I need a break from my current occupation.

I am taking a break from being Cherry. I got my feelings hurt. I am not nearly as tough as I hope I am. Or claim to be. Truth in advertising. For now, I am BellaDonna. So do not let my disguise fool you, Cher. I am planning no other changes. 

Hot Dog!

July is National Hot Dog Month.

I am not a sports fan. I am often surrounded by sports fans who, on crucial game days, require sustenance that is easy to make and goes well with beer. Hot dogs are also called wieners and frankfurters. 

I serve Texas Weiners with this sauce and chopped onions. This sauce is HOT so exercise discretion. For a milder sauce, omit the Cayenne Pepper.

This recipe comes from a chef who posted on the old AOL Comfort Food Board named Big Saab Guy. He actually lives in Texas. It will dress about 2 dozen hot dogs. I give it to you as he gave it to the board. You can keep the Sauce and the Hot Dogs warm separately and the sports fanatics can assemble and eat at will. Give lots of napkins.

The sign on the right comes from Plainfield NJ. It hangs on one of the original Texas Weiner joints in business since 1924. The Texas Weiner was actually created by a Greek in Paterson NJ.

Texas Hot Dog Sauce

1 pound finely ground Beef
3 tablespoons Chili Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1/2 teaspoon Thyme
1 teaspoon White Vinegar
2 cups Water

Very thoroughly brown Beef and drain. You want the pieces to be as small as possible. Really work to break them up as you brown them.

Add the spices and mix well. Add the Water and simmer for one hour, uncovered, stirring often. It should be the consistency of something like tomato soup.

Stir in the Vinegar. Then serve as follows: put a thin smear of Yellow Mustard on both sides of an open hot dog roll, then insert the Hot Dog, then a layer of finely chopped Onion, then drizzle the top with about a tablespoon of the Sauce.

Happy Juneteenth!

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  Homage to Ben Shahn

  Annee Robson

  Scarborough Art Gallery

  
  
  
  

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him. - Martin Luther King Jr. 

 

"Next time we may have to kill him." - John McGraw, suckerpuncher extraordinaire, on how to handle political protesters.

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters. " - Donald Trump.

Cartoon Art by Bill Day. Bill Day is a two-time winner of the RFK Journalism Award in Cartooning, and his cartoons are syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons. He is currently the editorial cartoonist for FloridaPolitics.com

I am a cute little old Italian lady. I am a lot cuter than John Suckerpunch McGraw or the Drumpfkopf. No one gives me a second thought, tapping around on my flowery cane.

No reason I cannot walk right up to a Trump supporter wearing a Trump button and smile and stick my tiny little Beltrame stiletto right into its balls or ass or thigh.

Stiletto is so sharp I would be doing someone else by the time it is felt it at all. No one would see it, so tiny and sharp. Designed for quiet assassination. They would not know until they saw the blood. Never mistake voluntarily peaceful for weak in this world.

Italians lived a long time under oppressive religious government and the mafia. We developed certain skills. Once the fascist woundings and killings have begun, all bets are off.

“Therefore the best fortress is to be found in the love of the people, for although you may have fortresses they will not save you if you are hated by the people.” - Machiavelli.

The Fascists chased my Nonno from Italy. Nobody is chasing me away. Want to play that game? Trust me, Italians do it better.

"You must know there are two ways of contesting, the one by the law, the other by force; the first method is proper to men, the second to beasts; but because the first is frequently not sufficient, it is necessary to have recourse to the second." - Machiavelli

Note to Myself

Trenton Terror

 Ten books everyone should read:

- 'The Dictator's Handbook' By: Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith - 'Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning' By: Timothy D. Snyder - 'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century' By: Timothy D. Snyder - 'Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America' By: Stacey Abrams - 'Surviving Autocracy' By: Masha Gessen - 'How Democracies Die' By: Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky - 'Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service' By: Carol D. Leonnig - 'Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right' By: Jane Mayer - '1984' By: George Orwell - 'The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together' By: Heather McGhee

Sign of the Month - Womb Nazis with Music

Womb Nazis prepared for the day's operations with signs, lunch, extra clothing, cheat sheets, etc. Yes, that is a pun and I committed it.

Photograph came from Every Saturday Morning. You can see more signs at the link.

The folks who carry the signs a woman has to walk past just going in for a pap smear, a prescription for contraception, or an abortion.

George Carlin: Why is it that most of the people who are against abortion are people you wouldn't want to fuck in the first place?

See Something? Say Something!

That is what our Government tells us to do to keep ourselves and fellow Citizens safe and secure. See Something? Say Something!

Rep. Carlos Gimenez from Florida heard a Thing - preplanned - was going down at the Capitol. And he just proceeded to the Capitol to try to invalidate the votes from my State. What is wrong with Republicans? Are they LARPing? Do they not know about videotape? In his hotel room?

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
― George Orwell, 1984

 

 

Sweet Honey in the Rose

The Old Design Shop provides the illustration from Flower Children, The Little Cousins of The Field and Garden by Elizabeth Gordon published in 1910. My title is a hat tip to Sweet Honey in Rock. One of their songs below.

June is Rose Month. I am off on a quest only a Mad Gardener and dedicated Foody would attempt. I am going to make this Rose Honey. My quest? Find a good source of unsprayed Pink Roses. I will make and taste this. I must.

This recipe comes from Gourmets for McGovern. I reproduce it verbatim. The Colophon reads "This cookbook has been peacefully and lovingly put together by volunteers for McGovern." I wrote the article at dkos. That article gave birth to this article. 

"According to The Pittsburgh Press Sept. 16, 1972: "Philadelphian Joan Cantor has written a cookbook 'Gourmets for McGovern,' to raise money for the senator's presidential campaign. The 46 page book contains such recipes as 'Mexican Drunken Chicken' and 'peaches poached in apricot sauce' -- all composed by local ladies. The national campaign headquarters has ordered 100,000 copies which it hopes to sell at $2 each." Printed on multi-colored cardstock and illustrated throughout with line drawings presumably done by the same "local ladies," the book includes Cantor's excellent recipe for Banana Cake re-blogged by Cooking with Kos May 31, 2015." - description Abe Books.

HONEY

from Kathy Weinerman

5 pounds Sugar

1-1/2 pints hot water (sic)

alum (about the size of a cherry)

20 red clover blossoms

12 white clover blossoms

8 pink roses

Melt sugar in the water. Add alum and boil 2 minutes. Remove pot from the flame and immediately add the petals of the blossoms and the roses and let stand 10 minutes. Strain and bottle. Try it, you'll like it!