What would you have done?

Our phone rang at 4:30 this morning. The caller ID said "Pay Phone" and seeing as how not all of Jim's extra special relatives have kicked off, he answered.

A mans voice said "I want to report a girl is being sexually molested at such and such address El Camino Real... in Tustin." I could hear him, he sounded serious but not urgent. Jim replied after a pause, "OK... uh..." and then the guy hung up.
We sat there in silence for a few second. our fuzzy brains still trying to wake up and process what we had just heard. Was that real?

Part of me didn't believe him at all, sad that I'm such a cynic. I wondered if he was just making a simple prank call. But then my brain started to crank. He gave a very specific address, he obviously wanted to draw attention to something that was happening there at that moment. But was it really what he said? Was someone being victimized right at that moment?

My brain next thought, ok if I call my local police dept and tell them what I just heard, are they going to doubt me like I doubt the guy who called me? Where they going to do anything about something that may or may not be happening in a city 15 miles away?

If I had made a call like that I would have been panicked and talking very fast, the man was very calm almost emotionless from what I could hear.
After Jim's disbelieving and seemingly disinterested response he hung up, so I'm wondering if he realized he didn't reach the police department or whoever else he was trying to reach.

Did he try to call another police dept after that?
Why the hell didn't he just call 911?

All of these things rolled through my head over and over after he called and through the day today.

In the end ur cynic/tired sides won out and we did nothing.

So what do you think?

What would you have done?

One a penny two a penny - Hot cross buns

Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!
One a penny two a penny - Hot cross buns
If you have no daughters, give them to your sons
One a penny two a penny - Hot cross buns
I had this damn rhyme in my head the WHOLE time I was making these!


One perfect Hot Cross Bun.







Just a bit of spice and a tiny drizzle of powdered sugar icing. MMM These are one of my dad's faves and I had a bit of free time over the turkey day weekend so I thought I'd whip up a batch.

I got the recipe from Recipe Zaar but of course I had to make a few modifications- for me and for dad.

Ingredients

• 2 (1/4 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup water (110 to 115 degrees)
• 1 cup warm milk (, 110 to 115 degrees)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 6 1/2-7 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup dried currant
• 1/2 cup raisins

GLAZE AND ICING

• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 4 teaspoons milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

First of all- no nutmeg in the kitchen where I was baking so I used pumpkin pie spice. Which my mom was cool with since she hates nutmeg. How can you hate nutmeg? No idea, feel free to ask her.
Second change was to blow off the currents and go 100% raisins, GOLDEN raisins. My dad is a golden raisin junkie. He was a good boy and left the box alone until I measured out what I needed =)
Since I am a functional idiot I had the bread all oiled and resting before I realize I forgot to add the f&#ing eggs. So out of its nice warm oiled bowl to mix in those eggs- by hand of course. That was fun. I only added 3 of the 4 eggs cause I was over it! They came out just fine anyway.
No other major changes but they did take a LONG time to rise for some reason. Maybe it was in protest to my disturbing its original rest period with the eggs? Who knows. They did rise nicely and then their pretty little round and cut buns got a nice slathering of egg wash. I love the color a nice egg wash gives a bread, don't you?


I forgot the one last change- to make the icing I used half n half instead of milk and extra vanilla and a squeeze of lemon juice.
How could you not ADORE a baked good designed with custom icing grooves??
























Food is love, guys. Don't let anyone tell ya different. Watching people enjoy what I make is seriously the BEST part.

Enjoy Dad!! xoxo

The dead horse, I’m beating it.

You know how I feel. You know what I'm going to say. Despite the fact that I still distinctly remember being sad when Regan was voted into office the first time, this is the most important election in my life time. I hope I have a lot of years left, but I know this year will always be a BIGGIE no matter how long I live. They are expecting record numbers which is GOOD. People should be excited to speak their minds EVERY election. But times are hard and this year we have more on our minds than ever. We want our voices to be heard loud and clear. We want to stand up and take our futures by the hand, to guide them in a better direction, for those who came before and those who will come after. I know no matter where you live, there are important decisions to be made that will effect how we live, will effect the reality our children will grow up in. Your voice matters, for us and for them. I will use my voice tomorrow to make my future better. Will you join me? California polls open at 7am and close at 8. If you are in line by 8 you will still be allowed to vote.

We vote tomorrow!!

Here is a 12 minute video that goes into detail dispelling any "truths" that the Yes on 8 people are trying to spread via their website. Its good stuff guys!





Stand with me tomorrow in defense of human rights.
VOTE NO ON PROP 8!
Thank you.

I saw my friend Laura today

She was sad and exhausted. One of her co-workers at the school passed away last week. Laura was making a nice poster with pictures and a few nice paragraphs about her co-workers life and work. She put it all together cause she wanted to do something. She is thoughtful like that and she is a person of action which explains her exhaustion.

A little back story: This summer Laura married her partner of 10 years. The state made it legal for them to get married earlier this year and she and her partner Karla jumped at the opportunity. The ceremony was outside at a park and their families came together from all over the US to help them celebrate.

The speeches were sweet and loving, like you'd expect at any wedding reception but these had something different that I had never heard. They were filled with gratitude. Laura and Karla have been together over 10 years and were never able to get married before this year. They were GRATEFUL to finally be allowed to marry legally in California. Ironically the state had ordained Laura to PERFORM her own brothers wedding ceremony a handful of years ago, but she could not actually get married herself.

Fast forward to today when I asked her what she had been up to lately. She said during the week I'm here (work) and all my nights and weekends I'm at rallies fighting for my marriage.

Fighting for her marriage.

What she is referring to is Prop 8 that is going to be on the ballot here in Cali next month. This bill is practically sponsored by the Mormon church and basically it states (from the wiki site) "If it passes, it will add a new constitutional amendment to the California Constitution that will say "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California" and it will be known in law as the California Marriage Protection Act". Apparently if the state allows the "gays to have their gay" it will some how cause every single Mormon marriage to dissolve and all of their children will spontaneously combust.

Ya know, I thought conservative Republicans wanted less government involvement in our day to day lives? It seems to me that these fuckers not only want to be in my pink parts (abortion laws) but they want to be in peoples private homes and bedrooms as well. Lemme tell ya, you are most certainly not welcome in any of them. There is no place for you in there!

When I think about this I get so angry I can't drop enough F-bombs. I want to know HOW IN THE HELL does my two friends being married, having a houseful of rescued pets, sharing their holidays together and exchanging rings hurt these people? HOW? The TV ads claim that they will teach gay marriage in public schools if this legislation doesn't pass. I'm sorry, WHAT? First of all this wrongly implies that this is currently happening in schools and second, find me a public school teacher that would touch that subject with a 10 foot pole!

The worst thing about ignorance is that it is so blindly hurtful and, well, ignorant. Can you imagine the state walking into your home and telling and your spouse that your marriage is no longer valid? I'm sorry, but all those commitments you made and promises you spoke? Sorry, but I'm afraid the government doesn't think you deserve that. But by all means, those one out of every two couples who take it for grated and throw it down the toilet every year, they are safe, thank God. Cause those marriages? They are sacred.

Needless to say I'm voting no on Prop 8 in two weeks. Join me?

8. Is. Hate.

Resources:

http://www.letcaliforniaring.org

http://www.hrc.org/

http://www.californiansagainsthate.com/

Freedom of Religion, anyone?

My lovely friend Lore shared these links with me today. I was outraged at what human beings are capable of doing to other human beings and what gets carried out for the perceived good of our nation.

Apparently a few weeks back, in time for the anniversary of 9/11 a DVD was distributed free in 70 newspapers based in 14 swing states, Ohio and PA to name two. The DVD is titled Obsession; Radical Islam's War Against the West and it is basically anti Muslim propaganda. It appears to be available on YouTube if you can sit through it. Its filled with lots of bad TV show reenactments with white people over enunciating Arabic and taking the few educated talking heads out of context.
While I understand there are extremists out there who really feel this way, they are not the majority and they are certainly not living the peaceful spiritual ideal most Muslim's strive for.
The maker of this video, originally released in 2006, is a registered non-profit who happened to have items on their webpage indicating they are backing John McCain for president which they have since taken down.
I am positive his camp has no knowledge of the groups actions but the fear mongering to gain votes truly disgusts me. Is your candidate qualified? Does he stand for what you believe? Excellent! Slap a sticker on your car, stick a sign in your front lawn and call it a day. Gaining votes through fear does not help our country and goes against what we stand for.

Case in point:

Dayton Ohio, just 4 days after these DVDs were distributed there, a group of children whose parents were participating in evening prayers at a Mosque were pepper sprayed through a street level open window. The story is written about on Chris Rodda's weblog. The story was picked up also by one Philadelphia area paper as well but that's it. Why was this not reported anywhere else?

The last link I have in my trifecta of disgust is the one directly to the Dayton Daily News. The ONLY time the paper mentioned this horrific attack was when the police (in their UNBELIEVABLE OVERSIGHT) deemed this attack on these children NOT a hate crime.
Great detective work there, Lou.
What really makes me want to slap these rednecks in the face is the fact that these people are in America so they can freely and safely practice their religion as they so choose. Do the words "Freedom of Religion" ring ANY bells at all?? Do you not see the flaw in your reasoning there? Last time I checked, America is for everyone, not just the poor, white and ignorant.

I mean really, think about that. Not feeling safe at church, fearing for your life or the life of your children at church.
Imagine this, you are attending Sunday services, sitting in the pew with your spouse, reading along in the bible. Your children are down the hall making disciple puppets out of chunks of felt and Styrofoam balls when out of no where some guy hoses your childrens faces and the children of your fellow church goers with pepper spray through an open window. All you hear is the far away sounds of children screaming and you have no idea what happened.
You run down the hall, your eyes and throat starting to burn, you can't get to them fast enough with all the chaos. You finally reach them and they are still screaming and in terrible pain. After dealing with paramedics and police you go home and your child sleeps with you because they are too scared to sleep alone and you are too scared to let them. They lay next to you in the dark, sobbing all night.
Sick isn't it? Would you feel comfortable going back there? What a desperate feeling to not feel at ease in your own house of worship...
Just because you are a majority, doesn't make you any righter than the next guy.


Some final thoughts...
Honestly why was this story confined to only 2 news outlets? This outrages me almost as much as the suffering those families had to endure. I urge you to contact your local news outlets and ask why they never covered the incident at the mosque.
If the paper that you receive your local news from is on that list at the bottom of the article I also urge you to email your paper and ask why they chose to put that DVD in with the circulars.
This will only take a few minutes Please, please don't let this hate crime get brushed under the rug. We all deserve to feel safe wherever we choose to pray.

Fontina and Black Pepper-Stuffed Crusty Loaves

Friday while I was ahem...working I happened upon a foodie blog that hilariously described a very yummy sounding and looking loaf of cheesy bread. Who can resist cheesy bread I ask you?? Not me, especially not 25 minutes before my lunch break. The blog linked back to the original recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. Look at that picture! And they use the words "cheese" and "volcano" for Christ's sake! I am only HUMAN!
Saturday I picked up the goodies and got the starter going. I let it sit overnight and it looked like this when I woke up Sunday.

I added the rest of the ingredients to the starter.
It was kinda dry and looked like this.
























I kneaded it for 10 minutes til it was pretty smooth.








That's kneaded by hand, people, Tee Tee doesn't own a mixer)











Then I set it in an oiled bowl and let it proof.


















The first proofing took just under an hour even though the recipe said it might take up tot 2. But I do have a hot kitchen, or else it just knows I am impatient as most of the recipes I make at home never take as long to rise as the recipe says it will.




After 50 minutes it looked like this.







I like to use a bowl with measurements on it so I can see exactly how much volume I've achieved.
















The original recipe called for gruyere but the only cheese that looked good at my store was the Fontina so I used that instead. So I grated up 3 cups -yes, an extra half cup, don't judge me!
























I pressed the dough out to the size of the sheet pan and sprinkled on the cheese (more like heaped) and decided that it needed some fresh ground black pepper too.

























Then I rolled it up covered it and left it to rise again, easy peasy!
























When it was nice and puffy I sliced it up in to 5 boule-type loaves and set it on the baking sheets cheese side up.



















These beauties baked for about 35 minutes and came out looking like magic.
For whatever reason Blogspot doesn't want to right my image. But you get the idea. They were tasty as hell but next time more black pepper and I MUST invest in some parchment paper cause I'm not sure my sheet trays will ever recover :)