So good, you have to go see it for yourself

This links to a photoblog of Barack Obama. Just gives me chills. Incredible pictures.

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Chicken Waldorf Salad

This is one of my favourite dishes. My family loves apples. Our staple meat is chicken breast. We probably have 100 different ways of preparing them, but tend to vacillate between 10 standards.

I had some leftover chicken breast (intentional leftovers so that I could have a quick & easy meal another night though I should admit, the first one was quick and easy too!)

I had some celery in the garden begging to be plucked.

I have a bushel of organic apples which make me drool just thinking about them. OH they're so good.

I use one apple per person for this recipe. Tonight we served four. Here's my quickie recipe:

4 Red Delicious Apples diced (a firm apple is best. I also like a mix of red delicious & granny smith)
4 ribs celery diced
leftover chicken breast
1/4 cup salad dressing (not mayonnaise unless that's your preference. We don't like the stuff. Besides it has WAY more fat in it than salad dressing like Miracle Whip. Miracle Whip Lite is gluten free!)
Paprika
Sea salt

Wash the apples & celery. Core the apples, slice and dice them--don't peel them. Dice the celery. Sweet apples tend to oxidize quickly (turn brown) so I squeeze or sprinkle lemon juice on them as I place them in the bowl (don't overdo it -- it doesn't take much). I toss frequently so all the apples get some lemon juice on them. Dice the chicken breast. Stir in the salad dressing. You may need more salad dressing depending on the size of your apples and the quantity of chicken in your mix. Don't overdo it, though...you don't want the salad dressing to dominate, just to accent and hold everything together. Top with sea salt and paprika to taste. Stir well. Serve cold.

Other additions: you can add grapes, sliced in half. I add walnuts when I don't have much meat to add.

Serving suggestions: have this as a sandwich filler stuffed into pitas, or open-faced on focaccia bread. Have this on a bed of lettuce. Have this all by itself!

The kids ate it all gone! Not a bit was left. The boys both had seconds!

Want another apple recipe? Check out my Apple Puff Pancake recipe.

I'll get back to posting more regularly now. I hadn't been feeling well for a while but things are looking up.

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What's Wrong With Men?

I have to wonder this now and again. Despite the fact that I'm married to the greatest guy on earth, he still sometimes makes me wonder....what the hell?*

Tonight we're tag-teaming dinner prep. We're having apple puff pancake and breakfast sausages. Hubby's making the apple puff pancake. It's a Betty Crocker recipe. Of course, the Betty Crocker cookbook is MIA. Hubby goes to the computer and goes to the Betty Crocker site. It's no longer there. I tell him, "I blogged it. Just go to my blog & pull it up." He's got a bookmark toolbar link to my blog. All he needs to do is click it. Does he? No. He has to enter another recipe site and search for it. Now...there are lots of recipes out there for the apple puff pancake. Some of them require so many eggs they taste more like souffles than pancakes. So I roll over to his desk, steal his mouse from his control and click on my blog's link. Pull up the recipe and there it is. He gives me a look. You know....a look like, I woulda got there eventually, you just didn't give me a chance.

So tell me, why is it that when it comes to directions men always have to drive the longest route, pass 14 gas stations without stopping for assistance until finally and at long last he must stop because the car's damned near out of gas so that the wife can go inside and say "how the hell do we get to....?" Why?

:)

The pancake was good. Even if the journey was a bit odd.


*I'm sure I never illicit this response in him. hahahahahaha

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Dispelling the Barack Obama Myths, Lies, Rumors & Innuendo

The willingness of the American people to believe anything whispered in their ears has always surprised me. It shouldn't. I've been American all my life (we'll not discuss how long that's been.) The American people love a conspiracy. They love to believe they're in on some secret or have some hidden knowledge to which not many people have access. They do not love to check facts, do research, or find their own answers. I do.

I think that a large handful of Americans most fear Barack Obama because he is a man of colour and because he has Muslim sounding names like Barack, Hussein, and Obama. So....let's just get down to the facts:

RUMOUR: Barack Obama is a Muslim who will not recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
FACT: Barack Obama has never been a Muslim of any sort, radical or otherwise. His biological father was born Muslim but was not a practicing Muslim. His father was atheist or agnostic by the time Barack was born. Barack's early education in Indonesia was in Catholic school and secular public school. The public school was predominantly Muslim because that is the religion of the majority of the population. His religion lessons at this public school were Christian. Obama has been a member of the United Church of Christ since the 1980s, long before he ever entered the world of politics. The statement that he will not recite the Pledge of Allegiance is simply a lie.

Who started these rumours? Insight Magazine, a conservative leaning political magazine formerly owned by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. Moon has said that he is the second coming of Christ and that he "appears in the world as the substantial body of God Himself." Moon has always had conservative Republican leanings and ensures that his major media outlets promote those leanings. He also owned the Washington Times. He is also known for his belief that the Holocaust was retribution against the Jews for failing to support Jesus Christ when he was alive. Fox News is the other source of this rumour. Fox News has long been known as a conservative right wing supporting news source, which leaves neutrality in the dust to further its political views. Who debunked these rumours? CNN.

RUMOUR: Barack Obama is the Antichrist.
FACT: Wow. Leave it to the American religious Reich to come up with this one. This one really illustrates how fundamentalist Christians in America use fear and people's ignorance to ally those people to their churches. More allies, more donations, right? Apparently there are viral emails out there stating that Barack Obama meets Revelations' description of the anti-Christ. The book of Revelations contain no descriptions of an anti-Christ. There are lots of very odd beastly monsters described, though I really think it's a stretch to say that Barack Obama resembles a seven-headed, ten-horned sea creature. (Again, wow.) Within the same viral email, the claim is made that Revelations reveals that the Antichrist will be a 40-something Muslim. Interesting, this claim. Especially since the Muslim religion didn't even come into existence until a few hundred years AFTER the book of Revelations was written. And were it true, Barack Obama isn't and never has been a Muslim.

RUMOUR: Barack Obama was sworn in on the Quran.
FACT: This is simply another lie. There is a Minnesota congressman, Keith Ellison, who was sworn in on the Quaran. Barack Obama was sworn into office on his own family bible.

Soon as I hear a few more of these rumours being used as reasons not to vote for Obama, I'll post them and their counters.

Sadly, I really think the root to the average American believing these rumours is based in white Americans' longstanding fear and suspicion of black men. The thought alone depresses me. So many Americans would forgo the hope that this young man can bring to the nation and instead embrace the continued economic degradation dumped upon us by Republican after Republican...just because that hope is not pale.

Sad.

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Wearing my Politics on My Sleeve

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Lunch-meat Free Lunch Ideas

With the recent Listeria outbreak here in cold luncheon meats, we're all trying to come up with lunch meat free lunch ideas. Even though all the offending products have been removed from store shelves, my confidence has certainly been shaken and I do not want to use lunch meats anytime soon. I think it will be a long, long while before I purchase any again (even though our usual brand isn't manufactured by the company that made the contaminated meat.)

I pack my kids' and husband's lunches every day. Lunchmeat always made things easy, but I never depended solely on them. Now I simply won't use them.

Lunch Entrées :

• Egg salad sandwiches
• Tuna Salad sandwiches (For either of these I use a food processor to make them and it makes it so quick and easy. They're also of a more spreadable consistency which makes them last longer and makes them easier to use.)
• Cream cheese (and jam if wanted) sandwiches, my son prefers plain cream cheese.
• Bagels with cream cheese
  
• Homemade ham cut in cubes along with some cubed cheese
• Salad
  
• Leftover chicken or turkey sandwiches
• Pita pockets filled with salad fixings and topped with leftover meat (chicken, turkey, ham). I pack salad dressing in a small container and they can add it at lunch time.
  
• Tatziki spread on whole grain bread with cucumbers and sliced tomatoes. My daughter adds the sliced tomatoes at lunchtime. I pack them in a bowl separate from the sandwich.
  
• Cereal and milk (though they don't get this for breakfast if they have it for lunch.)
  
• Pasta salad with everything in it (meat, veggies, cheese, the works)
• Hard-boiled eggs

Snacks (I always pack two of the following):

• Single-serve yogurts
• Single-serve puddings
• Jello (sometimes with fruit)
  
• crackers of any kind
• carrot sticks (or celery sticks, cucumber slices, etc) with ranch dressing in a small container
• baby carrots
• fruit
• string cheese cheese
  
• the occasional cookies (maybe once a month)
• pretzels
• the occasional single size bag of chips (less than once a month)
• pasta salad that's just pasta and dressing

What alternatives have you come up with for lunchmeat free lunches?

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Garden Fresh Red Salsa

Another 'what to do with my harvest' post... (this is only some of the harvest. We had two more large metal bowls full of peppers and Roma tomatoes that I didn't get a picture of)



Ingredients:

• 2 cups fresh tomatoes diced
• 1/4 cup onion chopped coarsely
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon dried Oregano or 3/4 teaspoon fresh diced Oregano
• 1 tablespoon Jalepeno Pepper chopped coarsely (use a sweet pepper if you don't like hot & spicy foods)
  
• 3/4 teaspoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro chopped or 1 teaspoon dried cilantro (might be called coriander leaves in your locale)

1. Chop the tomatoes and Onion, blend them well
2. Add all the other ingredients, blending well. Let stand for 1 hour before serving so that the flavours can combine. Can be served at room temperature or chilled. This recipe makes about 2 1/4 cups.
   
3. BE CAREFUL when chopping your hot peppers! Wear gloves if your skin is sensitive to the oils in hot peppers and pay attention that there are no littles around waiting to snatch pepper pieces!
   
   

Yes, my little one did, the poor guy! He thought they were sweet peppers and grabbed & gobbled one before we could stop him. Milk -- lots of milk. Then he had some cheese. That seemed to do the trick. For grownups -- beer works very well to dissolve that pepper oil that burns so much!

So that's the straight recipe. We used 2 Cherry Bomb Peppers, 5 mini bell peppers (sweet, not hot), 1 habanero, 4 jalepenos, 4 hungarian wax (banana) peppers, 2 medium-small-sized onions, and 8 roma tomatoes as well as a handful of incredibly sweet and delicious cherry tomatoes. We have hot peppers and we're not afraid to use them! Here's our finished salsa (two quarts):

And here's what we did with it for dinner:

Grilled chicken breast, cubed, shredded cheddar cheese, LOTS of salsa and plain yogurt for me, sour cream for the rest of them! It was very good. Not very hot. We left no seeds in from the peppers.

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