Monday, October 30, 2006

Review of Monday Morning Mommy Movies

Thought this was a clever idea to gin up some business, so decided to check it out today.

Good touches:

Two items to improve on:

Other observations:

War & Film thoughts


Sunday, October 29, 2006

Vote for your favourite placenta recipe & we'll send you leftovers!

Placenta Recipes (Mothering Magazine, September 1983, Vol. 28, pg 76)

Editor's note: I have not heard of anyone who routinely makes a habit of eating placenta... it would be an 'after-the-birth-only' type activity. Many animals, including herbivores routinely eat their placentas, as it replaces vitamins and minerals lost during the labor process. Many women who have tried it swear they feel better faster, and they do not suffer from postpartum depression because of the nutrients the placenta has given them. It has been called a 'harmless' meat, as no creature is killed to procure it. Placentas should only be eaten fresh, if this is something that appeals to you.

Each placenta weighs approximately 1/6 of the baby's weight. Cut the meat away from the membranes with a sharp knife. Discard the membranes.

Placenta Cocktail: 1/4 cup raw placenta8oz V-8 juice2 ice cubes1/2 cup carrot. Blend at high speed for 10 seconds

Placenta Lasagne: Use your favorite Lasagne recipe and substitute this mixture for one layer of cheese. In 2 tbl. olive oil, quickly saute meat of 3/4 placenta, ground or minced; plus 2 sliced cloves of garlic, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/2 diced onion & 2 tbl. tomato paste, or 1 whole tomato.
Placenta Spaghetti: Cut meat of 3/4 placenta into bite size pieces, then brown quickly in 1 tbl. butter plus 1 tbl. oil. Then add 1 large can tomato puree, 2 cans crushed pear tomatoes, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbl. molasses, 1 bay leaf, 1 tbl. rosemary, 1 tsp. ea. of salt, honey, oregano, basil, and fennel. Simmer 1 1/2 hours.

Placenta Stew: Meat of 3/4 placenta in bite size chunks, 1 potato (cubed), 1/4 cup fresh parsley, 2 carrots, 3 ribs celery, 1 zucchini, 1 large tomato, 1 small onion. Dredge meat in 1 tbl. flour mixed with 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. paprika, pinch of cloves, pinch of pepper, 6-8 crushed coriander seeds. Saute meat in 2 tbl. oil, then add vegetables (cut up) and 4-5 cups of water. Bring to full boil, then simmer for 1 hour.

Placenta Pizza: Grind placenta. Saute in 2 tbl. olive oil with 4 garlic cloves, then add 1/4 tsp. fennel, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 1/4 tsp. paprika, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/4 tsp. thyme, and 1/4 cup of wine. Allow to stand for 30 minutes, then use with your favorite home made pizza recipe. It's a fine placenta sausage topping.
found at: http://rainforest.parentsplace.com/dialog/get/newf4homebirth1/49/3.html

Placenta Roast:
All "food" should be properly cleaned prior to cooking, and all "food" should be properly cooked prior to eating.
This is a good recipe for placenta, which should NOT go to waste:

INGREDIENTS:
1 to 3 lb. placenta no more than 3 days old1 large onion1 large green or red pepper (green will add color to the presentation)1 cup tomato sauce1 sleeve of saltine crackers1 tsp crab or shrimp seasoning1 tsp black pepper1 tsp white pepper1 clove garlic (roasted and minced)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Chop onion and green or red pepper in small cubes. Place in large bowl. Crush saltines into crumbs and add to onion and pepper cubes.

COMBINE IN LARGE BOWL:
Placenta, seafood seasoning, pepper, garlic, and tomato sauce. Place into aluminum loaf pan. Cover and bake for 1 and 1/2 hours, occasionally pouring off excess liquid. Retain liquid for gravy base if desired.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Friday Night Wine Blogging - the True return edition

The Ginger Haired Yank is timing her nursing, so tonight is the true return of Friday Night Wine Blogging. Sutter Home Merlot 2005.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

21 down - 27 to go

The upcoming mid-term elections and increased US death toll in Iraq have dominated the news recently. It's still hard to believe that the Dems will actually control the house come next January, but with each passing day & lack of some GOP good news, it's becoming harder not to be less cautiously optimistic.

Updating metrics:

Wagers:

This portion of my post was just blown away by blogspot as i tried to save it to make sure that blogspot would not blow it away. Dang.


Friday, October 20, 2006

Friday Night Beer & Pelligrino Blogging

Ginger Haired Yank was serving broiled tofu with rum-molasses-citrus sauce, so wine would simply not do. Fortunately MGD & Coors Non-alcoholic beers fit the bill!

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Thoughts on the upcoming election

I had never thought it was possible for the Dems to win the House much less both branches of Congress, but am cautiously hopeful. Had the common reasons for not believing it was possible - gerrymandering, GOP $$$, recent Dem defeats, lack of a compelling Democratic narrative. Even this fall I, like many others, just kept waiting & waiting for the fabled GOP October surprise which never materialized. Perhaps a serious GOP run would never have happened anyway, but what has hurt the GOP the worst from the Foley scandal is their destroyed momentum. Bush et al had ginned up the GOP noise machine and they had started to make some progress with the usual canards Dems soft on commu..., er Islamic terrorists - Be afraid. Be very afraid.

But once Foley scandal erupted, it sucked all the political oxygen from the fall campaign. Not only was the GOP in general, and Hasert and Reynolds personally, on the defensive, but most other campaign issues were reduced to background noise. Even if the Foley & enablers storyline has run its course, there are only 3½ weeks left until the election, so any chance of the GOP fear storyline gaining prominence in the national psyche now is gone.

Noticed one other GOP problem is that they've depended on their $$$ and get-out-the-vote effort so much that it's become their crutch. They've begun to believe that as long as they have more money and can get the yellow-dog GOP voters to the stall on time everything will be all-right. But even in this gerrymandered era, they did forget two things - their candidates & the voters.

Usually look at two left wing polling summary sites - electoral-vote and electionprediction - daily and a right wing site - blogging caesar - weekly, and they are all giving very similar predictions. The Dems will win 20+ seats to take the House and will win 4 Senate seats to make up for their Senate losses in the last election. Looks like my prediction was (sadly) wrong about Lieberman, so expect 2 independents who "will caucus with the Democrats" as they say.


It is a bit amazing the disaster scenarios some of the right believe, but I can remember how dispirited we on the left were after the last election. jj responded that we should chill out: abortion will not be made illegal tomorrow - the GOP moderate triumvirate (Collins, Snowe & Chafee) would help block major items of the GOP legislative agenda - a theocracy will not be imposed. Mostly true (although the GOP trio had a very minor role), so in response to the fears on the right, I'll make the following prognostications if the Dems do indeed win the House.

  1. The House will not pass articles of impeachment.
  2. Waxman will initiate investigations into Iraq & Katrina contractor corruption.
  3. Marriage penalty tax will not expire (far too popular with the middle class). Most of the rest of the Bush tax cuts will not be extended/made permanent while Bush is in office.
  4. Our troops will still be in Iraq for years to come, and serious withdrawals will not start until after the next president takes office.
  5. If another Supreme Court vacancy does arise, then anyone comparable to Roberts or Alito (in both resume and judicial temperament) would be approved.
  6. Illegal immigration will continue to be a hot button, but a 700-mile fence will not be built regardless of this election's outcome.

Think that covers the biggies.


Friday, October 13, 2006

Friday Night Wine Blogging - neo-natal edition



Happy to be drinking Black Swan Shiraz. The Ginger Haired Yank is still sticking with non-alcoholic beer.

Baby Theo has arrived



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