Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Cranberry Walnut Thanksgiving Pie - Happy Holidays!





Every year this recipe saves this cook's life. So I republish it every year at Holiday time so someone new can find it. Enjoy.

When I first encountered this recipe, I scoffed. Nothing this easy could be all that good, I thought. The easy in this pie is no pastry to make. I was so wrong. Make this once and it will become a holiday favorite.
This recipe meets my standards (simple to make, no exotic ingredients, dynamite result). The sweet tart taste is divine. The pie has a texture like a soft shortbread cookie with fruit.
For cooks who have to turn out good food for their family on short notice in a regular kind of way, this recipe is a godsend. I found this recipe in a regional cookbook. It came from Mary Yeaple of York Friends Meeting. Mary Yeaple says of this recipe "I always make two pies at a time because they don't last long."

Cranberry Walnut Pie 

1 1/4 cups Cranberries
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup chopped Walnuts
1 Egg
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup all purpose Flour
1/3 cup Butter, melted *

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9 inch pie plate and layer cranberries on the bottom. Sprinkle with brown sugar and nuts. In a bowl, beat egg until thick; gradually add sugar, beating until thoroughly blended. Stir in flour and melted butter; blend well. Pour or spoon over the cranberries. Do not stir. Do not worry if the batter does not cover each berry and nut. The high butter content and lack of leavening make the batter relax and become more liquid when heated. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into wedges and serve with ice cream or whipped topping. English custard sauce would be good too.

* Note: 5 1/3 tablespoons to be exact - I eyeball it with the help of the little tablespoon marks on the butter label. Be sure to use a 9 inch pie pan. Do not take the pie out too soon or it will be too soft. Let it cool completely before slicing. A pie server is useful.


Monday, November 1, 2021

Party Punches for Holiday Celebrations

Punches are elegant and perfect for celebrations of all kinds. Never forget that Punch stock should be poured over a block of ice and served cold cold cold. The only exception is the Coffee Punch below. 

These Party Punches come from Charleston Receipts.  I recommend this cookbook. It is the encyclopedia of Southern comfort. Proceeds from the sale of Charleston Receipts cookbook go to many worthy community projects of the Junior League of Charleston. I receive no payment. 

Coffee Punch

1 gallon strong Coffee
1 quart Cream
2 quarts Vanilla Ice Cream
5 teaspoons Vanilla
5 tablespoons Sugar

Chill Coffee. Whip Cream, add Sugar and Vanilla. Place Ice Cream and whipped Cream in punch bowl and pour Coffee over it. Mix well before serving. ( If block Ice Cream is used, slice it into thin slices before placing in the punch bowl. ) 50-60 servings. 
– Mrs. S. Edward Izard Jr. (Anne Kirk)

Otranto Club Punch

1 pound loaf Sugar
1 quart strong Green Tea
Juice of 12 Lemons, strained
1-2 quarts carbonated Water
1 pint Peach Brandy
1 quart heavy or light Rum
2 quarts Brandy or Rye Whiskey

Dissolve the Sugar in the Tea; add Lemon Juice, Peach Brandy, Rum and the Brandy or Rye Whiskey. Use an abundance of ice, adding a liberal quantity of carbonated Water. 50-70 Servings.
- Louis Y. Davison Jr. 

Cotillion Club Punch

1/4 pound Gunpowder (Green) Tea (makes 5 quarts)
1 quart Cherries
2 dozen Lemons, juice
1/2 pint Fruit Syrup
12 quarts carbonated Water
6-8 quarts Rye Whiskey
1/2 pint Rum
1 pound Sugar made into thick syrup

Pour 5 quarts boiling Water onto the Tea, bring this to a boil; remove from fire at once and let stand until strong enough. Strain and, when cool, add juice of Lemons, Syrup from the Cherries and also the Rye and Rum. Sweeten to taste with any Fruit Syrup; add Sugary syrup and Cherries. Bottle this stock and keep on ice until ready to serve. Pour over block of ice, add one quart Carbonated Water to one quart of stock. This stock can be kept indefinitely if bottled and sealed. Yield 275-300 servings.
- A Charleston Gentleman 

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Charlottesville Mess Explained in Plain English

Read about current trial of Protesters here:

Attorney Antonio Moore discusses the Charlottesville Virginia Protest clashes between protestors. Moore uses the lens of American history and slavery to provide a view into why the clashes occurred and what to expect going forward under President Donald Trump.

Antonio Moore graduated from UCLA & Loyola Law School. He is a Emmy nominated producer of the documentary Crack in the System that aired on Al Jazeera.






Skeleton Dance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death_in_medieval_culture




Friday, October 22, 2021

If She Was Your Daughter...

This is the work of Allison Hantschel.

IF SHE WAS YOUR DAUGHTER
I grew up around evangelicals in Alabama.
They know this shit happens–in homes, on the street. In churches. Let me tell you what they do:
They blame the girls. https://t.co/jQBm3o1ptO
— Donna (@totallydonna) November 9, 2017
Do you know how many women I know who told their fathers? Who told their mothers, their friends, a “trusted adult” that they were being hurt or had been hurt? Do you know how many of these people, who have daughters, did nothing?

Homeless shelters are full of girls and boys whose parents chose their abusers over them. It happens every day.
Hey @tedcruz. You endorsed Roy Moore.
You have two young daughters.
After this Washington Post story, can you look your daughters in the eye and tell them you still support him?
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) November 9, 2017
Let me tell you what they’d do, these upstanding Republican congressmen, if it was their daughters.

They’d say to their girls, their beloved girls who they taught to throw a ball just like a boy and who they said could do anything a man could do and whose report cards they pinned to the fridge, they’d say:

You’re making that up.
They’d say:

He didn’t really mean it.
They’d say:

You led him on.
They’d say:
You should forgive him.

You know why they’d say those things to the girls they read bedtime stories to every night? You know why they’d back down in the face of someone who bullied their own flesh and blood?

Because nothing matters more than the status quo. Do you know how many of these men have already faced the fact that it was their daughters? Do you know how many of them did nothing?

I can even understand it, you know. It’s a human instinct to protect your relationships, and so you gamble: You call out a man for hurting your child, he might leave. He might cause trouble for you. He might get you fired or fight you or find a way to make you less, turn all your friends against you, refuse to work with you, tell others and embarrass you.

Your daughter? She will probably stay. She will probably quiet down. She will probably stop talking about it.

She will probably minimize what happened in her own mind and minimize it for you, so that her relationship with you can stay intact. Nothing’s worth destroying your relationship with your family, after all. She’s been socialized since birth to provide for men’s comfort and that means comfort of mind as well as body.

You can hear her telling herself: She survived it. It wasn’t that bad.

It’s a much safer bet, to discount her version of events, so that’s your solution. It keeps everything the same. It keeps everybody comfortable. And she stays. And she feels just a little less important to you, and a little less real, because whether you think about it in these terms or not, you’ve demoted her. She was your daughter.

Now she’s just another woman, another wicked female, who you don’t believe.

So when someone who looks just like her goes on the news and tells everyone that a member of a political party you admire and identify with, or a celebrity you like, tried to assault her, hurt her, rape her, you don’t see your daughter.

You see someone who’s trying to do what your daughter tried to do. Upset everybody. Get attention. Get something out of this.

And if you face the facts and say out loud that this didn’t have to happen to this stranger, this girl you don’t know on TV who’s accusing a man who looks and acts just like you, is in politics just like you, if you say out loud that someone should have stood up for her, should have done something?

Then you face the facts and say out loud that this didn’t have to happen to your daughter, and you should have stood up for her. You should have done something.

And oh, then doesn’t the whole nice polite reasonable world come crashing down?

I said back when Trump and Billy Bush were cackling about grabbing women by the pussy that the most insidious person on that bus wasn’t Trump but Billy, because lots of of guys wouldn’t be the bully but they would be the coward who laughed at his jokes.

They wouldn’t react differently if Roy Moore had hurt their daughter. Chances are someone like him already did, and they didn’t believe her.

A.

Monday, October 18, 2021

World Food Day Poster Contest for Children

These are my favorite posters. You can also find out how your child or your classroom can participate at the WFD website. See more Posters at World Food Day Poster Contest Gallery.

The 2015 World Food Day theme is:

“Social Protection and agriculture: breaking the cycle of rural poverty”


Social Protection has been chosen as the theme of this year’s World Food Day (WFD) to highlight its importance in reducing rural poverty and granting access to food or means to buy food.


Social protection can be defined as a range of solutions, often combined with each other, —such as work opportunities, provision of food, money and services— that are designed to support the vulnerable and help the poor in society move out of hunger and poverty. 



Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Halloween Decorations

Halloween is my favorite holiday. How could it not be so? The air is crisp, the harvest is home and dressing up your hearth or porch.. Here are some pictures and websites to help you plan your decorations and help you celebrate. 

The Zombie Brain Pumpkin comes from skulladay.com. 

Pumpkins can be carved and they can be painted, etc.

Oil base glossy house paint works the best, especially if you want to put your pumpkins outside on the porch. Oil based paint is durable, glossy and adheres well to pumpkin rind. A decorated pumpkin will last without rotting from Halloween through Thanksgiving. I have even had a painted one last until Christmas without rotting.

Glossy acrylic paint is a good choice if you are working with children. It washes off.  Do not buy small containers of hobbyist paints unless you are only going to paint one or two pumpkins. Go to an art supply store for premixed acrylic paints in a wide variety of exotic colors in a generous size.
.  





Friday, October 8, 2021

Hallelujah! Judge Pitman's Opinion with Music and Fireworks

The Music appropriately begins with Taps.
Farewell to the Texas Abortion Law.
Text of Order
Art by Favianna Rodriguez

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Texas to suspend the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., calling it an “offensive deprivation” of a constitutional right by banning most abortions in the nation’s second-most populous state since September.

The order by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman is the first legal blow to the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which until now had withstood a wave of early challenges. In the weeks since the restrictions took effect, Texas abortion providers say the impact has been “exactly what we feared.”

In a 113-page opinion, Pitman took Texas to task over the law, saying Republican lawmakers had “contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme” by leaving enforcement solely in the hands of private citizens, who are entitled to collect $10,000 in damages if they bring successful lawsuits against abortion providers who violate the restrictions.

The law, signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May, prohibits abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant.



Saturday, October 2, 2021

Big Whoop-de-Shit - Asshats on Parade - UPDATE

Some adventurous Reader read this, so I decided to go back and see who I called an Asshat. I wrote this in 2014. Can you tell how much Republicans still respect and protect Texas Women? Purity culture kills Women and Children. Texas has a higher maternal mortality rate than some countries. Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose.  

You can put lipstick and earrings on a hog and call it Monique, but it's still a pig. - Anne Richards, Governor of Texas
According to WHO, unsafe abortion is one of the three leading causes of maternal mortality, along with hemorrhage and sepsis from childbirth.1

The men of the Republican party believe that women and women alone are to be held responsible for the fact that humans have sex.



This ultrasound wand -----> is what the State of Texas and Dan Patrick decided must be shoved up my Bird in order for me to have a safe and legal medical abortion. Dan Patrick is working to stop early medication abortions too.
 

Meanwhile, in the real world, a 13 year old just self-aborted with a pencil in Pennsylvania. The child has been sexually assaulted by a 30 year old SexPig. Is the State going to shove one of these -----> up the vagina of a child like her? How Christian is that? Precisely what did Jesus Christ say that requires this treatment of women?

I wonder how many social workers and child advocates it is going to take to deal with issues like this? Or are young women just going to be forced to birth babies because we cannot make exceptions in time or by law? In Africa, childbirth is the leading cause of death of young women 15-19. Is America going to go there "because Jesus?" And how are we going to pay to enforce all these laws? Bond issues? New taxes?

Mandatory ultrasound is The Law in my State as well. Thanks to Governor Corbett. One and done. Legislatures must not practice medicine. Remember the words of the illustrious and reknowned Drive-By who said "Those who vote Republican will have Republican done unto them."

Rapists, who cannot get their genitals to cooperate enough to rape you, use objects instead: sticks, broken bottles, ultrasound wands and laws. That ultrasound wand is bigger than my second husband's johnson. I am going to throw a party when these guys lose. I got a new slogan: Butt core Corbutt! Yes, I went there. I am so going to Hell.