Zentrader’s Veal Paprikash

Ingredients:

1 pound free range veal stew meat

4 cups organic chicken broth (I use a chicken which I can then roast for other meals)

1 cup cherry tomatos

1 large leek, minced

1 red pepper, minced

2 Tablespoons sweet paprika

1 Tablespoon carraway seeds

1/4 cup sour cream

8 0z. wide egg noodles

1/4 cup cilantro or Italian parsley, chopped

Directions:

Boil chicken broth.

Add the red pepper, leek, cherry tomato, paprika and carraway.  Cook at moderate heat, uncovered, for one hour.

Add veal stew meat, cover, and simmer for 2 hours.

Mix in sour cream.  Simmer on low heat.

Boil the egg noodles until al dente.

Drain and mix with the stew.

Top with the cilantro.

Serve and enjoy!

Best West Coast Crab Cakes

This recipe amply fed 8 people at my wife’s birthday dinner.  It uses Dungeness crab common on our Pacific Northwest Coast.

Ingredients:

2 pounds Dungeness crab meat

1/4 cup minced scallions

1/8 cup of minced fresh red pepper

1/8 cup fresh chopped cilantro or italian parsley

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 cup Organic bread crumbs

1 tablespoon minced salted capers

1 pinch pimento

1 pinch crushed red pepper

pepper and salt to taste

4 eggs (beaten)

2 cloves crushed garlic

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in large bowl (except garlic)

Add more bread crumbs if necessary to thicken

Divide into 16 cakes and dredge in bread crumbs

Place in refrigerator to chill for 1-2 hours before pan frying

Saute garlic in one cup oil (I prefer to always use Olive oil) in large pan

Add crabcakes 4-5 at a time to insure adequate exposure

Saute until golden brown on both sides (additional oil may be needed).

Serve with fresh lemon and your favorite hot sauce.

Bon Appetit!

If I were King…

President Obama took office with an unparalled opportunity to redesign the political/economic/social landscape of our country.  Thus far, however, he’s chosen to trod down that well-worn middle of the road path of accomodation and consensus building.  Were these ordinary times, perhaps that would be a sound policy.  But these are not ordinary times!

There is alot of low hanging fruit President Obama could pick that could begin to reshape our landscape, and reset us on a path of greater confidence, economic stability and future growth, but these will be unpopular actions that disturb the status quo, and in the short term they will not add to Obama’s popularity–in the long term, however, they are the kind of actions that couldd make him one of the most impactful presidents of all times. 

Here are the first three items on my short list of “must do” actions:

1.  Outlaw Lobbying.  Give Lobbying organizations 90 to cease all operations in Washington,DC.  Give all members of Congress 90 days to sever all lobbyist affiliations or be subject to criminal investigation and removal from office.  that will go along way toward reducing earmarks and the pork stuffed budget.

2.  Expand Americorp.  Give all 18-30 year olds an opportunity to serve their country while earing money for college, higher education, etc.  The amount of  talent growing more disenchanted daily with the ‘end of the American dream’  is staggering–give them an opportunity to work for the benefit of all!

3.  Move to a single payer healthcare system.  Remove the middle man (health maintenance and insurance organizations) from the business.  The are nothing more than non-medically trained administrators effectively running banking organizations that exist to hold your and doctors money for as long as possible, while driving up the cost of healthcare, as they have NO incentive to do otherwise.

Several more ideas coming soon.  Stay tuned!

Change WHO can believe in?

Well, we’ve talked about Obama’s penchent for promoting incompetents and proven failures–specifically Treasury Sec’y Geitner and
SEC chief Mary Schapiro–and now we’re treated to his new housing plan! And what a plan it is! For those of us who bit off more than we could chew, driving up housing values to unsustainable levels, and are now under water–no problem. We’ll rewrite those legal contracts, forgive principal. What a message to future generations about acting responsibly! For those of us who are current on our loans, who bought houses we could actually afford–suckers! And while we’re at it, lets send another 17,000 troops to Afghanistan. Change we can believe in? Really?

the more things change…

Well, the steady flow of cabinet and government department announcements coming from the President Elect make one thing perfectly clear–he’s a political man;  the question is–does he practice what he preach?  Mary Schapiro as SEC Chairperson?  Are you kidding?  This is like taking a baseball manager who gets fired for incompetence and several losing seasons with one team and hiring him to manage another team!  Ms. Schapiro has been at the helm of the NASD, the self-regualtory organization (hows that for an oxymoron) that oversees the investment banking business in the USA.  And she’s done one heck of a job.  Note the current financial disaster.  NUf said!  And yet another Goldman Sachs partner to head up the CFTC?  After Rubin and Paulsen you’d think we’d at least staert grabbing some folks from other market behemoths!  The only change I see here is a change in seats, ’cause the people remain the same!  What about Tom Vilsack for Sec’y of Agriculture?  Heck, at least he knows how to game the system, raking in $42,700 in farm subsidies from the Agriculture dept. NOT to farm his gentleman’s that he doesn’t farm himself.  You couldn’t find a better friend to Corporate Agrabusiness than good old Tom.  Now there’s change we can believe in!  But there’s good news folks–we’re going to get rid of Hank Paulsen, current Treasury Secretary who has soaked the American taxpayer for $750,000,000, most of which is going to his good buddies on Wall Street, oh, sorry, that’s the NEW Wall Street to you!  His replacement, the current head of the NY Federal Reserve who has been responsible for watcching the major money center banks and Wall Street!  And he’s done one heck of a job, you gotta admit.  And so it goes, on and on.  And now for the Obama “New Deal”.  Let’s spend a trillion dollars on “infrastructure”.  Let’s rebuild the same infrastructure that was the basis of the Eisenhower program of the 1950′s that lead to suburban sprawl, declining farming communities, the destruction of Main Street USA, rising oil consumption and the destruction of our environment.  Guess we’re still missing the “change” part of what this writer can believe in!

Take a message, Obama!

There was once a time when this country had thriving textile, footwear, toy, food, auto, etc. industries that employed millions of Americans who were able to live solid middle class lives and harbored great expectations for their children. But those jobs and aspirations were dashed. The culprit? Their fellow American citizens. Why? Because Americans want it all, and they want it cheap, and they don’t share core values that insure that they protect their neighbors. For lack of a better word, we now live in a WalMart society. Why support your local stores selling American made goods owned by your neighbors if you can buy the same goods made in China or wherever cheaper from Walmart? Because that enables you to buy more, and after all, isn’t that what it’s all about–the acquisition of cheaply made, expendible junk to satisfy a craving for a sense of self-worth or value that our society no longer provides? Sure, we can blame it on TV and major corporations who constantly barrage us with the message that unless we have more, we have nothing. Sure we can blame it on classes like home economics, shop and economic classes being removed from middle and high school curriculums to insure that future generations of Americans are stupider than the last. Why know how to shop economically? Why know the value of buying from bulk bins and making food yourself when you can buy Lunchables? Why teach basic economics when you can get $milliion dollar mortgages with $50K incomes? Why buy $2 pints of strawberries produced locally by your local farmers when you can buy Chilean berries at Winco for $1. After all, you don’t even have to worry about them going bad! All those herbicides and pesticides that were banned in the USA in the ’60’s became exports for Monsanto, etc. to countries like Chile. Result? We get those pesticides right back in that wonderful produce we now import back into the USA. Why? Because it’s cheaper! Why buy one good toy for your cchild made in America by a local craftsperson when you can buy 5 peices of junk plastic from China for the same price? Starting to get the idea?
So, what do we do about it? Well, for starters how about universal healthcare coverage for every American from cradle to grave. Can’t afford it? BS! We seem to have enough money to bail out Hank Paulsen and his partners at Goldman Sachs with $750,000,000,000.00 Wow! That’s alot of zeros! And even that is not reflective of the true cost to American taxpayers! Luckily, our “leaders” know that so long as they dose Americans with 7 hours of TV per day and cheap beer to accompany their sports viewing on weekends, we won’t notice that they are selling our birthright, and our children’s futures, to China. that they are ccondemning future generations of Americans to downward mobility, the end of the American dream! And we deserve it because we are letting it happen! What kind of society has the audacity to call itself “civilized” that lets 55 million Americans live without basic healthcare ccoverage? And do you think you ddon’t pay for it anyway? Just check out emergeny rooms across the country? that’s where people with no coverage go–and that’s the ssingle most expensive entry point into the healthcare system! Want to help small business people? Want to promote employment of young Americans just entering the workforce? How about by providing healthcare for all americans so that older Americans can afford to retire, without having to worry about what happens to them if they get sick? That’ll open up jobs for new workforce entries. And what kind of society allows families and children to be without a roof over their heads in winter? Aren’t these things basic values?
Why is it that we have become a society that beleives in corporate bailouts but doesn’t protect the basic rights of individual Americans? How stupid can you be to buy into the idea that somehow helping your fellow Americans when times are tough is SOCIALISM but bailing out AIG, Goldman Sachs, GM, Fordd and Chysler is “the NEW CAPITALISM”!!!Hello? Is anybody home? In true capitalism, if car companies refused for decades to make cars people actually wanted and society actually needed they would go broke, and car companies with a better idea would fill the gap left by the dying dinosaurs? Bail out the auto companies? Are you kidding? Toytoa, Subaru and Honda ARE American auto makers, and provide jobs to millions of Americans right now–let them take over the corporate resources of the bankrupt auto makers. They’ve proven their efficiency.
Back to healthcare for a minute. Want to make it affordable? Take out the middleman healthcare management companies who exxist only to take money out of your pocket and line their own. The have a vested interest in keeping healthcare UNAFFORDABLE!! That’s how they make money. DUH! And how about Socciety paying for those who qualify to go to medical school so young doctors don’t ccome out of school hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt? And in exchange? A 7 year commitment to work as doctors for the country. Malpractice premiums driving doctors out of business? How about making lawyers responsible for the lawsuits they bring to court. When I took my oath before the Bar I swore fealty as an officer of the Court. What the heck happened to that oath? Why not make lawyers responsible for the cases they bring. If they fill the docket with crap cases that amount to little more than an attempt to extort money out of people and companies who figure it’s easier and cheaper to settle frivolous suits than to fight them make them pay all costs! Watch how well they once again fulfill their oaths of office, and watch how malpractice insurance premiums go down! And what will that do? Lower the cost of healthcare for all Americans.
And why not support local restaurants in your communities that support local farmers? Buy local, shop local, just say NO to Walmart, buy better, buy less, turn off the TV, get involved, don’t expect to get bailed out of the stupid decisions you make, be accountable, and demand accountabilioty from your elected officials, but especially, turn the friggin TV off and get involved with your kids, and their schooling, and their lives! Nuf said!