We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
How the Other California Lives - Some of the most productive farm land in the world is going fallow thanks to a man-made water shortage. A long-time grower explains.
The most recent dinner we had in Sicily was swordfish stuffed with herbs and pignoli nuts on a bed of couscous with a sweetened wine and raisin sauce. That was outside Agrigento on the southwest coast. To this day, western Sicily is "Arab" and eastern is "Greek." The local cuisines of Italy reflect the history.
The history of Sicilian cuisine is the history of beautiful, wonderful, and profoundly-corrupt Sicily - and also the history of the Western World. No problema - they only hassle eachother - and we must be multiculturally-tolerant. Put Sicily on your bucket list. They love Americans there and, like the Irish, they all have a cousin in NY or NJ. We are returning there soon.
For some dumb reason, I decided to codify the dominant carbs of Italy, which, like Sicily, still has large variations in regional cuisine, sometimes varying almost completely over 50 miles in terms of wines, cheeses, sausages, meats, carbs, etc. As readers know, in Italian tradition the Antipasto is tasty little treats, the Primi is generally a carb (a pasta, risotto, gnocchi, etc) or a soup, and the Secondi is meat or fish, with a veg on a side dish only if you ask for it.
What is suppertime in Italian culture? Late, like 8 or 9 pm, after the passagiata with lots of vino and friends and relatives and kids. As I have said before, the cuisine of all of Italy is designed to be accompanied by wine. Without sips of wine, it tastes less wonderful.
Bread? Everywhere. "North" and "South" roughly mean in relation to Rome. (Umbrian bread is terrible: they quit using salt after a salt tax argument with the Pope in 1540 and still don't use it. That's a long Italian grudge for ya.)
The North: Polenta, Rice and Risotto, Potato, Gnocchi, fresh-made egg noodles (eg Pappardelle) including ravioli and tortellini. Mainly butter for fats, but some olive oil too.
The South: Plain (no egg) dried pastas, beans. Pizza. Olive oil for fats.
Sicily: Couscous, rice, some plain pastas. Olive oil.
Now I expect some arguments and exceptions from readers, but I think this is generally accurate.
Image is a very fine Umbrian Primi that I had in Assisi - Gorgonzola and Porcini Risotto. Nothing better. Arborio Rice only. Italian women have strong arms from stirring Risotto and Polenta. You can't stop stirring them until done.
"Christianity is no philosophy..." From the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham Alabama, last December, the goose-bump-producing funeral homily here.
4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
4:2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.
4:3 The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."
4:4 But he answered, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
4:5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,
4:6 saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
4:7 Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;
4:9 and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
4:10 Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
4:11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Our occasional contributor Kondratiev posted this recipe as a comment the other day:
Cooked this one last night using venison backstrap (loin):
Seared Venison Steaks with Baked Pear and Red Wine Serves: 6
Ingredients 3 bosc pears (1/2 each) 1 small cinnamon stick, broken 5 black peppercorns bottle red wine 1 tablespoon sugar 3 tablespoons olive oil 6 trimmed 6 oz. venison steaks Salt and ground black pepper 1 shallot, finely diced 1 tablespoon red currant jelly 2 oz. butter, plus extra for greasing
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter an ovenproof dish. Peel, core and halve the pears. Arrange snugly in the dish, hollow side up. Tuck in the cinnamon and peppercorns, then pour in half the wine. Sprinkle with sugar and dot with butter. Crumple up and wet a sheet of greaseproof paper, then lay it over the dish before covering with foil. Seal tightly and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until the pears are tender. Turn the pears after the first hour. Keep warm. You will need their liquid for the sauce.
2. Pour the oil into a non-stick frying pan and set over a high heat. Season the steaks and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side for medium-rare. Remove the steaks and keep warm. Reduce the heat and gently fry the shallot before adding all the wine, including that with the pears. Boil vigorously, scraping the pan as you do so, until it has reduced by half. Microwave the jelly and, once it has melted, then stir it in, remove the pan from the heat and quickly whisk in the 2 oz. butter. Strain into a warm sauceboat and serve immediately with venison and warm pears.
Here's a simpler recipe for marinated loin steaks. (Loin is just tenderloin steak without the bone.)
Or for a stew, this sort of thing is good - if you use red wine instead of water. We would use shank, or any haunch or shoulder meat for this.
We hope all of our hunter readers, or friends of hunters, have some meat in the freezer. Please send us your favorite venison recipes in the comments -
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red: If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, then wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes there is more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound: I grant I never saw a goddess go, - My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.
Well, we got back from the Caribbean recently and it is still damn cold up here in New England. It is dead winter in this record cold year. Bought 15 bags of Home Depot Black Forest mulch this morning for the front garden, and they are all frozen solid and the garden is under a foot of ice.
This tune is in memory of global warming if anybody is old enough to remember that last big crisis requiring our betters to run our lives for us. "If we weren't all crazy we'd all go insane." Can anybody not like Jimmy? It's actually Changes in Latitudes, for starters -
Michael Milken: How Housing Policy Hurts the Middle Class - Many buyers decided that the largest-possible house was a better idea than a retirement fund or a child's education.
ABC,
CBS Exclude Scientists Critical of Global Warming for More Than 1,300
Days - See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/sean-long/cold-shoulder-abc-cbs-exclude-scientists-critical-global-warming-more-1300-days#sthash.rPBauqoG.dpuf
Fresh heirlooms, handmade in Maine (where it is 11 below zero F this morning, due to global warming. It's a wonder they have not burned the furniture yet, for warmth).
A reader sent a pic of a GB Heron hunting, up to his knees in icy water. Note his fancy breeding plumage.
These relatively-common large birds can be seen almost everywhere in the US except mountainous and desert areas. They are semi-migratory. Read about them here.
Obamacare
Architect: 'You Don't Need a Doctor for Every Part of Your Health Care'
- See more at:
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/obamacare-architect-you-dont-need-doctor-every-part-your-health-care#sthash.gM5Ydqw3.In2Xnf98.dpuf
Obamacare
Architect: 'You Don't Need a Doctor for Every Part of Your Health Care'
- See more at:
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/obamacare-architect-you-dont-need-doctor-every-part-your-health-care#sthash.gM5Ydqw3.In2Xnf98.dpuf
DNC Attendees Can't Name a Single Hillary Accomplishment
- See more at:
http://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/matt-vespa/dnc-attendees-cant-name-single-hillary-accomplishment#sthash.Ak8dqyDt.tJEEsymu.dpuf
Obamacare
Architect: 'You Don't Need a Doctor for Every Part of Your Health Care'
- See more at:
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/obamacare-architect-you-dont-need-doctor-every-part-your-health-care#sthash.gM5Ydqw3.In2Xnf98.dpuf
Obamacare
Architect: 'You Don't Need a Doctor for Every Part of Your Health Care'
- See more at:
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/obamacare-architect-you-dont-need-doctor-every-part-your-health-care#sthash.gM5Ydqw3.In2Xnf98.dpuf
While the Holland-America Line is the official Maggie's Farm line, we'll go out on a limb to recommend Seabourn - "the best small-ship cruise line." They are, with no more than 200 suites/ship. They have some special deals right now.
Seabourn is more for grown-ups, while Holland-America can accommodate well-behaved kids who do not mind dressing for dinner.
Every couple of years, we'll do a Med cruise or a Euroland river cruise for a change of pace instead of grabbing a rental car and driving all over. Good fun, never have to move your stuff, 24 hr/day service, and enjoy being at sea between cool destinations. I love being at sea.
Obama has ignored the fundamental collapse of the black American family - ‘My Brother’s Keeper’? How about keeping up with history and getting to the root of the problem?
The 40-odd days following Ash Wednesday culminating in the prayer-laden and introspective Easter Vigil are the time when all Christians focus most intently on their relationship with the living Christ, and His role in their lives and in their hearts.
I usually welcome Lent with hope, and excitement about discovering where this year's Lenten journey might lead me. It is the gravitational center of my year.
Plant roots wake up and start growing months before the spring buds begin to swell. Lent is my root-growing time, and I hope it will be that this year.
Some of our readers enjoy Allen's movies. I do. My first date with the future Mrs. BD was to see Sleeper. Does the man have any moral foundation? I doubt it. Talent? Undoubtably. What is wrong with the people in the film biz?
A shrink friend sent me this comment:
“Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Dylan and Truth or truth” (Or, “Would you read this if the title didn’t say “Woody Allen.”)
“Truth is truth,” Paddy Chayefsky stated. If only analysts could have that certitude, lost in the past few decades. Truth is relative, “constructed” in the present (transference), not historically accurate. Historical truth doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter at least. Except if a child was sexually molested: then truth matters, the real thing, what happened, was she or he seduced, assaulted. No “relative” here (for truth).But not a simple matter. Let’s listen to Jean Piaget (more neutral than Woody Allen).
Piaget said that for much of his childhood, he “remembered” that when he was in the pram with his nurse as an infant, he was kidnapped. Then, some years later, his nurse revealed that he had not been kidnapped; she simply hadn’t paid attention and his pram rolled away. He still “felt” that he was kidnapped, even as he learned the historical truth that he hadn’t been.
Now, Allen and Farrow (for this is mostly a tragedy that results from their stunning animosity); their children suffer from what the U.S. Army would call “friendly fire” (about nothing which is friendly when your shot dead). Their young adult adopted daughter is cited by a columnist as an example of someone molested by her father in childhood and the aftereffects into adulthood. But, Allen cites an extensive evaluation at Yale Child Study Center at the time of the alleged molest, that showed that she was likely not molested by father. If they are to believed, if our Yale colleagues are to be trusted to some degree, then we learn at least three things.
First, the now young adulthood victim believes that she was molested; she is a victim of animosity between her parents. Second, we learn respect for the adherence between love and hate (as Freud suggested); how love turns to hate when a “divorce” occurs.
Second, Farrow, married at nineteen to Andre Previn, has such animosity to Allen that she would make enduring accusations at the expense of her children’s well-being (her older son confirms that mother told the children to turn against their father).
And third, perhaps Allen’s last word on this may be dismissed by some.
Perhaps all that is left to us at this point is to recognize that some “truths” are not so relative; ain’t important. Truth about life events can really count. When we work with children molested, helping them recognize the true events of their, to explain why they feel and live the way they do, is one significant factor in this work.
Two parents rain animosity at each other over the decades; their children are shot down in this crossfire.
Breast-feeding Benefits Appear to be Overstated, According to Study of Siblings - Advantages of women who choose breast-feeding likely bias findings in previous research
A good website: 
The most recent dinner we had in Sicily was swordfish stuffed with herbs and pignoli nuts on a bed of couscous with a sweetened wine and raisin sauce. That was outside Agrigento on the southwest coast. To this day, western Sicily is "Arab" and eastern is "Greek." The local cuisines of Italy reflect the history. 
Our occasional contributor Kondratiev posted this recipe as a comment the other day:
Photo from Bookworm's
The 40-odd days following Ash Wednesday culminating in the prayer-laden and introspective Easter Vigil are the time when all Christians focus most intently on their relationship with the living Christ, and His role in their lives and in their hearts.