Author Archives: D.R. Slaten

Random Rights Review: Part 2

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If you aren’t exercising your rights, at least once in a while– YOU are part of the problem. Please, become part of the solution.

I do this randomly. What you ask? Exercise my rights as a citizen of the United States, that’s what.

Here’s the deal, if law enforcement normally deals with the “dregs” of society, who exercise their rights, we as law-abiding citizens must do so as well to give law enforcement a balanced assertion of rights. The availability of our rights to all people is only secured if all citizens exercise those rights and don’t do so only when in trouble. Our rights exist ALL the time, they should be used ALL the time. A part of a dynamic democracy is the ability of it’s citizens to avail themselves of the protections afforded us by our Constitution. In other words, YOUR responsibility to our Republic isn’t just to show up for jury duty and call it good, no it goes way beyond that. We are stewards, ALL OF US, of our Republic. Our rights come with responsibilities. Period.

Every society is measured by how it treats it WEAKEST members, not its strongest. Never that. How do we treat children, the mentally ill, the elderly, the accused, and so on.  Do we protect them, or do we leave them out for the wolves. How many times have we turned a blind eye to injustice BECAUSE it was perpetrated against a group to which we did not belong. Here’s a poem by Niemoller that has stayed with me through civics classes and law school.

Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

This. So this.

Please don’t believe the rhetoric that our society treats people equally. We don’t. We should, at least under the color of law, but we don’t. There are vast differences in how our citizens are treated based on the classification of that citizen. This isn’t me rambling, google that shit. Smarter people than me have done extensive research into this topic and come tot the same conclusion. I just happened to see it first hand in my work. It exists. It’s real. And it needs to be changed.

So when you’re stopped at a traffic stop, make them jump through ALL the hoops and do their job the way they’re supposed to be doing it. With minimal encroachment on you, your property and your rights. Give them only what they are entitled to under the law and force them to jump through other hoops– in place to protect us ALL–to make any further encroachment. Because here’s the deal, not ALL if us who deny  cops every thing they want as their verbal request indicates is trying to hide something. The rational that if I didn’t have anything to hide, I wouldn’t mind if the cop did *insert your choice of action here* isn’t a correct one. It sounds good. It appears rational. But its simply not true. Many of us have taken to making cops do what their supposed to do and NOTHING more as our civic duty. A right not exercised is a right that will eventually be taken away. That’s why I do it. And don’t be putting your fucking idiotic spin on my actions. Just ask. Don’t assume. Not with me and not with anyone else.

Here’s my call to all you wanna be journalist: Find how many people are shot by cops. The DOJ used to do this. Now we have no way of obtaining this info in one report with some numbers from which we can extrapolate data. Then find out how many are justified killings and how many are not. Tell me what happened to the police officer as well. And finally, let me know how many of the people killed could’ve been proved to have committed the crime for which they were shot.

Why do I want this info you ask? Because the natural progression of a citizenry that fails to exercise their rights and allows their law enforcement officers to work unchecked eventually ends up with MANY officer related killings, officer related assaults and massive lawsuit payout in civil actions. The end result of us failing to exercise our rights ALL the time to keep our government and their law enforcement officials in check, is that they run amok. And if you think that amok-ness running isn’t what is happening right now, you are failing to piece together all of the recent reports of unarmed men of color being killed by LEOs.

Why do cops still have a union? When most other industries that were unionized have busted their unions. Why do we have a system in place that shields those who were supposed to protect us when THEY harm our citizens? Less unions would mean more accountability. No more paid leave for dirty cops. No more administrative protection from criminals in uniform.

And FYI: don’t give me the argument that not all cops are bad cops. That there are far more good cops than bad seeds. See, if the good cops were actually good cops, THEY would’ve taken care of the bad cops already. Instead, the blue shield is strong and active. The good cops shielding the bad cops. Well, guess what that makes the “good” cop? A bad cop. I am unclear as to why these “good” cops cannot see that these bad cops aren’t cops. Not really. They are criminals disguised as cops. Wolves in sheep’s clothing. These criminals have infiltrated your ranks and are destroying police from the inside out. And if “good” cops aren’t part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. Why is it so hard to understand that having criminals within the ranks of law enforcement does nothing to inspire trust, public respect and any there good thing about cops.

But I digress. In the end, here’s the deal. Exercise your rights. Film police stops and post them on youtube. Encourage your community to require all police to have body cams. Stop the rights grab by our government. Again, criminals aren’t going to bring us to our knees. We are stronger than that. Our laws are better than that. It’s the people enforcing those laws that need to be retrained. Bitches who commit crimes are gonna get caught. We don’t need to trample on constitutional protections to get ’em. I promise.

Music Monday: Waves

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Totally digging’ Mr. Probz’s Waves. So cool sounding, bluesy, jazzy and tots awesome. Like water. A tall drink of water. I mean what else would the title inspire if not H2O related. 😉

The first version is mostly just the man and the instruments. Excellent.

 

This next one is the radio remix that you’ve been hearing on the airwaves. Well, if the song is playing in your neck of the woods. lol Both are excellent, but they do sound different.

Random Rights Review- Part 1

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I feel like I’m beating a dead horse. Or that I’m sounding like a paranoid lunatic. Or even a little like Chicken Little screaming about the sky falling. The thing is, I don’t want the sky to fall. I don’t want any of my crazy-sounding writings to be true. Or about to become true. Dude, I just want to get along.

I want to be left alone as long as I’m not hurting others, and I pretty much want others to be left alone if they aren’t hurting me. It’s that friction’ intersection where people interact that seems to be rife for trouble. But that’s to be expected as well. Cause there will always be people on the make, on the take and plain ol’ dirty. And in dealings with this segment of the population over the course of human history, we have evolved to our modern system of laws to regulate that intersection of interaction. To enforce those laws, we created  a special class of persons with special rights and duties.

Lately, it seems as if we have aggression directed at our particular system of governance and all those people we’ve given special powers. Some of knee jerk reactions in the face of said attacks leaves me with feeling of shame and a really shitty taste in my mouth.  Because there are some travesties being wrought in my name and the names of all American citizens, shit I do not agree with. And never will.

And the defense of these atrocities, I hear the ubiquitous, “yeah, but…” Fuck you. There’s no yeah but in the belief of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. That we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. When push comes to shove, if our ideals cave under, they weren’t so great to begin with. There weren’t strong at the inception. And under pressure, our ideals CRACKED. And how do we respond? Do we steady ourselves, reaffirm our belief in our laws and our Constitution, and dig back in to make that a living reality? Or as close as flawed humans can get? Fuck no. We seem to have gone the fuck off the rails, ya’ll. Seriously.

I’m sick of hearing that 911 devastated us and our country. Does that make you mad? Why? Those bitches that terrorized our country DID NOT BRING US TO OUR KNEES. They barely bloodied our nose. And no, I’m not being callous about these that died that day. It was a horrible, terrible event. But shit, guys– why elevate the acts of terrorists to such spectacular levels? As it stands, the death toll of Pearl Harbor and 911 are about the same. Did The Japanese also bring us to our knees, too?  If they did, we seems to be dropping to our knees awfully easily.  Not every time Americans die on American soil because of assholes does that bring us to our knees. At most, it bloodies our nose.

But given our response in the wake of 911, you’d think that enemies were something we can’t handle. Not and hold to our beliefs and ideals if our continued scared response is anything to go by.

Torturing prisoners. And playing semantics on whether they are emery combatants and covered by the Geneva Convention or not, is ridiculous and stupid. We are suppose to be the good guys. Error on the side of good, dickheads. Treat them with a small degree of humanity even if their side tried to take out your side. Treating them in any other way leaves our soldiers open to retaliation. Plus, it’s just he right thing to do.

Don’t lock bitches up indefinitely under the guise of law. It makes a mockery of the law. Give them due process- remember, we’re the good guys– and either jail/execute them or let them go. Don’t be like the Nazies and have concentration camps  and call it something else. Those men aren’t leaving for anything less than death. And it’s wrong. We need to make this right. And playing games with where they are housed, is stupid and sophomoric.

Don’t change portions of our Constitution pretending fear of terrorists when in reality, this is a rights grab by the government. If our fear is enough to compel us to throw out long-held fundamentals beliefs, then we didn’t have a solid foundation to begin with. Really? Allowing surreptitious recordings isn’t going to lead to more terrorists captured. It’s just going to lead to further encroachment of lawful citizens’s rights by the government under the color of looking for the bad guys. Slowly, this fear is turning our good guys into bad guys.

I mean, doesn’t “Homeland Security” sound like fatherland rhetoric from Hitler? First, we needed to erode the Constitution and the Bill of Rights because of our “War on Drugs.” Now, we are told we need less rights because of our “War on Terror.” Doesn’t it just seem like our governmental law enforcement agencies keep begging for more rights erosion in fighting these nebulous opponents skipping from one reason/cause to the next? Before the drug war, it was the cold war. What will it be next? Will we be duped again? Don’t forget the INNOCENT Japanese citizens who were sent to internment camps and had their property taken by the government for being of Japanese descent. All those crazy witch trials to get communist sympathizers by McCarthy. And so on. It won’t end. Those that have power want more, and they don’t want to give it up. And if you don’t believe they are USING these opportunities as they present themselves to do a rights grab, you are either a part of the problem or hopelessly naive. We look back on that shit now and shake our heads. Why aren’t we shaken’ our heads now?

I believe the founding principles of our country can withstand any enemy. I BELIEVE this with all of my heart. Subverting the law, our country and our people into fearful reactionaries makes me so sad. We don’t need to take on the tactics of the bad guys to get them. They’re freakin’ bad guys, they’re gonna fuck up. We’re gonna catch them. We don’t need to trample all over the Constitution or our citizenry to do it. We don’t need to compromise our ideals to go after terrorist, or criminals or anyone else breaking the law or acting in war-like aggression. Or become like the people we’re tracking down. Or create a society like the ones in which those we hunt down live.

If I could wish for one thing, it would be for people to run toward something good and make changes based on that instead of running from something we fear and removing Constitutional protections along that flight.

Manday: Briefs and Chains

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Gotta give you another Manday. Smokin’ hot in underwear and chains, Kirill  is rocking the abs in this shot.

This pic could be a story unto itself. Inspiration? Perhaps. Eye Candy? Def. I love it when a picture CAN paint a thousand words, and be used as the daily writing prompt. lol

Random Thoughts: NFL, Cops and more

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It’s been a while since I’ve done random thoughts, but I’ve had a few and so here I am sharing… randomly. lol

The NFL has been in the headlines a lot lately. And I’ve got mixed feeling about what’s going on. But here are some of my thoughts in no particular order. Is it any surprise that an industry that promotes violence is plagued by violence off the field as well? It reminds me of the Siegfried and Roy’s tiger attacks. Nobody blamed the tiger. As Chris Rock said, “the tiger went tiger.” In other words, the tiger wasn’t doing anything the tiger wasn’t supposed to be doing and would normally be found doing; i.e., biting the shit out of people who are bugging the hell out of them. So, here we have NFL players who are doing what they are paid a LOT of money to do, for weeks at a time. And it found its way off the field. Is it right? No. Not even a little bit. Because even though the tiger went tiger, NFL players are human beings with higher reasoning and the ability to do the opposite of what they would normally be found doing. Second thought, do the players have to pay for their mistakes and/or crimes forever? For the rest of their lives? For the rest of their ability to play? For how long? In no other industry- banking, legal, health, etc.- do we require that people who are let go for personal misconduct never be allowed to work in that industry again. Personal misconduct, y’all. Conduct not related to their work.  They didn’t embezzle; they didn’t do anything bad work-related. I’m not sure that’s something I can agree with. Now, before you scream in protest, think about it in the context of yourself. How would you like if your boss could fire you for something you did not at work and then prevent you from working in that industry ever again? Fair? Right? See why I’ve got mixed feelings?

Back to cops. Is it just me or have American citizens become the target of trigger happy police officers? Ferguson, South Carolina, Florida. It just goes on. I want to advocate buying one of those dash cams for all citizens because it just seems like unless you’ve recorded the incident, the police spin that shit like they’re caterpillars turning into butterflies. Only what emerges at the end of their spinning is not so beautiful. In fact, it’s down right ugly. But, holy fuckbills, Batman… really, have we come to the point of NEEDING to record our interactions with cops? Apparently yes. Many police departments are turning to body cams for just this reason. And bad public-police interactions in those departments have decreased. But seriously, there is a real problem if the public needs recordings to protect themselves from law enforcement. And it needs to be fixed. Pronto. We can’t be secure in our persons or our homes or anywhere really, if we can’t trust those public servants who we as a community have chosen to arm in order for said officers to better protect us. Our shield, previously used to guard us, has been turned into a sword taking us down and out. It must be stopped.

There is a scandal going on with some judges taking kick backs to place juveniles into these privately run facilities. Jaysus. What the hell is the world coming to? Screwing over kids to get rich. I guess that’s not a new thing, but it offends me that judges are on the take and subverting justice in this way. One of the problems is electing judges. When you put politics and money into electing your judicial officers, you are screwing yourself over. I don’t know which special interest group got you and your fellow neighbors to okay elected judges, but they deliberately fucked you. They knew you didn’t have the money to elect good, fair judges. These companies and special interest groups KNEW you couldn’t defend against THEIR choice in judges. They knew that. And they sold it to the public by telling them that they wouldn’t have shitty, incompetent judges if those judges knew they could be elected out. They never pointed out who would be elected in. Now, I’m not for shitty, incompetent judges. But I would rather have a bumbling buffoon who can be reversed on appeal then smart, paid-for-by-special interest group judges who can insulate their bought opinions from review. The dumb ones get reversed because they don’t normally hide their errors. The smart ones ,well the damage that can be done in those cases? Astronomical. In Alaska, we do a huge survey after names are placed into a pot for a judicial vacancy, then several of the best candidates are put forward. And THEN they go up for re-election. Appointment- impartial choosing of names, followed by election to allow for more accountability. Every state should start out this way. Otherwise, you end up with bought and paid for judges. So not a good thing. So.

Einkorn: Success and Failure

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I’ve been slowly replacing my family’s wheat products with Einkorn wheat-mostly. Some wheat strains are pretty old and haven’t changed too much. One is durum wheat used to make semolina pasta. The ancient grain from which durum is derived is khorasan wheat, trademarked and sold as Kamut. To make really good pasta, durum/semolina/khorasan wheat is a MUST. So I’ve decided to use mostly einkorn, and a little  Kamut wheat. I’ve done this slowly so that the replacement has been fairly painless.

It is tempting to walk down the gluten free aisle and/or the specialty bread aisle and pick breads that use ancient grains, or use grains other that wheat. However, this is a trap. I can’t say definitively that all store-bought stuff have things in it that are not so good for you. I mean, half the time I can’t even pronounce some of the chemicals used. Part of eating better is making the food myself so I can control what is put in the recipes. To that end, I’m buying a bread maker at some point so I can make my own bread loaves. Because the thing I’ve noticed when I eat only einkorn wheat is that I don’t have the continued salty/oily food craving that so often comes when I eat bread of any kind. I can’t wait to see what happens when my house is one hundred percent modern wheat/grain free.

That was my success. My failure is recipe related. Seriously, I am not an awesome baker. Not like I can cook. So it should come as no surprise that my Cioppino came out FAB, but my bread loaf was a bust. Don’t get me wrong, it was edible. Just not great. And bread should be great. That’s part of the draw. I didn’t like how hard the crust became. So I am thinking a bread machine might help with this issue. Especially if I get one that has different crust settings. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

Not to disappoint, let me leave you with this success. Summer fruit crostata. Crostatas are rustic fruit tarts. Free form, if you will. And they are delicious. And did I mention that I am not the best baker? Well, crostatas are extremely forgiving. EXTREMELY. 😉 You can use almost any fruit you have. I like berries and peaches, or strawberry and rhubarb, or you can come up with your favorite fruit combo. The picture for today’s recipe is my peach and mixed berry crostata made from einkorn wheat. It was delicious.

Fruit Crostata

2014-09-02 14.29.54Ingredients
1 1/4 cup(s) (plus 1 tablespoon) all-purpose einkorn flour
1/4 cup(s) (plus 2 tablespoons) sugar
1/8 teaspoon(s) salt
1/2 cup(s) (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup(s) raspberries
1 cup(s) fresh blackberries (<— or a combo of fruits to make 2 cups)
1 tablespoon(s) fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon(s) turbinado sugar

Directions
1. Make the dough: Combine 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Form a well in center of the dry ingredients and place the butter and 1 egg in the well. Using your hands, mix the ingredients into a soft, pliable dough. Form it into a 4-inch disk and place it on lightly floured parchment paper. Lightly dust the dough with flour and roll it into a 10-inch circle. Place dough with parchment on a baking sheet, cover the dough with plastic wrap, and chill for 10 minutes. (I like to chill my dough for at least 30 minutes, preferably up to an hour or more- it has to do with the butter getting real cold. So you can follow the recipe or follow my suggestion. I know which one I would do. lol). Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Make the crostata: In a small bowl, mix remaining flour and sugar and set aside. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and evenly spread the flour and sugar mixture on the dough, leaving a 1-inch-wide border around the edge. Place berries on top of the mixture and sprinkle with lemon juice. Fold the 1-inch border over top of the berries to form a 9-inch crostata.

3. Bake the crostata: Lightly brush the top of the crostata dough with remaining beaten egg and sprinkle with turbinado sugar, if desired. Bake on the middle rack of the oven — about 35 minutes, or until the top turns lightly golden brown. It normally takes about 40-45 minutes for me to get the desired color on the crust. Remove from the oven and slide crostata with the parchment paper onto a wire rack. Or if you’ve used a cast iron skillet like me to bake your crostata, just leave it in the skillet to cool. Cool for 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Tip: Make real whipped cream. Serve the warm crostata with the best vanilla ice cream you can buy and a dollop of fresh cream. You will think you’ve died and gone to heaven. I don’t have a huge sweet tooth. I maybe indulge in desserts a few times a year. Crostatas are always something I can’t resist when I make it. It’s just that good.

Music Monday: Big Hair Boy Bands

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I haven’t had much time or opportunity to listen to music lately. Which makes me sad. I love music. Can’t make it in any shape or form, but shoo I love me some tunes. Like a lot. Plus, I have an excellent ear. Not for picking music, although I do think I have an uncanny knack for knowing which new bands will make something of themselves, but you know… the ear. I know I can’t sing because I can hear how shitty I am. Really shitty, yo. But that’s neither here nor there. (<– What the hell does that even mean?!?! :))

And I’m probably dating myself. Because I’m doing a throwback to guys with big hair, long hair, you know… feathered hair, a/k/a Farrah Fawcett hair. Some even had mullets- business in the front and party in the back. lol And it’s from my adolescence. I grew up with these guys. They had better hair than most of the girls back then. Seriously.

Is any 80s line up complete without some Journey? I think not. A ballad is what I’ve picked. And here is Journey’s Faithfully.

The second pick is Def Leppard. I must say they were one of my favorite bands. I really, really think it was the hair. I mean, come on. Take a look and I bet you too would’ve swooned back in the day. 😉 Rock of Ages, y’all, live in concert so you can see the hair move.

 

 

Einkorn Experiment

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Or E2, however one gets the squared symbol to show up after the the E, or the double E. Call it what you’d like. Whatever this rose is named, I’m gonna be taking a little foray into cutting out modern wheat and replacing it with Einkorn. All this should be vastly interring as I try to make homemade bread and pasta and tortillas from Einkorn flour. Primitive flour has some different properties, namely sticky ones, and should turn my kitchen into a hot mess. Just the way I like it.

I have some health issues that need to be addressed. One of the ways in which I am doing so is taking a few supplements. Another way is changing the way I eat. I’ve decided to switch from mostly meats to fish and seafood. And to cut all modern wheat from my diet, instead using Einkorn for all my flour-y needs. I’m hoping these changes have a positive impact on my health and my life.

As part of the diet, my next few recipe shares will showcase some of my eating choices. Tomorrow, I’m getting a huge box of Alaskan seafood from New Sagaya in Anchorage. King crab legs, salmon, halibut, reindeer sausage all in one jumbo box of goodness. I’ll probably just eat the king crab legs steamed with butter and lemon. The salmon will be barbecued in herbs and sauce. But the rest, well, some of it will be chunked to put into a cioppino. To sop it all up, I’ll be making a homemade, rustic Einkorn bread.

Cioppino

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 onion, chopped
3 large shallots, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
5 cups fish/seafood stock
1 bay leaf
2 corn cobs, cut in small pieces
1/2 pound sausage, half-mooned (I use reindeer)
1 pound manila clams, scrubbed
1 pound mussels, scrubbed, debearded
1 pound uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined
4-6 large scallops
Some crab, either pieces of king crab or smaller crabs halved
1 1/2 pounds assorted halibut and/or salmon filets, cut into 2-inch chunks

Directions

Heat the oil in a very large pot over medium heat. Add the fennel, onion, shallots, and salt and saute until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and 3/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, and saute 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste. Add tomatoes with their juices, wine, fish stock and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a simmer. Add corn and sausage. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until the flavors blend, about 30 minutes.

Add the clams and mussels to the cooking liquid. Cover and cook until the clams and mussels begin to open, about 5 minutes. Add the shrimp, crab, scallops and fish. Simmer gently until the fish and shrimp are just cooked through, and the clams are completely open, stirring gently, about 5 minutes longer (discard any clams and mussels that do not open). Season the soup, to taste, with more salt and red pepper flakes.

Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.

Slow Rise Rustic Einkorn Bread

5 cups (600g) of jovial einkorn flour
3 cups (600g) of jovial wheat berries
1¾ cup (410g) of warm water
¼ tsp. (1g) dry active yeast
1 tsp. (6g) sea salt

Directions

Mix flour, salt and yeast together in a large mixing bowl.

Add water and combine with your hands until all ingredients are mixed well. Your hands will be a sticky mess at this point, but that is normal with einkorn.

With a spatula, push down the sides of the dough and flatten the top.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a dark place for 12-14 hours. Here is what the doughs should look like when ready to bake. Depending on the weather, the time it takes to proof the dough may vary.

Remember, einkorn flour contains carotenoids that can oxidize if exposed to water and light for a long period of time. Just like a carrot peel can darken, einkorn dough will when exposed to light. Therefore, either store the bowl in a dark space or use a ceramic bowl and put a plate on top to protect the dough from light.

When the dough is ready, place a ceramic or cast iron pot that is oven-safe and has a lid in the oven and heat for 30 minutes to the maximum temperature setting, or at least 500°F then lower the temperature to 450°F.

Turn out the dough on a heavily floured work surface. Pat the dough flat, and using a dough scraper or your hands, fold each of the four sides toward the center, using added flour to make a rounded shape. This is not like forming a typical loaf since the dough is quite soft. Don’t worry yourself too much about the shape because the dough will have a quick rise in the oven and will correct itself, leaving you with a beautifully rustic bread.

The rounded dough can be proofed for one more hour before baking, but we found in our testing it did not make a difference in the finished loaf. Therefore, we turned the dough right into the pot and baked covered for 40 minutes. We also baked the loaf for 30 minutes covered and 10 uncovered, but in the end, found the best results at 40 minutes with a cover for the entire baking time.

If you like a dark crust, return the loaf to the oven for 5-10 minutes more uncovered.

Lift the loaf out of the dish and place on a cooling rack.

You may also try this cooking method on a firmer dough.

Let cool for at least one hour before slicing.

That’s a You Problem, Not a Me Problem

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If the studies showing the decrease in empathy over the last several decades is in doubt, just go to FaceBook and you will see clear evidence of just how much we don’t give a shit about anybody but ourselves.

The current immigration situation nicely illustrates this point. So many people wanting to just make “those” people go back to where they came from. Umm, most of “those” people are of the brown persuasion. And I can’t help but wonder if the influx was of say blonde haired, blue eyed amazonion looking women, if we would have the same or similar outcry. Oh wait, we had HUGE influxes of Serbo-Crotian immigrants and no one said a word. We’ve granted asylum to numerous people from the middle east with nary a sound of protest. So yeah, umm, we just have problems with our brothers and sisters from south of the border.

Now, I’m not gonna tell you what to think. But immigration is a complex issue. Not only should we be concerned about lower level workers. You know, like migrants farmers so I can have my table grapes in the summer with my wine. Or housekeepers and nannies. But we should be concerned with what’s called the replacement rate. This is the number of babies that each woman needs to have to keep the population at zero. Just as an FYI, the United States is WAY below the needed replacement rate.

Now, lets think this through. Many countries are being over run with people from other countries. Most notably, those countries that are dangerous to live are experiencing mass exodus. And guess where they are going? Lots go to Europe. But MANY come to the United States. So, lets do some simple math peeps. Americans AREN’T replacing their population, we are declining. So those who are raised with our values are a diminishing number. Do you want them replaced by hard-working Catholic conservatives or crazy-assed other religions and cultures? Love Sharia Law? Then keep whining about Latino Catholics “invading” America. Umm, just no. And to be clear, I’m NOT advocating that we cut off all other religious people from immigrating to our country. But we should be really careful about demographics because WE ARE REPLACING our population with immigrants RIGHT NOW. What values do you want those immigrants to have? And I don’t want to hear that all Latinos are drug dealers. Cause that’s like saying all Americans are millionaires or we all get naked to survive in the wild. TV isn’t a good basis for basing racial and ethnic prejudices. Go talk to some Latinos in your community. Go talk to others of differing values. Make an informed decision. You’ll be surprised.

I find it mildly ironic that current US citizens are pissed about people coming to our country to have a better life. Like a better life can be divided up into small slices. Again, umm… just no. Having MORE workers contribute is a good thing. Because many Americans ancestors didn’t immigrate “properly” to the US in the first place. In fact, I bet there are several First American groups who would have several things to say about the first Europeans invaders to US soil and how those peeps NEVER “properly” stepped their toes on US soil. Now, in case you’ve wondered. I can trace one of my parents to “proper” immigration, and it ain’t my white parent. It was my Asian mother. My dad’s side is sketchy on how “legally” they “immigrated.” I put the word immigrated in quotes because many came to this country against their will back in the day. And not just outright slaves, but indentured servants, people who got left behind, who’d been shipped here as convicts, etc. I can’t tell from our family records on my caucasian side if and when and how we came to have US citizenship. And quite frankly, given the number of treaties we’ve failed to honor and enforce, any continued occupation by those not of First American descent might not be quite legal or proper. But good luck trying to dig out those here now. All we can hope for is that those with guilty consciouses to voluntarily give up their citizenship and go back to their motherlands. I’m waiting with baited breathe, y’all.

And here’s the thing, many of those “Mexican bastards” that many in our Southern states are working to keep out came from the First Americans who ROAMED the shit out of this land long before the white, yellow and black peeps stepped a toe on our hallowed ground. So our brown brothers and sisters have and ANCESTRAL claim and right to come back to those very lands. Just look at how often Texas and Southern California changed hands between the Spanish and the Not Spanish. lol Somebody’s claim in this mix in primary and it’s not those with colors that aren’t brown in their skin.

Now you might wonder about how empathy ties into this. Well, can you put yourself into their shoes? Wanting better for your family, work so you can buy food, and not so much crime and lawlessness? I can. My heart goes out to anyone who wants better for themselves and their families. Of course, I can understand that. I won’t touch the whole welfare aspect of these arguments because again, it just underscores the lack of empathy. Seriously, I get that many in our society don’t want to help our fellow Americans. I can’t imagine those same people being overly excited about helping out those who aren’t Americans yet. I get it. But, getting them in, having immigrants work AND pay into our system isn’t that hard to do. Or instituting a waiting period while paying into the system like Canada does wouldn’t be hard to do.

There are many solutions that can work to make these issues not be so important. Sticking kids in concentration-like camps, having military based enforcement, having random US citizenship stops NOT AT A BORDER, and many of the other CRAZY-ASSED actions we’ve been taking isn’t the way. Not at all. A little compassion, a lot of reasonable discourse, and picking and choosing the best of what others are doing are ingredients in the recipe to not looking like those of us who have the coveted US citizenship are hoarders preventing others from having the same opportunities. In other words, stop being dicks.

Manday Monday

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I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. But I thought that a some man candy would help y’all forgive me, or at least get over it. 😉

Just take a look at that profile of a most awesome side view of a man abs. Yummo!