Bacon Oatmeal

This is a recipe for 1 serving.  It is easily doubled, tripled,  quadrupled, etc.


Ingredients
2 slices of the best quality bacon
1/2 cup of Quaker Oats oatmeal; not the instant, the other kind.
1/2 cup of 2% milk
1 tbsp butter
1 heaping tbsp of Splenda brown sugar.

This recipe is very quick and easy, but the process is specific in order to get the best blend of flavors.

Fry the bacon to taste in the skillet, then remove to paper towels to cool and to drain excess grease.  Place oatmeal and milk in a microwaveable bowl and zap it at full power for 1 minute.  Remove and stir.  Add the butter, return to the microwave and heat at full power for 1 minute.  Remove and stir.

Stack the 2 bacon slices, holding them in one hand over the bowl.  Using kitchen shears, snip the end of the cooked bacon, allowing the small bacon bits to crumble over the oatmeal.  Sprinkle the Splenda brown sugar over the bacon bits and oatmeal.

Return to the microwave and cook at full power for an additional 30 seconds.  Serve immediately, stirring to blend once more before eating.

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Nobel Peace Prize Rap by MC Crowbar

"I made a sandwich - got a Peace Prize!"



Oh, yes.  This is very funny to me.

h/t to Instapundit
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Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize has become increasingly ridiculous and irrelevant over the last couple of decades, even comedic at times, in a pathetic kind of way.  Here is a list of the winners since 1980:

_ 2008: Martti Ahtisaari
_ 2007: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Al Gore
_ 2006: Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank
_ 2005: International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei
_ 2004: Wangari Maathai
_ 2003: Shirin Ebadi
_ 2002: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
_ 2001: United Nations, Kofi Annan
_ 2000: Kim Dae-jung
_ 1999: Medecins Sans Frontieres
_ 1998: John Hume, David Trimble
_ 1997: International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Jody Williams
_ 1996: Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, Jose Ramos-Horta
_ 1995: Joseph Rotblat, Pugwash Conf. on Science and World Affairs
_ 1994: Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin
_ 1993: Nelson Mandela, F.W. de Klerk
_ 1992: Rigoberta Menchu Tum
_ 1991: Aung San Suu Kyi
_ 1990: Mikhail Gorbachev
_ 1989: The 14th Dalai Lama
_ 1988: U.N. Peacekeeping Forces
_ 1987: Oscar Arias Sanchez
_ 1986: Elie Wiesel
_ 1985: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
_ 1984: Desmond Tutu
_ 1983: Lech Walesa
_ 1982: Alva Myrdal, Alfonso Garcia Robles
_ 1981: Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
_ 1980: Adolfo Perez Esquivel

Some of these are absolutely worthy, to be sure.  Others seem relatively obscure and unknown.  But then there's Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama, Yasser Arafat, Mohamed El-Baradai, and...

...wait for it....

Al Gore.

And now this.

......

Plinth

It is not my intention to start "a word of the day" theme, nor is this space going to devolve into some kind of Jungian dream journal.  However, I have had more vivid dreams lately than normal, several each night, and one of them was highly unusual.  Two nights ago, I dreamed of the word "plinth".  In my head, I saw it in print, I heard it spoken, and I myself said the word, repeating it.  At the time I had no idea what it means and was only vaguely assured in my dream that it is, in fact, an actual word.

I trolled the internet for definitions and the one I like the best came from the ubiquitous Wikipedia:

In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests.^[1] Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture (1851) posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. According to Semper, the plinth exists to negotiate between a structure and the ground. Semper's theory has been very influential in the subsequent development of architecture.^[2]

I especially like the line, "exists to negotiate between a structure and the ground."

Why I dreamed this word, I have no idea.  Maybe I should ask a Jungian.  Here are a couple of more gratuitous plinth pics:

Here is a different kind of plinth...evidently it is also a kind of sophisticated, articulating medical chair:

And here's a short video about an art project involving a famous plinth and a bunch of English folk:





Has anybody else ever had a dream about a word? Next, I just need to start working it into as many conversations as possible.

Chappaquiddick

I consider Mark Steyn's short essay on the legacy of Ted Kennedy essential to the present public discussion.

Call Your Name - Gateway Worship

One of the best worship songs in the last couple of years. I was blessed to be in the congregation the night this was recorded.

Sing along...it will surprise you.



Gateway Church The singer/songwriter is Zach Neese. Here is a link to more of Gateway's worship music.

Ethnomusicological Stimulus - MBPYNHO

It's a veritable gold mine of Music By People You've Never Heard Of.

Go here to preview and download FOR FREE a couple of dozen World Music Sampler albums from Amazon.com.

I heard about this from ChordStrike, an Amazon blog about all kinds of music.

Free is good.

Gastronomic Stimulus

Here are some random food links that I like.

First, a sweepstakes to enter to win lots of groceries. Yes, there are coupons and recipes involved for those interested in such things. If you're hardcore and you like to make your own pasta noodles by hand, don't bother. The rest of you go check it out.

Secondly, here is a link to the arepa con queso recipe that I like. In fact, I'm cooking some now. This is a very simple, good recipe. You need the right kind of flour, though, or it won't be right. You need the PAN Harina Precocida de Maiz Blanco which is available from many Latino or specialty grocery stores. While you're there you can get the queso blanco, too.

Thirdly, and I've probably said this before, but it bears repeating. I am a big fan of Mark Bittman. His blog, his books, his online cooking video segments. Everything he does is aimed at helping you and me, the non-professional home cook learn to prepare better food with simple techniques and better ingredients. He gets it. He knows we aren't making foie gras...but he will show you how easy it is to make an excellent curry, a superior pasta sauce, what to do with a pound of ground lamb, or how to grill vegetables in the oven. It's real cooking for real people, but it's really GOOD cooking. If you want to eat better and still live your life, you will like Mark Bittman.

The Visitor

Among the several good things about Netflix is how easy they have made it for us to watch movies for which we would not normally have either the time or, because of where we live, the access to conveniently see films that have limited release.

One such was the independent film, "The Visitor," written and directed by Thomas McCarthy, who also wrote and directed 2003's wonderful "The Station Agent." "The Station Agent" is really one of my favorite films, so artfully done. I had read good things about "The Visitor" and was pleased to find it in the mailbox.

One thing I had previously noticed was how "The Visitor" shares a similarity with the former movie in that reading the plot synopsis is completely misleading. Both feature simple, almost banal, stories that are, in fact, rich and deep, and are brilliantly and beautifully told.

Although "The Visitor" boldly violates one of my few but firm rules about what constitutes a "good" movie, I still must recommend it most highly. It centers on the the unlikely relationship that emerges among an interesting quartet of characters. The only recognizable actor is the lead, Richard Jenkins, and he is not a movie star. He's one of those guys you see 3-5 times a year in various minor roles and say, "Oh, yeah...that guy." In this movie, his work is very, very good as the tightly wound (and unwinding) professor Walter Vale.

Although each of the actors is strong, Hiam Abbas, an accomplished Palestinian actress from Israel, as Mouna Khalil, is especially striking in her role. Her performance is captivating, nuanced, complex, and powerful.

It is so seldom that a film can really successfully unpack a story as well, or develop characters as deeply as a book does, but that is what McCarthy does with "The Visitor." It is a difficult story, but one well worth telling. Here is a link to the trailer - check it out.

Rent this movie.

Rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem

"The request reads: "Children wanted for Future Temple service. Ultra-orthodox Jewish sect is searching for parents willing to hand over newborn sons to be raised in isolation and purity in preparation for the rebuilding of the biblical temple in Jerusalem. Only members of the Jewish priestly caste, the Kohanim need apply..."

Words from an ancient scroll disovered in a recent archeological dig? Or perhaps an excerpt from a Hollywood screenplay for some biblical epic? Actually, those words appeared in the contemporary Israeli newspaper, Haaretz."

Read the whole thing. The last couple of paragraphs tell why this is important.


Believe it.