My ode to Mitt Romney

they call him mittens, mittens, flipping and flopping, 

no one you see, take  more stands  than he

and we know mittens lives in a world full of plunder, 

taking our earnings over the sea

mittens has trouble with honesty

information will ne'er be from he

evasions he makes when questions appear

he and Ann tell us no more will we hear

they call him mittens mittens flipping and flopping

no one you see, take more stands than he

and we know mittens lives in a world full of plunder

taking our earnings over the sea

sung to the tune of the Flipper  tv show theme (old show from the 60's)

On a brighter note

I have joined Abby Dodges "Bake Together" challenge/ site. Should be lots of fun.  i have posted a link to her site for others to peruse and maybe you can join too. :-)

It has been awhile

Going to try and get started with this again- bear with me.

Not long after my last post, my life underwent some incredibly bad changes.

My Mom became seriously ill- she ended up needing a quadruple by pass. She recovered from that pretty well- then had a stoke. She recovered yet again..not quite as robustly, but good enough that we all felt confident that we could resume the house hunting.

During the time that Mom was undergoing all the medical treatments a friend of mine decided they wanted to purchase a 3rd property- and we agreed to cover the mortgage for said property for a bit- as it would move us close to the area we wanted to house hunt in- good for us all, right?

As life goes, just as we were getting into this place, my Mom became ill again. Not unmanageable, if one has adequate health facilities around, so we were into downtime and taking care of getting Mom stable.

Someday I may actually be able to articulate the hell we went thru here in the Baltimore / Annapolis area. Not today tho.

In the end, we lost my Mom on the 18th of July last year. I am still trying to figure out how i am handling it all.

House Hunting - again

Well - after the inspection, it was determined that the wood siding was in bad shape and needed to be replaced, as well as the roof. That was big dollar bad. On top of that - they had an ejector pump installed with no way to access it unless you took out a sink and part of a wall. Le sigh.

Upshot - we could not come to a final dollar agreement. So - on with the search!

Whole Roasted Cauliflower with honey and spice rub

I remembered this recipe recently due to the fact that some friends of mine had their first harvest of honey late this summer and were kind enough to share. The recipe is from "The Olives Table" by Todd English. If you have this cookbook, it can be found on page 145.

Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Honey -and-Spice Rub

Serves 4

Honey and Spice Rub

1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp finely chopped peeled ginger or 2 tsps ground ginger
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 head cauliflower, leaves intact
1/2 cup to 1 cup water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

To make rub:  Place all rub ingredients in a small bowl and mix together until well combined. Set aside.

Place the cauliflower, leafy side down, in a baking pan just big enough to hold it snugly, and drizzle the rub over it. Place the cauliflower in the oven, and bake until golden brown, about an hour. Add 1/2 cup of water to the pan, and cook until the cauliflower is well browned and soft, about another 30 minutes. Check occasionally to see if the water had evaporated, and if necessary, add more water.

Remove cauliflower and slice it. Pour the cooking liquid over the slices and serve.

My notes: I never leave the green leafy part on the cauliflower and it works just fine. I also have never added more than 1/2 cup of water. I do vary the spices from time to time, but this method produces a nice dish, just a bit different from the normal style.

Enjoy!

The joys of house hunting

so - you find a house and that should be it, yes? Not so fast my friend. FIRST one must have the home inspection. This little feature tells you everything you need to know , but don't necessarily want to know, about the home you think just might be it.

insert large le sigh here. very large.

I am not certain we are going to be able to work out the price and the necessary fixes so they are compatible. Fingers crossed.

Healthcare - STILL

Can anyone believe that the republicans are anything but against whatever works? Surest way to one party rule I have ever seen - and that is not a good thing - well - unless you have so called pundits like Rushbo as your leader - or God forbid - palin.

EEEEEK!