The Inquisitive Skink

Mark has become great at making soup. Tonight we enjoyed a cabbage cauliflower soup with skillet cornbread biscuits that I hope to make more often. They were super easy, and especially good with a little bit of maple syrup. Vegan of course. Skillet Cornbread Biscuits - Vegan Makes 12 biscuits Ingredients 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour 1 cup cornmeal 1 Tbsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 1/3 cup vegan butter (I use Earth Balance) or coconut oil - kept cold 1 cup almond milk 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar Stir together all of the dry ingredients. It is best to sift the baking powder and baking soda through a wire sieve if they are clumpy. Start an iron skillet on medium low heat. I used the skillet we had sauteed vegetables for the soup and only barely cleaned it out. It should have a sheen of oil. Chop up the shortening of your choice into tiny cubes.  Use a pastry blender to cut the shortening into the dry mix. It should be pebbly. Mix togethe...

Statement by Major Christian Organizations on President-Elect Trump’s Policy Agenda and Political Appointments "We are deeply troubled by choices President-Elect Trump has made for his Cabinet, particularly for Chief Strategist, Attorney General, and National Security Advisor. Stephen Bannon, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions and Michael Flynn epitomize extremist, racist and fringe world views that we believe are morally inconsistent with Christian principles of loving neighbor and antithetical to American values of “liberty and justice for all.” To read the full statement, go here:  https://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/statement-by-major-christian-organizations-on-president-elect-trumps-policy-agenda-and-political-appointments/

This is the letter from 1424 faculty members from 180 different law schools in 49 states across the country urging the senate to reject the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for the position of Attorney General of the United States: https://docs.google.com/document/d/167Ci3pVqwzOUe7_e7itlpew1qGcTo0ZD5dNICIbLQWA/pub Here is what it says: We are 1424 faculty members from 180 different law schools in 49 states across the country. We urge you to reject the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for the position of Attorney General of the United States. In 1986, the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, in a bipartisan vote, rejected President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of then-U.S. Attorney Sessions for a federal judgeship, due to statements Sessions had made that reflected prejudice against African Americans. Nothing in Senator Sessions’ public life since 1986 has convinced us that he is a different man than the 39-year-old attorney who was deemed to...

On the first full day of the 115th Congress, the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence (an organization made up of state, local and tribal organizations and individuals who have fought for federal protections for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking since the 1990’s) submitted a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, urging them to reject Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination for the nation’s top law enforcement post. January 4, 2017 Open Letter to the Judiciary Committee Regarding Senator Jeff Sessions' Nomination Dear Member of the Judiciary Committee: We, the steering committee of the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence (NTF), a coalition of national, tribal, state, and local leadership organizations and individuals advocating on behalf of victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking, write...

So, the US government charges 93 percent less for cattle grazing than private landowners. We are either getting ripped off, or the ranchers are getting a much needed good deal depending upon your point of view.. Regardless, the ranchers get a huge discount on leasing the federal land, all for the benefit of their own private business. We also subsidize them through handouts to help with drought relief, low-interest agricultural loans, emergency livestock feed programs, emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program lands....we even pay for many, if not most, of their fences, and the government pays to protect their livestock. These folks get to take out loans based on the "value" of their grazing permits, not off their own credit or property. My oh my, they sure know when they have been treated badly.  A good thing about this siege is that these sad "heros" have helped shine a light on how they are damaging our environment at our tax expense, ruining our lands ...

Ever since I was a kid, I have heard people ask, “How could the German people have allowed the Nazi regime to commit its evil acts?” After today, I sorta know. I dreamt we all got sent to another weird dimension's version of the time of Hitler, and I had randomly fallen into the role of a Jewish person trying to hide. I understood I had some kind of advance notice about whom's doors not to bother knocking upon. Yeah, I knew I might be putting them in danger, so there was no blame for their fear, but I held out for the hope of a brave soul. I looked around and there were so so many of us knocking.....

I made the mistake of watching a short clip of the jailed clerk's release from jail. Aaaaargh! This crap really scares me. When sanctimonious, holier-than-thou, bigoted and petty people find their heaven on earth and stage a mass revival meeting to the tune of "In the Eye of the Tiger"  with the back-drop of Klan-like waving of white crosses, well dang, the mass self idolatry has gone too far. I felt like I had walked in on a bunch of people getting off on themselves and had to slam that door real quick. The fact that a Presidential candidate is pimping it out didn't improve the setting of the scene one little bit. 

A puddle.

Today

I have been meaning to write about making my oatmeal yogurt for a while.  I am so happy to have discovered it.  I first read about making this in The Vibrant Table, Recipes from My Always Vegetarian, Mostly Vegan & Sometimes Raw Kitchen .  The title of this book grabbed me, as I have been vegetarian since 1975, am mostly vegan – but refuse to be religious about it – and raw foods is how I naturally eat for more than half the day.  Author Anya Kassoff has a talent I look for in cookbook writers….she tells a story while explaining her craft.  Kassoff states that she requires a high-speed blender.  Even though my blender is sort of sucky in its well-used old age, it has worked out fine here. I'm trying to squeeze all the life I can out of it before it gets replaced.  Kassoff's recipe calls for 1 cup of oat groats, 1 cup of rolled oats and ½ cup of Brazil nuts.  I didn't have oat groats on hand and substituted 1 cup of steel cut oats the firs...

I haven't posted for a while......So here are some photos I have taken and would like to share. This is a tree at my home in the woods. This tree was at a city park in Olympia Washington. This family of trees was also in Olympia Washington.