Losing my pie touch

"After all these years of declaring myself the second best pie baker east of the Mississippi (my mother was #1), I've learned an extremely painful lesson today. I've lost my touch. I may never bake again. . . " September 10, 2006.  

 This probably wasn't my last pie, but I knew I'd lost my touch and today came across the date I realized it was never going to be the same. Collecting My Thoughts  Almost 17 years ago. Based on the date, I may have been baking it for our anniversary.

Lenten goals--cleaning instead of fasting

My Lenten goals are getting a slow start. This week it was tackle the cupboards and bookshelves of the kitchen. I'm on the first shelf of cookbooks in the kitchen--next will be the "junk drawer."  I'm already stuck at the computer. I'm looking at a recipe take away from the Home & Garden Show, Feb. 25-Mar 5, 2006. As I recall I picked it up because we went to a demo for a chocolate peanut butter torte with bananas in honor of Elvis' birthday at Gourmet Galaxy Cafe which was sponsored by Whole Foods, Columbus Dispatch, Home Source Interiors, etc. Before I put this in the stay or go pile, I'll just mention 2 recipes easy enough for 80-somethings to learn (each 2 pages features a Columbus chef or personality with their favorites. 

1)  Manny Malhotra of the Columbus Blue Jackets (hockey) offered, "Asparagus a la Manny" which requires 1 bunch of asparagus, salt and pepper and olive oil and aluminum foil.  2) The COO of Donatos (pizza chain based in Columbus) and daughter of the founder reported that she had worked in all areas from take-out window, making night deposits, spreading sauces and cheese to dotting pepperoni slices to the edge, but there was no recipe.

When I went back and checked my blog, I see I had written about this cookbook in 2006. https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2006/03/2228-chocolate-peanut-butter-cream.html.

By the time I got to shelf 3 I was browsing Vols. 3-5 of "A Taste of Columbus" by Beth Chilcoat. Vol. 5 was 2000, and she began the series when her children were small, and by this one she had grandchildren. I had inherited these from my daughter who had given them originally to her mother-in-law, Marilyn.  All are done in calligraphy with lovely drawings of Columbus' historical scenes. Chilcoat's husband (also co-author) died in 2006 of ALS, and she later wrote about widowhood and grief. Cap City Diner Meatloaf by Jimmy Mohammed has 28 ingredients (mostly herbs and spices) in vol. 5.

Same old same old from the leftist New York Times

Smarter Times which apparently exists to point out flaws in NYT, from grammar, to sloppy writing, to amnesia in stories.  http://www.smartertimes.com/1609/vanishing-northeastern-republicans

“Of all the angles for the New York Times to choose for a front-page post-election political story, the "vanishing Northeastern Republican" one they used is pretty lame.

The Times blames President Trump: "A Trump-Fueled 'Wipeout' for House Republicans in the Northeast," is the headline.

But the Times has been writing the obituary of Northeastern Republicans since long before Donald Trump became a political force.

Here, for example, is a Times dispatch from 2006:

It was a species as endemic to New England as craggy seascapes and creamy clam chowder: the moderate Yankee Republican.

Dignified in demeanor, independent in ideology and frequently blue in blood, they were politicians in the mold of Roosevelt and Rockefeller: socially tolerant, environmentally enthusiastic, people who liked government to keep its wallet close to its vest and its hands out of social issues like abortion and, in recent years, same-sex marriage.

But this election dealt the already-fading New England Republican an especially strong blow, one that some fear will increase the divide between the two parties nationally by removing a longstanding bridge between them.

Of 22 members of the newly elected House of Representatives from New England, only one is a Republican: Christopher Shays of Connecticut, who eked out a victory while two other Republicans from his state, Representatives Nancy L. Johnson and Rob Simmons, lost to Democrats.

Not only is it an old story, but it also doesn't particularly fit the results in 2018, which saw Republican governors elected in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, and Republican congressmen Pete King and Lee Zeldin hold on their Long Island congressional seats.”

The southern border wall

The southern border wall is about 1/3 finished, was approved in bi-partisan support over a decade ago (Secure Fence Act 2006). Obama used a different method--deportation, and his administration was active in rounding up criminal aliens, but not those who had violated the law but had been law abiding after getting here, with the exception of false documents, bad checks, no driver's license, etc. There were twice as many deportations in the Obama years as the Bush years. In 2015, catching them at the... border dropped by about half, and of course, many illegal aliens went home during the recession. Since Trump's election, border crossings have gone down again. 

Still, the left rages. I believe (as do others) there is a link between abortion and border crossings. The U.S. birth rate is below replacement level and that seriously affects the social safety net that need to be paid for with workers' taxes. Because our government has approved the killing of millions the last 40+ years it now needs to find replacements who can work and pay taxes. At least in the first and second generation our African immigrants (come on a special diversity quota--over a million each decade) and the Mexican and Central American immigrants love their babies and increase our birth rate. It only takes a generation or two to reeducate them to American values.

 https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/01/26/when-wall-was-fence-and-democrats-embraced/QE7ieCBXjXVxO63pLMTe9O/story.html

 http://www.wnd.com/2016/11/1-main-reason-u-s-border-wall-hasnt-been-built/