Stuck At The Kids Table...Again

                                                                                   Why do we cook?
Well I guess there are a million answers to that question. We cook to feed our families, because raw meat can kill us, we have too, or for a great many of us it's a passion. A passion to create the ultimate dish that sends others into a catatonic state from pure bliss. I know I cook because I grew up with a mother who was the best cook I ever knew. She made everything so delicious, from pasta to steak, and everything in between. She never made a dish I wouldn't eat. She also could bake, her lemon squares should be contraband.

My love for cooking comes from her. I love cooking for my family as well as friends, it makes me happy. It doesn't have to be some big complicated feast, it could be a simple comfort food like beef stew. Eating brings people together and, if the food is good, puts us in a good mood. Wars have been stopped over dinners, arguments ended over a simple bar-b-que. Lets face it, we love to eat good food, and when we do we are open for just about anything. When people come together over well prepared food they seem to leave in a better mood, that is after their naps.

Food and cooking is a way to bring people of all walks of life together. No one has ever turned down a well cooked meal. We don't need a holiday like Thanksgiving to bring us together to sup. We could use any excuse to get friends and family together to chow down upon some fine vittles. Haven't seen the cousins in a while, let's eat, Mom and Dad in town, how about dinner?

It's easy if you think about it, we all need to eat, so why not share our culinary expertise with those we love, kind of like, or just tolerate, who knows by the end of dinner you may find you have many more good friends!

Skydiving Without A Parachute Is Just Falling !!!!

I like Henry Rollins. He speaks to a side of me that wants to yell at all the bad guys. I just now understand that you can't yell at the top of your lungs all the time without losing your voice. Sometimes a subtle touch is needed to make an argument, other times a more direct approch is nessessary to get someone to see the light. Knowing when to use each is an art form unto itself. Christ himself wasn't always mild mannared, he also knocked over tables and kicked chairs to get a point across. He also would use mild tactics when teaching his enemies how they were doing wrong. Just because you don't agree with someone doesn't mean you have to yell louder than them to get a point across. Try a little compassion when talking with someone you don't agree with and see if that doesn't go farther than a screeming match. Henry Rollins has a lot of good ideas and could be very helpful but most of that gets lost in his "angry guy" rants. My advice to Henry is continue doing what you're doing, just find a way be be more like Christ; yell when you must, be compassionate and calm when you can. Most importantly always stand on the side of rightiousness and never compromise your principles for any reason. And heck it never hurts to have the Word of the Lord on your side.

Shamrocks and Shillelaghs!!

It's my favorite time of the year. A time of leprechauns and clover, a day when being Irish means you are king for a moment. Saint Patrick's Day.

The pubs will be packed with "Want to Be's" chowing down on corned beef and cabbage along with carrots. They will be drinking beer, if you want to call Bud Light a "beer". It is as predictable as sunrise and sunset. Someone you know, or maybe you, will be found staggering down the street singing Irish songs drunk beyond any sence of reason. This my friends is St. Patricks Day in America.

Up until 1970 St. Patricks Day was a solemn day, a religious day and day to reflect on what it meant to be Christian in Ireland. St. Patrick wasn't even Irish, he was a Romano-Briton slave brought to Ireland to work the fields. His claim to fame isn't chasing snakes out off the island,  he is in fact credited with bringing Christianity to the Irish. Before 1970 the Irish government even ordered bars and pubs be closed. 

Tonight I will be celebrating the minor holiday by mixing tradition with a bit of Americana. I will be dinning on an Irish stew made of beef, potatoes, and carrots and washing it down with a stout Guinness and a shot of Irish Whiskey. This meal is closer to what an Irish family may have on this day, (just substitute lamb for the beef), unlike the whole corned beef and cabbage thing. So to all I say a Happy Saint Patricks Day!!!

Helping Never Hurt

It's nice to see so many people throughout the world coming together to help the Japanese people whom were effected by the earthquake/typhoon. It is in times of trouble that mankind seems to be at it's best. We have seen an outpouring of support for Japan and Haiti as they struggle to come to grips with major catastrophes and loss of life. These people will never have the same life they had before the disasters. They have lost homes, security, and family members all in the blink of an eye. The Japanese and Haitians are going to need alot of help for many years just to get back to what most people take for granted, so we need to help anyway we can.

With that said I also believe we cannot forget that everyday many Americans go without shelter and food as well. I am not posting this as a political debate so leave your opinions of the homeless to yourself and hear me out. Homelessness in America mostly gets swept under the rug because some people don't want to believe that the most powerful country in the world can have that kind of problem. We do. The homeless population continues to climb as the economy continues to tank. Some of the homeless are even employed but don't make enough money to support themselves or their children properly. They occupy shelters, if they are lucky, or even live in their cars and frequent food banks as well as soup kitchens. We need to remember that people are struggling even in our neighborhoods, you may even know someone whom has lost everything or your kids go to school with a child that spends his/her nights in a shelter, car, or worse. So I say for every dollar sent to help foreign countries recover we should send the same amount to the local shelter, food bank, or soup kitchen. Many of these places are running low on funds to remain open or to accept new comers. In other words they need our help as well, so why not help locally as well as globally. Let us not forget that charity begins at home.