Thinking About Christmas Food

It's barely Thanksgiving and I already see Christmas all about me. The other day I saw signs for u-cut trees (you pay a fee and cut your own tree from the Christmas tree farm), the stores have Christmas decorations and are selling Christmas specialty items. Since I am a food nut I always check out the Christmas foods for sale, particularly the sweets. I have already bought seasonal peppermint ice cream, Christmas hard candy and varies peppermint candies, some gingerbread cookies and....well you get the idea.

One thing I hide from every year is eggnog. The varieties sold in stores isn't really true eggnog and is much worse than the real stuff. But even real eggnog sends chills up my spine. Yuk! I don't particularly like eggs, and when you put raw eggs in a drink it is wholly unpleasant to me. Some people make their own eggnog. I suppose they also make fruitcake, another seasonal food that many people despise (though I like very much). Fortunately, eggnog is perishable, so the nuts who make their own rarely give their eggnog as gifts.

All those Christmas food offerings facing me made me think about some of the traditional Christmas foods of New Orleans. One who grows up in New Orleans is never food deprived but the local Christmas favorites take their food to an even higher level. At Christmas time, when eating at home, someone else's home or in a restaurant one will see a number of favorite New Orleans Christmas foods. Some are strictly local and others found elsewhere , but like most food in New Orleans, just prepared better in New Orleans.

Here are some of my favorites: oyster dressing (dozens of oysters and the oyster 'liquor" goes into this type of stuffing for a turkey. Even people who don't like oysters like the dressing); oyster/artichoke soup (Yes, another oyster dish. Oysters are at their peak in December, that's why); Shrimp with remoulade sauce (this dish uses a New Orleans style variation of the classic French remoulade. It has mayonnaise, mustard, garlic, paprika and Cajun seasonings as the base.); Shrimp or Duck and Sausage Gumbo (the favorite soup of New Orleans that is served over rice and is therefore not so soupy in consistency) ; Spinach Madeleine ( an enhanced version of a creamed spinach....very well seasoned and not bland like most spinach dishes); Turduken (It's a chicken stuffed inside a duck, which is stuffed inside a turkey. Each layer has a highly seasons rice stuffing accompanying it); Daube Glace' (slow cooked beef in a sinful gravy. After cooking it is refrigerated in its stock to form a cold, jellied meat, which is then simmered down to create the Glacé .) Dirty Rice (It only looks dirty, but it does have pureed chicken livers and gizzards in it); Shrimp Stuffed Mirliton (Mirlitons are a weird vegetable that grows wild in New Orleans. Trust me on this, they are wonderful when stuffed with shrimp, spices, veggies, and bread crumbs) ; and Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce (made with stale New Orleans style French bread and tons of cream and butter).

Ok that is SOME of what they eat in New Orleans at Christmas time. I can't go on any longer writing about this because the cravings of those missed delicacies are too much for me to take...

Punishing Idiots

The courts here in the U.S. are getting creative when meeting out punishments to the dumbest or most inconsiderate of criminals. A Municipal Court judge in Ohio recently ordered 32-year-old Shena Hardin to serve a highly public sentence in shame on Tuesday and Wednesday for the citation she received. Shameless Shena was caught on camera driving on a sidewalk to pass a Cleveland school bus that was unloading children.

Yep! She not only doesn't she stop her car to wait for the bus to unload, as required by law for the safety of the kids, Shena just drives around the stopped bus imperiling the lives of the kids and anyone else who might walk on the sidewalk. And apparently she has done it may times before. One witness, parent Lisa Kelley, whose 9-year-old daughter boards the bus that Shameless had been passing on the sidewalk, said the sentence fit the crime. "She did this almost every day last year," Kelley said. "She won't stop laughing. She's not remorseful, she laughed at every court appearance. She's still laughing, so she needs to be humiliated like this."

And what was the humiliating punishment imposed by the judge? It was to hold a sign that said, "Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus." One hour both Tuesday and Wednesday Shameless was herself shamed....maybe. Stupid people often feel no shame., and Shameless wore a set of headphones to listen to music and ignore any comments while she paraded around with her sign. Oh, Shameless Shena was also fined $250 and had her driver's license suspended for 30 days and she was ordered to pay $250 in court costs.

I like the idea of this kind of light humiliation of those who deserve to be humiliated and probably can't be convinced of their bad behavior unless they are humiliated. It's the old world eye for an eye justice.This kind of sentence is a nice trend. Recently some other judges across the country have resorted to unconventional sentences.
* In Utah a teen had landed in court in May because she and another girl used dollar store scissors to cut off the hair of a 3-year-old they had befriended at a McDonald’s. What did the judge do. He agreed to reduce the hair cutters community service time if her mother chopped off her daughter's ponytail in court. The mother has since filed a formal complaint, saying the judge in Price intimidated her into the eye-for-an-eye penalty. Sigh..someone should cut off mom's hair too!
* In Houston, Texas, Daniel and Eloise Mireles were convicted of stealing more than $265,000 from the crime victims fund in Harris County, Texas. In addition to restitution and jail time, the Houston couple were sentenced in July 2010 to stand in front of the local mall for five hours every weekend for six years with a sign reading, “I am a thief.” A sign was also posted outside their house stating they were convicted thieves. Hmmm Maybe we should also do this with our thieving politicians.
* In Pennsylvania residents Evelyn Border and her daughter, Tina Griekspoor, 35, were caught stealing a gift card from a child inside a Walmart. I'm not kidding. They stole form a baby. In response the district attorney of the county said he would recommend probation instead of jail time because the women stood in front of the courthouse for 4 1/2 hours holding signs reading, “I stole from a 9-year-old on her birthday! Don’t steal or this could happen to you!” An pair of idiots imposed a preemptive punishment to avoid more harsher punishment from the court. I like it.
* In Wisconsin a man named Shane Mc Quilan who crashed his car into the gates at a Wisconsin waste water treatment plant spent eight hours holding a sign saying, “I was stupid.” Sewer guy Shane decided he would rather do that than spend 20 days in jail on a charge of criminal damage to property because he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.238 percent, nearly three times the legal limit for driving, at the time of the "accident". Might have helped if the judge made Shane also clean a few sewers.
* An Ohio judge ordered a man and woman who vandalized a baby Jesus statue in a church's outdoor nativity to march through town with a donkey to apologize. They led a donkey provided by a petting zoo through the streets carrying a sign that said, “Sorry for the jackass offense.” After the 30 minute march, the pair were taken to serve 45 day sentences that included drug and alcohol treatment. They also were ordered to replace the statue. No word on whether they have been able to replace their self respect.

Oh, if you have a suggested sentence for me for writing about this stupidity, just forget it. I also have no shame

Biggest Liars

In honor of our recent presidential election in which President Obama proved to be the bigger liar and, as a result, the winner of another term comes the annual Bridge Inn (London) Biggest Liar contest. Sigh, but Obama and his kind aren't eligible. Politicians and lawyers are barred from entry, as they are considered to have an unfair advantage. What a shame. Obama would clearly win.

Anyway, the contestants have five minutes to impress the judges with a whopping but convincing lie. Since the event is held in a pub they are mostly fortified with beer when making their presentations before the judges. Last year's winner was nuclear power plant worker named Glen Boyland (Unless he also lied about his name), for a story about racing snails with Prince Charles. As dull as Prince Charles is I can believe it is true.

And what profession can probably should skip the contest since most of us believe they are possessed with honesty? A Gallop poll two years ago found that nursing is the most trusted of all professions. 75% of people asked which profession is the most honest said nurses were the ones to count on. 70% had a high regard for the honesty of pharmacists and doctors. Grade school teachers also ranked well, at 67%. Americans consider car salespeople and members of Congress to be the least ethical. Only 9% of those surveyed say the members of Congress have high ethical standards. But you probably already knew that.

Uh, I trust you believe everything I wrote about this.....

Do They Want To Leave The U.S.?

How bad is the Obama administration (and congress)? Well, bad enough for some of the states to want to leave the U.S. and become independent nations.  Petitions seeking secession by citizens in every state have been filed on the White House web site asking the Obama administration to "peacefully grant" the states withdrawal so they can create their own government. It won't happen, since no state can leave without the permission of the U.S. government, but it does reflect the dissatisfaction with the U.S. government and direction of the country (toward being a European style welfare state).

The latest to mention succession is a big and powerful state, Texas, that probably be one of the few that could make it on their own if it did become independent.  Texas has the world's 15th largest economy. More than 25,000 people have signed the petition in Texas. "The U.S. continues to suffer economic difficulties stemming from the federal government's neglect to reform domestic and foreign spending," the petition says. "The citizens of the U.S. suffer from blatant abuses of their rights." I think a substantial number of Americans would agree with that statement and with the fact that the Obama administration has been negligent..about half the population if one looks at the voting from the presidential election.

Ok, this succeeding thing is only symbolic, since the Supreme court long ago ruled that no state can secede without the approval/permission of the others. But it shows that Obama will be in for a rough second term as president. And perhaps it is the first protest against the welfare entitlement system that President Obama has pushed the past four years.

The greatest conflict in this country today is the battle between the givers and takers. The givers work and pay taxes, while the takers live off welfare benefits supplied by the taxes the givers pay. During the past four years under the Obama program the number of people taking "free stuff" has risen to an all time high, while the number of tax payers is at an all time low. At some point it may become financially unfeasible for the takers to contribute so much of their funds for the ever growing taker population. If so, the U.S economy will screech to a halt.

Maybe Texas and those other states have the right idea, abandon the sinking welfare state ship before it falls to the bottom of the sea.

Too Much Tech Slang

Again, I just heard that most annoying technology slang term/phrase of all. It's the "going viral" phrase. That idiotic slang and much more has entered into the mainstream news outlets now and is as common as the "you know" is in non tech slang world. This time I heard "going viral" about a Yu Tube video. A newscaster on my local late night news said that a video had "gone viral". In fact, in recent months his mouth has been going viral while spouting cutsie technological slang. And he is not alone. I hear tech slang every day, read it in the media and might start having nightmares about it tonight.

I know there is no escaping this garbage that masks for English, so I thought today I would throw some of that mess at you (so you can suffer too) in the form of a list of some of my least favorite tech slang. You can put "going viral" at the top of the list, and I do hope you would hate it too. When humans ape slang and over-use it, it seems to cut off some of their cognitive abilities. They use the terms so much that they assume the listener understands what they imply. But this is not so. Language must be precise to best be understood. I think if that newscaster said that the video was " immediately popular", viewers might have greater confidence in his command of the English language, because broadcasters are supposed to speak the language better and with less imprecision that are we the listeners.

Here's ten samples of the more annoying tech slang I hear and read way too much.
* beta- a new product released for testing. I think "new product" is a clearer alternative
* hacker- has come to mean a malicious computer user. I prefer "computer criminal' and perhaps a stretch in prison for them.
* spam- computer junk mail. It would best be identified as what is is "garbage"
* avatar- damn that awful movie that put that term into the trendy geek slang world. How about "icon" instead?
* low bandwidth- This means that the computer session gave little information. How about saying "slow" instead?
* skimming- First we had scamming and now skimming, which is a scam in which thugs steal your credit or debit card numbers with a hidden reading device. "theft" sounds better to me.
* smishing- Think another stupid tech term, "phishing", and apply it to phishing on cell phones rather than computers. So smishing is phishing with cell phones. They used to call that kind of theft tactic "bait and switch'. I think the latter is more descriptive.
* texting- electronic messages. Why not just "message"? Do we have to technological identify the source of every message?
* blog- a journal one posts on line. "Journal" is sufficient.
* screenagers- teenagers who are on line too much. Do we really need a word for that?

Well, after writing that there is one good outcome for you. I am now speechless....

Democracy At Work...Sort Of

Election day has come and gone and, as usual, most voters are not happy. Let's face it.  Democracy and happiness are mutually exclusive concepts when the votes are counted. We wonder why all those other voters are so stupid in that they seem to vote for the wrong candidate or issue every election. Hmmm Maybe one day the voters will wise up and vote as I do.....ensuring the best possible result. Uh, I guess you can see by that comment that election day also makes voters hallucinate. I certainly am doing that.

I thought I would mention some things about the voting patterns this past election here in my state of Oregon. In this last election, both here and in every other every state in the U.S., the election results that proved the truth of what Winston Churchill once said, "Democracy is the worst system devised by the wit of man ...except all the others".  Churchill wasn't kidding. The other non democratic systems are even worse, though those who live under democracy often find that hard to believe until election returns come in. But at least in a democracy we get what we deserve, since we choose the winners and losers and merit the suffering those idiots we elect inflict on us.

Everyone and every persuasion gets or doesn't get something in a democratic election system. Here in Oregon those liberal voters who love a big government that gives them "free stuff' won the day with the weird liberal Portland politicians winning again.  The legalization of marijuana passed as well as a strange "women's rights amendment"....even though women are given the same rights as men in the Oregon constitution. The liberal bubble nesds "symbolic amendments" as well as those that are truly needed
Yet the conservative crowd got some victories when propositions to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and to require special labeling for so called genetically altered food ( 80% of all food is gaf) both failed.

How inclusive is a democratic election? Well, here in Oregon in recnet elections a transgendered mayor, Stu Rassmussen, of Silverton, Oregon won re-election for the fifth straight time. I guess Stu's win proves that transgendered politicians don't really change their minds, positions or sex as often as other politicians do. We should start a Transgendered arty here in Oregon. The slogan for campaigns could be, "We only change our minds once."

And two years ago, the strangest case here in Oregon shows why democratic elections really includes everyone....even when the elected party doesn't want to be included.... is that of Lillian Slater. Lillian is 95 years old and has been a member of the elected town council (the legislative branch of the town government) of Bonanza, Oregon for 27 years.

But Lillian and her husband said that Lillian has had enough of politics and wants to retire. She ran unopposed to the town council position, and she was reelected despite not even voting for herself. Lillian got 92% of the vote but swears she doesn't want the job. After the win she announced, "It's not that I don't like serving on the council, I just think some other folks should be on it". But Lillian hopes those crazy voters will let her retire before she hits 100. Now how crazy is that kind of democracy?

Voting

Tuesday was election day in the United States for most voters. But my state and a growing number of others have the so called "early voting" period in which a voter can substitute election day for a more convenient time to vote from within the range of dates allowed.  The idea is to make it simple for voters to cast their ballot in order to increase the participation rate. It is a bad idea, I think.  Like most important tasks, voting should not one which is a painless process. If it is, sometimes people cast ballots who would not otherwise vote. They tend to be uninformed or apathetic who only vote because of a narrow personal gain to be obtained from voting for a particular candidate or issue.  I wonder why society wants those kinds of people to vote more often. A little inconvenience, as in taking a n hour off work to visit a polling place and casting a vote, is a good measure of interest. Those who are unwilling to do that probably don't care enough to make an informed vote.

The vote is a singularly nice, yet unappreciated gift. We can do many things with our votes and there are many motivations to vote or not vote. Some will not use it, and that can be a nice way to protest disdain or to simply show a lack of interest. Others can vote "for" a candidate or issue, and still others might vote just to be against a single candidate or issue. It is not unheard of that some people "sell" their vote to someone who gives them something in return. In a democracy voting gives everyone the right to do something stupid.

Too, voting is a way to feel both invested in and responsible for the community in which we live. If we vote for a good candidate who has governed well we can brag that "I voted for him," or  if we voted for a bad candidate who has shamed, it can shame us as well (though we may not admit voting for the bad one). It's odd how many people won't say who they voted for. This may be to save themselves shame if their candidate wins and turns out to be a dud.  But really, in free nations,  if voting changed anything it would be abolished.

Of course all of this is irrelevant in countries that have voting but that don't really have a free or honest process. Nations who pretend to have voting decide their elections tend to have a much higher voting turnout than those who have real and honest ones. It's not normal for most people to vote. Humans are not sheep who all follow the same ritual.  Any country for instance, that brags that it has a 95% turnout is most likely a dictatorship that only pretend to have a real voting process.

Hmmm, I wonder if the dictators might not be right about the folly of letting citizens vote. The great cynic Ambrose Bierce said it best when asked about voting he said, "The vote is  the instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country." But then, most citizens in a democracy will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in an election.

Trick Or Treat 2012

Halloween 2012 and trick or treat was marginal for the kids in the neighborhood. It rained all a day, but just before nightfall it stopped and the kids did have the opportunity to put on their costumes and trick or treat. I enjoy handing out the goodies to them because it makes me a child again and reminds me of how my mom would make a ghost outfit for me (that I sometimes tripped over when running house to house on search of the candy treats) and my dad would escort me and my friends on the trick or treat. I always thought my dad enjoyed it more than the kids and when I started taking little Jane I realized he and I both did.

I always give out good and copious amounts of candy and novelty items. The kids appreciate it and will remark year to year that "we like to come to this house because you give "good stuff". In addition to individual treat bags of candy I also handed out: glow sticks; Dracula fangs; Halloween pencils, Halloween puzzles and Halloween activity books; Halloween stickers and Halloween stamp kits.  Surely the kids met at their friend's home after ending the trick or treat walk to trade candy and toys.  I can remember Jane and her friends sitting on the living room rug, candy all about, as they traded their least favorites for something better someone else got. I also remember how I asked for a few pieces when I saw my favorites on the rug. Adults love to see the candy swap because it is an opportunity for them to get "the good stuff" too.

The costumes the kids wore this year were good and there was no single type or identity that predominated. I saw few movie or TV personalities this year and more of the traditional costumes. Also, there were an equal amount of store bought and home made costumes. The youngest of costumed kids seem most proud of their outfits, so I try to compliment them from time to time on their costumes, and even pretend to b e scared by the little Dracula or wolf man trick or treaters. Haha Thanks God there were no Lady Gaga or Honey Boo Boo costumes this year.  I am already sick of the real life versions.

Anyway, Halloween is over and in 4 weeks Thanksgiving is next on the holiday agenda.

Forced To Eavesdrop

The times not only "are a changing", they have changed when it comes to privacy. Go to any public place today and listen to the sounds of the cell phone nuts screaming the most personal information about themselves or others into their phones and  to anyone else around. Years ago we had phone booths as a matter of privacy and politeness. now we have people broadcasting their lives to uninterested others and more.

Now, many members of society are not just unconcerned about overheard phone calls, they purposely broadcast their personal business to large groups of "friends" and "followers" on Face book or Twitter. Just a century ago, when the first home phones were "party lines" shared by neighbors, "worrying you were being listened in on was a common feature of American culture. Now, privacy seems unimportant as the addiction to communication technology has such a hold on society that it is erasing what little is left of public manners and consideration for others.

I wonder if we are we're fast becoming a nation of casual eavesdroppers because, unwillingly or not, we hear more and more private maters  All this "sharing" (annoying , in my view) may be feeding a tendency toward exhibitionism, and devaluing the very privacy that earlier generations so desired. Ergo Reality TV that humiliate humans for the sole purpose of their getting a few minutes of attention on television.

Cell phone cameras photograph us, grocery shoppers chatter loudly on phones while shopping, often telling anyone who is nearby intimate financial or personal or information the cell addict would feel indignant of "sharing" if by any other way. And this leads to more than eavesdropping. Eventually those who hear inadvertently may want to hear other ways as well. they may spy on others, intercept and read E mail, bend over to eye the screen of a cell addict or computer user, looking in an opened window or door...

But wait!  The real "victim" is no longer the person being eavesdropped on, it's those who overhear them and can't escape the exhibitionists who assault them with their phones and use other mediums from which the victims can't get away. What had once been private behavior has now become public and is being shoved in our faces and we can not escape.

In reality, I think the end of privacy has as much to do with people wanting attention at any price. The unimportant are trying to make themselves feel important, and technology makes that not so hard to do. Perhaps the only remedy is for society to just tire of it all, ending both the eavesdropping and the ego gratification of broadcasting. At that point we will realize that chattering loudly about ourselves on a phone or a web site doesn't make us important. It only makes us look self absorbed and appear loud.

Hurricane Sandy

That big east coast storm is surely wrecking havoc there. It actually was a minimal hurricane due to the fact that tropical systems lose strength as they hot colder air and water. The upper Atlantic is much colder than the tropical conditions in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. I think Louisiana receives storms that size almost yearly. They do much less damage because the Gulf Coast infrastructure and the people there are built to withstand those storms and are used to storms.

The East Coast infrastructure is not built for such storms. Levees are lower, the electrical grids are not prepared for water or wind, buildings are not built to a "hurricane code" standard of strength, etc. No wonder that storm has devastated the east coast. I feel for the people there. But if the same one would have hit Louisiana, the damage would have been much much smaller. I think the recovery will be much slower there too. That area has had little experience in hurricane recovery and will need support (as in electrical crews and equipment from other states) from areas that are experienced in it, particularly in fixing the electrical grids. I think those areas will face recovery tasks they have never had to before.

To be cynical, I am waiting for the Obama and Romney campaigns to politicize the recovery. No doubt they will make the grand tours of the devastation and make piteous speeches about the victims, but they also will probably cast aspersions against each other and "dance on the graves" of the victims in the process. I suspect it won't matter. Obama has a clear lead in the electoral college and should be re elected.

I find that a sad commentary on our voters, who are choosing demagoguery, incompetence and entitlements over the welfare of the nation. Another four years of Obama may be as destructive as was Hurricane Sandy.

Handing Out Morning-After Pills To Children

How badly has the public education system in the U.S. strayed?  That is, why do kids today get to little educational instruction and too many social services? Well, one example is in New York. The New York City Department of Education is making the morning-after-pill available to high school girls at 13 public schools. Yep, for kids as young as 14 they hand them out, no questions asked and no parent consulted. That system already hands out condoms to the kids.

There is something fundamentally wrong with handing out condoms and morning after pills to kids. It, uh, kind of says to them that we expect them to be immoral and irresponsible in their behavior. Maybe handing out math tests instead of condoms might work better, for an educated child will more often behave responsibly sexually and otherwise. Schools now not only act as the surrogate parent, but also as the child's physician, dietitian, social director, and it seems also... but rarely... as educators. Note I out education last on that list.

In the vast majority of cases the parent is more interested in the welfare of his or her child than is the school. So let parents make those other decisions, and let schools educate the child. The handing to educators by society of responsibilities unrelated to academic matters is a reflection of the society's failure to carry out the roles of those things at their former source. I have often felt that is teachers were allowed to teach and not be asked to parent, the children they educate would be far better off academically as a result.

Too, the lesson of free and easily available morning after pills for children is a lesson that teaches personal responsibility means sex for kids is ok as long as their is morning after to prevent pregnancy afterward.  The real lesson is that there is not need for personal responsibility for reckless actions. While unwanted teen pregnancies may end with the free birth control for all teens, the emotional, relational, and other physical issues of being sexually active, particularly at such a young age, will remain. And that may prove to be the most damaging thing our society fails to teach to its children..

Pumpkin, A Favored Fruit

Since I have nothing much to write about today I thought I would ramble on about one of my favorite seasonal fruits, the pumpkin. If you take the pumpkin away there would be no Halloween, sort of like removing your pancreas. It is necessary to have it.  But so many people (most haven't given tasting pumpkin enough of a chance) say they don't like the flavor of pumpkin. I consider those to be like the ones who refuse to run under a hose and play because "adults don't do that". Someone should force feed them a pumpkin muffin to introduce the delight of eating pumpkin.

In addition to decorating and carving them at Halloween, pumpkins are eaten all around the world in various forms (The pumpkin is type of squash). Antarctica is the only place they don't grow. To show there versatility, try sampling pumpkin when you travel abroad. The variety from far away is likely to not look or taste like the one you know best from home. Pumpkins are native to the western hemisphere but were completely unknown in Europe when Christopher Columbus landed in America. Scientists say that pumpkins have been grown in America for more than 5000 years.

The Halloween variety, that big orange blob with the green handle is a great substitute for what the Irish first carved at Halloween, They used to carve white turnips. The pumpkin is more shapely, colorful and comes with accessory parts. Take the tendrils, for example.  Sometimes attached to the stem are thin, hair like "tendrils"  During the growing season, tendrils on the vine are green. They twist around objects on the ground to help anchor the vine and protect it from the wind. After harvesting, there are sometimes dried, brown tendrils on the stem.  Too bad they aren't left on pumpkins when they are sold at Halloween.

One year in New Orleans, I planted some old pumpkin seeds in my garden and a pumpkin bush grew, and bore several pumpkins (all of which I removed early-on so the remaining healthy one would get all the nourishment on the vine). It is easy to grow pumpkin but hard to keep rot and pests from eating the final products. Fortunately, I read that a board should be placed underneath then early finished pumpkin to prevent it from rotting. I did that and saved my pumpkin's life.

If you want to murder your grown pumpkin there are plenty of easy ways to cook it. Here is a good site with some nice recipes using pumpkin. http://www.pumpkinnook.com/cookbook.htm#recipe

But I leave you with one of my own favorite  recipes for a very nutritious drink, the pumpkin shake.
Pumpkin Protein Shake
4 oz plain nonfat Greek yogurt
1/3 cup canned pumpkin or fresh pumpkin puree
2-3  teaspoons  raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. cloves, 1/8 tsp. ginger)
1/2 cup ice
1 cup milk
Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.
Enjoy pumpkin today!

Old Fasioned People

I have become what I used to call my parents when I was a kid, "old fashioned". In those days being old fashioned was not a good thing. It meant a person was out of touch with changes that everyone else wanted in their lives.  It seems the younger a person is them more they need to change in order to feel secure. No wonder the young struggle so much.  My childhood perception of my mom and dad was they were missing something by being old fashioned. Little did I know then that when one is old fashioned they may miss on the new, but they also happily embrace the old.

I wonder how many people who live their lives to a full age never become old fashioned. There must be a few, but they are rarely noticed and when they do show themselves people don't exclaim that "He's a man of fashion and style". Instead. they say things like, "He's just and old fool". No wonder that as we get older and older we feel more comfortable being old fashioned.

I can list a lot of ways I am old fashioned, but here are a few that prove it.
1) I have never used nor ever will use an ATM machine.
2) The only phones I acknowledge as useful are land line phones.
3) I get upset when I see other people behaving rudely or inappropriately in public, and it is important to me to always act ethically.
4) I think people today are more selfish and dishonest than in earlier generations.
5) I would rather die than have a tattoo, piercing or wear a baseball cap backwards.
6) When I either give or receive a promise I expect it to be honored.
7)  Being respectful to even those I dislike is important. if not, I taint my own character.
8)  I think that too many people today want a handout, not a job.
9) When something bad happens to me I accept it as part of life and say to myself, "I will overcome this setback". Yet today I think  too many in the world see their misfortune as someone else's fault and that someone else should "fix it".
10) I think special effects and other technological advances have ruined movies that are made today.

You get the idea. For me being old fashioned is no longer an undesirable trait. It means I have planted roots in life and that those the roots feel good. Yep! Just call me an Old Fashioned Man.