‪Think it’s time for billionaires to learn that their wealth being taxed is in fact the most moderate solution to society’s billionaire problem. Nikita Gill‬

Call it a guillotine prevention fund if "tax" is too scary for them

 Leon English

“I feel that the dormant goodwill in people needs to be stirred. People need to hear that it makes sense to behave decently or to help others, to place common interests above their own, to respect the elementary rules of human coexistence.” — Václav Havel

In 1975, women of Iceland went on strike for equal rights. 90% of women walked off their jobs & homes, shutting down the entire country. The men could barely cope. Five years later, Iceland elected first female President. Now Iceland has the highest gender equality in the world.

BLIZZARD UPDATE

 My windows are covered in snow!

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” — John Dewey

“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” — Henry James

“I live in a kind of tension between the will to say yes to my suffering, and my inability to utter this yes with complete sincerity.” — Karl Jaspers

“Solitude is fine but you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.” — Honoré de Balzac

“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

“Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw

Martin Luther King Jr.: In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.” — Cormac McCarthy

Eleanor Roosevelt: Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.

The history books quietly bypassed is that Barack Obama, during the most pressure-saturated nights of his presidency, would retreat alone to the Treaty Room on the second floor of the White House residence — not to strategize, not to take calls, but to handwrite personal letters to ten ordinary American citizens every single night, a practice he maintained with almost monastic devotion across all eight years, selecting the letters himself from the 40,000 that arrived daily at the White House, and his longtime correspondence director Fiona Reese confirmed that Obama would often weep privately while reading certain letters, folding them carefully before writing responses so personally detailed and emotionally present that recipients frequently described the experience of receiving them as the most significant moment of their lives, with one Ohio steelworker writing back to say that Obama's letter had physically stopped him from making a decision that would have permanently altered his family's future. What makes this practice almost unbearably moving is the detail that surfaced later — Obama never used a computer for these letters, always a black felt-tip pen, always legal yellow paper first as a draft, always rewritten onto White House stationery by hand a second time, because he believed, as he told historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in a rare private conversation later recounted in her 2018 work, that the physical act of pressing pen to paper forced a quality of attention that typing simply could not replicate, a philosophy rooted in his years as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago from 1992 to 2004 where he developed the conviction that democracy only functions when its leaders remain genuinely, uncomfortably close to the specific gravity of individual human suffering rather than processing it from behind the insulating distance of institutions and screens." 

 Mr PitBull

@MrPitbull07

Feb 22

 Basic Corn Bread- The Moosewood Cookbook

Ingredients

Butter to grease the pan

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt (I used 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup organic vanilla yogurt)
1 egg
3 tablespoons sugar or honey (I used coconut sugar)
3 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 8-inch square pan (or a 9-10 inch cast-iron skillet) with butter.

Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl.  Combine wet ingredients, including sugar/honey, separately.  Stir wet ingredients into dry, mixing just enough to thoroughly combine.  Spread into the prepared pan.

The batter is relatively thick- much thicker than other cornbread recipes I've tried. No cause for concern; it turns out great!

Bake 20 minutes, or until the center is firm to the touch.  Serve hot, warm or at room temperature. 

https://3blessings.blogspot.com/2012/01/this-week-moosewood-cookbooks-basic.html

Sourdough Cornbread

 https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/sourdough-cornbread-recipe

Recipe by Martin Philip

Move aside, flavorless cornbread! Sourdough discard adds a slight tang that balances the slight sweetness typical of northern cornbread. Browned butter, which is made in the cast iron skillet as the oven preheats, brings nuttiness, gorgeous speckles, and crisp, flavorful edges. If your cornbread is still pale on the surface when the baking time is up, broil it briefly for extra toastiness. 

Prep15 mins

Bake 15 mins

Total 45 mins

Yield one 10" cornbread

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups (150g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 cup (138g to 156g) yellow cornmeal*
• 1/3 cup (66g) granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (227g to 241g) sourdough starter, unfed/discard
• 1/3 cup (76g) milk, whole preferred
• 2 large eggs

*The weight of cornmeal varies by brand; Quaker cornmeal weighs 156g per cup while Indian Head whole cornmeal weighs 138g per cup. 

Instructions

1. Place the butter in a 10" cast iron skillet and place in a cold oven; set the oven to 425°F. The butter will melt and eventually brown as the oven preheats, about 15 to 20 minutes. While this happens, prepare the remaining ingredients. 

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sourdough discard, milk, and eggs until homogenous.  

3. Once the butter has melted, it will separate, foam, then change from light yellow to golden brown in spots as the milk solids toast. When the butter is golden brown with some darker bits, carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven and set it aside to cool briefly, 2 to 3 minutes.  

4. Pour most of the butter into the wet ingredients while stirring, leaving a generous tablespoon in the pan to grease the bottom and sides. (Swirl the pan gently so the butter coats the sides.) Once the butter is incorporated, stir the wet ingredients into the dry, mixing until everything is homogenous.  

5. Transfer the batter into the cast iron pan and spread it into an even layer. Return the pan to the oven. 

6. Bake the sourdough cornbread for about 15 minutes, until it’s set, golden around the edges, and light brown on top. If, after 15 minutes, the edges are brown but the top remains light, broil briefly until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes.  

7. Remove the cornbread from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan briefly before serving warm or at room temperature. Cornbread is best enjoyed the day it's made. 

8. Store any leftover sourdough cornbread, well-wrapped, at room temperature for 1 day; freeze for longer storage. Toast leftover slices of cornbread and slather in butter, jam, or honey. 

Nebraska Spider Bread

Nebraska Spider Bread  The Spider is the name of the Cast iron pot it is baked in.

There’s an International Dutch Oven Society. (re-posted from my other blog, the insomniacs kitchen)

My mother got this recipe from Avi when they first moved to Massachusetts in 1975. I found this written out on a lined yellow recipe card the other day. Nebraska Spider Bread named after the cast iron spider pan. Which was a cast iron Dutch oven pot with legs.
serves 5-6 preheat oven to 375
1 and 1/4 cups coarse corn meal
1 Tbsp dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 Tablespoon melted butter or corn oil or bacon fat
5 eggs beaten
2 and 1/2 cups buttermilk or 2 and 1/2 cups of milk and a half teaspoon of white vinegar or yogurt diluted with milk to make one and a half cups
3 Tablespoons butter or oil
Mix dry ingredients + add to the mixed liquids. Melt butter in 10" Spider pan or cast iron Dutch oven. Tip grease all over, then add batter. bake 30 minutes in preheated 375 oven. Serve hot with butter maple syrup or honey. Do not overcook the eggs they set a bit after your remove the pot from the oven.

Butter vs. Margarine

 Nutrition Smack Down: Butter vs. Margarine

February 24, 2023

Cooking at home can be a great way to cut down on calories and fats, and take control of your eating habits. But how much do you really know about your go-to ingredients?

Whether you opt for butter or margarine, you’re bound to consume some fat. But the trick, according to Jamie Allers, RD, with Hartford HealthCare’s Digestive Health Institute, is choosing the right ones.

Butter

Made from heavy cream, butter is notoriously high in saturated fat. These fats raise “bad” cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL), which can increase your risk of heart disease.

Here’s the upside – butter is rich in nutrients like calcium, and contains compounds linked to lower chances of obesity. It’s high in beta-carotene, a compound that your body converts into vitamin A, which lowers risks of lung and prostate cancer. It also contains vitamin D, vital for bone growth and development, and vitamin E, which plays a role in skin health.

Margarine

Fortunately, not all fat is bad. Unlike butter, margarine is high in unsaturated fats, which can lower cholesterol and improve overall heart health.

But margarine is also high in trans fats, Allers cautions. “Trans fats are the worst type of fat for you,” says Allers. “It’s so bad that there is now legislation across the country that regulates manufacturers’ use of trans fats in their products.”

These are particularly dangerous, because in addition to raising bad cholesterol, they also lower levels of good cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL).

Keep your options open

Luckily, butter and margarine aren’t the only options. On your next trip to the grocery store, look for butter alternatives made with olive or avocado oil, or butters made with milk from grass-fed cows. These are higher in vitamin A, beta-carotene and omega-3 fats, which help prevent heart disease and stroke, may help control lupus, eczema, and rheumatoid arthritis, and play protective roles in cancer and other conditions.

But remember to always check the product labels, Allers warns. Butter substitutes can be full of additives, both natural and chemical.

Day 1461 of Putin’s Three-Day War Courage, betrayal — and reasons for hope Paul Krugman

 https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/day-1461-of-putins-three-day-war