Food for Thought this New Year

I saw this and it made me think about the "Occupy Wall Street (or insert city here)" Movement.

We, as in the entire United States, are the 1%.  Even the poorest of Americans have it better here than the majority of the world. I really need to remember this, shut up and quit complaining about stupid stuff.

What's the Deal?

First off, to the guy smoking a cigarette who was stopped at the light next to me the other day when it was finally nice enough to drive with the windows down: What's the deal with you sticking your arm so far out of your window that your cigarette was practically inside the passenger side of my car? I realize you don't want the stinky smoke inside your own car. Trust me, I want it in mine even less than you do.

Second, cat, what is the deal? What makes you think it is suddenly ok to sit on the Dining Room table.

Just cause you are a senior kitty doesn't mean the rules have changed.

Third, Hey Pepper plant?  What is the deal?  Where are my sweet red peppers?  Don't you know it is the second week in August?

What happened to those 2 cute little blossoms you had four weeks ago?  Let's get on the ball.

Fourth, that goes for you too tomato plants.  What is the deal?  Last year I was swimming in little wee grape tomatoes.  This year?  Nuthin.  Not so much as a single blossom.  Your leaves look healthy enough.  We make sure you get enough water, so what is the deal???

At least the Zinnias and Marigolds seem to be enjoying themselves.  Blossom away little ones.  Blossom away.

Doncha hate it...

...when you find a product you really like, so you buy it in bulk to save money. When you finally use all of it up and have to go and buy some more, it's NEW! and IMPROVED! Then you go to use it and come to find out the only thing new about it is that it is not improved.

Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies

I got the recipe for Katie Lee Joel's Dark chocolate and dried cherry cookies from GOOP, Gwyneth Paltrow's website. (The recipe is the 2ND one from the top.) These cookies almost didn't get made. I originally saw them on Cookie Madness. If not for her blog, I would never have made them.

Before I get into the recipe, lemme talk a bit about Miss Paltrow. I used to be a huge fan. Stress the used to. I love Love LOVED her movies. Then one day, several years ago, I saw her on Oprah . She seemed so self righteous in her new agey macrobiotic ways. I'm sorry lady, you ain't better than me cause you won't eat white flour or sugar. Her attitude repulsed me so much that when I tried to watch some of my favorite movies, (Emma and Shakespeare in Love) I turned the TV off in disgust after 5 minutes. Obviously, if she is featuring cookies on her website, she has relaxed her dietary regiment. I just can't get it out of my mind that she is some sort of wack-job when it comes to food.

When I first went to the link Cookie Madness provided on her blog, I decided to peruse the GOOP website. I was turned off immediately. The main page has six icons that you can click on that say "Make, Go, Get, Do, Be, and See." I must still be extremely disenchanted with Miss Paltrow because my initial reaction was, "Gee, that seems pretty bossy." and "Kind of presumptuous, assuming I am going to follow your demands/instructions." Needless to say I will not be subscribing to the weekly newsletter. I'm definitely not going to fall in line as one of the patrons of her B.S.

I've heard people referring to Gwyneth Paltrow as the next Oprah, or Martha Stewart. That's great, but I'm not one of their disciples either. So to me that statement gets a big ole "whoop-de-do."

Anyhow...the recipe was good. I didn't have any unbleached flour so I substituted regular bleached all purpose flour. They turned out just fine regardless of the "White" sin I had committed. I know ten thousand baby seals were killed in the bleaching process of the flour, but I'm sure that just added to the deliciousness of the cookies.

Mrblocko liked these cookies best while they were still warm from the oven. At that point I thought they were mediocre. I couldn't even taste the cherries and the dark chocolate was extremely bitter. I was correct when I guessed the flavors would improve once they had cooled completely. Dark chocolate and cherry is a great combo. The only bad thing about the cookies was that they didn't have a great shelf life. After about 4 days they started to lose freshness. I put some in the freezer at that point and they freezed OK. Sometimes when you freeze cookies, they taste better once they are thawed. These tasted exactly the same. I ended up sending most of them to work with Mrblocko rather than see them go stale. Even though they were beyond their best, everyone thought they were delicious.

Would I make these cookies again? Maybe. I think if I got in a cookie rut and wanted something different I'd turn to this recipe. The cookies were good, but I wouldn't eat the entire pan in one sitting. I could stop at two. Hmmm...maybe that's a good thing eh?


Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies from GOOP
2 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (be sure to use a high-quality chocolate with more than 60% cacao)
1 cup dried cherries (about 6 ounces), coarsely chopped
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375º F. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter with sugars til light and fluffy, 3 min. Add eggs, one at a time, beating til incorporated. Beat in vanilla. On low speed, add flour mix. With a wooden spoon, fold in chocolate, cherries and pecans. Scoop by heaping tablespoonful onto 2 cookie sheets. Bake til golden and chewy, 12 min, rotating after 6 min. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool and repeat process with remaining dough.

Peeved

Today Blockette and I went to the Library (Bookatorium for those of you in the know). As we were entering, another woman and her child were leaving. The woman and I were both holding onto the door to keep it open. (The Blockette likes to stand in the doorway and on more than one occasion I have assumed that she has passed through the threshold only to see the door smacking her in the face or butt. This happened less than a week ago and the door hit her so hard in the head it knocked her to the ground. Naturally, I was more concerned with my child not getting hurt than this random woman holding the door open. ) This lady turns around and in a snotty voice says "You're welcome."

EXCUSE ME??? How is it that you get to be rude when you are in essence scolding me for being rude to you? Hypocrite!!! The "you're welcome" said before someone says "Thank you" is one of my pet peeves. It's a sure fire way to piss me off. I don't even think you should do it to kids. It's much better to tell them to say thank you than to do the preemptive you're welcome. I think it just reinforces the rudeness cycle. No one needs that.

I was already not having the best day dealing with an uncooperative munchkin. This just tipped the scales to totally pooptastic. Thanks snotty lady! You're number 1.

I do have to say that I can think of one exception where I wouldn't be angry at the "You're welcome." If Mrblocko came up to me and gave me a peck on the cheek and said "You're welcome" in a loving voice, and then proceeded to tell me he just killed the King Kong of spiders in Blockette's room without her knowing. I would be totally OK with that.

Anheuser Busch Banned in this house

Over memorial day I saw what I thought was a really cool rebate. Here is the wording from the rebate: Michelob: Save $6 via mail in rebate on your purchase of one (1) 6 pack of Michelob Ultra Lime Cactus, Ultra Tuscan Orange Grapefruit, Ultra Pomegranate Raspberry or Ultra Amber and one (1) Michelob Ultra 12 pack or larger, cans or bottles.

See I was thrown by the wording. I saw the "Or" and missed the "and".

I got something in the mail saying I was denied the rebate because I didn't have the correct upc codes. I would have to resubmit the entire thing according to the rules on the rebate but how can I do that when I don't have my original recipt? It's not like I can go out and repurchase the items because part of the rebate was that it had to be bought over memorial weekend.

Yeah, mea culpa for not reading carefully, but there is no way I can get any sort of rebate now and I called Anheuser Busch and there is nothing they can do for me. I'm in a really bad mood today so I am holding a grudge and boycotting. It's no skin off my nose since I only use beer for cooking. It's Mrblocko who will be bearing the brunt of my grudge. It's not like Anheuser Busch is the only fish in the sea when it comes to beer though so don't feel too sorry for him.

I don't back down when I get pissed at a company. Trust me, I've been boycotting McDonald's since 2001. The only time I've been there since 2001 was to poop in their toilet and not flush. Oh, and I drove my car through the drive through so MrsThunder could get some fries. It was the only food place close and I didn't want her to go into a diabetic coma or anything.

So Booooo! Hiss! To Anheuser Busch! I know I'm only a drop in the bucket but it's the only constructive thing I can think of to do, well the only legal constructive thing I can think of anyway.