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…Or maybe that should be Stuffed Court…It seems like Shrubya is loading up his side of the fence with folks who will do what he says. This new guy has all the earmarks of a real Yes Man. He’s a business lawyer with a right-wing Christian bend to his thinking. That means prayer in schools, drilling in the Arctic, reversing R v. Wade, and tax breaks for the rich.

It can make me depressed, but then I go out in my lush and jungle-like garden and discover a zucchini big enough to stun a horse. This when all the rest of the zukes are but wee nubbins on the plant. It’s a mutant, I tell you. So I think I’ll stuff it for dinner with a mix of ground meat, herbs, and veggies, and roast it in the oven. I think I’ll try to find some ground lamb, mix it with some garlic, rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper, and cooked veggies. I’ll use peppers, leeks and some potato. It’s important to cook these vegetables first, before you mix them in with the meat. That way all of their water and juices get boiled away, concentrating the flavors and insuring that your mix won’t turn soggy. Dice all the veggies medium, and saute until they are cooked through. Don’t forget the salt and pepper. The potatoes add a starchiness that helps to hold the mix together. That way you don’t have to add bread crumbs or eggs. This meat mix will also work for any kind of stuffed meat pastry–just make sure that you cook the mix before you wrap it in the phyllo dough. The possibilities are endless. That’s why I love food and cooking. Recipes are good for pastry and things like that, but the rest is all technique and knowing how to treat the food from the raw state up until service. Being able to look at a cut of meat, or any item of food, and knowing how best to prepare it in order to bring out its best is a great gift, and one that I’ve worked hard at perfecting.

4 more blasts in London this morning, but they seem to have added up to naught–only 1 person injured. I think it was a copycat.

Johnnyboy

Last night I was alone in the house for the first time in months, and to be honest, I was pretty creeped out. This is an old house, and full of memories and probably a few ghosts, if you believe in that kind of thing. No poltergiest activity, but I have the constant feeling that I am being watched from the hallway outside my room, and also the stairway, through the banister railing. This doesn’t occur during the day, only at night. I hear whispered voices that may or may not be frogs on the pond. I leave on an outside flood light, which works wonders in the hazy mist rolling out of the nearby wetlands. I make it a point to check the empty rooms downstairs and lock all the doors. There are people living in the shadows. I am not alone. The house is dead silent. I wake up in sweats and my cat is annoyed and confused that I have woken her up with my anxiety. She sees more than me. She sleeps soundly, without anxiety, because she’s a cat. I know there is nothing and no one in the house. This is absurd, I’m 40 years old, for Christs sake, and afraid of the dark. What a fool I can be, and how superstitious.

That doesn’t mean you’re going to catch me in the basement…

When I was 11 I saw the movie ‘Jaws’. I didn’t swim in the ocean for years. I even avoided swimming pools, unless I could see the bottom.

I should have never seen ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘The Exorcist’, or ‘The Others’. Yah! I just got chills thinking about them.

I had a great talk with my sister about an hour ago. We don’t always see eye-to-eye, and sometimes our communication can get pretty monosyllabic. Today was a really good day. We talked about a lot of important stuff in a very forward thinking fashion. These are all small, healthy, new stones in a new foundation of family. I don’t always know what to do with these building blocks. I have to have a little faith that they are beneficial and use them, sometimes blindly. They’ll fit where they fit, and that will be that. Anyway, good speaking with you, if you read this. Restoration of any structure can be a long, tedious, and difficult project, but always worthwhile in the end. Restoration is probably more difficult than tearing down and building anew. Any architects want to chime in on this one?

Johnnyboy