Missouri Smoke getting in your eyes

Smoking issue

I despise smoking. Smokers smell, they contribute to health hazards. In crowds, they make me smell in a manner that is most offensive when I get away from them; the odor hangs on and ruins my clothes, fouls my surroundings and belongings. (Wipe a wet cloth down the walls of the smoker home, or on the windows of the smoker car. Yech!) With all of the information about health in particular that has been daily available for the last 50 years, I have a really difficult time appreciating the intellect of someone who chooses to begin a smoking habit.

I understand the evils of smoking in terms of health and these days in terms of money. I have great sympathy with the people who think that adding four cents to a pack of cigarettes will keep young people from smoking. I am suspicious of the success future of such thinking, but they have my sympathy.

However, this is an amendment to the constitution. I cannot support a lifetime tag on the amendment of any constitution that addresses an addiction, a health issue and a small tax. This would have to be introduced in a different format to get my support. So, I will be voting NO next week and the smoking idiots can remember that if you play, you pay. Sure, your health care will cost Missouri neighbors, but you will be the uncomfortable one with the ravages of lung cancer or emphysema and with the shortened life. We will miss you, but it was, at the very base of things, your choice and you can choose.

Stem Cells and Missouri -- Out of the frying pan

Stem cell issue

I have major problems with the Missouri Stem Cell Initiative a proposed amendment for the 2006 elections in Missouri.

Number one, I do not believe this is good for Missouri or the United States. I believe that researchers have not sufficiently resolved the possibilities of stem cell benefits for the ailments and conditions targeted from other sources of stem cells besides embryonic stem cells. I believe there are sufficient other resources for stem cell research and possible resolution of health conditions, both disease and injury. Resources which include cord blood, baby teeth, adult stem cells and others. I do not support the call for the embryonic stem cell supply. There are lines of embryonic stem cells of sufficient supply to experiment. Prove it first with these; then be good scientists and check in other paths to learn if the results cannot be replicated with acceptable stem cell sources. Embryonic stem cells are not acceptable. I must vote NO.

Secondly, the advertising for this initiative makes fools and points the ‘stupid’ finger at Missouri residents and voters by implying that without this amendment being enacted, Missouri residents will be denied the medical advancements of stem cell research. What a totally fraudulent statement to make! That is so insulting. If I were mad/insane enough to endorse this mad scientist idea, I would hope that my pain at the insulting promotion would counsel me to vote NO.

Thirdly, with the caveat that I do endorse stem cell research and that I do not wish to diminish the suffering of people with injuries and conditions for which there is no other encouragement, stem cell research and application/treatment is still a medical procedure. And a medical procedure with limited demand among the general population.

I resist the thinking that would make a medical procedure an amendment to any constitution. Make it a law; make it a proclamation, make it a proposal with term limit, but not an amendment.

I find sufficient reason and personal opinion to vote NO on Amendment 2 next week.

Sourdough Blues

I'm sure having a time with the sourdough since moving to lower altitude. This is hard to take when my sourdough dishes were much sought after before.

Now, I'm experimenting with a little flour and baking powder when mixing up the flapjacks. The flour helps keep them from being crepes and the baking powder helps get rid of that weird smell and taste added to a really tough texture. Tough crepes are no one's idea of a treat.

Persimmons and Plums

We tried the persimmons this year. To me, wild persimmons smell and taste like some paint I've had over the years! Not really good. Even cooked they smell funny. I made a persimmons rice pudding that wasn't very good and now there is some persimmon bread in the fridge that meets all the measurments of a good quickbread, but it just won't go down. The cows like persimmons and I think that maybe the little fruits were created to be cow treats and I can leave them.

NOW, the wild plums are another story! They made a delightful plum butter! Makes me be on the watch for a chance to have toast or refrigerator biscuits. I was surprised how much plum butter those two little buckets of plums turned into. They are mostly seeds and skins when picked! So good and SO Pretty!

Back to the Sourdough

My favorite use for the sourdough is flapjacks. When we first started and would have leftover batter, I could sometimes add some ingredients and make fine biscuits for lunch. But, the familiy grew, their routines changed drastically and biscuits weren't needed at lunch. And, I got better at estimating how much batter to fix.

For a time, we had a lot of outdoor cats who craved the carbs and I made extra flapjacks for them and the dogs.

Second favorite recipe was the chocolate cake. The texture resembles a cold water cake. When one of the children had a pioneer history day, we sent a chocolate cake so the class could sample some of the sourdough without a flapjack cooking mess.

I find myself wanting lighter bread than I've ever been able to get with sourdough. I have made it, but don't care much for it. I guess I should give it a try at this lower altitude and also expect the heavier texture, but try to like it.

I tried using the sourdough for the basis of those Herman cakes that were so popular in the 90's. I was missing something. Although taking one of those and adding a can of cranberry sauce made an interesting coffee cake.

I've had recipes for banana bread and cornbread that I've not tried to any great extent because I'm lazy. The regular way to make these has been working quite well.

Sourdough isn't very demanding, but neglect will kill it. Using it frequently is the best way to keep a light and tasty starter. I found if I used it even every other day, it didn't require refrigeration, but could sit on the counter. I have gone to keeping it in the refrigerator because I think it stays lighter in the cooler atmosphere.

Giving it a treat of extra sweetener from time to time or adding a can of beer to the batter makes for a perpetually happy sourdough. I like to use chunky things along with flour such as cornmeal, oatmeal, coarsely ground wheat or grain mix. I get a 7 grain mix in both flake and coarse grind at the health food store that I like to add. Bulgar works great. I've used the Hodgson Mills brand of Bulgar which has some additional soy in it to great success.

Old Timey Cooking

The first time I received a starter, the gifters said it was from Alaska and 34 years old. I had difficulty believing anyone could be diligent enough to maintain a starter for 34 years. The end product was interesting, but not something we would request every day.

But, mine has been going since 1971! We started it at a very high altitude and used it for years at that altitude or almost as high. The texture and flavor of flapjacks was devine. Since I had been feeling quite abused by other high altitude baking challenges, I felt pretty smart when my sourdough flapjacks were a success.

Then, we moved to a much lower altitude. Now, my sourdough flapjacks had that same old funny taste and resembled poor crepes. I tried various sweetener changes --- honey, sorghum, granulated sugar, corn syrup -- no deal. I tried various thickness of texture for the batter before adding any ingredients. No deal.

Then, last week, I decided to apply the principals of pancakes made from scratch. I added the soda to inhibit the sour of the sourdough, then I added some baking powder.

Schzam! I have much better texture and taste. I am a 'by guess and by golly' cook, so I'm still experimenting on exactly or close to exactly how much, but we're getting there and very happy about it.

Sipping Coffee and waiting out the storm

Big thunder boomies and rain here all night, but no storm damage. There will no doubt be some flooding in the "hollers", they aren't putting out weather channel warnings yet. People in other areas had the beejeezus scared out of them with high winds, hail and rain. Table Rock Lake and Branson were the worst last night. The TV people pre-empted much of the night with reports, etc. which is good. The rain has really greened stuff up. Forsythia is getting the yellow flowers. The one that got a good hair cut a couple weeks ago even has a few buds on it. Our neighbor and I were discussing how to trim the ones by the road as we don't want to give them a good hair cut. They are closer to the road, so their three big shrubs stop a lot of dust, noise and give them a little privacy screen. We have one right on the road that stops a lot of dust, with big lilacs paced across the grass toward the house. We're thinking that if we take the trimmer with us when we get the mail and whack a little, we can groom them, but not get us too dusty!

The local saying is that we are 2 weeks from a drought. I think we're cool for a few days.

Bird Cake

This winter I've had a chance to feed birds after living where there weren't many winter birds.

I have up to six suet feeders going during the coldest weather and have made several batches of suet cakes. But, with warmer weather, they won't be easy to use. So, we're experimenting with a greasy cornbread, laced with birdseed. The birds love it.

When we got rain this week, the cakes took a big hit, but as long as I left the feeders alone, they managed to hold up and the birds don't care. If they nibble and some saturated birdseed cake falls to the ground, there are more birds waiting to clean it up.

I have a real scavenger batch of birds and they like old bread, pancakes or dried cake. They just eat about everything.

Leftover Turkey isn't good any more

I don't know what they are feeding or not feeding the turkeys but I can't stand to eat FROZEN left over turkey. If I put it into a big dish of something else -- cassarole or enchiladas, the stale taste of the turkey ruins the entire thing. Maybe I'm just getting too picky. But I'm not the only one in the house that feels this way. Then, I have not 'saved' by good leftover management, I have wasted the ingredients of the mixture because they won't eat it AT ALL! There's not enough hot sauce in the country to fix the problem.

We cook less to start with, eat it more often during the few days after cooking and don't freeze.

Last year, I heard one nut case say that the meat has lost most of it's nutrition in a few days and isn't even good for your pets in terms of nutrition. I'm not surprised, but disappointed. After three days, company, fish and old turkey stink, in my book. Howver, I was willing to give it to the cats.