The Thanksgiving Recipe post

actually, a contractual obligation post, in the Monty Python idiom

so anyway, as far as I know, Gabriel Malor kicked off the meme over at Ace of Spades early this afternoon, with his "Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip". Do go read, it sounds delicious.

In keeping with the contractual obligation, I offer the following recipes for your Thanksgiving enjoyment:

Crock Pot Pumpkin Pie Pudding

SERVES 4 -6

1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup gluten free flour mix
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter or margarine (melted)
2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons vanilla

Whipped Cream

In a large bowl mix together the first eight ingredients.
Transfer to small crock pot coated with Pam.
Cover and cook on low 6-7 hours.
Serve in bowls with whip cream, if desired.

Or this:

Apple Crisp

Ingredients
6 apples, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup apple juice 0r 1/4 cup orange juice/1/4 cup apple juice
1 cup EnjoyLife cinnamon granola
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp applesauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
Directions
1. Peel and slice apples. Place into 8x8 baking dish or pie plate. Pour juice/s over the apples.
2. In mixing bowl, combine granola, cinnamon, vanilla, canola oil, applesauce and brown sugar. Will form a thick granola batter.
3. Spread topping/batter over sliced apples.
4. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
5. Let cool and drain excess juices if necessary.
This is a good rendition of a butterless apple crisp. Butter is a key to the a "crisp recipe", but this tasted fine without it!

Since tuna isn't a Thanksgiving staple, I offer this one up as a freebie:

Tuna casserole

1 12 oz. box of Lundberg penne rice pasta
1 big can of bumble bee tuna
vegan mayonnaise
1 can organic valley cream of mushroom soup
1 can organic valley cream of celery soup
1 jar pimentos
garlic pieces (hard)
celery
1 8 oz. package of Kraft shredded cheese
almonds, slivered
almond crackers, crushed

cook pasta, mix with tuna, celery, mayo, garlic powder, seasoned salt, pepper, add pimentos and garlic pieces

melt cheese into two cans of soup then add in tuna/pasta mixture

top with paprika

cook on 400 about 25 mins then add the slivered almonds and/or crushed almond crackers for about 8 minutes..

The astute reader will recognize that the all recipes offered are gluten free (even Gabe's recipe), plan your menu accordingly.

This material will be covered on your Final Exam. Study accordingly.

thatisall

The Next President

linking our old blog-friend InstaPun***k is A.Good.Thing.

so anyway, LocoPunk has a good post up at InstaPun***k regarding the Next President. Read the whole thing. A snippet:

".....a definitive profile of the next president of the United States, the chief feature of which is that he will bear no resemblance to Barack Obama. Things we can say for sure.

-- He won't be an historical first of any kind, like, say, a woman
-- He won't cause any network newsmen to get homoerotic leg twitches.
-- He won't be young.
-- He won't be good looking.
-- He won't be charming.
-- He won't be even remotely glib, folksy, or clever.
-- He'll spend a lot of time off-camera in the White House. Working.
-- He won't be apologetic about anything American, at home or abroad.
-- We'll be okay with that.
-- He'll have actual experience in government, foreign policy, and executive roles.
-- He'll love the United States more than himself.
-- He'll be an ruthless bastard about pursuing American interests abroad.
-- He'll see wars as opportunities for victory, not occasions for PR bonanzas in world opinion.

Sure, I'm cherry-picking LocoPunk's points, but not so much. I agree with LocoPunk's conclusion, but, with as much as I admire Darth Cheney, I still think that a Thompson / Palin ticket in 2012 would stomp the opposition into a bloody puddle.

This material will be covered on the mid-term exam. Study accordingly.

thatisall. more soon

Friday night observations about nothing in particular

another grueling week of unemployment grinds to a halt

so anyway, since I had to run some errands today I thought I'd take advantage of being out of the house and swing by Taco Bell for a couple of their most excellent Cheesy Double Beef Burritos.

When the girl handed me the bag, she said "Here you go. See you tomorrow". To which I asked "What?" She replied: "Well, your in here almost every day with the exact same order....."

I'm only doing this because Rachel Lucas is currently unable to support her beloved Taco Bell. Someone has to keep the chain alive until her return (I'm a "giver"; it's all about adding value to the lives of others). And the fact that the Cheesy Double Beef Burrito kicks some serious ass. It's the Chuck Norris of the "Value Menu" meme.

Here's my question: Is having the local Taco Bell expect me to show up and order the same thing every day a bad sign?

Your thoughts?

Hard Evidence, Indeed

R.S.McCain is correct: Memeorandum is where to start your blogging day

so anyway, I had sat down this evening intending to blog something about Gov. Sarah Palin and her book release, but I got distracted.

I hate it when that happens.

Instead, via memeorandum, I find Christopher Hitchens' post in re: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the (cough) alleged (cough) perpetrator of the Fort Hood shootings.

a snippet of Hitchens' post:

...I do not say that all practitioners of woman-hating, anti-Semitic, sadomasochistic suicide immolations are themselves insane, but I do say that the teaching itself is demented. In the same way, I do not say that all Muslims are terrorists, but I have noticed that an alarmingly high proportion of terrorists are Muslim...

Spot on. Read the whole thing.

more soon

This you have to see

good stuff, that

so anyway, watch this:



more soon

A teachable moment, with pictures

yeah! pictures!

so anyway, we've all seen this pic before:


and from the "way-back" file, we have this of our President "noticing something on the floor" as he greets the Saudi prince:


In the past 96 hours, Barack Husein Obama has added the following most unfortunate photo-ops:

First, on Veterans' Day:


Dis-fcuking-gracefull. But it gets worse:


If I were Doubleplusundead, I'd caption this pic thusly:


BHO: ahh uhh....Akihito-san...I uhh offer up ahh my uhh balls as a gesture of Hope! and Change!

Akihito: Obama-san, I appreciate your offer, but your self-humiliating gesture shows that we already own your balls, and those balls of your Country.

Mrs.Akihito: Yes, your balls already we own.

/dpud off

or maybe not. Here's the vid of the actual encounter:



In case you're wondering, this is how one greets a foreign head of state:


Stand tall, look them in the eye, firm handshake

doG, I sure do miss Darth Cheney.

more soon.

My thoughts exactly

sounds like a good idea to me

so anyway, I completely agree with Falahime over at Dan Collin's Piece of Work in Progress:

Shooting ranges in office buildings......I think it would increase employee productivity and morale. You have a bad evaluation–take your break and go fire off a few magazines. Exhausted and frustrated from with a completely moronic client? Time for a time-out in the shooting range!

He says so, facetiously (mostly), but he's right. Popping some caps can be an incredible stress reliever. I've said so myself:

I guess I'd forgotten the endorphin (sp? or what? I'm not an endocrinologist nor do I play one on TV) "high" you get after a range session, but I'm digging it deep. I've spent the past hour enhancing that feeling with copious quantities of Hoppes #9 Nitro Solvent as I clean the hardware.

Read Falahime's whole (short) post and before you go off on your "Guns are bad, M'Kay?" spiel please remember: An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.

And since you're headed over to POWIP anyway, do go read Enoch's "Friend Evaluation Checklist". Raise a glass, indeed.

more soon

A choice in beverages

Tea, anyone?

so anyway, I shamelessly lifted this pic from Wax Lips:


It's from the weekend after Rep. Michele Bachmann invited 35,000+ of her closest friends to the steps of the Capital Building to protest the pending B.O.H.I.C.A. legislation. VL of Wax Lips fame traveled over 260+ miles to join the festivities. More pics here and here.

So are you going to go all "Charlie Gibson" on me and say "Protest? Never heard of it"? Of course you are, because it was just a couple of days after Major Nidal Malik Hasan "suddenly decided" to go all "Allah Akbar" at Ft. Hood. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but.....I question the timing.

Wanker (Hasan, and Gibson, both). Like you can get PTSD by osmosis. I hear that Hasan is paralyzed from the waist down. I'm not exactly rejoicing, but it's a good start.

Wow. Do you ever start a post, and then realize that it's taken a turn? Me too. We'll have more word on these topics later.

ps: VL, please advise if you have issues with my use of this picture; I'll withdraw this post upon your response, if you wish.

The reason for the season

it's not what you think.....

so anyway, twenty years ago today, the Berlin Wall fell. Because of this:



h/t to Ace (actually DrewM.) for the linkage.

There was more to this, but it's gotten late early again.

more soon

The "Ragin" Gay Marriage debate

with a twist (it's old)

[Written on 22SEP09, and discovered in the "Drafts" folder this evening. I know, I know: blog it whilst it's fresh.]

so anyway, Ragin' Dave of Four Right Wing Wackos fame is having a debate with one of his readers over the whole "gay marriage" dealio. Dave is firmly on the side of science, whilst Mr.Sellers has taken the "cultural" approach. Guess who is winning? Do go read the whole thing.

As an aside, I agree with Ragin' Dave's position on the subject, but I Just.Don't.Care.Enough. about the issue to be passionate about it. That said, I have a view of the whole "gay marriage" issue that's a little different from Dave's and Mr.Sellers.

I've often wondered why the "civil union" option was considered just right out amongst the gay marriage proponents. It seems perfectly plausible to me.

Define "marriage". To most people, it conjures up visions of a couple, at the alter, swearing vows to each other before a preacher / priest / what-ever. In short, a union "blessed" by the church.

But let's look at what you have to do to get "married": first, you have to go to your local government and get a "Marriage License", an approval from the civil authorities to get hitched. Second (for most folks) you need to find a member of the clergy to perform (sanctify?) the marriage.

Let me offer a personal example: me and TheMissus™. We chose to be wed in a small private ceremony by a Justice of the Peace, as neither of us are church-going types (TheMissus™ is of the atheist vein; and as for me, I'm a recovering Southern Baptist and just don't go near the stuff). By the popular definition, we're not married, but have a civil union: endorsed by the State, but not "blessed" by the church.

So why is the "civil union" option so objectionable to the proponents of "gay marriage"? Hell if I know. Legally, TheMissus™ and I are just as "married" as if we were wed by Cardinal Glick in front of the Buddy Christ statue. Why this kind of "civil union" is not good enough for the "gay marriage" crowd, I'll never know.

more soon

This is good

start with Reagan, then bashes Pelosi: what's not to like?

so anyway, VL of WaxLips fame brings us the good stuff:



This vid will probably blow out the blogger template (again) but it's just that good.

In other news, I exercised the franchise today (I voted not just "No", but "Hell NO") on a county school millage proposal. And, in a further declaration of my inherent freedom, I managed to continue my tradition of consuming not one, but two Cheesy Double Beef Burritos from Taco Bell. I've never felt better.

but that's another story for another time.