
After dark.
After dark.
By every act of good, we quantitatively … do make the world better, and we disproportionately make the world better for the receiver of our kindness.
“The Capacity for Good of an Ordinary Man” at ThinkingWest
One might think that the greatest good one can do is that which benefits the most amount of people. This is a very utilitarian and persuasive idea. The conclusion of such an idea is that the great philanthropists, teachers, and public figures have done the most good of all. All we ordinary folk must think to ourselves at some point, “Who am I to change the world?” But this idea deserves to be challenged.
It’s a good site. Worth a follow. Their posts are thoughtful and constructive.
Dr. William M. Mann, Director of Washington’s National Zoo, is on speaking terms with every one of his 2,800 animal wards—even though his specialty is ants. He has penetrated some of the least-known parts of the world to learn more about ants and to collect wild game.
His collections are more varied than the public knows. His secondary interest is collecting recipes. Gray-haired, stocky Dr. Bill Mann takes time out always to investigate the foods of the land he visits. He eats of native dishes with an observing eye, with a curious palate. Invariably he can guess the ingredients. Home again, the Doctor tries reproducing these dishes, searching foreign shops for exotic seasoners and odd groceries, then to prepare a little dinner to amaze his friends.
Mrs. Mann once thought of writing a book about her husband’s recipes but he hasn’t any. She said, “The trouble is, Bill cooks off the top of his head, beautifully and comprehensively inexact.”
Mexican dinner is one of their most applauded. Turkey broilers for this, prepared in a sauce made with mole powder—a below-the-border seasoner you can buy in Spanish stores, but with chilis, containing some 20 balanced herbs and spices. Black beans with rice, in the Cuban manner, go with this dinner. Tortillas take the place of bread. They are sold fresh in some cities ready to toast or fry; also sold canned in Spanish stores. Garlic bread might be served instead.
Clementine Paddleford, How America Eats (1960)
BLACK BEANS CUBAN STYLE
Yield: 4 to 6 portions
1 lb black kidney beans or black-eyed beans, washed, picked over, covered with water and soaked overnight, drained
Water
1 Tbsp salt, plus an additional 1 tsp
1 clove garlic, cut in half, plus an additional 3 cloves mashed
½ C oil
3 bell peppers, cored, seeded, chopped
3 medium onions, chopped
½ tsp ground sage
2 bay leaves, crushed
3 Tbsp cider vinegar
Pepper to taste
Place drained soaked beans in a kettle, pour in fresh water to cover, add 1 Tbsp salt and garlic halves, and cook beans until tender, about 3 hours, adding more ware as needed. Just before serving heat oil in a skillet, add additional 3 cloves mashed garlic, bell pepper, onion, sage, and bay leaves, and cook until vegetables are soft. Add vinegar, additional 1 tsp salt, and pepper. Place beans in a serving dish and pour vegetable mixture over all.
Yesterday the A/C didn’t come on until about 3pm. Today it came on at 6pm. Oh, it’s still warm outside. The high was 89˚. But we are in that sweet spot where the overnight low–50˚F!–cools the house down nicely if the windows are open and the fans are moving the air around. Looking forward to a decent electric bill.
In other news, I have bean recipes scheduled through Saturday. After that it’s going to be potluck as I am traveling. Mr. Big Food’s North American tour (Western Ontario, Toledo, eastern rural Michigan, Cleveland and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) concludes in our former stomping grounds of Cincinnati, where I’ll be joining him and many old friends.
And then! Off again. ‘Tis the season.
One more thing. I am packed in one bag. One single bag. Not a carryon with a ‘personal item.’ Just one 15 pound backpack. The very last thing I packed was a book. What book? The flights to get us to Rovaniemi, Finland supported a weighty book, The Abolition of Man. I studied it and took notes. I think I blogged about it. These flights are shorter. So I went with something that could be digested more easily.
An Elementary Historical New English Grammar. Joseph Wright and Elizabeth Mary Wright. Oxford University Press, London. 1924.
Humm. Joseph & Elizabeth Mary. A married couple who work on things together. What an idea!
I don’t often associate beans with cream, but this sounds good.
“This flavorful vegetable dish is made from dried butter beans and an irresistible combination of onion, garlic, carrots, ham and cream. To add color, sprinkle it with fresh parsley before serving.”—The Creative Cooking Course (1982)
CREATIVE COOKING BUTTER BEANS IN CREAM
Makes 8 to 10 servings
1 lb dried white butter beans, rinsed with cold water, covered with cold water, brought to a boil, removed from heat, stood 5 minutes, drained
Water
2 tsp salt
1 onion, chopped coarse
1 clove garlic, pressed
2 small carrots, peeled and diced
1 C diced cooked ham
1 Bouquet Garni
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
½ C half and half cream
Cover drained beans with cold water, add salt, onion, garlic, carrots, ham, and Bouquet Garni, bring to a boil, cover pot, and simmer 1 hour 30 minutes or until beans are tender. Remove Bouquet Garni, season beans with pepper, stir in cream, and serve immediately.
“While this baked bean dish is typically served with barbecued meats, it can double as a hearty main dish meal in the fall and winter.”—Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications, One-Pan Recipes (2013)
FIVE-BEAN BAKE AND SLOW COOKER VARIATION
Makes 12 to 16 servings; per serving 245 calories, 3 grams fat (1 gram saturated fat), 5 milligrams cholesterol, 882 milligrams sodium, 47 grams carbohydrates, 9 grams fiber, 10 grams protein
1 C onion (1 large), chopped
6 slices bacon, cut up
1 clove garlic, minced
15-oz red kidney beans, rinsed, drained
15-oz can lima beans, rinsed, drained
15-oz can butter beans, rinsed, drained
15-oz can garbanzo beans, “chickpeas,” rinsed, drained
15-oz can pork and beans in tomato sauce, undrained
¾ C ketchup or chili sauce
½ C molasses
¼ C (packed) brown sugar
1 Tbsp yellow mustard
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Preheat oven to 375˚. In a large skillet cook together onion, bacon, and garlic over medium flame until bacon is crisp and onion is tender, stirring occasionally. Drain off fat. In a large bowl combine onion mixture, beans, ketchup or chili sauce, molasses, brown sugar, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce, transfer mixture to a lightly greased 3-quart baking dish, cover, and bake 1 hour.
SLOW COOKER VARIATION
Prepare as directed above, but instead transfer mixture to a 3½- or 4-quart slow cooker, cover, and cook on Low setting for 10 to 12 hours or High setting for 4 to 5 hours.
A refreshing 61˚ right now so I’ve had the doors open this morning. Walking from the back to the front after feeding Tiger and thought this was a nice pastoral scene. Those bales have been sitting out there and all over the place for over a month. Makes for a pleasing view but I wonder if the guy is ever going to come get them. We’re told a lot of folk are having serious problems paying for the diesel and gas they need to run their equipment.
And yes. That is a zinnia. Self sowed in the crack between the two pavements. How heartless would you have to be to tear it out? I’ll save the seeds. They will be vigorous!
And to start your day, some Creedence.
“Lookin’ Out My Back Door”
Just got home from Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy!
Got to sit down, take a rest on the porch
Imagination sets in, pretty soon I’m singin’
Doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door
There’s a giant doing cartwheels, a statue wearin’ high heels
Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn
A dinosaur Victrola listening to Buck Owens
Doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door
Tambourines and elephants are playing in the band
Won’t you take a ride on the flyin’ spoon?
Doo, doo doo
A wondrous apparition provided by magician
Doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door
Tambourines and elephants are playing in the band
Won’t you take a ride on the flyin’ spoon?
Doo, doo doo
Bother me tomorrow, today, I’ll buy no sorrows
Doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door
Forward troubles Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy!
Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn
Bother me tomorrow, today, I’ll buy no sorrows
Doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door
From “Vegetables,” Cooking with Czech Recipes Cookbook, Texas Czech Genealogical Society (2021)
“Be prepared for many requests for this recipe if you serve it to your guests. Submitted by: Sandy Matush”
“Makes a lot and is a great side dish for brisket. Makes a good “leftover,” if you have any left.”
SANDY’S BAKED BEANS
1 lb. sliced bacon, cooked crisp, cooled, drained, broken into small pieces, some drippings reserved in skillet for sauteing bell pepper and onion
1 large bell pepper, green, red, or yellow, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 15-oz. cans pinto beans, drained
28-oz. can baked beans
15-oz. can kidney beans, drained
2 15-oz. cans French-style green beans, drained
12-oz. jar chili sauce
1 C brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350˚. Sauté bell pepper and onion in reserved bacon drippings until tender. Mix together all ingredients and bake uncovered in a lightly greased shallow baking dish for 30 to 40 minutes.
Sounds like a good fall dish
“Great side dish at a picnic or potluck. Recipe comes from my beloved sister-in-law, Wally Krasniansky.”–Posted by: Ladylibertatian, The Deplorable Gourmet by The Horde (2017)
“This is a great substitute for regular beans. It also can be a main course.”
AUNT WALLY’S BEAN CASSEROLE
Serves 12
Prep time: 1.5 hours
15-o can green beans, drained
15-oz can yellow beans, drained
15-oz can kidney beans, drained, rinsed
15-oz can pork and beans
15-oz can lima beans, drained, rinsed
1 can potato soup
1 small can tomato paste
1 C brown sugar
½ C chopped onions
½ C diced celery
3 tsp powdered mustard
1 lb hot bulk Italian sausage, browned, drained
½ lb bacon, diced
Preheat oven to 350˚. Sauté onion and celery with bacon. Drain off some of the bacon grease, then mix together with green beans, yellow beans, kidney beans, pork and beans, lima beans, soup, tomato paste, brown sugar, mustard, and sausage, spoon mixture into a lightly greased deep casserole dish, and bake uncovered for 1 hour.
It would have been more fun if the outdoor humidity had been 65–like all palindrome–but you take what Mother Nature gives you.
This new Department of Redundancy Department weather station is not nearly as detailed as the other one, but at least I don’t have to get up and walk three paces to see what’s up.
From Master Chef Louis P. De Gouy, The Gold Cook Book (1947)
Beans have been cultivated in the Americas since prehistoric times. Lima beans have been discovered in burial mounds in Peru, and early explorers found beans being cultivated by the Indians, from Canada to South America. In 1605, in a letter concerning the Indians in the Kennebee region, Champlain noted: “… with corn they put in each hill three or four Brazilian beans which are of different colors. When they grow up they interlace with the corn, which reaches to the height of from 5 to 6 feet; And they keep the ground very free from weeds …”
This habit of planting beans with corn was practiced by Indians everywhere and is still sometimes done. The first French explorers in Canada took beans home with them for cultivation in France; consequently beans in England were originally known as “French beans.” Captain John Smith in 1614 found beans grown by Indians in New England, and when the Pilgrims landed on November 19, 1620, Miles Standish dug up corn and “a bag of beans” from a pit.
The records of bean cultivation in ancient history all seem to refer to field beans rather than pole beans. The culture of the latter was not common until the sixteenth century. Dwarf beans are also a fairly recent mutation, and the first mention of dwarf snap beans was not until 1542.
Small seeded or Siena beans were grown in the Carolinas as early as 1700. Large seeded beans were first introduced into North America by Captain John Harris of the U.S. Navy who brought some seeds back from Lima, Peru, in 1824 and planted them on his farm at Chester, New York. These seeds from Lima were the forebears of our modern Lima bean. The botanical name Phaseolus, according to a writer in 1865, is derived from the resemblance between the shape of the pods and a special form of ship supposed to have originated at Phaselis, a town of Pamphylia.
Garbanzos or Chick-peas, are the fruit of a pea-like plant, probably the “pulse”; roundish, flattened on two sides, wrinkled when dry, and with a projection of the summit, both ripe and unripe. In Mediterranean countries it forms the basis of the Olla Podrida of Spain and Mexico and is well known and liked in California, Mexico, and Spanish-American countries generally, where it is eaten in many ways—boiled, roasted, in soups, also coated with sugar or syrup as a confection. There are a number of varieties: white, black and red, white being the best. The garbanzo is a leguminous plant of the vetch tribe. It contains over 6 per cent of fat and is the leading protein food mentioned in the above countries. In India, it is called “Gram.”
Colorado pinto is a bean as sacred to the West as the codfish to Boston. When the Spaniards first overran the country, they found the dappled pink bean a staple food of the Indians. Pinto they named it, the Spanish word meaning paint. Pinto was the bean that helped build Western railroads and clear the settlers’ land. A “stick-to-the-ribs” bean, and today we know why. In the pinto bean, nature has hidden an abundant supply of the B-1 vitamin. There are other vitamins, too, as well as important body-regulating minerals.
The soybean, called “Food of the Ancients,” and “The Little Honorable Plant,” known throughout the Orient, has a useful history dating back five millenniums. In the year 2838 B.C., Emperor Shen-Nung, father of Chinese agriculture, listed some 300 medicinal properties to be found in the soybean. Soybeans furnished orientals the proteins lacking in a diet of rice; they contain twelve times the fat of ordinary beans but have little sugar and no starch. Their protein content equals the protein of meat, eggs and milk … the finest there is. It builds tissue, restores energy, yet doesn’t put on fat.
The broad bean is one of the aristocratic vegetables of English gardens. It is one of the most ancient beans (except the soybean) of Europe, Asia and Africa, dating back to unknown periods, some say to the Bronze Age; also known as the Fava bean.
From Vegetables, Old Carolina Tobacco Country Cook Book: From the Great Depression to World War II (1985)
THE MAIN DISH: The main dish at a meal was not always a meat dish. Perhaps one of the main reasons for this was that the wife, who did the cooking, also had to help with the many chores. It was easier for her to put up a big pot of something which was seasoned with a big piece of ham or salt pork.
A pot of collards with the meat, potatoes and commercial dumplings cooked in the same pot, along with some sliced ripe tomatoes or cucumbers and a big glass of ice tea, made a complete meal. Or it could be a pot of chicken and pastry, a pot of butter beans, a pot of Summer Soup or a pot of Brunswick stew, the list could go on and on. Another reason for this method of cooking, no doubt, was a carryover from Colonial days, when everyone cooked in fireplaces. Whatever was in the big hanging pot was considered the main dish. An iron wood-burning cookstove with an oven was a “modern” convenience. But, by the time of World War II the iron cookstoves were rapidly being replaced by LP gas burning stoves.”
Books published in 2008 or earlier removed from school library amid confusion around new equity-based process
CBC News, Toronto
This isn’t a political blog, though I have my share of opinions of politics and the state of worldly affairs.
But this must be stopped one way or another–and hedged against if we can’t. By ‘we’ I mean normal human beings, the sort who have been on the planet long enough to know better than to remove books from library shelves because they are 15 years old.
If you have children in your lives, if there’s even a remote possibility that you one day will, it’s time. It’s well passed time to build your own library of classic children’s books. Physical books. Books that kids can access by walking to a shelf without permission.
These two lists will get you started. Bookfinder.com is a great aggregating site (so no need to go to Abe, then Alibris, then that big store in the sky).
Get going.
Ahh. The olden days.
Came across this from September 2019. Made me smile. Here’s the background. As part of his day job, Mr. Big Food and I had been going to the Alabama Philosophical Society annual meetings, held at Pensacola Beach, for a few years. In 2018 he arranged to have a one day session on philosophy & neuroscience. There were 14 talks from people mostly located in the Deep South.
It went over so well that the next year he announced the meeting across the land, and expanded it to two days. There were 22 people, and things were shaping up. So he named the group the Deep South Philosophy & Neuroscience Workgroup, and called the now annual meeting Philosophy & Neuroscience @the Gulf. This second meeting is where this post from September 2019 comes in.
Keep reading below the short old post for an update. Never let it be said that Mr. Big Food and I don’t go big. (haha)
Mr. Big Food has arranged a very cool two-day workshop at a beach location. Unfortunately, the beach hotel charges an exorbitant amount of money for boxed lunches. So he did some thinking– which he’s really good at– came up with a plan, consulted with me and the other work shoppers, and we’re going to set up a food truck for lunch one of the days. I will run to the local grocery store, pick up stuff, and set it up at the back of our truck in the parking lot.
I started thinking this through just this morning and I think I have it nailed including accommodating the VEGs, VEGANs, and GFers. I should be able to bring it all in for about $200. And only needed one piece of paper.
Not bad if I do say so myself.
The Food Truck, complete with sign. It was hot that day. As I recall the cheese melted.
Philosophy & Neuroscience @the Gulf III was in 2020, so virtual, but that’s the year Mr. Big Food started inviting neuroscientists to give keynote lectures. We went back to the Gulf in 2021, again with contributed papers, and invited keynotes from philosophers and neuroscientists. I think we were one of the first groups to go back to the hotel, and I know we were one of the very first philosophy meetings to go live with no virtual opt-in.
There were 29 people on the program in 2021–and we’d stopped doing the food truck. Last year there were 42. This year’s meeting has 60+.
Some things don’t change. I’m still in charge of food, though not lunch. (There’s a two hour lunch break so folk can go enjoy local restaurants.) I plan the menu for the opening early morning spread, the mid-morning break, and the afternoon break–all supplied by the hotel.
As you can see, I can no longer do it with just one piece of paper and a $200 budget.
As in could have knocked me over.
I’ve been reading a lot of calls for stories and short story writing contest blurbs lately looking for place to submit. I reject a great many out of hand because I know I would be rejected out of hand. They are written by 27 year olds (not that there’s anything wrong with that). If you’re 27 you didn’t grown up in the world I grew up in, and neither did your readers, so you’re not going to appreciate a story about a middle-aged couple in the burbs with nice things. That’s not the story, but if you’re 27 that’s what you’re going to think. (It’s a terse psychological drama with a twist.)
Anyway–today I came across a blurb that emphasized merit. Okay. Read more. I did. And there were enough hints to suggest that the person writing the blurb was not 27. Looked like a place I might get a fair read. But! You have to subscribe. But! It’s free. With the subscription to the magazine comes a bonus story to read. I clicked.
This is the editor’s introduction to the bonus story, “Driving School,” at Story Unlikely. (Subscription to read a lot of stories is free!)
Not 27.
Remember – once upon a time – when cars had bumpers? And when you were idling in the Target parking lot, some distant bimbo, distracted by the smudge of eyeliner and the ever-twirling of her dyed-blonde hair, slowly, stupidly, crashes into your rear end at 7 mph? And you step out, annoyed, surveying the scratches, and like a thug in every cartoon-sunglasses-dropping meme, just shrug it off and hop back into the driver’s seat, because that’s what bumpers were for.
Nowadays, you so much as cough on the back end of a Passat and the whole damn thing falls apart. That’s an embellishment, of course, but you’re still forking over $2,000 to the body shop for what was once an automobile hiccup. When you stop and think about this, you realize it’s a frightening parallel to our own existence, of how pathetic we have become as humans, and how the petty collisions of life that we used to just take in stride now totally wreck us. We need safe spaces and safe havens and complete insulation from anything unfamiliar.
In short, we have become weak men.
Perhaps the answer isn’t to further cushion the inevitable collisions of life, but rather to prepare us for when the damage comes. Maybe we need a little retraining; you know, what they once upon a time called a crash course.
Danny Hankner
Editor-in-chief
One Nation: America Remembers September 11, 2001 (Time, Inc. Little Brown and Company, Boston. 2001.)
A few weeks ago we received a threat from Home Depot: If you don’t use your Home Depot Credit Card your credit limit will be reduced.
We get one every year because a) the nearest Home Deport is more than an hour away, 2) there’s a Lowes in Starkvegas, and iii) there’s just not much we need from a big box home improvement store. Nevertheless, it is nice to have a HD card, and in the past we have used the 0% interest on some large purchases. So I got to work.
I had done a visual scan inventory of our battery situation not long ago. What with the Atlas weather station giving me fits over going through batteries as it has been, I ordered a bunch of batteries.
I don’t like to be without the information the weather station provides. The batteries without fail go out when the weather’s bad and I can’t get out to change them. So, I put on my Department of Redundancy Department hat, did a few minutes worth of looking around, and ordered a simple La Crosse Technology station (with bonus station). Unlike the Atlas that reports rain, wind direction and speed, along with temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure, this one just has the latter three. (Tells me what lunar phase we’re in, too!)
The Atlas sensor is big–like breadbox sized. The La Crosse is tiny–about the size of a TV remote. Another difference is that the Atlas is on a fence post out in the open. The instructions said to place the LC in the shade. Specifically it said mount it to a north wall. Mounting it to a north wall neglects the fact that late spring, summer, and early fall the sun shines directly on it in the morning.
It came yesterday, and I’m still playing around with it. Right now there’s a five-degree difference in temperature, and a smaller difference between the two in humidity.
Microenvironments.
n. 1. State of being lost in thought; also a musing. 2. A fanciful product of the mind; a theory or notion, usually strange or impractical.
What a great word. It come to us this morning via “Dream-Children: A Reverie” by… wait for it… Charles Lamb! It’s one of the pieces in The Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb (J.M. Dent & Co., London, 1908, 1906).
I also have Reveries of a Bachelor or A Book of the Heart (IK. Marvel (Donald G. Mitchell), Weeks Publishing Co., Chicago, 1895).
I may have to skim through this after I finish Lamb. Pulled out a book by Goethe and I see that while the Intro and Notes are in good ol’ English, the actual poem is in German. Oh well.
A. You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s Biscuits and Sausage Gravy.
2. Idiot.
iii. Sheeze.
Powerline’s The Week in Pictures