Spanish Pipedream, Blago, Whole Wheat Bread, Big Old Goofy World

So, the only criminal act they could get Blago on was lying to the FBI? Since when have the fucking cops deserved the truth? Is it a felony to not help the police lock your ass up? This is too fucking stupid to believe. At least they quit carping about the mosque for fifteen fucking minutes.

This is a bread machine recipe that gets made about once a week around here. It makes a very nice, tender, and flavorful loaf of bread. It's a favorite for sandwiches, toast, and even mixed in with bread pudding. I'm going to not bother with pictures for this. Bread machine recipes are simple. Dump the stuff in the baking pan of the machine in the order listed, poke a couple of buttons, walk away. That. Simple.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons powdered milk
2 tablespoons shortening
1 tablespoon honey (if you use the same tablespoon to measure the honey and molasses that you used for the shortening you get a better measure and an easier cleanup)
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 teaspoon yeast

Set machine for whole grain, hit start.

Since I have more important things to do like bake bread, train horses, and play with dogs and kids, I think I'll go do that. Right after some more John Prine.

Comments

[kathy a.]

that looks like a bread recipe i could manage!

[litbrit]

I LOVE my new bread machine (the old one, ca. 1989, had been in the attic so long, husband dearest gave it away in the last Great Purge). This one makes two sizes of loaf--1.5 and 2 lb., and the loaves are oblong, as opposed to cylindrical. It was half-off at Macy's too. We've made your wonderful chocolate bread, and another favorite is this dark whole wheat bread for which I found the recipe on the Internet, one that I used a half-half mixture of honey and molasses in place of sugar. Oh my, was it delicious. I will have to try your recipe next (mine is dense and chewy, not especially light or fluffy, but still gorgeous. And all-organic and very inexpensive to make, too.)

[Eric Wilde]

Speaking of pipe dreams, I could really use a bowl right now. One of my daughters is severely constipated and lashing out at everyone in sight. Its been a rough evening.

Alas, I'm fresh out and have meetings tonight with India anyway.

[litbrit]

Eric--get her to eat some very ripe pears. And drink a lot of water! If you peel and cube the pears first she'll eat more of them. Fresh figs are good, too, but a lot of young children don't like fruit with tiny seeds. No bananas for now, and avoid eggs and dairy for a little while, too.

As to the other problem...perhaps a trip to California to see someone about that arthritis and glaucoma?

[oddjob]

So, the only criminal act they could get Blago on was lying to the FBI? Since when have the fucking cops deserved the truth? Is it a felony to not help the police lock your ass up? This is too fucking stupid to believe.

Apparently that was because of one juror who refused to budge, even as everyone else was ready to convict.

..."She wanted concrete evidence," 21-year-old criminal justice student Erik Sarnello told reporters. "If it were a murder trial, she would have wanted to see the video of the shooting."...

[kathy a.]

interesting about blago. the prosecutor has already announced an intention to retry the other counts.

the information that all the jurors but one wanted to convict on those counts could push him toward a plea, if the prosecutor could be persuaded to drop some of the charges. on the other hand, this defendant has rather an outsided ego...

[oddjob]

OT, but a food news item:

There's a multi-state egg recall going on now (at least some of the eggs are contaminated with salmonella). You may want to check your refrigerators.

[minstrel hussain boy]

it is a pretty well known fact of life in food circles that when dealing with commercially raised fowl and fowl products (like eggs) the salmonella contamination baseline is right around 50%.

unless you know the person who handles your eggs, always cook through completely.

i'm lucky enough to live in an area where there are a lot of backyard egg producers. mine are usually incredibly fresh, and mostly from birds that wander around a farmyard all day and only coop up for the night as a defense against coyotes and bobcats and such.

a few chickens are no big deal, i like to run two or three most of the time. when you have a truck patch those chickens are bug eating machines.

real fresh eggs are an eye opener. if you like things like hollandaise sauce, souffle, creme brulee, or good old fashioned over easy, the freshness of the egg and the health of the chicken matter a great deal.

even in urban environments there is a movement of rooftop poultry production that is taking hold.

[kathy a.]

i'm a pretty urban person. one of many things that amazed me in japan was the eggs -- rich dark yolks and so much flavor. [i know, you don't think of eggs as a japanese food, but they are used in many ways.]

my guess is that this is because farming in japan tends to be on a far smaller scale than in the U.S. not that i saw any chicken farming myself, but fruits, vegetables, even rice are often grown on little pocket farms. freshness is a real priority with japanese food -- a much different model than the "shelf-stable" priority of much american supermarket food. the eggs were superb, from tokyo to the much more agricultural north.

[kathy a.]

and no, i don't have a local source on fresh eggs, despite the proximity to berkeley.

[minstrel hussain boy]

they have to have a farmer's market don't they? try that. usually there's an underground for fresh eggs. track down a pastry chef or a saucier.

[oddjob]

real fresh eggs are an eye opener

FOR REAL!!!

I used to have a professional colleague who raised her own chickens/eggs. Once, only once, I was able to bring those eggs home for personal use. When I did so and my Colombian-American housemate cooked them for dinner he immediately recognized the flavor as "home", but for me?

MY GOD, WHAT A FLAVOR REVELATION!!!!

[oddjob]

the eggs were superb, from tokyo to the much more agricultural north.

While obviously having never lived in Japan I can't truly compare, at the same time I can't help but suspect that the act of pasteurizing/more or less "boiling" those eggs such that we can buy them without worrying about them not being super fresh, means that while the eggs we work with may be more useful, for a longer period of time, when it comes to the non-"egg" kitchen uses we have for eggs (e.g., using an egg as a binder when forming a venison burger, something which otherwise would fall apart into crumbles on the grill/stove because venison is too lean to work as a "burger"), at the same time those pasteurized eggs are no longer truly "EGGS" when it comes to tasting them as legitimate flavor experiences on their own!

[oddjob]

the eggs were superb, from tokyo to the much more agricultural north.

While obviously having never lived in Japan I can't truly compare, at the same time I can't help but suspect that the act of pasteurizing/more or less "boiling" those eggs such that we can buy them without worrying about them not being super fresh, means that while the eggs we work with may be more useful, for a longer period of time, when it comes to the non-"egg" kitchen uses we have for eggs (e.g., using an egg as a binder when forming a venison burger, something which otherwise would fall apart into crumbles on the grill/stove because venison is too lean to work as a "burger"), at the same time those pasteurized eggs are no longer truly "EGGS" when it comes to tasting them as legitimate flavor experiences on their own!

[oddjob]

they have to have a farmer's market don't they? try that.

SERIOUSLY!

Even for me, ten miles north of Boston, when the weather's warm (& the budget allows) on Sat. mornings I go to a Sat. morning farmers' market relatively nearby in Marblehead, MA. I've never arrived early to purchase them (I'm SOOOOO not a "morning person"!), but one of those stands sells "farm fresh eggs"!

If you seek intensely enough, I can't help but think you will find!

[oddjob]

(I have absolutely no idea why there appears to be a double post. Would the powers that be please remove one of the two, as well as this post once the removal of the duplicate is completed?) :)

[Eric Wilde]

litbrit,

Yeah, we've got the various home remedies for constipation going. They generally work but take a couple of days to really take effect. She's OK now (and in much better spirits.)

As to the other problem...perhaps a trip to California to see someone about that arthritis and glaucoma?

Uh, I'm in CA. I have my card and can hop on down to the dispensary if needed. I don't own a car and just haven't had the time to take public transit. Unfortunately the trains go nowhere near a dispensary around here and I have to take a bloody bus.

[Eric Wilde]

i know, you don't think of eggs as a japanese food, but they are used in many ways.

I can vouch for kathy. 'Tis true. Japan generally treats food much better than here.

Luckily our local egg farmer is also just down the street and sells on Sunday mornings down the street a couple of blocks. Fresh eggs... yummm!

[litbrit]

My Mum has often spoken of the fresh eggs they had during the War. My grandmother had a chicken or two, plus a big vegetable garden and fruit orchard, all of which she tended alone while my grandfather was deployed for several years on end. She would trade the produce for extra ration coupons (sugar, butter, shoes for children). So my Mum and her brother always had more than one pair of shoes and little treats like sugar and butter.

How spoiled we are, huh? Still, I would love to get my hands on some fresh eggs around these parts. They are a major source of protein for me, since I don't eat meat. And as MHB pointed out, even though I buy free-range organic at the health food store, there's no way of knowing how fresh they truly are.

[kathy a.]

i'm going off topic, if there is still a topic -- why isn't it huge huge news that we have now taken combat troops out of iraq, after such a long time, when we went there in the first place for the wrong reason?

i had to dig pretty deep in my local paper [online version] to find the story. wtf? and it's not top of the news anywhere, so far as i can tell.

yes, i know we still have 50,000 people there for transition and whatnot. we did rather wreck the place. but we are no longer waging war there.

[Eric Wilde]

I saw it in the screaming top headlines over at Yahoo news.

[Joe]

kathy, probably because we still have 50,000 troops in Iraq in roles which may include combat. We also have 4500 special forces there for combat missions over and above the 50,000. I don't really think you keep or need a 55,000 troop garrison unless you expect an invasion or still expect to fight an enemy or you are basing them in a place to attack somewhere else.

[kathy a.]

from what i can tell, we have about 47,000 military personnel stationed in japan (36,000 on land, and 11,000 "afloat), and over 50,000 stationed in germany alone.

of course, i agree the missions and the situations in those places are far different from iraq. also, that the remaining forces in iraq appear to have been hastily converted from "combat" to "training" forces. also that iraq has many internal difficulties, and it would be stupid to expect a sudden outbreak of peace, dancing in the streets, scattered roses in celebration, etc. but still -- it seems significant that we are no longer formally the forces of aggression.

[Joe]

Those forces in Japan and Germany are there to project force in other places (like the Mediterranean, the Near East, and the Pacific Rim). They are also there to deter aggression in Europe by Russia or China (or historically, Germany).

More importantly, you're right, those deployments are totally different than Iraq. In Iraq, it shouldn't be a major story that the U.S. has unilaterally retitled its mission in Iraq. The forces there are doing what they've been doing since 2003-- occupying the country and ensuring the various factions don't totally slaughter one another.

[kathy a.]

the forces in japan and germany began as occupation forces. those were our main enemies in WWII. it is true, of course, that they are in strategic locations.

i don't know where we are going from here in iraq. there's an element of "we broke it, we bought it" -- so we have a humanitarian obligation. but iraq is a patched-together country with very deep divisions [unlike japan or germany], which existed well before our involvement. if relative peace can happen for long enough, perhaps iraq can struggle its way to something more lasting.

the alternative, a total immediate pull-out, does not seem very workable because of the factions that predate our war by quite a while. it would be easy for iran to step in, without some disincentive. i don't think there is a lot of disagreement about the middle east being volitile.

[kathy a.]

btw, i hate the implications of what i just said, that we might be in iraq for a really long time. but i also do not know of a good fast solution.

[minstrel hussain boy]

along with the several thousand troops who will remain in iraq, there are also nearly twice as many "contractors" who are nothing more than the basest of mercenaries.

also, halliburton just signed a huge ass contract with shell iraq to develop the biggest oil field up in kurdestan.

dylan was right, money doesn't talk, it swears, propaganda all is phoney.

i personally knew four of the guys i served with who did complete and full tours of vietnam a year after our big didi mau. they fought almost every fucking day.

i doubt that will change a bit in our current status. if you are labeled an "advisor" but your advisees are getting shot at, you grab your fucking rifle and shoot the fuck back.

if you take down a can full of shit, tear of the label that says "canned shit" and put on a new label that says "caviar," you still have a can of shit in your hands.

[Joe]

kathy, I totally agree this is a terrible situation. However, I don't think it's wise for news agencies to jump and claim there's a huge news story every time the government starts a new rebranding for propaganda purposes.

[Eric Wilde]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100820/ap_en_tv/us_iraq_tv