Blog of the Week

This week's blog of the week is Jesus Creed. This blog is written by Scot McKnight, a professor at North Park University in Chicago. He is a theologian and author, as well as an important voice in the emerging church movement. I appreciate his blog because there are posts and discussions of various theology points, book reviews and excerpts, discussions about Christian spirituality and daily living, and conversations about all kinds of relevant topics.

The Rising Tide

I randomly decided to read The Rising Tide by Jeff Shaara this weekend. Here's my review, for what it's worth.

A gripping novel of WWII, it covers primarily the battles and personalities that shaped the North African front from spring 1942 - fall 1943 after the Allied invasion of Italy. The historical events are accurate in essentials and details, while the characters are fleshed out from both the historical records and Shaara's pen. The reader, becoming immersed in the engrossing battle descriptions and character interactions is likely to forget they are absorbing a history lesson at the same time.

This book opened my eyes to three new perspectives on WWII. American history education, when it even progresses to cover WWII, leaves a student knowing little more than Pearl Harbor, Normandy, concentration camps, and the use of the A-bomb. All important, of course, but somewhat limited in scope.

First, this book is set primarily in North Africa, a theater of the war that I don't remember being mentioned (except in Raiders of the Lost Ark). Nonetheless, the events there were key to the Allied invasion of Europe.

Second, the book showed the humanity and place of the officers and commanders of the German armies. I think that too often the American perspective lumps the entire German army and people with the insanity of Hitler and the atrocities of the concentration camps.

Third, we are always presented with the picture of the Allies (England, France, U.S., et al) united against the Germans. Apparently, French politics were even murkier 60 years ago than they are now. In fact, American forces had to fight off the French when landing in N. Africa. Only after they saw the Americans winning did they finally decide to join our side. With Allies like that...

Anyway, this book is a good read, and I highly recommend it.

Stuffed Tomatoes

I made these tasty stuffed tomatoes last week for dinner. I will say that the atomic spicy sausage was unnecessary. Hey, the package said "Hot, Spiced Italian Sausage." How was I to know that the company wasn't practicing false advertising like most often happens?!?

You can vary the seasoning used in this stuffing recipe; leave out the onions, use cooked chicken or steak instead of the sausage, and try oregano instead of thyme.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup long grain rice
• 6 large ripe tomatoes
• 1/2 pound spicy pork sausage
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1 cup shredded Provolone cheese
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup water

Cook rice according to package directions; let stand for 10 minutes, then fluff and let cool slightly. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the tops off of the tomatoes and reserve; scoop out the pulp, leaving the shells intact and reserve pulp.

In large skillet, cook pork sausage, stirring to break up sausage, until thoroughly cooked. Remove sausage, drain on paper towels, and set aside. Pour excess grease off of skillet, but do not rinse. Add olive oil and cook onions and garlic until tender. Add sausage and onion mixture to rice along with tomato pulp, thyme, Provolone, and Parmesan cheese; mix gently.

Fill tomato shells with rice mixture and place in a 9" baking dish. Top with tomato tops, if desired. Pour water around tomatoes and bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Web Safari

1. My favorite article this week is from the newest issue of Time Magazine: Are We Failing Our Geniuses?

2. A bunch of pictures from the I-35 bridge collapse.

3. iMonk has a great post about Mother Teresa and God's Absence.

4. Apparently there's a big hole in the universe.

5. Do you read more or less than the average American? I sometimes read more books each week than the average American reads in a year.

6. Apparently there's a worker shortage. Would you work at McDonald's for $10/hr?

7. GM finally is caving to the market demands and producing *gasp* a much more fuel efficient engine.

(I apologize for not getting this posted on Sunday...I was working on it, but then my computer decided to have a senior moment and shut down. )

Blog of the Week

This week's blog of the week is Black and Brown News. This is the blog of the two chefs/culinary directors/whatever the heck their title is where I work. They are very fun and cool people, and we have a great working relationship. (They try to feed me, and I try to make them use semi-edible vegetables!) If you want an inside look at what goes on at work, check it out.

Web Safari

1. All or you Austen fans should get excited!

2. How to stop Al Qaeda.

3. The Prosperity Gospel. Do you know what it is?

4. Feast Day of the Assumption - believe it or not?

5. Mosques coming to Europe. What would we think if this were New York, Chicago, or Ames?
(And yes, registration to the Chicago Tribune is free and supposedly they don't spam you either.)

6. We all knew that Abraham Lincoln was a little scary looking. Now we know why.

7. What foods are high in what nutrients? A handy dandy chart to help us out.

8. Palmer Drought Indices maps for 2007. Pretty interesting. The maps show long term and short term drought, meteorological and hydrological drought.

Blog of the Week

This week's Blog of the Week is a fairly new one to me. I've seen it linked to on other blogs I read occasionally, but haven't ever really read it much. letters from kamp krusty by Brant Hansen.

*Beware of high levels of humor, irony, and satire covering up serious discussions. If you can't handle it, then don't read it.*

I love Ham Sandwiches!

You Are a Ham Sandwich

You are quiet, understated, and a great comfort to all of your friends. Over time, you have proven yourself as loyal and steadfast. And you are by no means boring. You do well in any situation - from fancy to laid back. Your best friend: The Turkey Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Grilled Cheese Sandwich

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

Also true that I am not really a big fan of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches...unless they have ham on them.

Web Safari

The Web Safari this week is filled with all kinds of fun links including food, religion, politics, and other randomness.

The Internet Monk had a discussion going on about "Can you be too God centered?" See what his conclusions are.

Is Gregorian Chant going to have a comeback?

See who conservative bloggers would elect in the next election. Sorry Tommy Thompson.

If you haven't seen this YouTube video yet, go watch the epic battle of the cape buffalo, lions, and crocodile. I won't give away the ending though!

The Greenest and Meanest cars of the year.

Apparently Hitler listened to music by Jewish musicians.

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is filling a gap in it's curriculum - by offering a degree in homemaking.

A hilarious post about some suggested church bulletin announcements.

The Politics of Food - sometimes keeping the population safe doesn't play out the way you'd think it should.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes Everywhere!

When I was walking through my field this morning, I had the intention of picking a few tomatoes to make some sauce with. Well, this turned into quite a number of tomatoes. I'm not a huge fan of tomatoes in general. (Okay, I love growing tomatoes, especially the really weird, bizarre, and funky ones. I just don't like eating them raw very much.) But there were just so many interesting tomatoes that had apparently ripened overnight! How could I resist taking them and seeing what they were like? (Yay for research!) I also grabbed a nosegay of basils and oreganos on my way past the front garden.

Of course, I took pictures before peeling and chopping them. I also decided to divide the sauce making by colors. The sauce currently on the stove is made up entirely of yellow tomatoes. Hey, it isn't everyday that you see yellow tomato sauce.

Here are some pictures. Vote for which tomato you like best!

Blog of the Week

I deliberated over this choice for several days, and in the end, I have decided to spotlight one of my favorite blogs, Happy Catholic. Julie D., the blog's author, provides a great mix of quotes, stories, article links, book reviews, movie reviews, and much more each week. Go check it out!

Random Question

Why would someone keep a job under the following circumstances?

For approximately 4 months of the year, they loved their job 85% of the time.
For the remaining 8 months of the year, they hated their job 85% of the time.

Blinchiki

I made Blinchiki (Meat-stuffed blini) for dinner this week. I found the recipe in a Russian cookbook, and since it's pretty good, I have decided to share it with you

Blinchiki

Batter:
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup milk
2 tsp. butter

Beat eggs; add flour, salt, and baking soda and mix. Gradually add milk and 1 tsp. butter, melted. Melt remaining 1 tsp. butter in a small (6 in.) skillet. Heat till foam has subsided and skillet is very hot. Pour in 1/2 soup ladle of batter; cook a few minutes until light brown on bottom. Remove to clean towel. Do not fry on other side. Continue until all batter is used; use wax paper between layers of pancakes. Cover with towel to keep warm.

Filling:
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 lb. ground chuck
1/4 cup beef broth
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 raw potato, peeled and grated
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry onion in butter until golden. Add all other ingredients and stir well until meat is browned and has lost pink color. Place 1 heaping tablespoon on each pancake and roll up into a long tube. Bake filled pancakes in lightly greased baking dish at 325 degrees for 10 minutes. Serve with sour cream.

*Notes: I added mushrooms, and some garlic salt to the filling as well. I also made blini the size of my skillet...15 inches, rather than 6. At that size, the recipe makes 5. I'm not a fan of serving anything with sour cream, either. Ketchup all the way!*

Carved Vegetables

Web Safari

Welcome to a new feature of this blog, which I am going to be calling "Web Safari." Each week, maybe more often, maybe less often, I will give you a list of interesting websites, articles, and posts that I have run across in the past few days. You can peruse them at your leisure. (I was going to call this feature "Peregrinations," but I decided that I didn't want to explain that the definition of peregrinate is travel every time I used the word.

1. Strange Maps This site is full of really cool maps shown in different ways. Some of my favorites:

• The United States showing names of countries with similar GDP's for each state.
• A Norwegian map painting.
  
• For the computer lovers - a map of the internet.
  

2. Infamous Sports Scandals (non-drug related)

3. Conservatives and the minimum wage. Also a map showing states with minimum wage above the federal minimum.

4. What does this say about evangelical churches?

5. For those of you that are interested in wading through the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill.

6. The worst fiction prose (excerpts) of 2007. Definitely painful reading. Enjoy!

A Fire and a Funeral

Today was yet another interesting day at work. What I would give for a normal week!

My poor truck has come to a bitter end. At least I hope it is the end, because there are several of us that are planning a funeral for it. But first, the story of how this has come about.

It was a hot day today, but we've had hotter this summer. My rusted out, shockless, pitiful excuse for a farm truck often struggles with starting, but struggles even more in the heat. Today, after sitting for and hour and a half during lunch and after while I ran around the farm, I drove it back to CVI and dropped my student off in the field. Then I drove it up to the building so that I could get the Gator to harvest melons in the field. As I got to the building and put my truck in park, I started smelling a burnt/overheated smell from the truck. Figuring that my truck had merely overheated, I turned it off and decided to leave it to cool off, as I was going to do anyway. After turning it off, smoke/steam started emanating ominously from the hood. Still convinced this was overheating, I call the head of the maintenance department and told him. He said it was just overheating and he would send the main mechanic over to check on it shortly. (Incidently, the mechanic and my student had just checked the gas and radiator, etc. after lunch.)

Since my truck was parked next to the owner's wife's vehicle, I decided to go tell her that she should move her SUV...I trust(ed) my truck about as far as I can/could push it. She went up to move it, and I went to get a drink and check my email. When I came back out I could see that the truck was smoking more and that the paint on the hood had begun to bubble and char. Hmm..bad sign, don't you think? Luckily, Mary had gone running to get her husband, and he came and we pushed the truck back from the building. Then he tried to use a fire extinguisher...not so effective with the fire under the hood and not outside it. The landscaper came up at this point and they hosed the hood down with a garden hose and managed to pop the hood open. At which point they used the garden hose to further put the fire out. (Not brilliant, probably, particularly since later inspection revealed that the fire started in the wiring around the alternator.)

At any rate, my truck is now dead. (Unfortunately, we didn't let it burn quite long enough, since when they were hauling it out, the engine still turned over.) All previous drivers of the truck are planning a funeral...we're thinking pushing it over the riverbank would be fitting.