Yumminess!!!

As the Constant Reader may well recall, I'm pretty proud of my prowess in the kitchen (among other places). My darling wife, The Lovely and Talented Cathy! (tm) mentioned that one of the folks she follows on Twitter was craving a good Italian-style tomato sauce. Since the sauce I use for spaghetti and lasagna was my first concoction and is still one of my favorite recipes, Cathy thought it would be a good idea to blog the recipe and share it. Without further ado, here it is!

Mark’s Drunken Red Sauce

1 pound ground beef

1 pound bulk Italian sausage (hot or sweet, to taste)

3 large cans tomato sauce

2-3 small cans tomato paste

1 pound mushrooms, sliced

1 large red onion, chopped

1 750 ml bottle Chianti or San Genovese wine

4 bay leaves

Italian Seasoning (to taste)

2 heaping tablespoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil (not extra virgin)

As with any recipe, get the best quality ingredients you can for best results. In a large stockpot, mix tomato sauce and paste over medium heat.Feel free to substitute chopped tomatoes for sauce on a one-for-one basis, but use at least one can of sauce. In a large skillet, brown and crumble the ground beef, drain VERY well and add to sauce with the garlic. Brown and crumble sausage, drain VERY well and add to sauce with the entire bottle of wine. Heat oil in skillet and sweat (do not brown) onion and mushrooms until mushrooms are cooked and onion is translucent. Add contents of skillet, juices and all, to the sauce. Stir in Italian seasoning and bay leaves and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cover, stirring occasionally. The longer the sauce simmers, the better the flavor of the final product. If possible, place stockpot in refrigerator overnight and remove any fat that has hardened on top before heating or using. Makes enough sauce to feed an entire herd or enough for 2 lasagnas and leftovers for 3 or 4 for spaghetti. Buon Appetito!  

There it is! The foundation of most of my Italian style cooking. Not "authentic Italian" by any stretch, but mega-yummy! Enjoy!

Election Eve

Can you believe that's it has already been four years since we made history? Yes, it is time to elect a President again. The Constant Reader is well aware of where I stand on the election, but those of you that are recent visitors need a clue.



That should do it. The list of reasons is as long as both my arms, but someone has once again put it into words that put my poor efforts to shame.

What does it say about us when we are simultaneously pro-life and pro AK-47's? What does it say about us when God's will would allow a rapist to ask for shared custody and child support payments? What does it say about us when a black guy's in charge and we say things like "it's time to take America back"? What does it say about us when we think the institution of marriage is threatened by gay people who love each other, but not by idiotic game shows like "The Bachelor"? What does it say about us when we export democracy with Hellfire missiles, then restrict the right to vote here? What does it say about us when we build nuclear submarines to defend against exploding vests? What does it say about us when we think a guy who doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, keeps his money offshore, stubs his toe and says "H-E-double hockey sticks" and wears magical underwear can feel our pain? What does it say about us when we demand less government and more FEMA? What does it say about us when we completely forgot the colossal shit storm we were in four years ago?

The answer, my friends, is not blowing in the wind.

The answer is, "We are fucking crazy." - Chuck Lorre, Producer, "Big Bang Theory"

In addition to that, I think that the Republican party is moving closer and closer to being nothing more than a tool of corporate interests. With the continued assault on personal liberty and deregulation of business, it's only a matter of time before corporations have more rights than citizens. Corporations are NOT people. Anyone that would grant a corporation the same rights as a citizen will NEVER get a vote from me. 

The divisiveness of American politics has long been a sore subject with me. The art of compromise appears to be dead. That being said, I am forced to decide between two extremes. If presented with a choice between a candidate that thinks that the rich and corporations have it too hard in this nation and one that thinks that the PEOPLE are the ones that need the breaks, I'll side with the people every time. That candidate is President Obama. I fear for the fate of America under a Romney administration. If you prefer HUMAN rights over corporate rights, you should as well.

If It Was Up To ME...

This is another of those entries that started as a political discussion between family members. My family runs the political gamut from progressives like The Amazing and Talented Cathy and I to staunch conservatives with libertarians and everything else in the mix. My wife's uncle Dave asked several of us a VERY juicy question: "If you were going to be president what would be your 4 goals on your agenda platform?" I just LOVE questions like this!  My first four planks on "The Amused Geek For President" platform are...

1. Flat tax. Everyone in America pays the same percentage of their entire income in income tax. No deductions, except possibly mortgage interest. No mile-long tax forms. No special rates for capital gains, estates or anything else. Nobody's rate changes unless EVERYBODY'S rate changes. There is absolutely NO reason why I should have to pay 30% in taxes while some rich boy only pays 14% (and over-paid, at that!).

2. Secularize government. This country was founded on the ability of every citizen to follow a god or not without interference from government. That appears to have been forgotten. Freedom of religion should also include freedom FROM religion. Any law that favors one set of religious beliefs over another has no business on the books. This is especially true of personal conduct laws. If no one is being harmed, people should be free to do their own thing.

3. National Service. Require every American to perform two years of government service. Military, Americorps, Peace Corps or something tailored for a specific disability. If you don't perform your 2 years, you don't ever qualify for welfare and cannot be hired by the government, even to elected positions. If you want to get extreme, even restrict the right to vote until your 2 years are completed satisfactorily. This has the added benefit of instilling a sense of ownership in this country.

4. Guest Worker Program. While the debate rages about illegal immigration, the jobs that these folks people fill are going undone because they don't pay enough or require harder work than most Americans are willing to do. Allow for some sort of program that will let Mexican citizens cross legally, but as guest workers to pick the produce, bus the tables and so on. Quit criminalizing the same sort of "make a better life" spirit that formed this country in the first place.

These are just a start, but I think they're a good start. What would be on YOUR platform?

Chicken, Crow or Fox?

There has been a medium-grade shitstorm in the media lately. HUGE surprise, I know. This current cesspool swirls around a fast-food chain known as Chick-fil-A (CFA). CFA is a $4 billion/year company run by the very devout Cathy family of Atlanta, GA. These folks are one of two major retail outlets that are closed on Sundays that I am aware of, the other being furniture store RC Willey. According to the biography of company president Dan Cathy, as displayed on the company's website, CFA's corporate purpose is: "To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A."

Makes it sound like god wants you have that 16 grams of fat and 1400 milligrams of sodium in a 440 calorie sandwich, don't it? Selling fast food and buying into the god fantasy are no big deal, but it turns out that the Cathy family doesn't exactly want to keep their beliefs to themselves. Mr. Cathy appeared on a GA radio show and made the following statement:

"I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,'" Cathy said. "I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about." 

Please forget for a moment the prideful, arrogant attitude inherent in that statement. Or not. The fact that Mr. Cathy truly believes that his version of god can dictate to ANYONE the definition of ANYTHING is ludicrous. Cue the shitstorm. Those of us that support marriage equality are cheesed that the president of a major American company would behave like that in public. Are we not in the 21st century, rather than the 19th? Have we not progressed beyond such xenophobia? Did you not get that memo, Mr. Cathy?

The plot thickens when you find out that the officers of CFA are also the officers of the WinShape Foundation. CFA gives millions to WinShape. WinShape gives millions to groups like Focus on the Family to help in their crusades against abortion and marriage equality. Supporters of the LGBT population started calling for boycotts and the conservative media cried foul!

In an interview with Fixed Noise, no less a literary light than the former half-governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, leapt to the defense of CFA. She said, "Well, that calling for the boycott is a real -- has a chilling effect on our 1st Amendment rights".  Liberal politicians are inviting CFA to stay away from their locales and social media is raging with the debate. The Constant Reader knows how I stand on the issue. For a refresher just look here or here. You also know I can smell a rat a mile away, and that's just what I smell here.

While the Net and the media burned with debate, CFA held their annual "Appreciation Day". It appears to be a promotion where you can get free product if you dress like a cow (the company mascot), and other prizes are given away. With all this free publicity swirling around, guess who reported "world record" sales on that day? Survey SAYS... Chick-fil-A!

That brings me to the title of this missive. Did Dan Cathy show his ass by insisting that his god has the undisputed right to define marriage? Absolutely! Will he be forced to eat crow one day when this nation comes to its' senses on equality for all? I sincerely hope so. Did CFA make a metric butt-load of money over the past week thanks to a shitstorm of free publicity? Damn right. Crazy like a fox.