BuckeyeB's TEX-MEX Munch Mix

I am not interested in football. I am surrounded by those who do like football. They need football snacks, so I make them snacks. 

BuckeyeB has been kind enough to give me (us) her famous snack mix. You will not believe how good this is until you make it. I give it to you as she gave it to me. 

TEX-MEX MUNCH MIX

1 box (12 oz) Cheese-It type crackers

1 stick butter (butter)

1 package Taco Seasoning Mix (I use Ortega Hot & Spicy)

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire

½ teasp. Seasoned salt

Pre-heat oven to 250. Spread crackers on a large foil/parchment lined cookie sheet in a single layer. I always eat a handful at this point, ‘cause the box sizes were different when I first put this recipe together, & there’re too many crackers in a 12 oz. box for my cookie sheet…& ‘cause I’m the cook & I can!

Melt butter in a small saucepan & add the rest, mixing well. Pour over crackers & mix well again. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

When the 1st batch goes in the oven, mix up another batch of the butter mix & do the same with a roaster pan full of whatever you like/have on hand, things like…

1 large can French’s Onions (no generics)

1 can salted peanuts

1 can potato sticks

Corn chips, pretzels, bagel chips, crackers…whatever. Put this pan in the oven when you stir the first batch the first time, & bake it for the remaining 45 minutes, stirring every 15, too…otherwise the onions burn.

Turn both batches out to cool...I use the top of a copy paper box...& sprinkle with a little salt of your choice. I use plain ole kosher! 

If you make a bunch of batches…like at Xmas…write down the
time you put the crackers in the oven, or you start losing track. Trust me!

ENJOY!

St. Louis Blues - Sign of the Month - October 2014

Another young black man in St. Louis shot by an off duty white police officer because he was "running like he had a gun." Say what? His name is Vonderrit Myers Jr. 

Seems like a 'pedestrian check' is the St. Louis version of "Papers please." I would run from the cops in St. Louis and I am pink. 

This is the statement from St. Louis PD sent to Buzzfeed reporter Jim Dalrymple:

An officer working department-approved secondary for a security company, wearing a St. Louis Police Officer's uniform was in the 4100 block of Shaw when he attempted a pedestrian check. The male suspect fled on foot. The officer pursued the suspect. The suspect turned and fired a gun at the officer. Fearing for his safety, the officer returned fire striking the suspect, fatally wounding him. The officer was not injured. A gun was recovered from the scene. The officer is a 32-year old white male. He has been on the force for 6 years. The suspect is a black male believed to be 18-20 years old. As is department policy, the officer has been placed on administrative leave. The investigation is ongoing.

This post has musical accompaniment - St. Louis in better days - and we have to go back to 1929 to find those 'better days.' Now that is sad. It is more than sad. It is intolerable. This video is beautiful.

Illegal Abortion in America

In 2014, four decades after the Supreme Court upheld a woman's right to choose, pregnant women once again find themselves crossing the border to Mexico and haunting back-alleys in search of medical care. - Laura Bassett

I had an epiphany the other day. Roe v. Wade was an attempt to regulate abortion because the abortion situation was entirely out of control in 1970.

Women were dying in ugly and public ways from illegal abortion. Lots of women die of illegal abortion now at home and worldwide. 

Clergy were directing women to safe though still illegal abortion and advertising the abortion referral service in the New York Times. Rest in peace, Reverend Moody.

NOW was giving parlor teach-ins conducted by nurses to instruct women in the art of 'menstrual extraction' and how to make the device to extract with.

The JANE women's collective was doing safe cheap abortions by the thousands.

A wealthy well known woman with a thalidomide-deformed fetus inside her defied the law and had an abortion abroad. The Media made the rebel abortioneer even more well known and thereby made the plight of poor women who could not travel abroad and needed an abortion more poignant.

Nobody was waiting for the government to approve abortion. And there was absolutely no control at all. Everybody was doing illegal abortions - the Mafia, your local Nurse moonlighting, Doctors with a conscience, etc. It was a Vonnegut style circus.

All by themselves, screaming they are moral, the forced birth cultists have deregulated abortion in America. The back alley abortion is back. There will be no regulations for safety or time limits on when a woman can abort. Gosnell City is here. And the 'pro lifers' built it.

I would be laughing my ass off except I remember what it was like the last time abortion was illegal. My teen Sister self aborted with quinine. Even my Catholic Mother got an illegal abortion. We could have lost her. I know someone who lost her Mother at age 9 to unregulated illegal abortion.

How many women will get maimed or die this time around the block? How many women will go to jail and leave their children to foster care? How many peaches will you get if you harm the tree? If you think I exaggerate, familiarize yourself with recent events in my backward state of Pennsylvania:

http://all-len-all.com/pa-mom-sentenced-to-prison-for-obtaining-abortion-pill-for-daughter-who-lacked-insurance/

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2010/06/08/roundup-yearolds-abortion-need-abortion-access/

NOTE: I find it gratifying that the Guttmacher Institute agrees with me. Who knew?

The United States legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, in part because of the clear evidence that restrictive laws were not ending abortion but were exacting a significant public health toll, notably on lower-income women who could not travel or pay for safe services. Almost immediately afterward, pregnancy-related deaths and hospitalizations due to complications of unsafe abortion effectively ended." - From Facts and Consequences: Legality, Incidence and Safety of Abortion Worldwide, Guttmacher

Ms. Mary Walker's Green Tomato Chutney

I know that I am not the only gardener in Pennsylvania gazing at a bumper crop of tomatoes. Ms. Walker has been kind enough to share her recipe for Green Tomato Chutney with me.

You can learn more about Ms. Walker, British expatriate HERE. 

Unconditional surrender of Europe occurred on my 11^th birthday and, in the evening my dad suggested that we ‘go for a walk’. My sister warned that we would be late for the curfew. My Dad simply answered – “It’s such a nice evening, I don’t think we’re going to worry about that tonight”. Cat’s Whisker receivers WORKED! 

Mi casa es su casa. So I am sharing with you, Cher Reader. I give it to you as she gave it to me. Stay tuned for her recipe for Garlic Jam. When Ms. Mary said Garlic Jam, I began to salivate immediately.

GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY

5 lbs chopped green tomatoes
1 lb chopped onions
1 tsp whole peppercorns
1 tsp salt
1 lb sugar
1-1/2 cups vinegar (I use either white wine vinegar or cider vinegar)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup sultanas

Mix tomatoes, onions and peppercorns in a large bowl and let sit overnight (covered)
Bring vinegar and sugar to a boil (until sugar is melted) 
Add sultanas and raisins and simmer for 5 minutes
Add tomatoes and onion mixture and simmer till thick (about 40 to 45 minutes).
Put into 8 oz jars - leaving about 1/4inch head-space - and can for 15 minutes.