How to Cook

Season 01, Episode 06 - "All American Picnic.

In this episode they make Extra-crunchy fried chicken

All american potato salad

And hard-cooked eggs

Or so says Wikipedia.

They also taste potato chips and show how to care for cast iron pans. Around here we're collecting Lodge Logic pans, which are wonderful and remarkably non-stick.

Enjoy.

Spathic - Another rebuttal

It's just the day for it. This rebuttal is to Kim at Visionary Womanhood, and was also left in her comments.

Ok, I doubt you will post this but at least you will see it.

1) You husband spotted a woman without a bra a half a parking lot away and watched her for a while. He assumes that if he is watching other women that closely then other men are as well.

2) You husband noticed a woman's nipples getting hard and assumed the group of businessmen standing in the lobby of the hotel also noticed and that's what they were laughing about. They could very well have been laughing at their own jokes.

5) A woman wore a top that may or may not have been revealing by everyone else's standards and your husband looked at her breasts all night. You have no proof that anyone else even noticed but you husband couldn't stop looking at them so you and he assumed that every other man was looking at them all night as well, even though she clearly never noticed this excess of attention.

6) Your husband is "invited" by the way you sit on the floor and assumes other men will also be "invited."

I hate to break it to you dear but the woman at the event was right, this is your husband's problem. I hate to inform you but most men do *not* notice such things. I know my husband is oblivious, I've pointed out extreme dress to him before and even with that he rarely gets it. Please stop blaming the rest of us for your husband's lack of self control and obvious attraction to other women. You might try counseling instead.

Good luck.

I really hope they sort that, but blaming other women for the lack of self-control apparently common in Christian men is getting old.

I think Libby Anne put it best in her post "Who are the real babies? House-proofing and modesty"

As I said, I’m surprised I had never thought of this before. When you’re raised in the movement, even the smallest children are taught to have self control and to not touch what is right in front of their eyes. In fact, it’s considered quite the accomplishment to be able to leave an expensive vase or dish of candy on a coffee table and know that even the child just learning to pull herself to standing won’t touch them. It’s a way of showcasing your children’s obedience and your success at child training.

For some reason, doing the same for adult men – i.e. placing a woman in a miniskirt or low-cut shirt in his line of vision and expecting him to not act on his desires – is unacceptable. Babies have to have self-control. Adult men can’t be expected to have self-control. Parents shouldn’t remove objects of temptation from babies’ line of vision. Women should cover up everything that might prove tempting from men’s line of vision.

Why I take potshots

A reply to John Piper

1. They are humble and respectful and courteous and even funny (the ones I've met).

- The only humble and respectful fundamentalists I've ever met are the ones on the verge of leaving the church, or would if they wouldn't be ostracized by their family and friends for doing so. Very humble and respectful, that.

2. They believe in truth.

- No, that would be scientists, who test and re-test until they know the truth. These people believe in mythology

3. They believe that truth really matters.

- If they did they wouldn't vilify science.

4. They believe that the Bible is true, all of it.

- They have trouble distinguishing fact from fiction

5. They know that the Bible calls for some kind of separation from the world.

- Which is why they want the entire world to act exactly like them.

6. They have backbone and are not prone to compromise principle.

- There's a term for religion without compromise in another language. Jihad.

7. They put obedience to Jesus above the approval of man (even though they fall short, like others).

- Because their invisible friend matters more than real people.

8. They believe in hell and are loving enough to warn people about it.

- Try "Are cruel enough to inflict mental and emotional suffering by condemning others to eternal torture."

9. They believe in heaven and sing about how good it will be to go there.

- And going there matters so much more than trying to make this world a better place.

10. Their "social action" is helping the person next door (like Jesus), which doesn't usually get written up in the newspaper.

- So long as the person next door meets their standard for morality. Be too gay or too brown or the wrong kind of poor or the wrong kind of Christian or anything else and you're undeserving and out of luck.

11. They tend to raise law-abiding, chaste children, in spite of the fact that Barna says evangelical kids in general don't have any better track record than non-Christians.

- "In spite of the fact". Key word, fact. Try this article on for size: "Red Sex, Blue Sex: Why do so many evangelical teenagers become pregnant?" Or this one: By the numbers. A cut from that one

RELIGIOUS IDENTIFICATION IN U.S. FEDERAL PRISONS

There are many uncontrolled variables here, and many ways to account for the interesting discrepancies. What’s your favorite explanation?

Religious identification…………% of prison pop. (% of U.S. pop.)

Catholic………………………………………33.8% of prison pop. (25% of U.S. pop)
Mainline Protestant……………………32.1% (31%)
Muslim…………………………………………6.6% (0.5%)
Other denominations……………………5.6% (N/A)
American Indian Spirituality……………4.0% (<0.1%)
No preference indicated..................3.3% (N/A)
Nation of Islam...............................2.4% (N/A)
Rastafarian......................................2.3% (<0.1%)
Church of Christ................................2.1% (1.2%)
Jewish..............................................1.7% (1.3%)
Moorish.............................................1.3% (N/A)
Pentecostal.......................................1.3% (2.1%)
Buddhist............................................0.9% (0.5%)
Jehovah's Witness............................0.7% (0.6%)
Adventist............................................0.5% (0.3%)
Santeria..............................................0.5% (<0.1%)
Orthodox Christian..............................0.3% (0.3%)
Mormon...............................................0.3% (1.3%)
Christian Science................................0.2% (<0.1%)
Hindu...................................................0.1% (0.4%)
Atheist………………………………………0.09% (8.0%)
Sikh…………………………………………………0.04% (<0.1%)
Bahai.................................................0.009% (<0.1%)
Hare Krishna.......................................0.008% (<0.1%)

12. They resist trendiness.

- I want to be a member of this church....no, this church....no, this one....no this! Now let's all wear skirts, read Jane Austin and make up our homemaking binders together.

13. They don’t think too much is gained by sounding hip.

- Two words: Mars Hill

14. They may not be hip, but they don’t go so far as to drive buggies or insist on typewriters.

- Ode to the family typewriter

15. They still sing hymns.

- Aw, that's nice

16. They are not breathless about being accepted in the scholarly guild.

- Because they know the scholars wouldn't accept them. See above re: truth.

17. They give some contemporary plausibility to New Testament claim that the church is the “pillar and bulwark of the truth.”

- And yet so many of them don't follow the Gospels. They prefer the Old Testament and Paul and skip right over the red-letter parts.

18. They are good for the rest of evangelicals because of all this.

- Yep, they're dragging them all down together

19. My dad was one.

- Oh, that's nice too.

20. Everybody to my left thinks I am one. And there are a lot of people to my left.

- Including me.

A reply

Picture: Yale University Library

Oh Athiest!

Don’t leave me hanging like a monkey in a tree
Don’t let evolution get you ahead of me
Wait for us be patient we’re coming right along
Pretty soon we’ll grow legs and jump out of the pond
You’re helping evolution you’re taking a stand
Monkeys can be like you too if you give them a hand

Take your time be patient were not too far behind
If you argue with us long enough it’s not a waste of time
If we can’t give up religion and it really bothers you
Just lock us in a cage and put us in a zoo

CHORUS

Oh Atheist, Oh PHD, of the university
Help me to see, how I can be more than a monkey
Oh Atheist, Oh PHD, of the university
Help me to get out of my tree and give up my morality

Now if you try hard enough your efforts will prevail
We’ll quit our jobs, smoke some pot, and study hard at Yale
But don’t forget we’re not the only ones that need to be like you
Our ancestors the monkeys are still living in the zoo
So if you’re a true atheist and want to treat them fair
Give them an education and a cushy office chair

Teach them to read and write and practice birth control
They’ll need abortion doctors since they won’t have a soul
We’ll join with the monkeys on the path to be like you
We’ll live like you, think like you, and clean up monkey poo

CHORUS

We’ll all get educations and high paying office jobs
So we can take vacations and spend it all like snobs
We’ll have a gender identity crisis to resolve
Just be there to assure us its part of the process to evolve

If you come and help us we’ll get it figured out
We’ll be bi- or homo- sexual without a shadow of a doubt
And if I’m not evolved enough for homosexuality
There’s still pornography for me to watch on my TV
In the end your sacrifice will be worth it all for me
To live my life for food and sex, will make more than a monkey out of me!

CHORUS

Found here. I can't get that link to work right on my machine, hopefully you'll have better luck.

So being an Athiest means someone with a good, university education, a "cushy" office job and enough money to go on regular vacations, all of which makes you a snob. And of course you should never understand evolution or enjoy your sex life. Ever. All of that is bad and wrong and evil. While those who spend all their time talking to their invisible friend and reading the Magic Book rather than doing anything else with their life are vastly superior to us educated, employed types.

Right.

Ahem -

1Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

2And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

3And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

4They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

5Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

6This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

7So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

8And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

9And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

10When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

11She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

John 8:1-11, KJV

19Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21

Your rules, not mine.

You know. some days....

Adjusted to fit, I hope the artist doesn't mind.

Book list meme

When you just can't think of any other post:

Look at the list of books below.

Bold the ones you’ve read
italicize the ones you want to read
cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole
+ put a cross infront of the ones on your book shelf
asterisk* the ones you’ve never heard of
(put parenthesis around the book if undecided)

+1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
+2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
+3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
+4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
+5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
+6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
+7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
+8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
+9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
*10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
+11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
+12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
+13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
*14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
*17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
+18. The Stand (Stephen King)
+19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
+20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
+23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
+26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
+27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
+28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
+31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
+35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
*36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
*37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
*43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
+44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
+45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
+53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
+55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
*56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
+57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
+59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
+64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
*65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
+75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
*76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
*79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
+80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
*81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
*84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
+85. Emma (Jane Austen)
+86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
+87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
*88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
*89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
*90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
*91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
+93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
+95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Meme found here.

How to cook

Season 01, Episode 05 - Autumn Supper

In this episode they make Old-fashioned Pork Roast

And Cranberry-Apple Crisp

According to the episode notes they test pepper grinders. I haven't seen it yet so I don't know what they recommend but personally I very much like a Turkish coffee mill for pepper.

Not cheap, but a very fine grind of pepper and probably sturdy enough to pass down to the grandkids.

Enjoy.

Lemon Blueberry Cream Scones

Sorry, I didn't get pictures through the entire process.

In a medium bowl whisk together:

• 4 c all-purpose flour (Spoon the flour into the cup. If you just scoop it the scones will be over-floured and tough)
• 1 t salt
• 1/4 t Cream of Tartar
• 2 t Baking powder
• Spices (I used a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in this one, you choose what your family will like. Keep it all under 2 t)

In a small bowl combine:

• 1 sour cream
• 1 t Baking soda

In the bowl of your mixer cream together:

• 1 c (2 sticks) of butter
• 1 c sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 - 1 t lemon extract (also known as we're out of vanilla. I usually use 1 t of vanilla)

Scrape down before each addition.

Add the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time, mixing until incorporated each time. Add the sour cream mixture and mix until incorporated. Then add:

• 1 c dried blueberries

Mix until just incorporated. You will have a very tender, soft dough.

Drop onto parchment covered baking sheets with a small cookie/ice cream scoop. Knead each lump briefly to make a smooth ball or oval. I've found that non-latex disposable gloves help enormously.

Bake @ 350º for aprox 20 minutes or until just golden brown. Your oven may vary.

Makes 20-24, depending on what ingredients you use and how large you like your scones. We like them cookie sized.

You can substitute 2 c of whole wheat flour for half of the all-purpose, use any combination of spices, and use anything from chopped nuts to dried fruit to chocolate chips in place of the blueberries.

Lilac socks

Stolen off Gossip in the Garden

Just finished the first project of 2012, a pair of Dead Simple Lace Socks from Socks From The Toe Up by Wendy Johnson.

I used Judy's Magic Cast-on, a short row heel, and a picot edge bind-off. All done in KnitPicks Comfy in Lilac Mist.

Yes they are loose and slouchy, but when you have self-inflating ankles that's actually a plus.

These are wear around the house socks. I admit it, I made them to match my lilac apron. Of course now I can't find the picture. Oh well.

Next up, the ever exciting dishcloth. Whee.

How to cook

I think I may make this an every Sunday thing.

Season 01, Episode 04, Southern Regional Recipes

In this episode they make Lexington style pulled pork

And Memphis Coleslaw

They also rate tabletop grills and taste test hot dogs.

Enjoy.