Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Bluelips over Sebilious - cha-cha-cha

Sebelius:
Rate hikes will be ‘substantial,’
 it’s not our fault


Soulman & Sebelius

It has little to do with passage of [Obamacare]and more to do with the marketplace.
And the marketplace is responding to ... ?

John Edward's been busy?

So, what's John Edwards been up to?
John Edwards takes his bar exam
9 Most Laughable Lawsuits

French Bread

TRKOF on Bread

Boned Jello

French bread and pancetta.  Mmmmm.

Our local French bread is okay, but then I'll go someplace like New York and get the "real thing."  Oye.  Which brings me to my latest "Stuff the Works."

When I bought this bread machine from Woot  last month (I think it was about $50), MoSup was annoyed.  Why?  Because she hates stuff sitting on counters.  I mean, anything.  So, what with the ice cream machine, Food Saver, panini grill, toaster and  coffee maker, she sees interminable clutter. "And, you won't use it," she added.

"You said that about the Food Saver too ...
Didn't you?"


I had her.

I always wanted a bread machine.  Several years ago I bought Beard on Bread, and went nuts for a few months.  My bread never really stacked up with bakery bread, however, so what the hell.  But!  When I got around to making French bread with the machine a few weeks ago, I went deja-vu nuts all over again .  IMO, this bread is the equal to, or better than, the best I've had.  Deliciously crunchy crust all around; lovely soft texture betwixt.  If I was put in prison, on a diet of (this) bread and water; Brier Patch!

The ingredient list for French bread is as simple as simple can be (Cuisinart recipe) .
  1. water
  2. flour
  3. salt
  4. yeast
Which made me wonder why my past attempts at making French bread failed?  Interestingly, once you plop the ingredients in, and select "French/Italian bread," the timer sets to a range of 3:50 regardless of it being a 1, 1½, or 2 pound loaf.  All but 1:05  is used in kneading, rising, and kneading. 

condensationThe recipes I just looked at all call for about 3 hours, beginning too end; at an oven temp of 350 ยบ, and a cooking time of around 40-50 minutes.  So, no matter how you slice it, the machine cooks for an additional 20-25 minutes.  I assume at a lower heat.  I've also noted that when doing French bread, the window is covered with condensation not observed with other breads. My guess is that there is a higher concentration of water, or the "rising" cycle temperature is higher?  Finally, there is no sugar, or honey used to feed the yeast. That differs from other recipes, and must enter into the equation. 

! Just now realized that I make my pizza dough using the same ingredients; flour, water, salt, and yeast - no sugar.  Except I don't let the dough rise.  A pizza king gave me the tip. Try it.

Yum, that didn't last long.

Boned Jello
I love the word slather

Free cream too

Photographe photographie

I was just thinking ..

Boned Jello

 .. but got distracted, and can't remember what it was.

Lololo'donnel

Sondorella produced and directed
this video
I just did the mechanics.  lololo

Confusion over Teaparty reigns

Here's a story that has legs ..

University of Virginia political professor Larry Sabato has become kind of a network news Dr. Phil;  a pronouncement about anything, all based on his "internals."    I began tuning him out a few years ago after detecting a liberal media hum in his prognostications.  Anyway, it's this befuddling comment that stood out,  for me ...

LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Here's the difference: Delaware is a Democratic state and those other Tea Party states are either competitive purple or Republican red.

 Massachusetts is red now?


AK-47 Indoors

Kid "accidentally" fires dad's
AK-47 during role play
I think it's fake
maybe because I want it to be fake
Language Alert

Guard the Change

I'm Exhausted Of Defending You

RUH-ROH
'I'm Exhausted Of Defending You'

I wonder if she'll be getting Joe the Plumber treatment?

Occult Hillary

BOO
The White House yesterday tried to downplay Hillary Rodham Clinton’s ties with controversial spiritualist Jean Houston denying that the First Lady is involved with seances or gurus.

In his book “The Choice,” Bob Woodward reveals that Houston conducted White House sessions where the First Lady held conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi.

"Give Hillary a break, though. She was just a young girl in her mid-’40s. You know how it is… You get in with the wrong crowd, you meet a boy who’s no good for you, and the next thing you know, you’re someplace you don’t belong and everything is strange and frightening. Can you blame her for seeking solace in the unknown?"
 [Daily Caller]

... the Canadian Club ad, not the girl

Today's Mad Men Moment
Don Draper may actually have done this one
Boned Jello
Click for Large

Barney Frank in trouble

Please Please Please Please Please Please Please
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank - suddenly the target of an energized GOP and a hard-charging young opponent - has called in Bill Clinton for a Bubba Bailout in an apparent sign that one of the Bay State’s safest congressional seats may not be immune from voters’ throw-the-bums-out rage. [Good Morning! - Boston Herald]
Has a Bill Clinton endorsement EVER been acknowledged as getting the endorsee elected? Seriously.
Boned Jello

Yo Momma!

Helen Thomas - MOOP

Helen Thomas's Lifetime Achievement

Thomas was fired by Hearst for this

Everybody has a lifetime achievement of some sort.  Helen Thomas's, in my view, is staying alive for 89 years, and staying employed  as an openly liberal biased White House correspondent, long before others of her ilk came out of the closet.  Did I mention famous Jew hater?  Her Lifetime Achievement Award will not be coming from UPI, where she was employed for many years (before leaving under her perceived threat of having her biases challenged by new owners),  but from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which associates in the U.S. have been indicted on terrorism-related charges. As Ann Coulter said on her site link to this story, "Who is this more embarrassing for?"  My answer is American Journalism.

Witches

Speaking of Barack's M-I-L ....
Christine O’Donnell’s youthful dabbling in witchcraft, not that there is anything wrong that, reminded me of the best book ever ever ever about a teenage girl witch in contemporary America: Andromeda Klein, by Frank Portman. I could not put the book down, and I laughed out loud many times. - Chicago Boyz - Video
Boned Jello

I laugh at anything, once inappropriately during a scene in the movie Ghandi.   The one time I remember laughing aloud in public while reading a book was on a Denver bus.  I was reading the Patrick Dennis novel Little Me. I finally quit reading because people were looking at me with -- that look. Patrick Dennis, best known for Auntie Mame,  cracked me up.

KompoZer

You say Composer,
I say KompoZer


Boned Jello

In case I'm not the only person still  using Mozilla's SeaMonkey (nee Netscape)  composer, wonderful news.  As you know, with every SeaMonkey update something else gets screwed up.   Sunday, I got so fed up that after 13 years I threw my hands in the air.  Guess what? Somebody at KompoZer took the open source Mozilla product, and made many improvements while leaving the same user interface.  Like finding old, comfortable shoes, and getting them spiffed up. Plus! KompoZer is stand-alone ( with Mozilla, you had to install the entire suite of browser, mail, Chatzilla, etc.).   [FREE DOWNLOAD]