Thursday, August 13, 2009

Recipe: Vasina Torta (A Scrumptuous Bosnian Cake Modified in America)

This is a great cake recipe from Alma in Sarajevo, Bosnia! There are 3 separate parts to it: the cake, the nut filling, and the meringue frosting. I like to double the nuts layer and make the whole cake really impressive and taller. When I have time, I will rewrite the recipe to make the amounts more obvious, and easier for non-metric cooks (like me).

TOTAL INGREDIENTS
9 eggs
25 Tbs sugar
22 Tbs ground walnuts/pecans
200 grams butter
1 Dl milk
2 oz semi-sweet chocolate
2 Tbs flour
4 Tbs water

PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 220 ° C.

CAKE
5 eggs separated.
Add 5 spoons sugar to yolks.
Beat whites until stiff.
Beat yolks and sugar until light and fluffy.

To yolk mixture, add:
6 spoons ground nuts
2 spoons flour

Carefully fold in beaten whites

I sasuti in pouljen and bobrasnen mold for the cake.

Bake for about 20 minutes.


NUTS LAYER
Combine in the top of a double boiler:
1 dl milk
8 Tbs sugar
2 squares semi-sweet Baker's chocolate

When all are combined, move top of double boiler directly over another burner and very carefully heat to boiling, stirring constantly, not allowing mixture to scorch.

Once heated to boiling for a few moments, replace pan back on top of double boiler and when no longer boiling, stir in and combine very well:

14 Tbs ground nuts
4 egg yolks
200 grams butter

Cool the mixture (in the freezer/fridge if necessary, stirring every few minutes) until it is semi-solid, then spread it like a second layer on top of the cake (don't spread it on the sides of the cake).


MERINGUE FROSTING
8 Tbs sugar
4 Tbs water
Dissolve sugar and bring to a boil in a small saucepan:

(Have ready):
Beat 4 egg whites
When well beaten, add 4 Tbs sugar and continue to beat until stiff and shining.

Beating constantly, dribble the sugar syrup into the egg whites. Continue beating for several minutes until mixture has cooled and thickened considerably.

Frost the cake (remember to have added the nuts layer first), and cool in the fridge before serving.

Recipe: Is Organic Always Good for You?

Here is a recipe that I haven't tried yet, but I plan to make it this weekend. It looks awesome! I am sure I will gain 3-lbs while eating it! (That's the only reason I titled this post the way I did).

Pete and Gerry's is a 4-generation family farm located in New Hampshire's White Mountains. I buy fresh, organic eggs from them at my local Stop & Shop grocery. Pete and Gerry's eggs are from cage-free, humanely-raised, organic-certified hens. My family is so used to these great eggs that when, in a pinch, I bought some "regular" eggs from the 24-hour pharmacy around the corner, they asked me "what was wrong with" the regular eggs. There really is a difference!

This recipe, included in Pete and Gerry's August '09 e-newsletter, hails from the Maples Inn in Bar Harbor, Maine, where it's a signature dish. It was apparently featured in Gourmet, too.

Maples Inn Blueberry-Stuffed French Toast (Organic Version)
10 Pete and Gerry's Organic Eggs
12 slices of organic white bread
2 8-oz packages of organic cream cheese
1 cup of organic fresh or frozen blueberries
1/3 cup organic maple syrup (at least use actual maple syrup, people!)
2 cups organic milk

Remove the crusts and cube the bread. Spray the bottom of a 9"x13" glass baking dish with vegetable spray and place half of the bread cubes in the pan. Cube the cream cheese and put it on top of the bread. Distribute the blueberries over the cream cheese. Put the remaining bread cubes over the blueberries.

Beat the eggs, add the maple syrup and the milk. Pour this mixture over the bread and cheese. Place foil over the dish and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, place the covered dish in the middle of a preheated 350° F oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 30 minutes or until the French toast is puffed and golden.

Let the French toast sit for about 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with warm blueberry sauce.

Blueberry Sauce
1 cup water
1 cup organic sugar
2 tablespoons corn starch
2 cups organic fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon organic butter

While the French toast is baking, make the blueberry sauce. Cook the water, cornstarch, sugar and 1 cup of the blueberries until it thickens. Then add the second cup of blueberries and the butter.

Pour the warm blueberry sauce over individual servings. Twist a lemon slice over the top of each serving for garnish.

Serves 9-12. Avoid stepping on scale for at least 48-hours after eating. Go for a jog!!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Obama Is 2nd U.S. President Born in Africa. Really!!!

Today I came across this very funny website, where you can generate a great-looking Kenyan birth certificate for anybody. Here's one that proves George W. was born in the same Kenyan hospital as Obama. Amazing coincidence! You can make your own, genuine Kenyan birth certificate at http://kenyanbirthcertificategenerator.com.


****************************UPDATE: March 21, 2010******************

It's stupefying to realize that months later, the birthers, tea baggers, or whatever you want to call the idiots who believe this bunk, are still alive and in force. Jeeeeeeeez. Comically, the State of Hawaii has now proposed legislation in their State House to give their civil servants the authority to ignore the repetitive, money-sucking, time-wasting paperwork requests from these fools: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/03/17/hawaii-considers-legislation-to-ignore-birthers

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Regarding "reverse racism" and the establishment of demographically distinct membership organizations

I wrote this in response to an interesting iReport on CNN that had prompted quite a few posters to raise that common complaint of racism/prejudice against membership organizations whose name indicates the demographic bulk of membership (e.g., NAACP, NOW etc.). In my post, I mention "white men" as a group simply because it is a pragmatic necessity of explaining the situation, and not because of anything intrinsic to white men. In another time and place, any group might play the role that in our recent history happens to have been played by men who were white.

I don't share many posters' views of "reverse racism," as it regards membership- and advocacy-groups like the NAACP. Although I understand from these posters' perspective what they are getting at, and I actually believe most such people are not trying to be disingenuous, I disagree. A lot.

The thing is, by default, most groups just are the "white guys' group." I mean, white guys had, what, 145-years in America to give women the vote, for example, but they didn't do it. Forget why for the moment; they just never did it. It required a bunch of women to get together, and self-organize as women, rather than people, to claim their rights.

Similarly, the people who comprised the Boards of every, single pre-gender/race-desegregation American university, at any moment could have decided to stop behaving so shamefully and admit blacks, women, Asians etc. But they just didn't. And as it happened, they were white guys. It required groups with "women" or "black" in their names to make higher education a legal option for their members.

With few exceptions, this is the way it works in our country. People lacking rights must agitate for their rights. By and large, they will not get them by waiting for people in power to correct wrongs out of a sense of righteousness or civic or moral obligation. It simply has been fact that the folks in a position of power to change things have been white men, and that in almost every case, they have not bothered to do the right thing until the disenfranchised/lacking-rights groups (be it black, women, Asian, gay, handicapped, whatever) have organized themselves into self-identifying advocacy groups to agitate for change.

Given our history, and the fact that only when these groups were formed did real change happen, it is naive to expect the demographics that formed the groups to now disband the groups. I mean, today's white woman makes 78-cents on the dollar for the same work, performed by a similarly-qualified white man, and for black women, it's even grimmer. This has been going on forever. It's just not right. But almost all major corporations continue to be owned and run by people who for better or worse are white men, and these same people, regardless of motivation, are not interested in proactively ensuring equality. So, unfortunately, we continue to need women's groups, black groups, Hispanic groups, gay groups etc. etc.

What if all these groups called "Black such-and-such" just took the "Black" out of their name, but did not change the composition of their membership? I doubt that would make it a ton better for the people who are opposed to such groups. Yet for tens of millions of Americans, this is what we see when we look at the Senate, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the CEOs of all the car companies, the CEOs of all the big banks, the White House etc. etc. We see groups that appear to be not only restricted membership groups, but restricted membership groups of the greatest power, and the membership in these groups is generally white and male.

Are the women all supposed to be just bowled over that we now have zero women presidents ever (!!!) of our country, and one black president? Are black Americans supposed to feel awesome about having 0 or 1 black senator? Are Hispanics supposed to be brimming with a feeling of equality because 1 Hispanic ever is going to the Supreme Court after basically being harangued for being proud of her heritage (and by the same old white guys that apologized in tears to the white, male Supreme Court nominee who was "unjustly" questioned for having been an activist against admitting intellectually qualified women to Princeton while he was himself enjoyed the privilege of studying there!)?

In reality, it is people who happened to be white and male who have taught everyone (including, frankly, the millions of progressive white males who agree with what I am saying) the lesson that if you want to be treated equally, you need to band together with others in your demographic, and make an enormous stink about it or you will be swept under the carpet.

If a time comes when people proactively intervene on one another's behalf, across the board, regardless of gender, race, class, etc., and when nobody needs to ask for equal treatment in order to receive equal treatment, then these "women's goups" and "black groups" and all the rest will likely fade away. But to expect women and minorities to lead the way by dissolving their groups first, and then enjoying the ensuing white, male love is a bit rich.