Earth Hour 2011 – March 26th at 8:30 PM local time.

At 8:30 PM on Saturday 26th March 2011, lights will switch off around the globe for Earth Hour and people will commit to actions that go beyond the hour.

With Earth Hour almost upon us, our thoughts are with the people of Japan during this incredibly challenging and sad time for their country.

What would be better than eating a piece of delicious quiche and sipping a bloody mary by the fire on a cool autumn morning? Not much. Here’s how to make the quiche part, you’re on your own for the fire and the bloody mary.

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After watching the following video about making mushrooms that taste like bacon, I decided to try it.

Following the basic instructions in the video, I chopped up 2 containers of shitake mushrooms in to strips (I also removed the stems). Larger mushrooms I cut in to 3 strips, smaller ones I cut in half. In the end, it didn’t seem to matter much what size the pieces were.

Next, I mixed them with a little olive oil and salt, spread them out on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and popped them in my oven — which just happened to be preheated to 350°.  . . . Read the rest of this entry →

The picture above shows a plating of braised beef short ribs, Yorkshire pudding, sauteed mushrooms and steamed asparagus with stilton sauce.

Since this was my first attempt at short ribs, I decided to use a recipe that I had found on the web — and tried not to deviate from it too much (as I have a tendency to do).

Here’s the recipe I used: Braised Short Ribs

The ribs turned out well, though I did do a couple few things differently. My first deviation was using a blender to puree the veggies as I don’t own a food processor. The blender was a little more difficult, but produced satisfactory results. I would recommend dicing the veggies more finely than the recipe calls for if you are using a blender.

Secondly, I didn’t have a pot that was both big enough to accommodate all the ingredients and was safe for both stovetop and oven use. The easy solution was to use two pots — one for browning the meat and veggies and reducing the wine, then a large roasting pan for the actual braising in the oven.

If I were making this recipe again, I would try to find larger, leaner ribs. However, living in a small town, I often have to take what I can get.

Now for the side dishes. The Yorkshire pudding is the only one that I give amounts for each ingredient. The mushrooms and the stilton sauce I just made up as I went along and didn’t make note of any exact measurements. . . .

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U.S. House Debates, and Eventually Votes on Health Care Reform Bill

President Obama’s weekly address: Premiums, Profits, and the Need for Health Reform

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Teabagger candidate Donn Janes (TN-08) takes Sarah Palin’s palm-written crib notes and turns it to a campaign commercial:

Apparently cheating is one of the teabaggers’ most cherished values.

On Real Time With Bill Maher last night, Maher rightly blasts the teabaggers as being a cult, not a political movement:

…cult members always attribute all of their problems to one simple explanation. Now here’s an amazing statistic. In a recent poll almost ninety percent of Tea Baggers said that they thought taxes had either gone up or stayed the same under Obama. Only two percent thought they went down. But the reality is taxes have gone down for ninety five percent of working families taxes went down.

Think about that. Only two percent of the people in a "movement" about taxes named after a tax revolt have the slightest idea what’s going on…with taxes.

So, it would be easy to just mock, except that those who fall under the control of cults aren’t necessarily weirdoes, they’re victims. And we shouldn’t forget that these people are our relatives, our neighbors and the folks at the next table in the restaurant. Especially if that restaurant is Hooters and it’s dollar wing Wednesday.

New Law Would Ban Marriages Between People Who Don’t Love Each Other:

Gotta love The Onion

The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart interviews Newt Gingrich.

Extended Interview:

Saturday Night Live spoofs Fox News’ On the Record. Although this is skit, with Greta Van Susteren, Karl Rove, Oliver North, Attractive Blonde Lady, Robert Gibbs, and special guest Glenn Beck, is funny, it is not far from what Fox News is really like.

"You’re watching Fox News, Oh my god! Look out behind you!"