Conversation with an Atheist

Below are tweets from my conversation with @thefreedomguy. 

Q: RT @thefreedomguy I have never seen a parent care if the kid doesn't want to take part in mysticism and usually force and coerce 'belief

R: I think you are saying that parents should not force belief on kids and just let them believe what they want. I don't agree. Religion has clear lifetime benefits related to physical and mental health. Denying kids religion denys them these benefits which have been well researched. 

Most people won't be religious if they don't have that experience as a child.   Sometimes kids have to be told to go to church because it is a family event. Children need to be involved in the family, even if they don't want to. After all no person can be "forced" to believe anything.

Q:  @thefreedomguy Which values? Truth? So, you learn truth by your parents lie about an invisible sky ghost who is so all powerful he......cannot even prove his own existence.

R: If it is true that God exists then they are not lying. If parents believe it's true then they are not lying either. It may be false but not a lie.  

Also, I can wiggle my ears, but I don't do it. Not doing something doesn't mean you can't do it. So saying that God can't prove his existence because he hasn't done so to you is not very logical.

Q: @thefreedomguy All "laws" punishing people based on what they ingest are based on religion, being in Utah you should know how strict it is.

R: Guess you mean alcohol and drugs, alcohol & drugs are a problem for public health. Russia, an atheist county, banned drugs. It's not about religion. Many atheist countries have laws that control substances. 

 Q: @thefreedomguy all fine values and lessons if you want to be a delusional sociopath I guess... 

R: I am not familiar with the Christian Sociopath. I am fairly familiar with the atheist sociopath: Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot.

Beet and Orange Salad

Beet and Orange Salad

I want to get my kids to eat more vegetables but every time I cook a vegetable I want to put about a 1/2 pound of butter on it. My problem not theirs.  This was good and easy to make.

Ingredients

• Two 14.5 oz cans of beets.  I used sliced beets but now that I am looking at the picture, maybe cute round beets would have looked better.
• Red Onion - 1/4 large
• Clementine Oranges - 4  I used these because I had them around for neighbor Christmas gifts but I bet you could use the canned Mandarin oranges if they were drained. 
• Rice Wine Vinegar  - 1 tablespoon ( or Sherry Vinegar)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1 tablespoon
• Sugar - 2 teaspoons

Prepare
Onions - Slice very thinly.  I cut them into quarters as you can see in the picture.
Peel clemenine oranges, separate the wedges and cut each in half crosswise to expose the inner lusciousness
Beets - drain


Mix
Stir all together, let sit for about 1/2 hour then serve.   Do not let this sit overnight.  It tasted somewhat bitter the next day.  I think maybe the pith from the orange was the culprit. 

Red Curry Tilapia

I like the idea of serving fish to my kids because it is high in protein and low in fat.  Unfortunately the way they like it is deep fried and covered in batter. This recipe for Red Curry Tilapia turned out great and I happened to have every ingredient in my kitchen already.  This recipe was originally for a fish cake which called for the fish to be blended in a food processor.  No blending for me; my Dad broke my blender and the idea of blended fish makes me think of the SNL skit for the Bass-o-matic.   http://bit.ly/fZRFRz  I cubed the fish and just stir fried it.

Ingredients - I like Tilapia because it is firm, abundant and not too fishy tasting.  Why is fish the only food that people don't want to taste like itself.  Ever hear anyone say their orange was too orangy?

Red Curry Fish
16 oz tilapia fish fillets - I bought mine frozen. Each filet was in an individually vacuum sealed package.
Red Curry Paste from Thai Kitchen  - 2 Tablespoons  http://bit.ly/ejAkG7
2 Eggs
sugar - about 2 teaspoons
green beans - fresh (about 5)
Fish Sauce - 1 tablespoon  http://bit.ly/WbRuk
Garlic - 2 large cloves
green onions - 5 each

Prepare
Chop up the fish into stir fry size pieces (3/4 inch to 1 inch)
Dice the green onions (green only) - you want these very small
Slice the green beans open lengthwise then cut crosswise into 1/2 inch peices
Mince the garlic
Beat egg into a small bowl

Mix
 Mix all of this together in a bowl
Stir fry in vegetable oil of choice. ( I don't recommend Olive oil)

Eat and enjoy.  This is just a little spicy.  My 16 year old and my 9 year old both really liked this recipe.

Hitler proves time travel does not exist

     All of my teen boys were at home the other day, hanging out and waiting for food to appear. Normally we would end up arguing about why invisibility does or does not blow as a superpower. I believe it blows, but that has nothing to do with this blog.  Instead, we started talking about time travel.  I proposed that the existence of Hitler proves that time travel is not possible. Or at least not the type of time travel we would all want to have;  the ability to change past events.

     If time travel were possible, wouldn't anyone want to kill Hitler, or Pol Pot?  Most people would kill these mass murdering dictators.  If time travel were possible then someone at some time in the future would have invented it.  Since we have an infinite amount of time ahead of us in order to invent time travel, if it were possible, then we should have it and Hitler would be dead.

    I can only think of one possible reason why Hitler would still be alive if time travel is possible and we can affect the past.  The reason is actually pretty horrifying.  Maybe something even worse happened to the world and time travelers came back and killed that evil dictator and Hitler happened instead.  This would mean that Hitler was less evil than what ever happened instead.

    Ok, so now you are going to say that I hate the Jews because I am saying that something can be worse than Hitler.  Well, as evil as the planned extermination of an entire people is, there are worse things that I can imagine.  Imagine a Pol Pot type dictator over Europe that succeeded in enslaving and re-educating all of Europe thereby eliminating forever a free Europe.  Or, imagine a Germany that got the atomic bomb before the US. If someone slightly more competent than Hitler rose to power, they could have beaten us to the bomb. A nuclear winter caused by Germany's last gasp at revenge by detonating an atomic bomb would have been very bad for all of humanity.

   If any of these things happened then a future time traveling people could have decided to kill the worse dictator.  Later (if that even has a meaning at this point) they would have discovered that Hitler happened instead.  The question would still remain:  Why they would not come back and kill Hitler once they realized how awful he was.  Perhaps they just wanted to stop the annihilation of the most of the human race and accept how bad Hitler was for fear that further messing with history.

  The existence of a mega-dictator is only speculation and it seems unlikely to have happened.  Therefore, I can only conclude that since Hitler lived and anyone would kill him if given the chance, and with an infinite amount of time available in the future to invent time travel,  time travel that can effect the past is impossible.

Goverments spending causes unemployment

Does this chart say the same thing to you that it does to me?  When Goverment spending increases unemployment increases?

The red line is Federal spending as a % of GDP.  When Federal spending goes down, unemployment also goes down (after the fact).  When government spending goes up, higher unemployment follows.

Unemployement numbers are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics http://bit.ly/EiGZ0
Government spending is from  http://bit.ly/enWEJV

Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse Cake

     For a chocolate lover, this cake is the end of the search for the perfect chocolate desert.  God made this cake so we could know what paradise will be like after we die.  This is a French style cake and contains no flour. It is more like a dense pudding than a cake, but it slices and serves like a cake.  Make this cake a day in advance because it needs to cool down and be chilled for at least 8 hours.   This recipe is from Cooks Illustrated Nov/Dec 2002.  I do not use the egg yolks as called for in this recipe because it makes the cake much lighter without it.

    Making the cake is very simple, melt the chocolate, whip the eggs, combine and cook.

    Ingredients

• 12 oz bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 12 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 8 eggs 
• 1/8 teaspoons salt
•  2/3 cups light brown sugar

    Prepare:

• Turn oven to 325 degrees
• Get large roast pan out for the water bath
• Butter and flour spring form pan, use parchment or wax circle at the bottom
• Line the outside of the spring form pan in foil to keep water out of the pan during cooking
• Separate 8 eggs
• Put large sauce pan on the stove and heat water for melting chocolate,  I use a large pot and put a metal bowl on top to act as a double boiler.  

    Melt - in a large bowl over large sauce pan filled with water (use this water to fill roast pan for water bath)

• 12 oz bittersweet chocolate chips - Use Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips
• 1 oz unsweetened chocolate - chopped up - I use Baker's 
• 12 Tablespoons butter - recipe calls for unsalted - I just use the regular version   

         Add in to slightly cooled chocolate mixture - 1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract

    Mix - beat in a mixer, until frothy

• 8 egg whites
• 1/8 teaspoons salt

       Add sugar to the mixed egg whites,  and whip until soft peaks are formed.

• 2/3 cups light brown sugar 

     Combine

• 1/3 of beaten egg mixture to chocolate mixture then fold in the remaining egg mixture

Scrape the batter into the spring form pan, place spring form pan in roast pan,  pour hot water into the roast pan.  Cook for 45 to 55 minutes until center reaches 170 degrees ( I have cooked this cake several times and this does not really work.  I usually cook the cake to 170 degrees, turn off the oven and then leave the cake in the oven until the oven cools. )  Remove the cake from the pan, and chill for 8 hours before serving.  It is fantastic alone or with a little bit of powdered sugar on top to hide irregularities.

  I make a whipped topping for this cake, much like the topping used for Tiramisu.  Whip up 1 cup of heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form, add in 1/2 cup of sugar and whip, then add in 1 pound of marscarpone  cheese.

Ann Coulter - Hack Number 1

     Ann Coutler proves in her latest article on Townhall.com, http://bit.ly/ehThi4, that she is a complete hack with no original ideas.  Ann Coulter is 48 years old, but apparently has no plans to grow beyond the third grade intellectually.

     First she starts by name calling, Long Dong Silver - that is sooo funny Ann, hahahaha.  How did you ever come up with that?  There was no way I was going to Google that but I did google Long Dong Silver + TSA, and for some reason someone named Bungalow Bill also made the connection on November 18th in his blog at- http://bit.ly/ejX0N1.  Again, I don't really know why and I don't want to either, please don't enlighten me.

     So apparently Ann wants the security at the congressional office buildings to be just as good at the airports with the enhanced pat downs.  Her infantile argument is that Capital Hill guards can't possibly recognize 435 congressmen any better than TSA agents can recognize passengers on 37,000 flights all across America.  My God, why does this women continue to be given a forum to speak anywhere?   She thinks airports are the same as the local diner:

It can't be because Capitol Hill security guards recognize members of Congress and their staff. TSA agents presumably recognize lots of people going through airport security.  Ten to 20 percent of passengers are frequent fliers taking the same routes over and over again, year after year.

Stop! Stop right there!  OK, so poorly paid TSA agents who work different shifts each week at different gates who see thousands of passengers a day, if not each hour, are the same as Capital Hill security guards who work the same shift at the same door who see only 435 people every day for two years?  Does she think we are stupid or does she just not care if she is insulting us?

In addition, TSA agents will recognize their neighbors of 40 years, their hometown mayor, their children's teachers, local and national celebrities, actors, athletes and other famous personalities. Some TSA agents probably recognize Christian Slater as that guy who sometimes has a gun in his carry-on bag.

     So, I guess, your local TSA agent is just like the local dog catcher or constable, just hanging out, chewing the tobaccee, touching your junk.

     She claims the policy is elitist because congressmen don't get the enhanced pat down while proposing that the elite (recognizable celebs) be given special treatment.  According to her we should give James Caan and Al Gore special treatment because we recognize them, but not Bob Smith, your insurance agent who is going to his first insurance convention in Omaha.  Why would she rail against elitism and then argue for it?  We don't know, we will never know.  If asked, she will deflect by making some other inane statement.

     She is incensed that members of congress are exempt from screenings.  For a constitutional lawyer, she does not seem understand that members of Congress should not be subject to Executive Branch procedures, presumably to keep the Executive branch from using that power to prevent Congress from sitting and doing its job. Duh. 

    This women has never had an original thought in her head.  She is a good writer and communicator, much like McDonald's is a great restaurant.  Please stop feeding the baby by reading this crap.

No inflation

The prices on the attached graph were downloaded from the Bureau of Labor statistics from the U.S Goverment web site.  The commodities are electricity, oranges, tomatoes, bananas, apples, milk, eggs, chicken, ground beef, bread, gasoline, and local utilities.

As can be clearly seen from the graph, prices have been falling to the same point as 2005, not rising as Glenn Beck has been saying.  What is not included on this graph are the things people don't buy on a regular basis which are falling more than market basket items.  Such items as computers, TVs, appliances, internet services, telephone, etc. have fallen dramatically in price.

Thanksgiving 2010 - "Sticky" Turkey recipe

     I did all my shopping for Thanksgiving today. My ex is giving me a turkey he got from somebody.  You might think this will save a lot of money, but turkey seems to be the least expensive item on the list. I bought some heavy cream and it cost over 7$ for a quart.  All together the Thanksgiving items cost about $100.00.

     This year the menu is: Turkey, 24 hour layer salad, mashed potatoes, gravy, cornbread-sausage stuffing, cranberry relish, pumkin pie, and apple pie.  Drinks are eggnog, and sparkling cider.  

     My favorite chicken/turkey recipe is called "Sticky Chicken".  Double this for turkey.

     Start the night before you plan on serving.  First clean the cavity well.  Combine all spices.  Pat the inside and outside of the chicken dry with paper towels.   Rub the inside and outside of the chicken with the spice mixture, making sure it is deep down in the skin (this is where you find out why this is called "sticky" chicken).  Place the chicken in a plastic bag and store until 2 hours before cooking time.  For the turkey, just cover it as best you can with plastic wrap.  When ready to cook, remove the plastic wrap or bag, chop an onion into quarter size pieces and put the onion into the cavity.  Place the bird into a shallow roasting pan.  Roast at 325 degrees for 2 hours.  For the Turkey, follow the directions for cooking times and temperatures that came with your Turkey.   During the cooking time, baste after 1/2 hour and then every 15 minutes until done and golden brown.

   Spice mixture - double for turkey

• 4 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp ground thyme
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

This is really delicious, the spice mixture gets into the skin and flesh and makes a great tasting gravy.
  

Why Republicans will always need social issues

     The rise of the Tea Party coalition which includes Log Cabin republicans and the "Homo-Cons" has led many to wonder if the Republicans should give up on social issues and focus only on fiscal issues. I believe Republicans will always need social issues because during good economic times and relative peace, Republicans have no message for the voters other than social issues.  Republicans have three main messages for the American people:  small government/reduced spending, national security and conservative social policy.  Of the three above, the message of social policy resonates regardless of the economy and international political situations whereas Republican messages are weak during economic prosperity and relative international peace.


     During economic prosperity, Democrats can woo the voters with  social programs based on spending whatever surplus is available.  Americans are susceptible to this because they are very generous and want to help others.  When a politician points out any economic disparity, and Democrats are very good at this, Americans want to fix the problems and help the underprivileged.  Democrats will have a solution to the problems, always in the form of more government spending and bureaucracies.  When Americans are secure in their jobs and are optimistic about the future they are more susceptible to the Democratic message of adding programs or additional benefits for the underprivileged.

     What can Republicans offer in the way of solutions for economic disparities?  Conservative, small government Republicans should say the problem does not need a new government program or additional spending because in a country of 300 million people, the very small number of people affected does not warrant the expense or the decrease in liberty that any government spending and bureaucracy causes.  Or Republicans say that we should keep increasing freedom by putting more money in the hands of individuals to grow the economy.  Either way, we look unfeeling or inactive.  In a nation of optimistic radicals, both of these are weak messages to get Americans to the polls.
 
     Republicans need social issues to bring voters to the polls.  George W. Bush did this exceeding well during his first run for the Presidency when he  brought together the southern christian coalition.  He had to talk about social issues because the country was at peace and the economy was going well.  The social issues Bush ran on were the Education policy of No Child Left Behind,  reduced dependency on foreign oil, tax breaks for families with the Earned Income Tax Credit.  All of these issues were heavily promoted as social values that affected the family and the ability of the working class to succeed and keep their families together.  Later he became identified with the Defense of Marriage Act and the elimination of Federal Funding for abortion and fetal stem cell research; clearly social values issues.

   The 2004 presidential election was another example of how Republicans benefited from a social values agenda.  In 2004, 14 states passed constitutional amendments banning, in some form, gay marriage.  Many of these states are normally considered swing states.  The following states had a marriage amendment, were swing states and also went for George Bush in 2004: Ohio, Georgia, Missouri, and Montana.  The electoral college total for these 4 states was 49 with George Bush winning the election by 35 electoral college votes: 286  to 251.  Many conservatives believed the constitutional amendments in these states, and others caused conservatives to come to the polls and therefore give George W. Bush another term during a time of an unpopular war and fairly stagnant GDP growth during most of his first term.

    Many of the social conservative issues are not things the Federal Government should be involved with or can change.  Clearly, the anti-abortion agenda does not change the Supreme court ruling on Roe Vs. Wade and banning Federal funding of fetal stem cell research does not stop private fetal stem cell research.   This position may be cynical and overly pragmatic to hard line fiscal conservatives who hope to increase the Republican "tent" to bring in voters who are interested in fiscal issues but generally repulsed by the social agenda.

     The social conservative voters may not be pretty as they cling to their guns and bibles.  Likewise, the social conservative agenda may seem like a small tent idea, but to win we need some type of active message for voters, even if there is nothing the Federal government can or should do to move the agenda forwar

What is a pork barrel

     My Mom grew up on a farm during the depression.  To give some idea about how she lived her early life, she was 12 years old before the farm had an indoor toilet.  Her life was hard because she was the  oldest of 12 children and had a lot of responsibilities.  One of the jobs she was given in  the fall during the pig slaughter was the scraping of the pig intestines.  Just so you know, when you are in the grocery store and the sausages say "natural casing", they mean pig intestine.  My Mom told me the job of cleaning the intestines was a high status job....I am wondering now if someone was tricking her into doing a really crappy job (pun intended).  Anyway, she had to turn the pig intestines inside out, then scrape and clean all the junk out of the "casing".  She had to do this while making sure the casing was intact so it could be filled with sausage.

     So, what is a pork barrel?  It is a barrel filled with pork.  Of course, there was no refrigeration, so the barrel had to be filled in a specific way.  First they poured fat in the bottom of the barrel, then a layer of pig parts.    They filled up the barrel in successive layers, sealing each layer in fat.   The layering was important because they had to use the pig fat to seal the pork parts away from bacteria and oxygen to preserve it. My Mom did not mention salting the pork which was a common method of preserving as seen below.  I wonder if it was a difference between northern climate and a southern climate.  I know they definitely used fat as a sealant though.

     The Pork Barrel was stored in the cellar.  They slaughtered the pigs in the cool of the fall so the cellar was fairly cool since the farm was in Ohio.  Over the winter, when pork was being served, one of the kids had to go to the cellar and reach into the barrel and pull out the meat cuts needed.  They had to pull out a layer and then reseal the fat back over the remaining layer.  Having kids responsible for this seems a bit scary because of the chance of contamination, but, apparently, they all had very healthy immune systems because they all lived to a ripe old age.

     And now you can guess what is  meant by scraping the bottom of the barrel.

From Wikipedia - http://bit.ly/EN7S
         More generally, a barrel of salt pork was a common larder item in 19th century households, and could be used as a measure of the family's financial well-being. For example, in his 1845 novel The Chainbearer, James Fenimore Cooper wrote, "I hold a family to be in a desperate way, when the mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel."^[5]

Gay Marriage - Yes but not the way you conceive of it.

Marriage - a positive social good for protecting women and children during the period of child rearing

Marriage - never, ever, ever, on any continent, at any time or in any culture was about love or emotion.

Childbearing - usually was associated with marriage, either before, during or after.  Was encouraged as a positive social good for the support and rearing of children.  Basically supported by almost every study that has ever been done.   

Divorce and/or no marriage is almost always only results in poverty for children.

Tyson Chicken fingers

     This chicken is really, really tender.  I almost never buy pre-processed meat like this, especially chicken.     The biggest problem with chicken breast is that it can be very dry.  The Tyson chicken is individually frozen and already soaked in a tenderizer. 

     I use this is my Pot Crock cream cheese chicken recipe.

In a crock pot, on  high.

Melt - one stick of butter (1/2 pound), 1 - (8 oz) package of cream cheese,  1 - package of italian dressing mix.  Melt these ingrediants and stir a bit to meld.  Put in chicken.  Cook until cooked through - about 4 hours.

I serve this over noodles and my boys can't get enough of it.

Star Trek, Prejudice & Sarajevo Syndrome

     In the Star Trek universe there was no prejudice.  There were blacks, Chinese, Scots, and a couple of white dudes.  There were no religions unless they were weird alien religions like Spock's weird sex fiend religion.  All the nations were peaceful and everyone worked together.

     We all want to live in a Star Trek universe.  We are raising kids in America who can live in that world.  When I was growing up, I never heard any racial, religious, or nation-of-origin slurs.  The first time I heard anyone talk like that was when I watched "All In The Family".  I am still shocked at the anti-semitism of people like Mel Gibson when it erupts from under the surface of a seeming well adjusted person.    But how do we raise a nation of children who don't hate, in a world of people who do?  It seems a disservice to our children to raise them to believe they are living in a Star Trek universe when there are truly horrific racial and religious prejudices.

   I just read the story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish prayer book, that has been saved over its life by a Catholic priest, and two Muslims.  First it was saved from burning by a Catholic priest in Venice.  In Sarajevo, it was saved, by Muslims, during the second world war from the Nazis and during the Bosnian War from bombing.  This story is always told as an uplifting tale of people working together to save something beautiful even when the book is from a faith that they disagree with. The thing that is missing from this tale are the terrible acts which forced these people to save the book.  These great acts of courage would not be necessary in an atmosphere of peace, prosperity and lack of prejudice.  The forces that caused these acts of courage were forces of unimaginable horror.

      The first recorded salvation of the book was in Venice.  The book was saved from burning by a Catholic priest during the burning of Jewish holy books.  Why was it saved? Who knows?  But we know what it was saved from - hate and prejudice.

     The book was saved by a Muslim museum curator in Sarajevo during WWII.  The Nazis were burning Jewish holy books and the Nazi general who came for the book was told the book had already been picked up by another German officer.  Brave, yes, ecumenical, yes, but the reason he had to be brave was the genocidal hate toward all things Jewish.

    During the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina another Muslim museum curator had to risk his life to save the book.  The Serbs had placed a siege around Sarajevo and proceeded to bomb the capital, killing tens of thousands and reducing the city to Medieval sanitary standards. The city was being bombed everyday and no building was spared including the National Museum where the book was held.  This modern war was the equivalent in hate motivated massacres and atrocities to WWII, albeit in microcosm.  Both sides strived to cleanse their areas of ethnic and religious minorities.  As the war came to a close these efforts intensified.

     Sarajevo was the home of the 1984 Olympics and the people of Sarajevo felt that they had a new type of city, one where Jews, Christian, and Muslims could live in peace forever.  They were horribly wrong. Neighbors turned against neighbor.  Young snipers targeted and killed school mates.  This, Sarajevo Syndrome, the belief that this time it can't happen here, to us, because we are civilized, has proved to be wrong time and time again.

     So how do we raise Star Trek kids in a Sarajevo world?  Creating a world without prejudice and hate requires the right kind of people to fulfill the vision.  Do we inoculate our children to know there is hate when we really don't want them to know it?  Are we really what is on the surface or is there a world of hate just bubbling beneath ready to break free?

Abortion and cognitive dissonance

     On Nov 3rd, right after the Republican big win in the mid-term elections, a group of women started tweeting to an #ihadanabortion hash tag.  The purpose was to publicly come out about their abortions and encourage other women to do the same.  Apparently women who have had an abortion are very stupid about how the laws on abortion work because they didn't know that it is extremely unlikely to overturn a Supreme Court ruling just because one house in congress switches to the Republicans.  They didn't know that even if it was overturned, the state laws would then take precedence if Roe V. Wade is overturned.   Seventeen states have legal abortion,  most of them on the heavily populated east and west coasts.

    

Apologetica - Penn Jillette

     Penn Jilette gave his reasons why he is an atheist on Redeye (Nov 9, 2010).  He started out by saying that he just doesn't believe. Fair enough. Belief in God requires faith and you have it or you don't.    But, then, he went on to give really bad reasons why he is an Atheist. 

      He doesn't believe because his mother suffered when she was dying and he can't believe in a God who lets people suffer.  I couldn't believe in a God who deliberately makes people suffer either.  But I don't believe in that God.  I believe in a God who made a world that requires suffering for the world to work.  We eat animals to live and that requires suffering of the animals.  In order for life to happen, death also has to happen.  Death requires the breaking down of our body.  God doesn't make suffering happen because he likes it.  Suffering happens as the result of the normal and natural process of dying.  Pain is required so that we know when our bodies are broken or to keep us from doing things that will hurt our bodies.  This same protective force also creates suffering.  I wish I could fly but gravity prevents this from happening and makes it hurt when I fall down.  Gravity also keeps the Earth revolving around the Sun.  In order for life to happen on Earth, I can't fly: In order for my body to be protected from injury, I must suffer pain when it breaks down.  God created a world that worked, there are some bad things that happen as a result. 

     God could make all deaths painless and beautiful, negating the natural and normal processes.  Perhaps you would like God to make us all get hit by the No.  5 bus or freeze to death ( a very peaceful death )?  That would be nice but that would negate the need for faith.  If, suddenly, at the end of life, all normal natural processes were suddenly suspended, wouldn't everyone believe in God? Isn't that really the whole deal with God: belief?  How can we have free will to love God,  if God uses a sledge hammer at the end of life to change all we know about the world?

    Penn also brings out the old "there is not enough evidence" argument.  This is the weakest of all arguments of atheism.  All of us goes through life believing very important things with no evidence at all.  Penn wants proof on the very thing which absolutely requires faith.  How many of us have had a DNA test to know for sure if our parents or siblings are actually our parents or siblings.  Wouldn't you want to know if your children are your children?  Yet, almost no one actually requires proof. Almost everything important we believe in life can be proved, yet I am sure that Penn does not go out of his way to actually get that proof.  Why the different standard for God?  He requires proof of God because he simply doesn't believe it.  Why does he have to muddy the waters with this pseudo intellectual argument?  So, Penn, until you start requiring proof of everything you believe, can you leave God out of it?

     Penn then says that if we need a God then we don't have enough love on earth.  Wow, I don't know about you but I don't really feel a lot of love from God everyday.  I don't know a lot of believers who do. Anybody read the Book of Job?    The love Penn says he received from his parents, I see as the love of God, channeled through his parents.  Atheists always believe we can live in this world with morality alone, not understanding how unloving and cruel the world is without the Judeo/Christian God.  Can Penn name one civilization he would have wanted to live in as a normal, average person with a Pagan or even Athiest world view?  I can't.  Not today and certainly not in the past.  We Love because we believe.  Penn is living off the leavings of a believing Judeo/Christian people.

    Penn, if you don't believe, then don't.  But these are weak arguments for atheism.

Link to Penn Jillette's comments here. http://fxn.ws/aqBJVy

Bill Clinton and Ms. O'D get naked and no sex happened

     No one really has any idea what happened when the Lady Bug was flitting from flower to flower but if the story is true then Christine O'Donnel has some very bizarre notions of what sexual abstinence is.  She went to a man's apartment, went out drinking with him and then wound up in his apartment with her tongue down his throat and in his bed naked.  At some point she must have known where this was leading.  She waited until she was naked and in bed to bring up her sexual ethics.  This seems like bad planning but mostly poor thinking.   I have no issue with adults engaging in adult activity but I do have a problem with intellectual dishonesty.  This intellectual dishonesty in sexual ethics spans from Bill Clinton who "did not have sex with that woman" to "born again virgins" to teens who are redefining sex.


     The point of sexual abstinence is to protect the heart not the hymen.  Sexual promiscuity leads to building walls around your heart to protect yourself from rejection. Most woman and men, (I want to believe that ) still equate sex and intimacy.  I heard someone say that men form relationships to have sex and women have sex to form relationships.  Abstinence is to protect our ability to form relationships, intimate relationships, by keeping us from forming relationships based on shallow pretenses.

     I am not suggesting that this is true of everyone or that it is even desirable for everyone,  but the "born again virgin" crowd claims that it is.   is to being rejected again and again generates suspicion of new potential partners.  Keeping your heart free to love enables the building of long term relationships.   Deciding to go to bed with someone she barely knew had long term consequences that must have affected how she relates to men over the long term.  She had to put up with this guy she woke up with while dating his roommate for a year.  That is awkward even with out the tell-all blog post.

  I have problems with a woman claiming to be a born again virgin, and then engaging in sexual activity. It is as if she is saying: I will put anything, anywhere but not a penis in my vagina.  What?  Why is that sexual abstinence?  Being a virgin implies some sort of inexperience and innocents.  I am sure there are plenty of dewy eyed, inexperienced 40 year old virgins out there, but she does not appear to be one of them.

     If she wanted a long term relationship that involved marriage and children, and I am assuming she did if she is a Christian, then why stay in a relationship for a year without a commitment of marriage?  Was there no sexual activity for the entire year of any kind or was it the no "p in the v" but anything else goes?  If it was every thing else goes then she was engaged in a sexual relationship, not an abstinent one, and she is not a born again anything.

    When Bill Clinton said he "did not have sex with that women", he was engaging in the same sort of intelectual dishonesty as Ms. O'D.  Believing that we can redefine sex and therefore make it is so adultery didn't happen or that you can claim to be a virgin leads to moral dilemmas.  Real people get hurt 


If it wasn't sex, then what was it,  a very intimate massage?

     More and more teens are redefining sex as only vaginal sex and choosing to engage in risky oral sex; risky for their hearts and bodies. Oral sex is still sex and girls and boys can be used and abused emotionally to perform for their partners.  Oral sex is risky physically because syphilis and gonorrhea are easily transmitted orally.  Redefining sex as only vaginal sex allows vulnerable people to be manipulated into activities they don't want because it is not "sex" and therefore o.k

     I knew a guy in college who said that if a girl was dancing around naked on his bed and she said "No" or "Stop" then it was his duty as a man and a gentleman to stop.  I always appreciated that and was glad there are men like that around.  I think there are a lot more of them than we think and hear about.

http://usat.ly/97jWX5

Why I don't have a Significant other

The Drake equation of finding intelligent life in the Universe can also calculate the probability of finding an acceptable mate.

So using the link below I plugged in the numbers.
the number of potential men in Utah County, Utah.  545,307
R - the rate of population formation - 5.3%
Fm - fraction who are men - 49.7%
Fu - fraction living in Utah County = 1 ( included in population above)
Fa - age appropriate - years from 40 - 55 (too wide?) 5%
Fu - Education level = 1 (I don't care)
Fb - physically attractive = I am kind of picky I guess and this is fairly important to me.  I would say 1 in 10 men are attractive to me. 10%
L = 47 years old

G= 545307 *.053*.497*.05*.1  = 71 total!! ( see correction below, it is really 27!)

That is a  .013% probability that any person I meet would be a potential mate.  Good luck to me.

Correction:  I forgot to include that they must be single!   40% of males are single in the US.  I assume the rate is the same in Utah County.   This changes the total to 27 total people out of 545,307 who could be potential mates.  Can you all call me to arrange an interview?

Use the link below to find the equation with explanations.:  http://bit.ly/ay0ou4

Brett Favre - My Buddha with a Football - also Brats

I heard that Randy Moss was traded back to the Vikings today which made me think of my time in Wisconsin during the prime Brett Favre/Packer days.  I lived there when they went to the Super Bowl twice.  The Vikings were the Packer's nemesis.  Now, Brett is QB and Randy will be catching the ball... Sweet, if it were 10 years ago.  They would have been unstoppable.

I  loved watching Brett Favre play.  He is my Buddha with a football.  He always played in the moment, forgetting the score, his last play, or the next play.  He seemed to ride the wave of the moment, passing into double and triple coverage if the moment dictated it.

Brats
Brats, the grill, tailgating and Packer football will be forever linked in my mind.  If you want to impress your neighbors in Wisconsin, serve a Johnsonville brat.   I feel better buying a named brand brat.  I just don't trust what goes into generic or store brand sausages.

In Wisconsin, the way to cook a brat is to boil it in beer and then finish it off on the grill.  This gives the brat a unique, sticky, sweet, flavor.   I never liked this method because beer smells bad when boiled on the stove and we always cooked with coals and it took too long to fire up the grill.  I am no longer a slave to boiling beer smell and messy grills because I don't live in Wisconsin anymore and lightning will not strike me dead if I don't.

The question was how to get that sticky, sweet, flavor without putting up with the beer smell and starting the grill for a family dinner.  In Utah, I cook brats, in a pan, on the stove, in fruit juice.  I use apple or cranberry juice for my brats.  Put the brats in the pan and then put enough juice in the pan to cover half-way up the brats.  Simmer until all the juice is gone and the brats brown slightly.  Turn the brats to get the sticky goodness on all sides of the brat.  Use spicy brown mustard to offset the sweetness.

Worst canned soup ever!! - Campbell's Select Harvest Light

I have now tried two varieties of this soup and they are both very bad.  I tried the Italian Wedding soup and it was terrible and I tried the Vegetable Beef & Barley soup tonight and it was also terrible.  The use by date on the Veg soup was September 30 2011, so it is not even that old.  It wasn't that something was missing that could easily be added; there was a distinct flavor that made it taste bad.  I tried to add salt and pepper to make it taste better and then I just started adding crackers.  I tried to get my 8 year old to try it and he wouldn't eat it either.

The can would contain 160 calories in two cups of soup and is a "Good source of fiber" and "No MSG Added".  I read the ingredients and there really is nothing in this soup to account for the awful metallic taste.

On the other hand a really good, quick and easy soup for people trying to watch their weight is the Tortellini soup recipe my freind gave to me.

Tortellini/Spinach soup
1/4 tsp minced garlic
29 oz fat-free chicken broth
4 oz frozen cheese tortellini, without sauce
4 1/2 oz chopped frozen spinach, thawed
14 1/2 oz canned, STEWED, tomatoes, undrained.

Brown garlic in large saucepan coated with cooking spray over medium heat, about 1 minute.
Add broth and tortellini, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add spinach and tomatoes and simmer uncovered, 5 minutes.

Note:   The tomatoes must be stewed tomatoes, not just regular diced tomatoes. 

Clam Chowder - Campbell's

My pantry included Campbell's Chunky New England Clam Chowder and also Yankee Clipper All Natural Baby Clams.  Both were gifts from neighbors.

I had some potatoes left over from last night and I put the Clam Chowder, the baby clams (drained), the left over potatoes and some milk in a pan and heated it up.    I had to add some salt and pepper to taste and it was pretty good!   I found the clam chowder to be fairly bland before but after adding the extra clams it was very "clammy".

White Clam Sauce on Spaghetti

Along with the 7 large boxes of canned foods, I got Progresso White Clam Sauce and a can of Yankee Clipper Fancy Crabmeat.  My kids are pretty adventurous so I made spaghetti and crab/clam sauce.  I put the clam sauce in a sauce pan and added the crab meat to it.

They all really liked it a lot.

Lentil Soup

I had two bags of Lentils.  My friend at work gave me her recipe for Lentil soup.  It was a fairly basic recipe for Lentil soup but at the end the recipe called for added soy sauce.  It didn't say how much to add so I added about a Tablespoon.  I couldn't taste a big difference, so I must have to add more. 

Anyway, I liked it but it was not a big hit with the kids.

Margarine or Butter

My Mother grew up on a dairy farm in Central Ohio.  She grew up sneaking into the kitchen and skimming the cream off the top of the fresh, non-pasteurized milk that had been brought in from the barn that very day.  I grew up never eating margarine unless my mother cooked with it.  We used it for baking but we never had margarine on the table.  I have tried "I can't believe its not butter" type of spreads, but I can taste the difference.  Consequently I have never had anything but butter in my house either.  We ran out of butter the other day and when I went to the store, the margarine was $1.20 per lb. cheaper than the butter.  The margarine was on sale for $.69 per lb and the butter was $1.89.  This is actually a very good price for butter, but since I am in my frugal mode I decided to buy the margarine instead.

What a mistake that was.  I can't stand the taste of margarine on bread.  I guess it will keep me from eating slice after slice of my homemade bread because without butter it just doesn't taste good. 

Since we are all exceptionally healthy I just don't buy into the idea that butter is the cause of all these health problems.  I think most of the problem stems from genetic pre-disposition.  I have unnaturally low cholesterol and it has nothing to do with my diet, I eat all the mayonnaise, butter, ice cream, cream, eggs, cheese, etc. and have never used light versions of any of these.  I don't see the point.  If you are going to eat,  then eat something that TASTES GOOD!  I think when people eat bad tasting bland food, their little taste buds are always searching for more.

So my middle son, who blurts out anything says, "Gross, that tastes bad."  My oldest son who tries to conciliate and make everyone feel good says, "I can't tell the difference."  My youngest son is oblivious.

We will see what happens, I think I am going to have to move the margarine to the baking ingrediants list and use butter on the table.  I just can't see having noodles and margarine or rice with margarine, which is one of our families favorite foods.

I love the taste of noodles with fresh butter, salt and freshly ground pepper and some grated Parmesan cheese.  (And not the powdered Kraft variety in the green foil can).

Surprize - unlabled can

Among the cans brought over by my neighbor was an unlabeled can.  Yes!!!  I have been waiting for this!  It had "food storage"  written on the top in black magic marker.  I could not wait to open it.  Well, it was peas.  Not very exciting.

They tasted like.... canned peas.  But these had a tinny flavor to them.  Not at first but after a few bites I could taste the tin can flavor.  I have no way of knowing how old it was. 

My kids have been opening cans and tasting the kid friendly stuff like the Chef Boyardee Macaroni and Cheese in a can or the individual servings of Mac and Cheese in the microwave container.  The Chef Boyardee Macaroni and cheese definitely tasted like a tin can.   He loves Mac and Cheese in any form but he didn't eat this at all.  He didn't like the individual microwavable Mac and Cheese either.

I had no idea that vegetables could pick up the tin can flavor.  I just assumed that the canning industry would have figured this out already.  I have not used canned vegetables very much except for tomatoes which seem to overwhelm any canned flavor and I use a lot of them.   I wonder about the lining used in some of the brand name vegetable cans.  The unlabled peas, above, were in a tin can that was not lined.  I am wondering if the tin can flavor is diminished if the lining is used or if it picks up other flavors instead.  I will have to search my basement for brand name and private label brand cans that are the same age to see if there is a difference in flavor.

In any case, the boxed Mac and Cheese definitely wins over the canned variety.

Canned Fruit Cocktail

Hearing of my job loss, a friend brought over 7 large cardboard boxes of canned food.  I spent about 2 hours this morning sorting through all of the cans and organizing my basement area where I keep my food.

I am not LDS but I am very fiscally conservative and when I moved to Utah and learned about the LDS penchant for lots of food storage in case of an emergency, I decided it was not a bad idea for anyone.  My neighbor, the one who brought over all the food, has been hooking me up with all her bulk buying contacts.  So, I have accumulated quiet a bunch of stuff.  Some of it I will probably NEVER use unless I am very hungry.  I won't use the fake Beef chunks which really just taste like dog food.  Actually, I doubt that a dog would eat it, with all the nice smelling garbage that would become available in case of Armageddon.

Anyway, after sorting through all the food, I had about 25-30 cans of canned fruit.  I don't use canned fruit.  This seemed like something I could use and that my kids would like.

I like to collect the local cookbooks that community organization put out for fund raising.  I have cookbooks from churches, schools, farm bureaus, women's clubs, and our local ward (neighborhood).  The worst of these cookbooks (from my perspective) was put out by a school my children used to go to in Utah.  About half of the recipes from the main dish section called for cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup and almost every recipe called for canned something or frozen something.  I was really expecting a lot better from the cooking in Utah since the culture is very family based, but I think the lack of fresh cooking has a lot to do with food storage.  If you have all this food stored, then obviously the plan is to use it.  My kids friends tell me I am a great cook, which is crazy because I am not a great cook compared to my mother.  But, my son tells me that the cooking at his friends house is not that great.

Anyway, I looked in the aforementioned cookbook because, I thought, if I want to use canned goods then this is the place to go.  I picked out the Fruit Cocktail Cake.   This cake is a very short batter, with brown sugar topping and then a syrup poured into the cake.  It is very, very, very rich.  This turns out to be more like a bread pudding or a custard than a cake.  I ate mine with milk like it was a strawberry short cake.  I have three boys and they only ate half of the cake in one sitting.  Normally they would have eaten the whole thing.  They said it was good but just couldn't eat it because it was too rich.  

Fruit Cocktail Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all of the ingredients below, together

1 Cup white sugar
1 1/4  cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cup fruit cocktail with juice (= one regular size can)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

Pour batter in 9 x 13 inch pan.  It will not look as if there is enough batter.  You will wonder if this recipe should be doubled.  I thought so too, but it puffed up very well.

Spinke on top to cover the batter before cooking
1 cup brown sugar and optionally, sprinkle on chopped nuts

Bake for 18 - 30 minutes. test for doneness with knife or tooth pick.  I had to go more toward the high side.

Topping

Put in sauce pan
1 stick butter
3/4 cups white sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Boil the topping for 5 minutes.  After removing the cooked cake from the oven, prick with a fork all over and pour the topping evenly over the cake.

Kitchen tip - if your brown sugar is hard, put it in the microwave and also put in the microwave (in a separate container) a cup of water.  Cook for 3 minutes at a time and let the brown sugar absorb the moisture from the air.  Periodically take out the brown sugar and mix and break up large chunks.

Alba Snack Shake Mix - Vanilla

Again, a gift from the Ex.  I had never heard of Alba Snack Shake Mix.  It is manufactured by the Hain Celestial Group, Inc from Melville, NY 11747.  The particular batch I have was made On Sept 30, 2006.  It comes with directions for pudding and shakes.  I made the pudding version.

The pudding did not gel at all.  It was still fairly liquid the next morning after having been refrigerated all night.  The texture was kind of, well, like snot.  I still tried it though.  It had a kind of chemical taste.  I decided to try the shake directions to see if it would taste better, so I added milk.  Still the same taste.

When in doubt add chocolate.  I was at Wal-Mart and found some Ghirardelli's cocoa that was cheaper than the off brand I usually buy and snapped it up thinking I was getting a good deal.  I didn't realize until I was home that it was cheaper because it was sweetened and had lots of sugar in it.  But it is great for making hot cocoa with milk because you don't need to add sugar and it melts into the milk very easily.

The pudding still was not great with chocolate.  I couldn't get over the slimy texture of it and the chemical taste was still in the background.

Let's see if my son will eat it.

What is in it:  This package had no ingredients or nutritional information.


Update:  My son wouldn't eat it either.

Repack Hummus

My Ex gets food from neighbors and friends because he is an alcoholic and has anxiety disorder.  Because we live in Utah people have a lot of food in storage and like me I am sure they need to get rid of some stuff they have had around for a while and realize they are never going to use.  So, instead of paying his child support my Ex brings me the food that he has left over from the food that his friends have left over.

This sort of reminds me of the birthing coach we had in Wisconsin when I was pregnant with my first son.  They were dirt poor and complete hippies.  They grew their own food and had a family bed which they shared with their 3 year old daughter who was named Sage.  Their 3 year old daughter was still breast feeding.  I was at a session when the three year old walked up sat on her mom's lap, pulled up her shirt, and started breast feeding....I just don't think that is right.  I pointed out to our birth coach that sage is one of the herbs recommended for women to reduce the flow of breast milk. A bit ironic!  You would expect them to be vegetarians but, no, almost their entire diet was made up of road kill.  They knew someone from the county who was responsible for going around and picking up road kill when residents called in.  I don't want to know how they cook any of that or what it looks like when they get it.

So, leftovers of leftovers was what I was making today.  There were no mixing ingredients on the outside of the package so I was a little afraid of opening the bag.  Hello, there was a card inside with directions.  I made it, following the directions exactly.  I put in on my homemade bread with delicious crisp romaine lettuce.  The first two bites were ok but then the taste became bitter.  I ate about half of the sandwich and threw the rest away.  Maybe I used too much on the sandwich and it was overwhelming?  I don't know but I have about 4 cups of hummus in my fridge that I will probably throw down the sink.

The hummus package ingrediants were: Garbanzo flour, sesame tahini, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, spices, sea salt, lemon powder, citric acid, expeller pressed toasted sesame oil, lemon, and lemon oil.


I have made fresh hummus and what a difference that was! 

Fresh hummus from the Joy of Cooking:

2 cups canned garbonzo beans (chick peas)
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons tahini
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
salt to taste

Puree until smooth, add liquid to create a smooth consistency. 

If you use as a dip - put in small bowl and garnish with 1Tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of finely chopped parsley, sprinkling of hot or sweet paprika.

Monday - French Bread

My Back of the Pantry entry for today is Gourmet Bread Base from Jakubowski Farms. This is another item I have had in my pantry for about 10 years. I bought 3 tubs ( 2lbs each) of this in Wisconsin and moved it to Utah with me. I have been in Utah for 7 years, so I am fairly sure this is about 10 years old.

I make a lot of homemade bread in my bread machine and I just ran out of bread flour. Instead of buying more flour, when I already have a bunch of All-purpose and Whole Wheat, I decided it was time to use up the Bread Base. It contains powdered milk, sugar, lecithin, salt and nutritional supplements. I bought it to use in my original bread machine but it only calls for 3 tablespoons of bread base per loaf. This is obviously why I have 2 containers still in the back of my pantry.

Bread flour has more gluten than All-purpose flour and therefore creates a stronger infrastructure to hold the air that yeast produces. The bread base adds gluten to All-purpose flour to increase the lift.

I use the bread machine recipe for french bread and then add about 1/4 cup of bread base for two loaves of bread. Yes, two loaves. I don't like the shape of bread machine loaves, especially the little belly button on the bottom, so I just use my bread machine to do the mixing and the rising. Just before the final rise, I take the bread out of the machine. I kneed the bread, let it go through its final rise in bread pans and then cook it in the oven.

I have to let my bread rise for 30 minutes in the bread pans, then cook in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. This makes great looking loaves and I didn't have to do anything but measure the ingredients and set a few timers.

Sunday - Egg Flower Soup Mix

I got divorced in the past 3 months and my ex is an alcoholic. Not the literary type of alcoholic who is debonair and amusing but the kind of drunk who rarely has a job, gets sent to jail and lives in abandoned houses. Obviously I am not getting child support. But, he manages to get people to do things for him. One day I came home from work and found a bunch of canned and packaged foods in my kitchen. Apparently people at work and friends had given him a bunch of food so, he brought it over to my house. Some of it was fairly normal - green beans, canned pears, mushroom soup. But some of it was just weird like: packaged humus with no directions, no sugar - lime jello, broccoli soup mix (just add broccoli?).

Anyway, I just made the Chinese Style Egg Flower Soup Mix from Kikkoman. Add package to 2.5 cups of water and then add an well beaten egg. This had way too much salt. I poured it over some left over rice I had in the fridge and it was edible.

The soup has a strong Umami taste. According to Harald McGee in "On Food and Cooking", this taste was formally discovered in 1908 by a Japanese chemist. Until 2001 it was not known that humans had a specific taste receptor for umami. Like sweet, sour, salty and bitter, humans have specific taste receptors for umami. This soup does have MSG (the biggest provider of the umami taste in processed foods) but it also has dried cloud ear mushrooms which gives the umami taste and very nice chewy tooth feel.

Umami is Japanese and roughly translates to "delicious". It is funny that this fundamental taste which we all crave also has the sounds "mommy" in it.

The start

The impetus for this blog were two fold. First, I cleaned out my pantry and found out that I have a lot of stuff in my pantry that I have not used for a long time. Second, I found out my hours are going to be cut back at work and I will have to get by on half of what I was earning.

I put two and two together and decided that I really need to figure out how to use all the stuff in my pantry.

When I was cleaning out my pantry I found some authentic wild rice that was about 10 years old. I know that because I bought it in Wisconsin prior to moving to Utah and I moved here 7 years ago. I know I had it in my pantry for at least 2-3 years when I was in Wisconsin.

I decided to cook it and find out if it was still good. It was. I don't really like the taste of wild rice very much, but I did once make a wild rice stuffed cabbage that was pretty good. I was a vegetarian at the time and wanted to make a stuffed cabbage that did not contain meat.

Wild Rice Stuffed Cabbage

Filling
1 cup of uncooked wild rice (not brown rice, but the real wild rice)
2-3 tsp. dry basil
1/2 white onion chopped
3 med tomatoes, seeded and chopped
3 garlic cloves - minced
2 Tblspoon Olive Oil

Sauce
1 cup tomato puree
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tblspoon lemon juice

1 medium cabbage

Directions

Bring large pot of water to boil for cabbage to be completely submerged. Cook cabbage for 20 minutes. Remove the cabbage from the water and remove 8- 10 leaves. Store remainder for other use. Boil 2 1/2 cups water for wild rice, add pinch of salt and rice. Cook for 40 minutes or until most grains are split.

Filling - Mix wild rice, chopped tomatoes, onion, minced garlic and olive oil together for filling.

Sauce - Mix the sauce ingrediants together in a pan and cook until slightly thicker.

Assemble - put 4-5 Tablespoons of filling in a cabbage leave, fold over ends and roll. Place seam side down in a greased oven proof casserole dish, (9x13). Pour sauce over all. Cook for 3 hours at 300 degrees.


I didn't make the wild rice stuffed cabbage but I did make an egg roll filling with the wild rice. I can't remember all that I put in it but it included some frozen peas, grated carrots other stuff. It was pretty good, but a little too wild ricey.