Who is she to speak for me?

Ahsley Judd has joined the ranks of well-known women who purport to speak for me. I am sick and tired of the notion that "women's rights" is all about the right to kill our own babies. Here is a link to the video that set me off this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BySATfll-BQ

Biden: Wealthy Americans Must Pay More Taxes to Show Patriotism

This is a quote from a story on FoxNews.com:

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden says that paying higher taxes is the patriotic thing to do for wealthier Americans.

Biden says he and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama want to “take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people.”

Under the Democrats’ economic plan, people earning more than $250,000 a year would pay more in taxes while those earning less — the vast majority of American taxpayers — would receive a tax cut.

Biden told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday that, in his words, “it’s time to be patriotic … time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut.”

I loved some of the comments posted by readers:

I don’t know what Country Biden thinks he is in, but here in America patriotism is EVERYONE doing an honest days work for honest pay.

This article should read: “Obama to put a cap on American Dream at $250K”. I don’t even make close to $250K a year, but I don’t want it to be a negative to achieve prosperity in the U.S.

You have to be kidding me. You want to punish those who work hard and extra hours? What a joke!! I don’t make near $250K a year, but I don’t want to punish those who do.

What Obama and Biden want to do is turn our economy from Capitalistic into a socialistic state with redistribution of wealth.

Oh?…time to stomp on capitalism, time to become socialist, time to lose every liberty our forefathers fought for…….

Biden has finally admitted what we have known all along - Obama wants us to become socialists.

Enough said!

Can you tell I've been cooking this week?

We are trying to wait until the weekend to eat out, so I have been cooking a lot this week. Trying to cook with minimal sugar and low cholesterol foods has been a new adventure for me. I like to cook and I like to eat yummy food, so the trick has been finding food we love that fits into our new diet restrictions. Below is a recipe for zucchini bread made with whole wheat flour and no white sugar. Believe it or not it is awesome.

Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

INGREDIENTS
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons canola oil
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/3 cups grated zucchini
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)


DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 8x4 inch loaf pan and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, honey, brown sugar, oil and vanilla. Combine the whole wheat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into the wet ingredients until moistened. Gently stir in the zucchini and walnuts until evenly distributed. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted into the crown comes out clean. Cool in the pan until cool enough to touch, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap or store in a plastic bag when cool.

Cafe Rio Chicken Burrito Recipe

I found this copy-cat recipe online and it seems to be a hit.


Cafe Rio Dressing, Chicken and Rice

Café Rio Dressing
1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet (make as per recipe)
2 tomatillos (tomato like vegetable with a husk around them)
½ bunch of cilantro
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeño (Use the seeds too if you like it spicy. You could substitute a few drops of green tobasco for the jalapeno.)
Use a food processor to blend all the ingredients well. Refrigerate.

Cafe Rio Chicken
1 small bottle Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
3 cloves garlic—minced
5 lbs chicken breast
Cook all together in a crock pot for 4 hours, shred meat and cook 1 additional hour

Café Rio Rice
4 c water
4 t chicken bouillon
4 t garlic –minced
½ bunch cilantro1 can green chiles—or equivalent fresh
¾ t salt
1 T butter
½ onion
4 c rice
Blend cilantro, green chiles and onion together in food processor. Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients, simmer covered 30 minutes.

Serve burrito style in flour tortillas with black or pinto beans and shredded cheese.

NOTE: For the rice I substituted olive oil for the butter, and I used brown rice which increased the cooking time to approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes. Also, this recipe is HUGE, you will definately want to adjust quanties unless you are having a party!

REAL SIMPLE

I found this magazine the other day and really liked it. There was no fluff, no stories of troubled marriages, no personality quizzes, no gossip - just lots of good ideas. After reading it I went online and subscribed. It was there that I found their amazing website, full of good ideas for cleaning, organizing, cooking, beauty & style, travel, etc. I thought you might want to see it.

http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/homepage/flash/0,23022,,00.shtml?xid=email-tcm-sm-wesack

Below is an recipe I got from the magazine. We tried it on Sunday, and if you like salmon and tomatoes, it was great and really easy. I didn't have the fresh thyme, but it was fine without it.

Garlicky Broiled Salmon and Tomatoes

4 6-ounce pieces skinless salmon fillet

4 medium tomatoes, cut in half

1/2 teaspoon paprika, preferably hot

2 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and pepper

8 sprigs fresh thyme

4 cloves garlic, sliced

Heat broiler. Place the salmon and tomatoes, cut-side up, in a broilerproof roasting pan or on a rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle the salmon with the paprika.Drizzle the salmon and tomatoes with the oil and season with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Scatter the thyme and garlic over the top.Broil until the salmon is opaque throughout and the tomatoes are tender, 8 to 10 minutes.

Yield: Makes 4 servings

MSNBC Hosts Olbermann, Matthews Booted From Political Night Duties

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a cable news junkie. For the past 8 years my “drug” of choice has been MSNBC. I know that FOX News is the favorite of most conservatives, but I like MSNBC. I like their format and, with the definite exception of Keith Olbermann, I like their personalities. I have watched enough over the years to understand them, to know what to expect from them, and to appreciate the input from their conservative guests and contributors. I should, however, have seen the writing on the wall with the March cancellation of Tucker Carlson’s show. With the removal of the lone remaining conservative host, MSNBC left conservatism and even moderation behind and moved full speed ahead toward unabated liberalism.

I am not the only one who has noticed. When Sarah Palin made the following statement at the Republican National Convention:

“But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion -- I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people.”

The crowd responded with chants of “NBC, NBC, NBC”.

Apparently the bigwigs at NBC took notice and have relieved Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from their duties as co hosts of political night coverage for MSNBC.

I, for one, could not be happier. I can take or leave Chris Matthews (although his liberalism is always simmering there right at the surface). It is Keith Olbermann’s presence as co host of MSNBC’s election coverage that began my gradual switch to FOX News. His brand of “journalism” serves him well as host of a liberal show. His “Countdown with Keith Olbermann”, is the highest ranked show MSNBC has ever had. However, MSNBC’s decision to make him a co host of their election event coverage moved him from the editorial desk of a commentator to the news desk, where his brand of reporting is completely inappropriate.

During coverage of the Republican National Convention, Olbermann apologized to the audience for the network’s airing of a Sept. 11 video tribute produced by the RNC. His clearly biased comments were as follows:

“We would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead, and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that videotape the way I did, I apologize,”

Who gave Keith Olbermann or MSNBC the authority to determine when, where, or if video of events related to our country’s September 11, 2001 national tragedy are to be broadcast? And since when does a news anchor inject such biased personal opinion?

Others with more clout than me may be wondering the same thing. Brian Stelter of the New York Times reported:

“Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams, the past and present anchors of “NBC Nightly News,” have told friends and colleagues that they are finding it tougher and tougher to defend the cable arm of the news division, even while they anchored daytime hours of convention coverage on MSNBC and contributed commentary each evening.
Mr. Williams did not respond to a request for comment and Mr. Brokaw declined to comment. At a panel discussion in Denver, Mr. Brokaw acknowledged that Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews had “gone too far” at times, but emphasized they were “not the only voices” on MSNBC, according to The Washington Post..”

USA Today reported the dismissal of Olbermann and Matthews as follows:

MSNBC said Sunday it is replacing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as co-anchors of political night coverage with David Gregory, and will use the two newsmen as commentators.

The USA Today choice of words is interesting, stating that MSNBC will “use the two newsmen as commentators”. The reality is that Olbermann and Matthews have always been commentators and MSNBC is correcting their mistake and returning them to that role.