Misterimpatient

Even if you don’t like Brussel Sprouts, you will love these. So far at least, no one has not liked them.
Roasted Brussel Sprouts

-Lots of Brussel Sprouts
-Lots of Garlic
-Olive oil
-Sea salt
-Fresh ground pepper
-Large container with lid
-Glass baking dish

1. Clean, trim (icky stem end removed) and dry sprouts. I use a lettuce spinner.

2. Chops lots of garlic. You’ll have to decide how much is enough.

3. Add sprouts and garlic to a container with a lid.

4. Weigh sprout/garlic mixture.

5. Add 1T olive oil for every 10-12 ounces of vegetables.

6. Salt and pepper to taste.

7. Shake container to coat veggies with oil, salt and pepper.

8. Spray glass baking dish with oil.

9. Add veggies and distribute evenly.

10. Roast in a hot oven 400-450 degrees.

11. Stir every 15 minutes or so.

12. Cook until sprouts are as soft as you like them.

Enjoy!

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 8:29 pm under My Favorite Recipes
1 Comment

While I’m just thinking of it, here is my tofu recipe. You can double this just fine.

Ingredients:

- 1, 15 ounce (or so) block of Extra Firm Tofu (I get it at Trader Joes for $1.39).

- 6 ounces (half a jar) Trader Joe’s Brushetta sauce.

- 3 eggs.

- 2 ounces grated hard cheese. Some combination of Romano and Asiago is very nice.

- 1 (or more) cloves diced fresh garlic

- Salt and pepper to taste

Drain and squeeze dry the tofu. This will result in about 12 ounces of tofu. I cut the block of tofu into 4 wide strips and squeeze two at a time in a paper towel, over the sink, to wring the water from it. Cheese cloth is lovely too.

Place all ingredients in a flat bottomed bowl and MASH with a potato masher until very well mixed. It won’t be smooth but there will not be big chunks of tofu either. It will be a lovely slurry.

I make 4 servings in individual glass dishes (about 3-4 inches across and 1.5 deep). I spray each dish with olive oil and measure equal amounts into each dish. The result is about 5 ounces, cooked.

For a slightly “cakier” version which is a little lower in fat, use
only 1 ounce of cheese and replace this with 1 ounce of oatmeal.

Cooking time is about 30-35 minutes at 400 degrees. Cooking is done when the edges are dark and the begin to pull away from the glass. The recipe is very forgiving of overcooking.

Stores for a least a few days, cooked, very nicely. It can be frozen but gets a little mushy when thawed.

Let me know if you love it.

Later…

Steve

Filed by misterimpatient at 7:53 pm under My Favorite Recipes
No Comments

Tom Lehrer said it best:

Spring is here, a-suh-puh-ring is here.
Life is skittles and life is beer.
I think the loveliest time of the year is the spring.
I do, don’t you? ’course you do.

If you don’t already know this song by heart (heathen!), you can find the lyrics here. I just want to report that this morning, while making my breakfast, no radio on, no coffee maker gurgling, I heard birds chirping. Not the recorded hourly birds of my wife’s Audubon clock, but real poop producing winged creatures. This is a good thing because it means my months of being cold are drawing to an end. Yippee.

Later …

Filed by misterimpatient at 6:16 am under Patter
No Comments

The folks at Science A GoGo report on some research out of the Mayo clinic (low fat you think?):

What’s the best way to reduce obesity rates among children? Take their chairs away and make them stand, according to James Levine, a Mayo Clinic obesity researcher. And if this new initiative gets off the ground, children in the classrooms of the future will be schooled at “standing desks” equipped with new technologies.

Considering the fundamental fidgety nature of kids, even obese kids (yeah, I was one), this is an idea that makes sense to me. I wouldn’t make just the fat kids stand though. I’d have all kids up and about.

I sit at a desk for work, but I seldom remain in one spot for long. I’m constantly getting up to walk around. I have a wireless headset that gives me to freedom to walk all around the office and even down the hall to the bathroom while still being connected to the phone. A classroom environment that afforded more of that sort of freedom would really enhance the educational experience, IMHO. Could be rough on teachers I suppose. Still, I like the idea of having kids stand for some classes.

I’ll go further and suggest that all business meetings should be SRO. They’ll go much faster.

I wonder what would happen if they removed all the chairs from McDonald’s?

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 6:07 am under I'm not fat today
No Comments

If someone can explain how to get permalinks to work, I’d sure appreciate it. This might be the problem: “For the above to work you must have something called mod_rewrite installed on your server.” I’ll check with tech support.

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 7:48 pm under Patter
No Comments

“Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised.” So says Marilyn Manson and I have to say, I have believed this for some time but could never find a way to express this view as clearly.

The reality of the 24/7 news cycle has turned Americans and perhaps large portions of the world, into scared puppy dogs, present company included. Things I did as a kid I have a hard time imagining letting my 13 year old daughter do. Do I think this is some kind of double standard? You bet.

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 4:33 pm under Patter
No Comments

I will attempt not to editorialize too much on this one.

Reuters had the following on MSNBC today:

NEW DELHI - A Muslim couple in India has been told by local Islamic leaders to separate after the husband “divorced” his wife in his sleep, the Press Trust of India reported.

It seems the (un)lucky man here uttered the word “talaq,” or divorce 3 times in his sleep. According to the article, this “constituted a divorce under an Islamic procedure known as “triple talaq.”

To remarry, they must wait 100 days AND the woman must remarry AND the woman must be divorced by her (new) husband.

There was no mention of child support or alimony.

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 4:23 pm under Patter
No Comments

Sometimes there is a sign and you just can’t drive by. In this cause, I couldn’t drive at all. I was sitting in my car after stopping at Walgreens for toothpaste and bandaids, trying for 10 minutes to get the darn thing to start.

No Luck.

About 100 yards (or less) in front of me is a Hogan Tire & Auto Service Center. Finally, after living with the problem for about a year, I decided to just get the damn thing fixed. So, after about 12 minutes of trying, the car starts and I pull in to the HT&ASC, leaving the car running, just in case they can’t take it today.

The good news is that they could take it and the cost for the starter is less then half the price quoted by the dealer. So I figured while I’m there I’d get the oil changed, tires balanced, rotated and aligned. All still for less then half of the starter from the dealer.

Fingers crossed it all goes well. I remain optimistic frankly. Yippee!

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 1:12 pm under Driving Observations
1 Comment

The point of this comes later. Sorry.

Newsweek reports Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia basically outed himself on the matter of Gitmo detainees. To quote the Newsweek piece:

Challenged by one audience member about whether the Gitmo detainees don’t have protections under the Geneva or human-rights conventions, Scalia shot back: “If he was captured by my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that battlefield and they were shooting at my son and I’m not about to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I mean it’s crazy.”

Yes but…

You have to read the whole piece to get this straight. I agree that a soldier captured on a battlefield *IS* entitled to the full protection of the Geneva convention. They are not entitled to jury trials or the full protection of our constitution, that would be crazy. Few people however, believe that the Gitmo detainees are soldiers captured on a battlefield. Nor do they believe these people are terrorists. A category of person who, according to the Bush folks are entitled to less protection then even the Geneva convention provides.

I feel like I know enough about human nature to believe that if you offer a bounty for terrorists, you’re going to get some terrorist and a whole lot of people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Think about it. You’re a warlord in the mountains somewhere and you want to reinforce your strength and power. Unless the terrorist are working against you (un-likely), who are you going to turn in to the American forces? Terrorist or a local do-gooder who is trying to make your life miserable? If it’s money you’re after, you’ll turn in any bumpkin walking down the road. Remember who we’re dealing with here. This is a society that looks the other way while 14 year old girls are kidnapped and forced into prostitution.

Nope, sorry, the sad lot at Gitmo are almost certainly more bumpkin then terrorist. In any case, the lot in charge of the executive branch cannot be trusted to care one way or the other and they certainly cannot be trusted to tell the truth.

So what rights are the Gitmo detainees entitled to? Beats me. At a minimum, I would say Geneva convention rights but probably something beyond that to actually determine if there really was just cause to capture and then continue to hold them.

So, where does that leave us? We have Mr. Justice Scalia having already stated in public his views as they directly pertain to the upcoming Hamden v. Rumsfield arguments. How can he possibly pretend to be open minded when listening to the arguments? I can’t imagine. Seems to me it is time for him to recuse himself.

Now, can you imagine a tied vote in this case? Oh man, I can’t wait!

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 9:41 am under Justice, sometimes
No Comments

I just ran a quick errand for The Kid(tm). She needed something for a “last day of drama class” party. I bought nuts.

Anyway, I went to Shaw’s, a local mid-scale supermarket to get said nuts. Good news, they were on sale with my Shaw’s card but I had a chance to look at the prices on some of my staple foods. Apples were $1.79/lb. At MarketBasket, I pay $0.99/lb. On sale, $0.89. These are the same apples. Same label, number, poisons. Same. Lettuce, Peppers, Tomatoes, keep going. Unless it’s on sale at Shaw’s, it ’s less at MarketBasket. Take that to the bank! Shameless and uncompensated plug over.

When exactly did it become ok to leave your shopping cart in the middle of the parking lot? I know this has been going on a long time but when did it move from the act of a lone anti-social miscreant and migrate into the “normal behavior” column? For the record, I always return my cart to the coral. Does this make me better then you? YES, if you don’t do as I do.

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 7:23 pm under Driving Observations
No Comments