Barry's name (Berry) and Dan Gillmor's name (Gilmour).

He also says, "Blog owners usually don't allow their readers to add their own comments, preferring their monologues to others' dialogues." I'm sure that some bloggers don't have comments open so that they don't have to hear any other opinions but their own but I would have guess that most of those who don't allow comments do so for other reasons - older software that didn't include a comment option or to avoid comment spam.

The writer of the article does have a point when he says,:

There are many credible blogs dealing with serious subjects, but most bloggers aren't experts. As the old computer maxim GIGO states, "garbage in, garbage out," and the person believing everything he reads--especially on blogs--is living dangerously indeed.

I agree, you can't believe everything you read. What I like about blogs is that the good ones link to sources and since I'm online already I can Google anything I read about for more information. Opinion articles in online newspapers seldom link to anything. Blogs are usually upfront about the author's biases while newspaper articles of any type more often pretend to have no bias.

After clearly establishing his bias against showing the unreliability of blogs, Hill moves on to the Wikipedia.

Librarians abhor using reference sources that don't have established credibility editorial rigor, and while Wikipedia is an interesting social experiment and "includes information more often associated with almanacs, gazetteers and specialist magazines," it's too untrustworthy to be used as a secondary source. I prefer the expensive and more reliable traditional encyclopedias for my research, for as Gabriel Biel, the German philosopher, put it 500 years ago: "You get what you pay for."

I spent a half hour or more trying to find a reference for the Biel quotation. I found one from a Web marketing company. Bartlett's, Webster's, and other references with "established credibility" don't list this as one of his quotations. Hill doesn't cite a reference.

I don't know if I would use Wikipedia as a primary source either but neither would I discount it just because it is free and isn't produced by a traditional encyclopedia. If people who devote part of their lives (as a career or hobby) to a subject don't know about it, why would a researcher with no real interest in the topic know more? Where do the researchers for those credible resources get their information if it isn't from specialists?

I remember reading once that the Encyclopedia Britannica (credible resource) didn't mention the airplane until decades after the Wright brothers flight. I don't know if that's true. What I do know is that after the invention of the Internet, printed resources will always lag behind online sources. Research may take the same amount of time but you can post information online before a publisher has even produced the first copy. Online resources can be edited immediately when new research or new discoveries are made. Print references are static.

The key to good research is finding multiple resources and evaluating their reliability. Rather than fighting or discrediting new technology, Mr. Hill's time would be better spent finding out how the librarians in his district could better help their patrons learn how to evaluate sources.

Another Carnival and Still No Cotton Candy

Carnival of the Recipes 14 is up at Boudicca's Voice. There haven't been any recipes for cotton candy, caramel apples, pop corn, or any of the other foods you would expect to find at a carnival. The wide variety of tasty-sounding dishes more than makes up for that. Along with the fact that there are no clowns. That's good too.

What? Oh, it's Carnival of the Recipes, not recipes of the carnival.

Nevermind.

Cheesy Beer Dip
Appetizer recipes (veggie platter, Olive Cream Cheese Balls, Celery Sticks, and Heart Attack Salami and Cream Cheese Treats)
Spinach Dip
Goat's Cheese and Red Onion Tart
Mike's Kahlua Coffee Liquor
Drunk On Thanksgiving
Fiesta Chowder
Ambrosia Salad
Perfect Cranberry Sauce For Those Who Think They Hate It...
Cranberry Applesauce
The Filthy Imperialist's Carrot Soup
Easy Cranberry Sauce
Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing
Slow-Cooker Vegetable Soup
Memphis Style Coleslaw
Jim's Death Chili (aka, Jim's Chili of Anal Destruction)
Holtz Spaghetti
Linda's Cube Steak
Chili con Buckethead
Chili Dog Casserole
Drunken Crawfish Pie
Margarita Salmon
Salmon Croquettes
St. Peter's Italian Cod
'The Fish'
Chicken Fried Rice
Smoked Turkey and Dressing
Smoking a Turkey
Spicy Grilled Turkey
Shoe-Peg Corn Casserole
Mashed Potatoes (Parve)
Stuffed Grape Leaves
Tarte Cote D'Azur (An Italian Pie)
Herby Twice Baked Potatoes
Mrs. Morse's Asparagus Casserole
Banana Bread
Coveted Pumpkin Bread
Custardy Popovers
Barton Oyster Dressing and Granny's Dressing
Crescent Orange Rolls
Baked Pears in Gorgonzola
Childhood Thumbprint Cookies
Forgotten Cookies
Great Great Great Grandmother's Cookie recipe
Anzac Biscuits

Pumpkin Pie

From my collection of Holiday Recipes:

Pumpkin Pie

3 eggs
1 can pumpkin
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 can evaporated milk
Pie Shell

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Lightly beat eggs. Add pumpkin, sugar, salt, and spices. Blend well. Add evaporated milk. Pour mixture into pie shell.

Bake 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes or until almost set. Turn oven off. Do not open door. Leave pie in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes. It should be set when removed. Cool pie on rack.

Carnival of the Recipes: Christmas Cookies

As I promised last week, I'm going to be sharing my Christmas cookie recipes for my Carnival of the Recipes posts. Every year I try one or two new recipes. There are also some recipes that I will make once every few years. They're all good recipes but I can't make them all every year so I select the ones that will balance out the rest of my choices. (I try to get an assortment of types - bar, shaped, drop, rolled - and flavors.)

There are also some recipes that I make every year. The first two of these are Childhood Thumbprint Cookies and Forgotten Cookies. Not only are these two of my family's favorites, they also work well together because one recipe uses two egg yolks and the other recipe uses two egg whites. The thumbprint cookies are a shortbread-like cookie filled with fudge. The forgotten cookies are chocolate chip filled meringue cookies that I make at the end of the day since they need to sit in a warm oven overnight.

Childhood Thumbprint Cookies

This recipe came from Southern Living magazine, December 1985.

1 c. butter
2/3 c. sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 t. vanilla extract
2 1/4 c. flour
1/2 t. salt

Cream butter; gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Combine flour and salt; add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Chill.

Roll dough into 1" balls; place balls about 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Press thumb in each ball of dough, leaving an indentation. Bake at 300 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes; do not brown. Allow to cool on wire racks. Place about 1/2 t. chocolate frosting in each cookie indentation.

Chocolate Frosting:
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa
1/4 c. milk
1/4 c. butter
1/2 t. vanilla extract

Combine sugar, cocoa, and milk in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, and boil 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Beat until mixture is of spreading consistency.

Forgotten Cookies

I won a ribbon at the Kentucky State Fair one year with this recipe.

2 egg whites
pinch of salt
2/3 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 c. mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat egg whites until foamy. Add salt and continue beating until they stand in soft peaks. Gradually add sugar, beating thoroughly until mixture form stiff peaks.

Sprinkle vanilla and chocolate chips over the top; fold in.

Drop by small teaspoons onto lightly buttered cookie sheet (or cover cookie sheet with parchment). The cookies may be close together since they will not spread.

Place in hot oven and turn the oven off immediately. Let the cookies dry overnight in the oven.

I Wasn't Ready for the Weekend

Friday was not a good day.

I logged in to check our joint checking account online. There had been some pending charges for amounts we didn't recognize and I wanted to see what they were. Usually this turns out to be our DSL bill or something else that hits monthly (I can never remember when the auto-deduct bills hit).

This time it was for MP3 downloads, online games, and a couple of small charges (donations?) to Amnesty International and UNAUSA.org.

Somehow someone got the number for my debit card. I seldom use my card for this account...I could count the number of times this year on one hand. So I have no idea how they would have gotten the number. I've checked my computer to see if some virus/trojan could have been at fault but couldn't find anything. It wasn't enough to just take our money, this person added insult to injury by also donating to Amnesty International and the UN! Those were the smallest charges (a few dollars compared to $30-50 for the other sites) but they made me just as mad as the bigger charges.

I didn't suspect any of my kids of using my card but if I had, those donations would have made it clear it wasn't them. I'm not sure if they know what Amnesty International is but I do know that they don't hold the UN in very high regard.

We filed a fraud report and I went to the bank to sign an affidavit. The bank has credited the money back to us but probably won't try to find who stole the number because the amount was only a few hundred dollars. If we had waited until they stole a thousand or more, then we might have had a better chance of finding out who did it and how they got the number...at least that's how the bank's explanation of it sounded.

On Saturday, Emma and I went to Festival of the Arts with her Brownie troop. The highlight form me was learning how to make a balloon dog. We learned this in our first event which was about being a clown. The girls got to paint clown faces on each other too.

The second event was a local high school improv group and the third event was watching a performance by Almost Recess.

My birthday was on Sunday and we all went out to dinner. I had wanted to go on Saturday night but my husband decided to go to a party instead. I was not happy.

On Sunday we looked at new cars (see previous post) and then went to Build-A-Bear where Conor and Emma made Rudolphs. After that we went to dinner.

My father sent me a birthday card that said life begins at 40 and to think of myself as a 5-year-old. I think I'll call him and tell him in that case, I want a pony for my birthday!

Car Shopping

I'm afraid my old van won't make it through another winter (or rather, since the heating doesn't work well, I won't make it through) so I want a new car. I'm also a bit hesitant to get one now because my oldest son will be 16 on February 5th and I don't know if I'll want to let him drive something new.

It's not that I don't trust him but I've seen him drive on video games. Maybe I can just lock him in his room for a year or two.

I need a vehicle that will seat five people comfortably. Three of these people are my children and by comfortably, I mean comfortable for me - seating them so I don't have to hear about someone taking too much room or there isn't enough leg room. (My oldest son is already over 6' tall.)

I've been driving a van for over a decade and have thought about getting a full-size car this time. I just don't know if I want all three kids side-by-side in the back seat. They argue enough when they are in the same room. If they are actually touching, I would have to limit the length of any car trips to ten minutes.

I don't want a SUV and as much as I would like a car, I think I may end up getting another van. Any suggestions (other than duct taping the kids hands, feet, and mouths)? What about leasing instead of buying?

Scott Peterson is Guilty

The verdict has just been announced and the jury is being polled.

Once it was reported that it appeared that the jury would present their verdict today I was fairly confident that they would find him guilty. Peterson's lawyer, Mark Geragos, has been taking care of other business every Friday and was away today also. I thought that if the jury were going to find Peterson not guilty they would have come back with the verdict last night or waited until Monday so Garagos would be there. On the other hand, if they decided that Peterson was a wife and baby-killing scumbag, they wouldn't care if his lead attorney was present or not.

Recipes ('resu`peez) - [n] Directions for Making Something

Carnival of the Recipes #13 is up! Go visit Michael at The Common Virtue to find the links to this week's collection.

Hungarian Goulash
Chopped Liver
Hash Brown Casserole
Chicken Tetrazzini
Wonton Stars
Jalapeno Dip
Sausage and Zucchini Saute
Adaptation of recipes from Campbell's Collection 3 Cookbooks in 1
Cajun Chicken Drumsticks
Indian Cashew Chicken
Marbled Cheesecake Bars
Beef and Mozzarella Bake
Bacon-Wrap Feta Chicken
Cranberry Sauce with Zing
Marilyn's Easy Mexican Beef
Tuscan Bean Dip
Bran Muffins
Potatoes and Point
Oatmeal Cookies
Savory Chicken
Papa's Cranberry Relish
Tuna Glop

"Eat Mor Chikin"

Conor, Emma and I went to the opening of a new Chick-fil-A near us. It was so busy they had people standing outside (in the rain) directing traffic. They were handling the crowd inside well too. We didn't have to wait long for our orders and had no problem getting a table.

Conor took this picture with my phone.

The kids got a plush cow and I got a certificate for a chicken biscuit when we left. Yum.

Marbled Cheesecake Bars

This is the time of year when I usually begin thinking about cookies. Every year for...well, it's none of your business how many years, I have made Christmas cookies. Not just a batch or two but lots and lots of cookies.

When we bought our house the thing that sold me was the size of the kitchen. I thought, I'll have room for a half dozen or more cooling racks and still have space to spare!

I have scaled back my cookie making from when I was younger. It's not age slowing me down, it's the increase in "helpers". The more children I have helping, the longer it all seems to take. I still make at least ten or more different types of cookies (about half of what I used to make.)

I'll share a recipe or two each week for my Carnival of the Recipes posts. This week's recipe is for Marbled Cheesecake Bars. I'm making these today for my sons' Tae Kwon Do bake sale.

Marbled Cheesecake Bars

2 cups finely crushed creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs (about 24)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 (1 oz) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line 13x9" baking pan with heavy foil; set aside. In medium bowl, combine crumbs and butter; press firmly on bottom of prepared pan.

In large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in condensed milk until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Pour half the batter evenly over prepared crust.

Stir melted chocolate into remaining batter; spoon over vanilla batter. With table knife or metal spatula, gently swirl through batter to marble.

Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until set. Cool. Chill. Cut into bars. Store covered in refrigerator.

Makes 2 to 3 dozen bars.

Good On You, Judge Keys

The Chicago Sun-Times reports on a civil case brought against charities that fund Hamas by the parents of a young man killed by the terrorists.

A federal judge handed out an unprecedented legal victory Wednesday to the parents of a terrorism victim by ruling U.S. charities that gave money to the militant group Hamas are financially liable for the violent acts the group carries out overseas.

Judge Arlander Keys ruled that it wasn't necessary for the people funding terrorism to know who specifically would be killed. They "were responsible because they knew Hamas was a terrorist group, wanted the group to succeed and gave it money to help carry out acts."

The attorney (Matthew Piers) of one of the defendants said, "It's deeply disappointing, and I find it more than unprecedented, I think legally, it's quite bizarre."

PETA Protest

If you are in New York today don't miss the PETA protest against Columbia University. (Scheduled for noon to 1:00 p.m.) How many other chances do you think you will get to see people dressed as giant tampons?

The complaint about mistreatment of animals was brought to PETA's attention by Dr. Catherine Dell’Orto. The alleged mistreatment happened in 2001 and 2002. For background on the experiments and the investigations read this.

Gospel Music Channel

The Gospel Music Channel has a new Web site with streaming music. If you're a fan, go listen. If you don't think you like Gospel music, visit anyway, you might be surprised. I probably wouldn't have described myself as a fan of Gospel music before. I couldn't even really tell you what "Gospel music" was.

There is no one genre of music presented here. Some of the songs I've listened to so far could be called soul, others rock. The one thing they have in common is a positive, uplifting message.

I guess that's the point. Seems kind of obvious now.

The Incredibles

We went to see The Incredibles on Sunday. Unlike the last movie I took the kids to see, this one passed the "Emma test". The test is how long it takes Emma to announce that she wants to buy the DVD of the movie when it comes out. Usually she asks for it as we are walking through the parking lot back to the van. Last time she didn't mention it. This time she said she wanted the movie before the lights came back on in the theater.

I was going to take the kids to see it on Saturday but the showing we wanted to go to had already been sold out when we got there. Sunday was better anyway since my husband was off work and could go with us.

He teased me because I bought the tickets online in the morning and still insisted that we get there early so we could get seats together. After the theater began to fill up (long before the previews started) he admitted my plan had been a good one. I don't remember the last time I saw that many people in the theater.

Go see it, you won't be disappointed...unless you get there after the tickets have sold out.

A Message to the Coasts from Flyover Country

Why is it that between election years you can read stories in magazines and newspapers that laud families who have left high-pressure jobs in big cities to move to rural areas? Then, it's a good thing that these people have quit the rat race to discover the importance of family and personal values.

This week, the people of middle America who share these ideas and values are suddenly ignorant rednecks. Maybe your opinion only counts if you left a job as a stockbroker to go raise llamas. Trust me, we're not living in middle America because we have no other choice. We're here because it's a nice place to live.

In Louisville the average home price in 2003 was between $60,000 and $226,500 (depending on the location.) You can rent a good multi-bedroom apartment for under $1,000 a month. A one-bedroom apartment is closer to $400.

We don't have to live next to a park to see trees. There are still farms near my home and I can get into the city in fifteen to twenty minutes. We complain if traffic is backed up and it takes a half an hour to get downtown.

We can water our lawns every day all summer long. Our tap water tastes good too. It's a little thing, I know, but in so many places that I've visited from New York to California the water tastes like chemicals. I wouldn't know about the water in other countries...I've traveled abroad but I followed the advice to not drink the water.

We have an outstanding ballet company. The Louisville Ballet is over 50 years old and is the only regional ballet company in which Mikhail Baryshnikov performed in repertoire productions. It has an international reputation and is known for commissioning new works.

Actors Theatre of Louisville is 40 years old. It is home to the Humana Festival of New American Plays where many Pulitzer Prize winning plays have premiered (see the extended entry for a list of the plays). We have Stage One, a theater that provides professional performances for children.

We value innovation but don't ignore the classics. Every summer for over 40 years residents have gone to see Shakespeare in Central Park. Admission is free. Thousands of people go to watch the plays in the Old Louisville park redesigned according to plans by Frederick Law Olmstead. (He designed several parks in Louisville... but you might be more familiar with his designs in other cities - Central Park in New York City, Chicago South Park, Stanford University campus, United States Capitol Grounds, along with parks in Boston, Detroit, San Francisco, and other cities.)

The Kentucky Opera was founded in 1952 and is the 12th oldest company in the country. The Louisville Orchestra plays for all opera performances (and for many of the ballet performances.) We like all types of music and the city has a history of support for live performances. Whether you like classical, jazz, rock, country or whatever, you can find it here.

Jewish Hospital has lead the way in AbioCor (artificial) heart research so it's the one that has gotten the most news coverage but we have several other good hospitals too.

The schools in Oldham County (where I live) were named by Fortune Magazine as one of the "Top 100 Schools in Towns You Can Afford". The pupil to teacher ratio is 20.6:1 and we're building more new schools.

We don't have any major league teams but we do have the Louisville Bats, a minor league baseball team and U of L football and basketball. Ticket prices are reasonable too. And, of course, we have Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby.

We have the Louisville Zoo, the Speed Art Museum, the Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium, Crane House, the Louisville Science Center, and the Belle of Louisville. If you like the outdoors we have hiking trails, bike paths, and nature preserves and we have the Louisville Extreme Park for skateboarders. There are 122 parks in the the Metro Parks system.

So what if some of us talk with an accent and say "you all" instead of "you guys"? I can't help it if we're naturally more inclusive. I've lectured my sons about not assuming someone is ignorant or stupid based on their accent. It's a shame your mother never told you the same thing. You have to listen to what someone says, not how they say it. Doing otherwise just makes you appear shallow and provincial.

You call us stupid rednecks and you can't understand why we voted the way we did. Maybe if you quit calling us names and quit yammering about yourselves for a minute and actually listened to what we have to say you would understand. TV, newspapers, radio, and magazines give us daily doses of your point of view. We might not agree with all of it but at least we have an idea of what you think and why. If you think we voted for Bush because (pick whichever you think applies) we: want a theocracy, hate gays, are racist, want to bomb abortion clinics, think marriage is best kept in the family, are against free speech, think everyone should carry sidearms, think 6th grade is the ultimate in education, or are just moronic mouth-breathing cretins that don't deserve the right to vote, then you haven't been paying attention.

You don't have to agree with us but as long as you act the way you have been the only thing we can really feel for you is pity. We're sorry for your rude behavior and we're sorry for your ignorance about the rest of your country. Not that being ignorant about something is shameful, it's only when you refuse to learn that you shame yourselves.

God gave you two ears and one mouth. Take that as a hint to listen twice as much as you talk. You might learn something.

Pulitzer Prize winning plays that premiered at Actors Theatre:
Dinner with Friends (Donald Margulies), Crimes of the Heart (Beth Henley) and The Gin Game (D.L. Coburn) and Pulitzer finalist Keely and Du (Jane Martin) as well as Getting Out (Marsha Norman), Agnes of God (John Pielmeier), Lone Star (James McLure), In the Eye of the Hurricane (Eduardo Machado), Courtship (Horton Foote), Extremities (William Mastrosimone), My Sister in this House (Wendy Kesselman), Tales of the Lost Formicans (Constance Congdon), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (John Patrick Shanley), Marisol (José Rivera), One Flea Spare (Naomi Wallace), Slavs! (Tony Kushner), The Batting Cage (Joan Ackermann) and Y2K (Arthur Kopit).

Favorite Recipes From Bloggers

Carnival of the Recipes #12 is up at The Glittering Eye.

This week's list of recipes.

Swanky Fajitas
Sweet Quickies
Chocolate Icing
Snow Pea Salad with Hot Chilli Dressing
Lemon Broccoli Chicken
Herb Poached Cod
Herb Poached Salmon
Real & Easy Pot Pie
Cranberry Apple Pancakes
Herbed White/Wheat Bread
Amish Friendship Bread
Potato Cheese Soup
Sweet Kraut aka Amish Sauerkraut Salad
Guacamole
Brown Steak and Gravy
Oven-Barbecued Chicken and Bean Casserole
Chestnut tips
Blasphemous NC barbecue (a.k.a. Crock-Pot Piggy)

Amish Friendship Bread

This is a tasty, sweet bread recipe that makes a great gift. Include a zipper bag of starter and the instructions with a baked loaf.

You need to begin about a month before you plan on giving it. The recipe will make 2 loaves with 2 extra cups of starter.

Amish Friendship Bread

Starter:
1 cup sugar
1 cup Milk
1 cup flour
Place sugar, milk and flour in a gallon-sized Zip-Loc-type plastic bag. Knead bag to mix.

Days 1 - 17 - Knead bag.
Day 18 - Do nothing.
Days 19 - 21 - Knead bag.
Day 22 - Add 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk, and1 cup flour. Knead bag.
Days 23 - 25 - Knead bag.
Day 26 - Do nothing.
Day 27 - Add 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk, and 1 cup flour. Knead bag. It is now ready for making bread.

Each time you make the bread, reserve 1 cup starter for yourself to keep it going, 1 cup for the bread, and give remaining 1 cup amounts to your friends.

To Keep the Starter Going:

Include these instructions with the 1 cup of starter you give to your friends.

Day 1 - this is the day you receive the bread, do nothing.
Day 2 - 5 - Knead bag.
Day 6 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, and 1 cup sugar. Knead bag.
Day 7 - 9 - Knead bag.
Day 10 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, and 1 cup sugar. Knead bag. Use 1 cup for bread, save 1 cup for starter, and give the other two cups away with these instructions and the following recipe.

Making the Bread:

1 cup starter
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 (5.1 oz.) box instant vanilla pudding mix (may use other flavor if desired)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Topping:
1 Tbl. cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar

In a large mixing bowl, mix oil, milk, eggs, and vanilla with the starter, mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, vanilla pudding mix and nuts. Add to liquid mixture and stir throroughly. Grease two 9" x 5" loaf pans or one Bundt pan and sprinkle them with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Pour batter into pans. Sprinkle more cinnamon sugar onto the top.

Bake at 325 degrees for one hour or until the loaves test done.

Note:
The original recipe calls for the starter to remain at room temperature, but health agencies recommend refrigerating it. I have tried it both ways and refrigeration does not seem to alter the final bread, so since it is safer to keep it refrigerated I would recommend it to avoid growing any unwanted nasties along with your starter.

On the Re-election of the Chef de Guerre

This morning I was flipping through the TV channels and found FranceNews2 on C-SPAN. If this is typical of the news that Europe gets it does a lot to explain the lack of understanding the people there have for what goes on here. The bias there makes CBS look fair and balanced.

The report they were showing was about the U.S. election. They said Kerry conceded the election without waiting for the Ohio provisional ballots to be counted because Bush had won the popular vote in the rest of the country. According to the report, there were possibly 200,000 ballots left to be counted. They implied that Kerry could still have won but decided to avoid further division of the country by accepting defeat.

He didn't concede because he had no chance, he conceded because he is (to them) the better man, more noble, more honorable.

They showed clips of Americans in Europe, all apologizing for the re-election of President Bush.

It did have some good (sane) parts. There was an interview with Kenneth Timmerman. One of the questions they asked was whether Bush would continue in Iraq without seeking aid from our allies. Timmerman pointed out that we had asked for help before but France refused. That immediately ended discussion of that topic. I wish I had taped the interview. It was all good.

I didn't watch for long but during that time only two topics were covered: The U.S. election and Yasser Arafat. I couldn't tell if they were more disturbed by the re-election of President Bush or by the failing health of Arafat. From the coverage both seemed equally tragic to them.

1/3 Sounds About Right

Glenn Reynolds says the real losers of this election are " the Old Media, still angry that they couldn't deliver their fifteen percent."

What makes him so sure that they didn't? I prefer to think that without MSM help Kerry would only have gotten 33% of the votes.

The Next Day

Last night (really early morning) I looked at the numbers coming from Ohio, Iowa, New Mexico, and Nevada and decided they would end up going for Bush. I quit channel hopping and tuned in to CBS to see if Dan Rather would break down in tears or something...explode, maybe.

No such luck he was still in denial. By 3:00 a.m. they were still refusing to call any of those states for Bush. The more Rather tried to explain why Kerry still had a chance, the more confident I became that Bush would be declared the winner.

Finally at 11:00 today Kerry called the president. I thank him for showing grace in defeat rather than dragging this out and causing further division.

Election Day

I voted this morning. The line was longer than usual but it moved quickly. I was there less than ten minutes.

Now there isn't anything left to do but wait.

Topix.net Poll

From October 21st, 2004 to October 27th, 2004 Topix.net had a user survey poll on the local news pages.

The results favored George Bush by a percentage of 55.2% to John Kerry's 41.6%. Ralph Nader pulled 1.5% and a generic "other" candidate pulled 1.5%. Duplicate votes were eliminated from the results.

From an electoral college perspective, Senator Kerry won 10 states in the survey while President Bush took 41. If this were the actual vote, this would yield John Kerry 75 electoral votes and George Bush 456 electoral votes.