You Will Put This In Your Favorites, I Just Know It

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut

I Am Seeing Red; Gravy That Is

This recipe comes from Judy Walker's Times Picayune Blog:
http://blog.nola.com/judywalker/

I added grilled eggplant to the sauce and served it over polenta with mascarpone cheese and topped with a chunk of codfish:

PIP26's Italian tomato gravy

¼ cup olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 green onions, chopped

3 or 4 large cloves garlic, chopped

¼ to ½ green pepper, chopped

1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste (preferably Progresso)

Oregano and basil to taste

1 or 2 tablespoons sugar

1 (16-ounce) can Progresso whole Italian Plum tomatoes with puree and basil* slightly chopped

Wine (optional)

Salt, pepper and parsley

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Fry onions, garlic and green pepper until soft; do not let garlic burn or it will taste bitter. Add tomato paste, oregano, basil and sugar; fry until slightly brown, being sure not to burn the paste, or the gravy will taste bitter.

Add plum tomatoes to the skillet. Mix together and let simmer a couple of minutes to evaporate some of the water in the tomatoes. Transfer this mixture to a large saucepan. Fill the empty tomato and tomato paste cans each twice with water, and add to the sauce. Add a splash of wine if you want. Add salt, pepper and parsley to taste.

Cover the saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer until thick or the consistency that you prefer.

Brush With Fame

My former next door neighbor, Matt Weissinger, is now a star. A video game creator/promoter, he was on the CBS Morning Show this week with his new game, DeBlob. (Don't worry, the commercial will only last about 15 seconds.)

Here he is in NYC:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Hilarious History

This from Ben Smith's blog today on Politico.com:

BIDEN GARBLES DEPRESSION HISTORY

Joe Biden's denunciation of his own campaign's ad to Katie Couric got so much attention last night that another odd note in the interview slipped by.

He was speaking about the role of the White House in a financial crisis.

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed," Biden told Couric. "He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

As Reason's Jesse Walker footnotes it: "And if you owned an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him. And you would have said to yourself, 'Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover?'"

This from Biden's Wikipedia entry:
Biden attended the Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware where he was athletically, not academically, oriented...

Apparently he did not pay attention in history class but I can't believe the nuns would have let him get away with that in those days. But that Jesse Walker come back is hysterically funny!

What's Another Trillion Among Friends?

Now this headline:

Paulson plan could cost $1 trillion

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13602.html

Trust me, this is a conservative estimate.

A Big Reason to Vote for McCain/Palin

There is one major reason that you want a Republican in the White House. It has nothing to do with experience, gender, race, values, age, or any of the hotly debated catch all topics we so constantly are focused on. It really doesn't matter much who that person is even. It has to do with balance.

The greatest stroke of genius our founding fathers came up with was this concept of the checks and balances. The whole system of a bicameral legislature along side two other branches of government, the executive and the judiciary, were designed to encourage exhaustive debate to result in a compromise that should net a sound, long lasting decision. This keeps small factions from taking too much power and running the show. And, more brilliantly, it reins in the so called tyranny of the majority, a concept that recognized, long before the advent of TV, how herd-like people are in their willingness to follow a pretty face, even when it is not such a good idea for their own long-term interest.

This balancing act resulted in the structure of the house and the senate and even the electoral college and defined the role of the judiciary and the executive.

Evolution has no doubt had an impact and the two party system probably holds much greater sway than any of the founder's may have anticipated. But lucky for us it provides an easy way to ensure our own check as voters is preserved.

I have heard many people say that this Presidential election is a contest between the lesser of two evils. We should think about what that means when the Congress is run by the Dems. Even with that scenario Bush played them like a pro and got his way, but not until after the Dems dissected each and every thing he was about. Imagine a DC with no biology lovers. It won't be long before they are eating their young without ever looking inside.

I for one think we need to put as many obstacles in the way of these people as we can. If that means making them fight one another harder to get stuff done that is a good thing. The founders never intended for the federal government to be a bunch of baby sitters. Instead they need to be baby sat. As individuals we need to retain our power. So split the parties-they need a mom and a dad. It is our only chance at getting this baby to walk upright.