No Clothes? No Telling!

UN out of US! Turtle Bay is a currupt joke.

Carnival of the Recipes - Irish Edition

I love Saint Patrick's Day. I get to pinch my kids for not wearing green until they realize I didn't pick out green clothes for them. The Verbalist, a skeptical six years, demanded the precedents for pinching. The Muralist, at four, didn't want to change because she likes getting pinched. The Littlest, at almost two, kept trying to swipe my coffee spiked with the Bailey's Irish Cream I had hoarded. I was going to post my own recipe for Corned Beef Sandwiches but who am I kidding, that's not really a recipe. Rye Bread? Check. Corned Beef? Check. Cream Cheese? Check. Bell Peppers? Check. Ok now I can read these scrumptious recipes without getting too hungry.

Drinks! What is Saint Patty's Day without a good drink or two?

Everything and Nothing the Irish Manhattan.

More 4 Kids posts three kid pleasing treats including an intriguing Shamrock Shake.

Soups, Stews and Sauces! Or the Three Esses as I like to say.

Kneadle Work has a Microwave Applesauce recipe.

Bean Sprouts has a Chinese Egg Soup.

Blog d'Ellison fires off a Garlic and Potato Soup designed to keep Vampires at bay.

Me-ander shares a microwave tomato sauce recipe.

Knerq showcases and Irish Stew Recipe.

Closing out this catagory, Slow Cooker recipes also submits a Irish Stew Recipe.

Breads and Side Dishes

Via Eat Your History is the Anchoress' Irish Soda Bread recipe.

It's the Irish Soda bread showdown! Our second recipe is from Diabetic Recipes.

Triticale Green Bean and Green Pea Cassarole

Dewey's Treehouse features Turnip Slaw

Empty Purse praises the versitility of the Potato.

Trinity Prep School (There's an Irish name for ya) has Unstuffed Cabbage.

Entrees

Signaleer's Tuna Steaks with Mustard Butter

Rebuild From Depression's Caterpillar Recipe, no it's not a euphemism. For the less adventurous Moroccan Beef.

A-Team one-ups the competition with Granny Mac's Mac n' Cheese recipe. Who can compete with grandmas?

Electric Venom dines on Shrimp Linguine.

Chicken Recipes send us (what else?): Irish Roast Chicken and Crockpot Chicken and Veggies.

Desserts (Spelt with two esses because you want to spend as long as possible over it.)

Chocolate World's Chocolate Truffle Cake.

Lemon Triangles from In the Headlights.

Keewee's Corner brings out Caramel Meringue

MotherLoad has brilliant Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanutbutter Frosting.

Disease Proof posts and Oatmeal recipe that made the 6 year old Verbalist sit up and take notice.

World Famous Recipes submits the Irish Jig Dessert. It contains Sugar, Whiskey, and Cream need I tout it more?

Famous Recipes, do not confuse with the site above spotlights Irish Flag Cookies.

That is it. No Famine here just a feast full of recipes to dive into. Be sure and browse the sites of this weeks contributers. Happy Eating.

Carnival of the Recipes

I was supposed to host the Carnival this weekend but no recipes awaited me in the carnival inbox. I'm stumped. Perhaps I am in the wrong weekend.

A Team

Via Llama-Butchers:



America's dollars and brain power at work.

Rabbit Flashing

I mow with the sole intent of keeping a jungle from springing up over night. I mow to warn the rest of the yard not to grow so fast and maybe, just maybe, I might not get to it for another week or so. Grass intimidation, my stock in trade.

The rabbits are out and dashing around in that kamikazi way that field rabbits in these parts do. The farmer behind us, not Farmer John but his neighbor, had plowed his fields and the seagulls were thick and white across it like a crop in bloom. The field in front of the house was plowed a week or so ago and the eagles have been diving that field for the rabbits.

I mowed in front of the barn today in that shady spot that sends up grass so thickly I feel as if I need a machete to deal with it properly. I made the unfortunate mistake of wearing low rise cargo pants to mow in. On the outset this seemed like a rational choice. I would not be sweating at the waistband and small of my back as I do when mowing in jeans. It was not so warm that shorts are an option and capri length cargo pants seem to meet the delicate balance of heating and cooling that mowing in mid March demands.

The sun is out and the wind was light. I was mowing and the kids each had a fresh bottle of bubbles to tease the Dog with. The Dog was running in circles. She was desperate to catch the bubbles and make her Her Children were where she could properly watch them and it seemed a mutually exclusive task. Finally, she concentrated on the Verbalist when the Muralist and the Littlest began to follow my perambulations around the barn yard. Through the growl of the mower I could hear the Muralist sing "The Ants Go Marching" at the top of her lungs. The verses were nonsensicle in a Carrollian fashion. She would sing one by one or two by two but the ants would slam a shoe or make some goo. By the time fives came round the ants "Miled a Pive". The Littlest just inserted random shreiks of ANTS! to the musical arias behind me. By eight the Muralist had grown bored with shrinking circles of lawn and peeled off to hit pine cones with sticks. The Littlest followed.

It was just as well, I was beginning to have problems with the cargoes. They were slipping dangerously low and taking the bikini underwear with them. If I were willing to take my hands off the mower I could hitch them up, but the mower has a engine choke bar because it it self propelled. If I took my hands from the mower I would have to start it again and I hate pulling the starter cord. So I waited until the last minute and just as I was about to stop my pants fell and a stealth dry rose bramble kicked up and swatted my now exposed bottom. It was the most rediculous thing I have experienced in a while and it was exacerbated by the impassive glance of a field rabbit sitting at the edge of the ditch.

Writing News

I recovered some short stories I submitted for publication about a year ago and was pleased to find they were not awful. Too often you write something go back and read it later and ask yourself, "What was I thinking?" I didn't do that this time although I can now see why I was told they were great, fun stories but not suited for the venue. They weren't suited for the venue so I am going to repolish them and find another place to submit them.

Ha!

This is for the Dear Husband:



I always knew Dwight was special.

Go Fly A Kite

The air has a definate springtime feel to it. I think it has to do with the wind having a well not warm, but mild edge to it. I'm quite a connoisseur of wind living where I do on looking out across the Pacific. Also the Vast Tract of Jungle Lawn has begun to grow again which means Spring is Here. I hauled out the lawn mower, gave it an oil change and started it up. The engine caught and roared to life and the children poured from the house, then turned ran into the house and came back out again wearing their coats. It was not cold but windy and soon everyone's cheeks and noses were bright red and eyes were sparkling.

I mowed the first large rectangle, trudging up and down the hill that comprises our front lawn. It is steep enough to be a workout but not so steep that you have much reason to complain without sounding like a weenie. The kids got bored of following me in ever decreasing rectangles so they found sticks and started hitting pinecones into the ditch. I finished my rectangle and decided that I was sick of marching in shrinking rectangles also so I got out a kite instead.

The Kite looks as if my four year old drew and colored a butterfly. It is black and yellow with screaming pink on the wings. The wind soughed through the trees and every now and then a gust would catch the kids' pinecones and skew them to the side before their sticks could connect - a good kite flying day. All the kite flying days of my kidhood seem saturated with sunshine, but there must have been some days like today - a brisk wind and rain clouds high overhead moving fast enough to pass you by.
I remember at least one session of flying my dragon kite until it rained.I remember reeling it in as fast as I could because I was scared to repeat Ben Franklin's tango with electricity.

The Muralist immediately ditched her sticks and came to help with the kite and a few minutes later the Verbalist did as well. Kite flying is a learned skill and it has been many years since I whiled away an afternoon getting a kite aloft. At last the Verbalist abandoned us to navigate the wind, he was too emotionally invested in the outcome. Everytime the kite crashed to the ground he flinched and looked for broken peices so he stoped watching and got out his bicycle instead.

The Muralist and I flew the kite awhile more and at last she too abandoned the kite for the allure of bicycles. There was a squwak from the girls' room and I went and got the Littlest up. She barely waited to be shod and coated before she ran laughing for the outdoors. She scooted with the older two then I got out bubbles for everyone and they held their wands to the wind and let the wind whip the bubbles across the yard at terrific speeds while the dog tried to catch them all.

Tired, hungry and chilled we trooped back into the house and washed up for dinner.

Know your Unphotogenic Congress Critter or Don't Vote

Hat tip to Jonah Goldberg. The Don't Vote test. Don't know who most of these folks are? Don't vote.



Among the media personalities thrown in there I almost got tripped up by Paris Hilton I thought she might be Jessica Simpson. But I guessed correctly and managed 100%.

That's All I Have to Say About That

or so says the imitible Forest Gump when he's forever done with a topic. From the American Mind:

An Open Letter to CPAC Sponsors and Organizers Regarding Ann Coulter

Conservatism treats humans as they are, as moral creatures possessing rational minds and capable of discerning right from wrong. There comes a time when we must speak out in the defense of the conservative movement, and make a stand for political civility. This is one of those times.

Ann Coulter used to serve the movement well. She was telegenic, intelligent, and witty. She was also fearless: saying provocative things to inspire deeper thought and cutting through the haze of competing information has its uses. But Coulter’s fearlessness has become an addiction to shock value. She draws attention to herself, rather than placing the spotlight on conservative ideas.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2006, Coulter referred to Iranians as “ragheads.” She is one of the most prominent women in the conservative movement; for her to employ such reckless language reinforces the stereotype that conservatives are racists.

At CPAC 2007 Coulter decided to turn up the volume by referring to John Edwards, a former U.S. Senator and current Presidential candidate, as a “faggot.” Such offensive language–and the cavalier attitude that lies behind it–is intolerable to us. It may be tolerated on liberal websites but not at the nation’s premier conservative gathering.

The legendary conservative thinker Richard Weaver wrote a book entitled Ideas Have Consequences. Rush Limbaugh has said again and again that “words mean things.” Both phrases apply to Coulter’s awful remarks.

Coulter’s vicious word choice tells the world she care little about the feelings of a large group that often feels marginalized and despised. Her word choice forces conservatives to waste time defending themselves against charges of homophobia rather than advancing conservative ideas.

Within a day of Coulter’s remark John Edwards sent out a fundraising email that used Coulter’s words to raise money for his faltering campaign. She is helping those she claims to oppose. How does that advance any of the causes we hold dear?

Denouncing Coulter is not enough. After her “raghead” remark in 2006 she took some heat. Yet she did not grow and learn. We should have been more forceful. This year she used a gay slur. What is next? If Senator Barack Obama is the de facto Democratic Presidential nominee next year will Coulter feel free to use a racial slur? How does that help conservatism?

One of the points of CPAC is the opportunity it gives college students to meet other young conservatives and learn from our leaders. Unlike on their campuses—where they often feel alone—at CPAC they know they are part of a vibrant political movement. What example is set when one highlight of the conference is finding out what shocking phrase will emerge from Ann Coulter’s mouth? How can we teach young conservatives to fight for their principles with civility and respect when Ann Coulter is allowed to address the conference? Coulter’s invective is a sign of weak thinking and unprincipled politicking.

CPAC sponsors, the Age of Ann has passed. We, the undersigned, request that CPAC speaking invitations no longer be extended to Ann Coulter. Her words and attitude simply do too much damage.

Sean Hackbarth

Me too.

In Honor of Jim Baen

Baen Publishing is sponsoring a short story contest. Baen is looking for old school upbeat Rocketship to the stars stories:

Write a short story of no more than 8,000 words, that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration in a positive, exciting and hopeful way.
WHAT WE DO WANT TO SEE:
Moon bases, Mars colonies, orbital habitats, space elevators, asteroid mining, artificial intelligence, nano-technology, realistic spacecraft, heroics, sacrifice, adventure.
WHAT WE DON'T WANT TO SEE:
Stories where everyone dies, stories that show technology or space travel as evil or bad, dystopias, Star Wars type galactic empires, UFO abductions.

I am already 2,00 words into my entry. Who wants to be my first reader?