Homemade Ravioli and Meatballs

09-29-13-homemade-ravioli-and-meatballs

 

I have just had one of the most awesome dinners of my life! I feel like dancing a Tarantella!  I am [almost] speechless - and we know how rare that is. My stomach is not only smiling, it is beaming.

And what, you say, could make me feel this way?!? Ravioli. Yes. A simple ravioli. But not just any simple ravioli - a simple ravioli made by hand - by Victor.

Little cheese-filled clouds floating on a sea of impossibly-rich tomato sauce. Meatballs that defy description. Firm, yet fork-tender, with body and substance bursting with flavor.

I have died and gone to gastronomic heaven.

Really.

Did I mention speechless?!?

09-29-13-ravioli-1

Victor has pasta dough down to a science. There are certain things that come naturally to some - and pasta-making is as natural to him as breathing. He has the knack and the feel for the dough and just knows when it's right.  He has used a variation on a Lidia recipe for years and it's always perfect. But tonight it was more perfect than ever before.

He made a 3-cheese filling that would make an Italian Nonna cry. It was bursting with flavor while simultaneously screaming simplicity. And the sauce...  It was the last of our freezer-stash and was gently improved upon. Our live-in Nonna filled her plate and then went back for seconds. Nonna never goes back for seconds.

Fresh Ravioli

Ravioli Dough 

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tbs water
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • Pinch of salt

Break eggs into a small bowl and mix with water, olive oil and salt. In a bowl add flour and wet ingredients. Mix together with a fork until all the flour we wet and it begins to come together. Knead on a lightly floured surface about 3 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. (if too dry add a bit more water by the DROP – until the dough forms) – cover in plastic wrap and let rest for an hour.

Filling:

  • 1 - 15oz container of whole milk ricotta (we don’t use no stinking “part skim”)
  • 1 – cup shredded whole milk mozzarella (see first ingredient regarding part skim)
  • 1 – cup grated parmesan cheese – and please for God’s sake use a good one – no Kraft or anything that comes out of a green can!!!
  • 2 - Eggs lightly beaten
  • Finely chopped garlic – to taste. I used two good size cloves – You can use garlic powder but you may lose your “Italian Card”.
  • Chopped Parsley – to taste – I like a lot and I use parsley grown in my garden. However you will not be penalized for buying it fresh at the store. But you will be shot on site if you use McCormack’s dried parsley.

Mix all ingredients together. Taste for seasoning and add S&P, as desired.

To assemble:

Make an egg wash of 1 egg and 2 tbsp water. Mix well.

Using a pasta roller, roll pasta to setting 6. If using a rolling pin, roll pasta about 1/16th of an inch. Thin.

Cut into squares. Brush all 4 edges of square with egg wash. Place a dollop of filling in the middle of each and top with another square of pasta. Crimp edges to seal and place on a floured sheet pan covered with a kitchen towel.

Repeat.

To cook:

Place ravioli in gently-boiling water and cook about 5 minutes - more or less according to the thickness of your dough.

Serve with your best sauce. They're worth a good sauce.

Awesome doesn't begin to describe.

And since we were having a more-than-awesome fresh ravioli, I made bread to go along with it.

09-29-13-italian-bread

An Italian Bread based on a James Beard recipe.

Italian Bread

  • 2 pkgs active dry yeast
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 cup warm water [100° to 115° F, approximately]
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup hot water
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 5 1/2 to 6 cups all-purpose flour
  • cornmeal
  • Sesame seeds

Stir the yeast, sugar and warm water together in the bowl of a stand mixer; let sit until yeast dissolves and starts to proof.

In the meantime, add the butter to the hot water and let cool to lukewarm.

Add 5 cups of flour and the salt to the yeats mixture and mix with a dough hook on low until the dough almost comes away from the sides of the bowl, adding up to 1 more cup of flour, if needed to make a soft dough.

When the dough is soft and smooth, let rest for 5 or 6 minutes and then divide into two. Roll each half into a rectangle about 12″ x 8″. Starting from the wide end, roll the rectangle up quite tightly, pinching the seams as you roll. Grease a large sheet pan or use parchment paper and sprinkle liberally with corn meal. Place loaves on pan and cover with a kitchen towel. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 50 to 60 minutes.

Preheat to 425° F while the bread proofs.

When proofed, brush loaves with an egg wash and sprinkle liberally with sesame seeds.

Place in oven and bake about 40 minutes or until well-browned and hollow-sounding when tapped.

The whole dinner was seriously awesome.

And I think we're all going to be fighting over the leftovers for lunch, tomorrow...

 

 

 


Hard Cider Apple Crepes

09-28-13-hard-cider-apple-crepes

 

Well, I finally did it! I used a bottle of Bad Seed Hard Cider I have had since last Christmas! I received it in a Christmas Pollyanna from one of my more favorite foodie people, Debbie Koenig who wrote the fantastic Parent's Need To Eat, Too cook book!  (I just ordered another copy for a new new-born family!) We're practically related through my sister-in-law who is not a blood relation to either of us. Families are great.

But I digress...

I started off with a bazillion different ideas of what to do with it. Since I don't really drink, I needed something to make with it - dinner, dessert, sweet, savory... I had pretty much settled on a savory pork and apple stew once the weather turned a bit cooler, but then I bought a bag of honeycrisp apples.

4 pounds of apples. Two apple-eaters. Quick. Make a dessert.

Okay.

Normally, honeycrisps wouldn't be my first choice for a cooking apple, but they were what were in the kitchen. I'm a make-do kinda guy. And that cider has been mocking me long enough.

The first thing I did was make a syrup from the hard cider. It's a 22 oz bottle - just a tad shy of three cups - so I did a basic 2:1 liquid to sugar and put a scant 1 1/2 cups sugar in a pan with a couple pats of butter and the bottle of cider. I brought it to a boil and reduced it to about 1 cup.

I peeled and cored the apples and put them into the hot syrup and let them sit while I made the crepes. They got nice and soft but still held their shape.

09-28-13-hard-cider-apple-crepes-2

 

I didn't add anything at all to the apples - no spices, no nothin'. I didn't need to.

I plced a few apple slices on the crepe and rolled them up. They then got a nice dousing of syrup.

The final result was a sweet apple without being cloyingly sweet. Honeycrisps are a sweet-crisp apple to begin with but sugar didn't overpower. And the crepe was perfectly light and tender. They really are just so easy to make...

It looks as if I'm going to need a new item to plan meals around... Time to search the cabinets...

Hard Cider Apple Crepes

syrup and filling:

  • 1 22 oz bottle Hard Cider
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 lbs apples, peeled, cored, and cut in 8ths

Bring cider, sugar, and butter to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Boil and reduce to about 1 cup. Stir in apples and bring back to boil. Turn off heat and allow apples to cool in syrup.

crepe:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 6 tbsp butter, melted
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.

Melt butter in small non-stick pan. Add about 2 tbsp batter to pan and swirl to thinly coat. Cook over moderate heat until edges are  lightly browned and crepe is dry. Stack on plate until all are completed.

to assemble:

Place crepe on counter. Add about 4 apple slices to one end. Roll crepe and place seam-side down on plate and continue until all are made.

Spoon syrup over crepes and enjoy!

I highly recommend going out and getting a bottle of hard cider.

Soon.

And don't wait as long as I did to use it!

 

 


Turkey Club

09-25-13-turkey-club-1

I had a hankerin' for cranberry sauce the other day so I roasted a turkey breast. There is logic to that. Trust me.

We had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, roasted butternut squash, dinner rolls - and cranberry sauce out of a can. It was store-brand, not Ocean Spray. Ocean Spray still uses high fructose corn syrup and I don't buy things with high fructose corn syrup.

The canned sauce more or less worked, but I really can't wait until fresh cranberries are in the stores. I want the real McCoy!

So... I cooked a whole turkey breast which meant there was leftover turkey. A whole half-breast, in fact. I first thought hot turkey sandwiches, but before the thought completely formulated, Turkey Clubhouse Sandwiches took over.

One of life's great pleasures is a turkey club made from fresh turkey.  They're also a bit of a rare treat. So rare, that it seems the last time I made them - or, at least wrote about making them - was three years ago. And with avocado joining the traditional bacon, iceberg lettuce, and tomatoes on mayonnaise-slathered toast, it makes it all the better. The only thing that would have sent it way over the top would have been alfalfa sprouts. While I really do like them, none of the local stores carry them - and I ain't driving out of my way for a sandwich ingredient. I'll deal...

Victor lamented that we didn't have frilly toothpicks or little umbrellas so we used a rather large umbrella pick for him.

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It kept his dinner shaded and would have been perfect if it had rained while we were eating.

And to finish things off, I made a batch of potato salad.

I guess the goal is going to be making these again a bit sooner than three years. I think I can do it.


Pepper Bread

09-22-13-pepper-bread

 

It started off a bright, sunny day, but as it nears the Equinox, the temperature is dropping. Pretty soon it's going to be long pants and socks weather. I am so not looking forward to layers of clothes.

But there's still sunshine and there's still hot peppers in the garden. Time to create...

This started off as just a loaf of bread, but as I was starting to mix the ingredients, I thought a pepper-bread would be good. The bread ingredients pretty much remained the same - although I added garlic powder - and after the first rise, I patted, filled, rolled, and placed in the cold oven just as it it had been a loaf of the French-Style Bread I set out to originally make.

Pepper Bread

(adapted from James Beard)

Ingredients

  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 cup warm water (about 105° )
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 3 cups flour
  • 12 hot peppers, seeded, fried, and cooled
  • 1/2 cup cheese shavings
  • 3 tbsp cornmeal

Directions

Combine the yeast with sugar and warm water in a large bowl and allow to proof. Mix the salt and garlic powder with the flour and add to the yeast mixture, a cup at a time, until you have a stiff dough. Remove to a lightly floured board and knead until no longer sticky, about 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary. Place in a buttered bowl and turn to coat the surface with butter. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1½ to 2 hours.

Punch down the dough. Turn out on a floured board and pat and shape into a rectangle. Liberally place the cooled hot peppers on the dough and then shave cheese on top using a vegetable peeler.

Roll the rectangle up tightly. Place on a baking sheet that has been sprinkled with the cornmeal. Place in a cold oven, set the temperature at 400° and bake 30 or so minutes or until well browned and hollow sounding when the top is rapped.

It's crunchy and chewy and definitely has a kick. Perfect for soup or stew or just munching...


White Beans and Roasted Tomatoes

09-21-13-beans-with-sausage

It's 70-something degrees outside on the last day of Summer.

Time to make some beans.

I was up in the cupboards last night rearranging and getting them a bit organized. I need to take inventory now and again to make sure those things that get pushed into the corners actually see the light of day and get used. I keep rice and beans in jars for the most part, but had a 1-pound bag of white beans that were just sitting there without a jar or a place to call home.

Into a bowl they went with lots of water to soak overnight.

I grew up in the Thou Shalt Not Salt Beans world. Seems things have changed. Now, not only can you salt the cooking water,  the big thing is brining beans - adding salt to the soaking liquid.

I'll pass. And salt my beans when they're tender. I get enough salt in my diet without soaking my beans in even more of the stuff. Besides, I still have that magnesium-calcium-sodium-cell-wall-molecular-structure-stuff playing in the YouTube of my mind. Old dog, new tricks. As I said... I'll pass.

***ten years later, I have changed my mind. I brine. Old dog learned new trick.

So... here I was with a pound of soaked white beans and only a vague idea of what I wanted to do. I had seen a recipe at La Cucina Italiana for beans with oven-roasted tomatoes. And I had seen another, recently, with beans and sausage. We had all of the above - fresh tomatoes right out of the garden, sausage in the freezer...

Time to improvise.

White Beans with Sausage and Oven-Roasted Tomatoes

  • 1 lb white beans, soaked overnight
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 3 ribs celery, chopped
  • 3 carrots, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 lb Italian sausage, cut into chunks
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 2 cups - more or less - water
  • 1 tsp French herbs
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Sauté onion, celery, carrots, and garlic in a bit of olive oil. Add sausage and lightly brown.

Add drained beans and 2 cups of chicken broth. Add additional water to cover the beans by about an inch.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer until beans are tender - 45 minutes or so.

Stir in seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.

While beans are cooking, roast tomatoes.

  • plum tomatoes
  • beefsteak tomatoes
  • salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350°.

Slice plum tomatoes in half lengthwise. Cut beefsteak tomatoes in large chunks. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and place tomatoes cut-side up on paper. Sprinkle with S&P.

Roast in oven about 30 minutes.

To assemble:

Place beans and sausage in bowl. Top with chunks of roasted tomatoes. Add shaved parmesan, if desired.

It was a bit of a different take on an old standard and even Nonna finished her bowl! I can see something like this happening again, although I should probably roast the tomatoes now and freeze them rather than try and use the garbage tomatoes of winter. I rarely buy tomatoes after summer...

It can easily be made vegetarian by omitting the chicken broth and switching out the sausage for a meatless substitute.

Now all I need is for the weather to turn fall-like...

 


Raspberry Chipotle Mustard

09-20-13-raspberry-chipotle-mustard

 

The mustard shelf in the 'fridge has been looking a bit bleak. At any given moment I can have 6 or 8 different mustards in there. Basic yellow, spicy brown, and a host of other flavors and styles. I like my mustard. There's only 4 in there right now...

I bought a couple of pounds of mustard seeds back in June and have made a couple of different types. The first one I made was a beer mustard that so totally sucked I threw it all out. I then made an Irish Whiskey mustard that rocked.

I made another batch of the Irish Whiskey and gave it all away.

Time to make some more.

This time, I thought a raspberry chipotle would be fun.

They're two flavors that mix well together - that sweet and smoky-savory combination that I tend to enjoy. Add the spicy heat of fresh mustard and it's a definite winner!

Raspberry Chipotle Mustard

  • 1/2 cup yellow mustard seeds
  • 1/2 cup brown mustard seeds
  • 1 cup raspberry vinegar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tsp chipotle powder
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp salt

Place mustard seeds, water, vinegar, and chipotle powder in a bowl and cover with a tea towel. Let sit at room temperature about 2 days.

Blend mixture in a blender with the brown sugar and salt until smooth.

Smokin' Spicy!

I can see more than a couple of uses for this one - besides the obvious sandwich and burger scenarios. Maybe mixed with some cranberry sauce on a pork tenderloin...

Hmmmmmmmmm.....

 


Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies https://tjrecipes.com Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes

 

It is a perfect Fall day. Weather is stupendous, windows wide open... Perfect weather for baking cookies.

Not that any  day and weather isn't perfect for baking cookies, but some days are just more perfect than others.

Like today.

I had picked up some mini peanut butter cups thinking I'd make a standard toll house cookie and just substitute the cups for the chips, but by the time I had made it to the kitchen, a chocolate cookie was born.

Unlike the chocolate cookies I made last time, these are made with cocoa powder, not melted chocolate.  More traditional and quicker to pull together!

And, since they're a baking soda cookie, it's natural cocoa powder, not Dutch process. Dutch process cocoa are cocoa beans that have been soaked in a potassium solution to neutralize the natural acidity of cocoa. It creates a darker cocoa with a smoother chocolate flavor.  But neutral cocoa doesn't react to baking soda, so it shouldn't be used if the only leavening is baking soda. You can generally substitute natural cocoa powder in recipes but you usually can't substitute Dutch process for natural.  Make sense?!?

And that's just for baking. If you're making frosting or chocolate ice cream, use whatever cocoa is in the house. And be sure to invite me.

If in doubt, just use the one listed in the recipe. If it doesn't say, it's natural.

I have to admit I rarely have Dutch process cocoa in the house, although I may pick up a box during the holidays. It's always good to be prepared and use the best ingredients for the product.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • 2 cubes (1 cup) butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 12 oz mini peanut butter cups

Preheat oven to 350°.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.

Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in mini peanut butter cups.

Use #30 scoop (1 1/2 tablespoons) and place about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake about about 12 minutes.

They taste as good as they look. maybe even better...


Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

09-13-13-pork-tenderloin-2

 

I just love it when Victor cooks. Especially when it's an unexpected meal.

I was working on a project when out of the blue Victor asked if I minded if he cooked dinner. "Oh, yes, honey. I mind completely" NOT!!! Cook away!

What was even more fun was he had no idea what he wanted to make. We had a pork tenderloin thawed, but that was the extent of the planning.

He decided on a stuffed tenderloin.

  • Bacon
  • Carrots
  • Green bell pepper
  • A small bulb of fennel
  • Onion

He cooked the bacon till it was very crisp - took it out, chopped the veggies and sauteed them in the bacon fat.  While that was happening he found some stale rolls and made bread crumbs in the food processor - dumped the veggies in a bowl, crumbled the bacon into them - added the bread crumbs - a bit of olive oil and milk...  Slit open the pork loin - pounded it out a bit, stuffed the sucker, rolled it up (called me in to tie it for him - a guy needs "some" help) and roasted it for 45 mins at 350°.

Fresh tomatoes out of the garden. Sliced and slathered in home made pesto.

Rice cooked in chicken stock for flavor.

09-13-13-pork-tenderloin

Nonna and I both cleaned our plates. Completely cleaned our plates.

It was one of those perfect meals. Every flavor worked with every texture, worked with everything.

The pesto with the tomatoes was another perfect combo.  The basil has really taken off and we're going to be making a lot more of it in the next week.

And the tabasco peppers are getting close, too...


Beef and Mushroom Risotto

Beef and Mushroom Risotto Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes www.tjrecipes.com

 

It's about a million degrees outside with humidity to match. Time to make risotto.

I was going to make this yesterday while Victor was out of town, but Nonna was more interested in the stuffed shells I had made on Monday. She had leftover stuffed shells, I had a chili dog. We were both happy.

Today, I had the beef that I had already cubed, so it was pretty much a no-brainer to make it tonight with everyone home. Waste not want not and all that...

Risotto is like the ultimate comfort food. It's rich, creamy, and just bursting with flavor. I could eat it every day were it not for all the other foods that I could eat every day.

But I do seriously like it.

I had never made a beef risotto before.  I've done any number of risotto variations over the years - but not beef. I figured it was about time.

Beef and Mushhroom Risotto

  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup green pepper, chopped
  • 8 oz mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 lb beef, cut into small cubes
  • 1 cup arborio rice
  • 4 cups hot beef broth
  • 1 cup shredded pecorini romano cheese
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Saute beef in a bit of butter and olive oil. Add onion, garlic, mushrooms and pepper. Saute until vegetables are limp.  Add rice and cook about 1 minute.

Begin to add broth by the ladle, stirring continually.  Continue adding ladles of broth as the last one is absorbed, until rice is just tender.

At this point, stir in cheese.

Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.

I have to tell ya, it was pretty good stuff. It had all the great characteristics of risotto - that rich creamy goodness - with a great beefy-mushroom flavor. Even Nonna had a second spoonful!

I can't wait for the weather to turn to Fall.


Happy Birthday, Cybil

09-09-13-cybil-shepherd
September 9, 2003

10 years ago we brought home a puppy dog from the Chester County SPCA. "Sparkle" was curled up in a ball in the back of a cage shivering. We didn't even see her the first time we walked through - she was not a happy little girl. She had been picked up as a stray after living on the streets for a while. She was a skinny little thing in desperate need of a home. I think she was also ashamed of that silly name.

After talking to the folks for a few minutes, they put her on a leash and brought her out to a little outdoor pathway/patio area they have. Victor had her by the leash and sat down on a bench. I sat on a curb across from him. She-who-would-become-Cybil laid down and put her head in my lap. That was it. We walked back in and filled out the adoption papers.

10 years later, she's not a skinny little thing anymore. Neither am I, come to think of it.

We were both working outside the home when we first got her, so we needed to train her to be by herself in the house while we were gone. We're not fans of crates - we took her out of a cage we're not putting her back in one - so we would leave the house for a few minutes at a time and extend the times. Fortunately, we often worked opposite shifts, so the length of time she was alone wasn't great.

But when we would come home after a few hours away, we'd find a piece of clothing - a sweatshirt, pajamas, in the living room. She's bring them out of the bedroom and lay on them - waiting for us to come home. Her security blanket.

She hasn't done that in years, but she still goes crazy-happy when she sees us after a night out - or after a vacation. Running from one to the other and back - trying to figure out how she can be in both of our laps at the same time.

09-09-13-cybil-shepherd-2
September 9, 2013

It's hard to believe she's been here for 10 years. It's difficult to remember a time without her. Spoiled rotten, neurotic, smart as a whip and obstinate as hell when she wants to be. She has us wrapped around her little paws.

So what's a puppy dog get for her 11th birthday?

Lamb Chops!

09-09-13-lamb-chops

They were marinated in olive oil, garlic, and fresh rosemary, and then grilled to a perfect medium rare.

Cybil didn't get any mashed potatoes nor did she get any bones - but she did get her broccoli.

She's curled up in the hallway, right now - one eye on me in the office and one eye on Victor in the living room. She's still a herder and wants to know where her charges are at all times.

What a great 10 years it's been!


Peppers

09-08-13-pepper-bread

 

The peppers are suddenly multiplying, outside. What started off as a pretty dismal season has finally turned fruitful. I had enough to can and Victor had enough to make pepper bread.

Pepper Bread. It's one of those things that is just fantastic in its simplicity. It bursts with flavor - and the spicier the peppers, the better the bread. Even Nonna likes it.

Pepper Bread

  • 2 cups peppers
  • 2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Slice peppers lengthwise and fry in olive oil until limp. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside and cool.

Mix yeast and water in mixing bowl. Add flour, salt, and olive oil and mix about 3 minutes.

Scrape down bowl and mix, adding the last 1/2 cup flour, as necessary, until dough is smooth and silken.

Roll into a ball and let rest 10 minutes.

Roll into a rectangle about 15" x 8". Spread cooled peppers on dough.

Roll tightly and place on sheet pan.

Bake at 400° about 25-30 minutes.

And while that was cooling, I cut peppers.

09-08-13-peppers

 

Hot Pickled Peppers

  • 6 lbs hot peppers
  • 6 cups distilled white vinegar
  • 1 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 4 tsp kosher salt

Wash and cut peppers to desired size.  (I made rings. )

Pack peppers into mason jars leaving about 1/2″ headroom.

Combine and heat sugar, salt, vinegar, and water.  Bring to boil and then simmer about 5-6 minutes.

Pour over peppers, leaving the same 1/2″ headroom.

Wipe rims of jars, top with lids and rings.

Process in a boiling water bath about 10 minutes.

And, because we needed something to eat with the pepper bread, I made soup.

09-08-13-beef-soup

 

Beef, spicy andouille sausage, lots of veggies and elbow macaroni.

We're eating good.


Labor Day 2013

09-02-13-burgers

 

Somewhere in there is a burger covered in cheese. A Bacon Cheese Burger with Avocado, Tomato, and Sprouts. Alfalfa sprouts.

Heaven.

This is our luncheon salute to The Holiday. Our main meal is going to be Chinese - because that's where all the jobs have gone. We did a shopping trek to a big Asian market yesterday. Pork buns, chow mein, and sweet and sour...

Labor Day. Back in my youth, it was a day of parades with union members marching and the crowds yelling and applauding. It was when we had a real middle class - fueled by union workers making American products - that Americans - and people throughout the world - bought.

And then, companies decided to make things overseas because it was cheaper to have children in other countries make our products rather than people with children here at home.

And people with low-paying jobs started hating unions because they made more money than they did - and didn't seem to have to work as unsafe or difficult, without necessary equipment or supplies or as many hours. People with high-paying jobs hated the unions because they demanded simple things like a safe work environment or decent health care or retirement for the workers.

My father was a proud union firefighter. I  was in unions in my youth but spent most of my career in management - usually in union shops. Some of the best employees I ever had were union members. I'd take a union property over a non-union property, anytime.

The eight-hour day. Overtime. Holiday pay. Sick leave.

All of the things we have taken for granted and are now having taken away.

And now unions are reviled because they are being blamed for every job that has been sent to China. For the cost of education. For the cost of putting out a fire in your home.

It ain't the Unions, boys and girls. It's the Greed on Wall Street that demands corporate profits be higher and higher every year, that forces businesses to meet some paper-pushing nitwit's 'projections' for what they think they should be doing - their market-share - instead of allowing them to just do a good job, make a decent product, and sell it at a competitive price.

Or, better yet, do what Bain Capital does and saddle a perfectly good, solid company with debt, take millions for yourself, and then close the company and sell of its parts - and then blame the workers.

The only people fighting for working Americans are Unions.

Far from being the enemy, they are the only thing standing in the way of 12-year old kids working in coal mines, again.