Hot dog, we have a weiner

Page views this week on this blog...I like stats

sexy results

Sexy girl meet me in the bathroom
Sexy girl call me on the phone
Woman friend take me to your bedroom
Let me show how I'm full grown

Sexy woman call me to your office
Sexy woman meet me after work
I wanna show you how I handle business
I wanna show you how the mail-boy flirts

My man wants to buy you something
He wants to take you out for dinner and dancing
My friend wants to take you out then home
Then home alone

Lifelong Cooking Inspiration

About James

http://www.james-barber.com/

Born in the U.K. in 1923, James Barber immigrated to Canada in 1952 having served in the Royal Air Force during the war. He worked as an engineer before becoming a food writer and critic at the Vancouver Sun, first turning his hand to freelance writing after a skiing accident. Also a Vancouver Sun arts columnist and theatre critic, he appeared on television commercials as the spokesperson for Money’s Mushrooms, acted on The Beachcombers and served as the Dairy Farmer’s Milk Calendar ‘cover boy’ for four years.
He was a longtime restaurant critic for Georgia Straight and a successful television chef. His ten-year-long CBC TV show called The Urban Peasant was syndicated around the world. He wrote several bestselling cookbooks, most significantly Ginger Tea Makes Friends (1971), an important bestseller in the evolution of J.J. Douglas Ltd., later known as Douglas & McIntyre.
Barber was president of the Vancouver immigrant society, MOSAIC, and the Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society.
His career as the ‘Urban Peasant’ began in the early 1970s after complications from a leg infection put him into a body cast; no longer able to work as an engineer, he was divorced soon afterwards and moved into a bachelor room, with a frypan. A longtime Vancouverite, who re-married to Christina Burridge, he relocated to a twelve-acre farm at Cobble Hill near Duncan, B.C. in the Cowichan Valley.
He died in November, 2007. Known for his Rabelaisian wit, he also wrote a whimsical children’s book, Once Upon Anne Elephant There Was a Time. The Genius of James Barber (Harbour, 2008) contains tributes and recipes from other B.C. chefs who admired him, as well as Barber’s “best” recipes.

more pictures of Food!

Seared scallop, blood peach reduction, raw proscuitto, micro arugula

Malpaque Oysters with champagne minionette, shaved radish and radish greens

Grilled Flank steak with Heirloom Tomato salad and trio of salts

Tasty Fish

Repost from Bistro 7/14. I really enjoy the writing style, it reminds me of James Barber a lot

Sage Garden Herbs

from Chef Alexander Svenne by Chef Alex

check out www.herbs.mb.ca

Sage Garden Herbs is one of the nicest places on the planet. You will be driving down St. Mary's. You will cross the perimeter, you will drive past all the nurseries and garden shops, and you will think you are lost and you missed a turn off. You will be almost at the floodway when you see the sign. You will slam on the breaks, almost missing the lane, and freak out the driver behind you.

When you drive up the lane, you enter an oasis of herbs and flowers.

I love going to Sage Garden Herbs. You walk through the greenhouse. You are encouraged to rub your fingers through the herbs. The scents delight and overwhelm. Not only is there basil and thyme and oregano, but there are twelve different types of basil, 6 oreganos, 9 thymes. I have tried lime basil, orange thyme and pineapple sage. This place is a cook and a gardeners paradise.

And Dave Hanson, the friendly proprietor, knows everything about the herbs he sells. He will tell you where they are from, how to grow them, which plants will do best in your conditions, how to harvest them, what to cook with them, all their medicinal properties and tidbits of folklore around them.

The reason I am writing about this place now, is that I was out there last weekend doing a cooking demo. Dave planted a garden last spring filled with squashes, peppers, chard, onions, and a large variety of heirloom tomatoes. Dave wanted me to come out to demonstrate what to do with all his garden's bounty. So, I arrived out there with a knife, a couple of frying pans, a little olive oil, salt, pepper etc. He had a table laid out with a cornucopia of fresh deliciousness, and said "Go!" In fourty five minutes I had prepared an heirloom tomato salad 3 ways; made a tomato and goat cheese galette, rolled some swiss chard rolls and whipped up a delicious choke cherry and lemon verbena mojito. I was just about to whip up a squash pancake with a tomatillo chutney, when Dave Yanked me off the stage. I had been talking for almost an hour and could have gone on for two more hours. Unfortunately, I was trumped by a troupe of belly dancers.

After demonstrating some basic knife skills, I started talking about how I want to encourage people to cook without recipes. I was talking about letting the produce inspire and direct you. I wasn't two minutes into my presentation when a woman in the back row raised her hand and asked "will you be giving us recipes for these?"

so, I told her I would post them on my blog.

Heirloom Tomato Salad, 3 ways

2 lbs assorted heirloom tomatoes, look for a variety of colours, sizes and shapes

2 tbsps white wine vinegar

4 tbsps olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1. cut tomatoes into wedges

2. toss with oil and vinegar, season.

version 1, simple basil

toss basic recipe with a quarter cup fresh basil

version 2, south east asian

1 tbsp mint, chopped

1 tbsp thai basil, chopped

1 tsp lemon grass, finely chopped

1 tsp ginger, finely minced

1 tbsp green onion or chive, chopped

1 hot pepper, finely minced

mix all the above with basic tomato mix

version 3, a little bit greek

2 tbsp oregano, chopped

1 tbsp basil, chopped

a few sprigs of thyme

1 small red onion, juilenned

1/2 cup feta, crumbled

1/2 cup calamata olives

mix all the above with basic tomato mix

Heirloom Tomato and goat cheese Galette

basic tomato recipe

1 cup goat cheese

1/4 cup fresh basil

4 round of pastry. (make your own, by frozen puff pastry, even use pita bread)

salt and pepper to taste

spread goat cheese on pastry

arrange tomatoes on top

sprinkle with fresh basil, season with salt and pepper.

bake at 400F for 10 to 15 minutes

Swiss Chard rolls

8 large leaves of swiss chard. (Large beet greens work as well)

1 farmer sausage, removed from casing and chopped up

1 cup cooked white rice

1 tbsp chopped fresh dill

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 cup heavy cream

1. in skillet, saute garlic sausage. add garlic and dill. remove from skillet and mix in with rice. check seasoning. add salt and pepper as required.

2. cut stem off swiss chard. With the back of a knife, crush the spine of the leaves to make more flexible. blanch leaves quickly in boiling water. fill leaves with sausage rice mixture and roll tightly.

3. in skillet where you cooked the sausage add cream. bring to a boil. place rolls in hot cream and simmer to heat through. serve.

Choke Cherry & Lemon Verbena Mojito

1/4 cup choke cherries

2-3 leaves lemon verbena

2-3 leaves fresh mint

2 wedges of lime (one is for garnish)

1 tsp simple syrup (optional)

1 1/2 oz white rum

4 oz soda water

1. in mixing glass muddle the cherries with the mint and verbena.

2.add squeeze of one lime wedge, throw whole wedge in the glass

3. add rum and simple syrup. Shake vigorously. Strain into a highball glass over ice.

4. top with soda water, garnish with a lime wedge. enjoy!

the one I didn't get to:

Over Sized Zucchini Pancake with Tomatillo Relish

2 cups grated zucchini from one of those ridiculously large late season squashes

2 eggs

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

canola oil

1. mix squash with eggs, bread crumbs and seasonings.

2. form into pancakes and fry in oil until both sides are golden and crisp.

3. serve with tomatillo relish and sour cream. this is also a great base for a piece of grilled fish.

Tomatillo Relish

1 tbsp canola oil

2 cups tomatillos, husks removed and diced

1 medium onion, diced.

1 jalepeno or other hot pepper, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1. saute onions. add garlic, spices, jalepeno and tomatillo. saute for 1 minute.

2. add sugar and vinegar. bring to a boil. simmer until the mixture has a "relishy" consistency.

A few more random things you might want to know about sage garden herbs.

* they have the best grass seed. It is called eco-lawn. it uses grasses native to this part of the world. it grows slow, so less mowing. It grows anywhere, even in full shade. It will eventually grow thick enough to choke out weeds. I have never had any luck with grass seed, but this stuff is awesome. Plant in the fall, again in early spring, and again in fall. The only prep work is to rake the lawn before you spread the seed.

*In spring you can order lady bugs from Dave to spread in your garden to eat other bugs. Nature's pesticide! Did you know that in southern california, they drop lady bugs from planes to protect their organic field greens crops?

*Dave and I used to do food and herb demos together. The highlight was the Thyme Martini. We are talking about reviving these in the spring. Look to the Sage Garden Herbs website for more details.

check out www.herbs.mb.ca

 

A Fighter and a Poet

by Jordan Hamilton http://thedi.ca/2010/07/a-fighter-and-a-poet/

With his lean build, long reach and heavy hands, you could be forgiven for thinking Rob is a bare-knuckle boxer. Rob, however, isn’t a prize fighter; he is a poet.
Once upon a time, Rob’s crack addiction pinned him against the ropes, and knocked him to his knees, forcing him into homelessness. Now, however, Rob no longer uses crack. Rather than punching his way to the next fix, he carries a pen and paper, and writes poetry.
The future is much brighter for this young man who struts through the Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre, a sly smile never far from his face.
Governor General Michaëlle Jean recently told a Calgary audience, “Art transforms despair and indifference into glimmers of hope and action.” The Servants Anonymous Society of Calgary (S.A.S), a community agency dedicated to assisting young women who have made the decision to leave prostitution and street lifestyle, agrees. In the spring of 2006, S.A.S published a book of poetry called Cry of the Streets. The book is a celebration of dignity, integrity, love, and community. It is a manifesto of how the authors’ integrate into society; how they take simple pleasures in life and turn them into profound life lessons; and, how they have healed from their past so that they can live brighter futures today. It is, according to S.A.S, “Our stories of the healing journey.”
Following a tour of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, an area known as Canada’s poorest postal code, Michaëlle Jean said, “Let’s face it: homelessness is a complex issue. It requires that we look far beyond mere bricks and mortar and envision new ways of tackling the problem that are more holistic, equitable and, dare we say it, more humane.”
Through poetry, Rob found an effective and more humane way to handle his addiction.
Like Muhammed Ali, Rob is a fast, fearless, charismatic, and enthusiastic speaker, never at a loss for words. When I asked him what the arts and writing has given him, he responded with a three word answer that required no further elaboration. He said, “It saved me.”
Rob delivers his poems like a boxer delivers a round one knockout punch. His writings are more then mere words. His poems’ are the essence of his experience in love and in sorrow, and in riches and in poverty. His following poem describes his experience as a crack user. Aptly named Path, it is a 40-line raw, edgy biography with a dire warning for all. It is far more eloquent than any addictions manual. It is also a testament to how far Rob has come.

Up above the world below
All things seem to move so slow
… watching people pound the path
selling crack, making cash
People fighting, getting smashed
All because of crack and cash
They stop and look
As their partners cook
Inhale, exhale, smoke curls into the air
Ready, another life destroyed
People on crack just don’t care
Disposed screams pierce the air
…She’s gone for good and no one knows
But the wounds ’n’ cuts and bullet holes
Yet the river, silently, it flows.

Skateboarding Inspiration

Christian Rosha Hosoi (pronounced /həˈsɔɪ/ hə-SOY; born October 5, 1967) is an American professional skateboarder. He is also known by the nicknames "Christ" and "Holmes".^{[citation needed]} Hosoi is married to Jennifer Lee and has four sons,James Hosoi, Rhythm Hosoi (from a previous relationship),Classic Hosoi and Endless Hosoi.^[1]. He is currently living in Huntington Beach, California

So You Think People on Welfare Shouldn't Own Cell Phones?

repost from: http://www.blogher.com/so-you-think-people-welfare-shouldnt-own-cellphones

As you see by the title of my blog page, yes, yes I am a welfare mother. There is a misconception that all people on welfare are lazy, drug addicted, uneducated, dregs of society. Well I am here to tell you that misconception needs to be changed. The simple facts of the matter are that many people like me on welfare are single working moms.
I make no excuses for the choices I have made, like being in love with a drug addict, or that I played a role in my own demise from a bright future. I have made a lot of irresponsible choices along the way to this somewhat happy stage of my forty-something life. Choices that led me to be on and off of welfare for the last 18 years. I have also worked or been in college for those last 18 years. I work at a job that pays me $11.00 dollars an hour, and I have benefits; benefits that I cannot afford. According to the poverty guidelines our state has set for welfare recipients I still qualify for full coverage Medi-cal and food stamps. I have two children that are on my welfare case. Not ten...
The thing that got me writing this blog was, believe it or not, Facebook. I was Facebooking it on break from my job, and I ran across a status that an old high school friend had posted. Something to the effect that she was irritated that someone getting their medication from the pharmacy she works at with Medi-cal benefits had a cell phone with better apps than hers. Well, of course I was reading this on MY cellphone. She went on to say that people on welfare had no business owning cellphones.This really got me thinking  how whitebread that statement was. Whitebread is a term I will frequently use for people I view as conservative.

So I had to post a comment back. It basically said that I was sorry she felt that way and that she must feel that way about me, because I too received assistance and worked. I went on to say that my cell phone is my only phone, and that I had commented via my facebook application. Well, if that did not ignite a firestorm. I will admit that throughout the morning I checked for any notifications regarding her status. She went on to comment later that, it was ok if I had a cellphone, OUCH, just not people who abuse the system. Like I needed her approval  to have my cellphone -- Cricket didn't even do a credit check!
During the day I kept track of comments left, and the women who did respond all agreed with her. The last person to respond commented that she had just left a Von's grocery store and was in line behind a woman with a multicolored weave and a Juicy Couture track suit, with Rockstar nails and Coach shoes and a Gucci bag. This lady in front of her was complaining about the size of the cereal box she was getting. according to the commentator, with her "foodstamp card thingy". She went on to say that she and her husband who are school teachers work very hard and that they have a budget, blah blah blah blahzooo. I imagined her voice sounding  like the Peanuts schoolteacher as I read this, "WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH." So me, being the type who has to have the last word, commented back.

I explained in my post that what that lady was complaining about was probably the WIC program, because with food stamps you can get any size of cereal box! I went on to say that her multicolored weave was probably a "kitchen weave," and her namebrand clothes, shoes, and purse were all probably knockoffs found at the local flea-market and the "Rockstar" nail polish could be found there too! I then explained that the WIC (learn more) or Women Infants and Childrens program were vouchers for specific healthy foods for pregnant, and lactating women and children under five. The food stamp program (learn more) is funded by the USDA as is the WIC program. Then I closed with this little thought: I told her to take a look at her students in whatever school she was teaching in and try to guess which one would go without any dinner that night, a meal most of us take for granted. Maybe their parents let pride stand in the way of getting assistance, maybe they worry about the people that would smile in their faces and then grumble behind their backs in that grocery store checkout line. People like her.

I did this all from my handy dandy pre-paid Cricket cellphone. So I had the last word I think because I received no other notifications. So thanks friend, and friend's friend for inspiring my first blog! I love to inform misinformed people, think of it as community service for the assistance I get!
Right now so many people are going without -- sometimes because of misinformation, sometimes because of pride. The economy being what it is I don't see less people on aid anytime soon. Working class poor, people who live paycheck to paycheck like myself, will make the best of  it. That is, after all, what we have learned to do -- or do without.  I will feed my kids whether I pay cash or use my benefits, because we know all too well what it is like to be hungry. I try to be a no nonsense kind of shopper (it helps that I am a great cook, but that is another blog), but every once in a while we eat a steak bought with food stamps. The hardships I have endured with my children -- everything from hunger to homlessness -- have made us who we are today. I do not live with regrets, because anything I have lived and learned has been well worth it. Now I have the opportunity to write about it -- on the computer I own with internet service. Something else people on welfare should not have. OOOPS.

New form of Simultaneous Global Ceasefire proposal sent to David de Rotheschild an obligation to create a true egalitarian Earth

From Chris Curpin's Facebook Feed

We humans definitely have the capabilities to change of how we share our gift of Earth, by giving up maintenance of the global familial and economic class system and ending the wasteful, immature and exponentially unproductive game of currency acquisition.  We owe consideration of the quality of life for all the children and all the future generations by moving to a cooperatively organized planet to allow all 7 billion or so of us, to fulfill our innate natural tendencies of our human nature to create, discover, experience, connect and collaborate with each other to create a rich diverse life tapestry with infinite permutations and combinations of sensory (all our human senses: known and unknown) fulfillment.

How?

Equalizing our resource use (arable land - community gardens/greenhouses: getting to truly know your neighbours and ensure food security, letting the wilds become wild again/moving all human encroachment/ethical hunting of happy animals for those still needing to eat meat (minimally), optimal minimal personal living space, cleanly sourced natural resources: no monoculture/wasting and damaging our water-air-land).

Project managing our tasks that need accomplishing to create our necessary infrastructures to share our planet Earth by having all of us contributing by equalizing our energy and time output, continually innovating and developing our technological tools to maximize this outcome.  We would also randomly rotate each of us, across the globe to fulfill all tasks we discover we need fulfilled, with less pleasant (always with maximum safety) fulfilled with shorter time, faster rotations.  No more slave labour, no more one person or group of people's threatening or actually taking away someone's ability to live/livelihood.

This shows true love for each other on our planet, by allowing all of us to truly live (everyone will truly have more free time to live and be who they are solving your dilemma of "Been working hard lately need more time to relax").

Truly free to pursue life, with the only stipulation of not negatively affecting and effecting someone else's life, non-consensually and exploitatively.  The Golden Rule, which all religions and non-religions (atheist or agnostic), profess.  We end concentrations of power, wealth, resources - No "One World Governments" - with select few making decisions as to what they feel best for everyone, while padding their own pockets, power and egos.

To arrive at this possibility, we have to initiate and achieve a Simultaneous Global Ceasefire for say starting with the date of 11/11/2010 "  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=601622343#!/event.php?eid=295274480091&ref=ts  " We will share the knowledge of the true cash flows, power flows and ego flows which continue to enable conflicts around our world, barbarically sacrificing our brilliant and potentially brilliant coexisting humans, both young and old, male and female to torture, rape, maiming, resulting psychological trauma, murder.  Time to end our idiocy, and truly enable our greatness.

After a great global reflection period and mourning time, we hopefully could come together to enable our collective consciousness to realize the dissolving of our political borders, truly sharing our world with the possibilities of random rotational organizational groups, with better delegation to eliminate high concentrations of power and the potential of corruption.  No more wasted energies and time of easily controlled false democracies of elections.  By sharing all our human knowledge and awareness in all our ways of learning and teaching, we will finally have a truly educated and aware global human population, fully capable of living ethically. On 11/11/2011, we will hopefully come together to start to enable and initiate our consensually, continually innovated, non-exploitative "Ecologically Sustainable Global Societal Model" - " http://www.facebook.com/pages/Simultaneous-Adoption-of-an-Ecologically-Sustainable-Global-Societal-Model/166375859682?ref=ts   " 

I have come to know and understand the actuality of achieving these possibilities, because I have received so much priceless magic and serendipity and so many wonderful people have welcomed me into their lives, without any potential gifts of currency, goods or services - just my gift of myself.  I propose this for all humans to decide, and we owe it to everyone, especially for all our children, and all those currently suffering and  dying.

This also will fulfill the 7th Fire Prophecy, which Indigenous Peoples from around the world, have brought forth knowledge and awareness of a time when all humanity will learn to coexist with nature, without destroying everything that sustains us, while living fun and exciting lives, continually innovating and surprising each other and affecting and effecting each other's senses, consensually and non-exploitatively.

David de Rothschild and all Your Mates you have connected with, will you help bring these achievable possibilities to fruition?