Fortnight for Freedom!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKlRen8yzaw&feature=youtu.be

This is a short but fantastic video that shows the omama mandate for what it is - a governmental attempt to take away basic freedoms and forcefully put guidelines on how we practice our faiths. This affects all religions and no one should feel safe with this mind set being unleashed on our country. The United States was founded on freedom and the current administration has done little more than find ways to limit our freedom. Pray and speak out!

Making Shortbread at Home . . .

One of my favorite cookies is Shortbread. It is a comfort cookie that goes with everything from hot tea to cocoa. You can dress them up or just enjoy a piece of buttery goodness and forget, for the moment, that calories even exist in the world. There are many recipes around but the basic one always suits me the best. I never add vanilla extract because, then, it wouldn't be exactly like Shortbread!

Shortbread
3/4 cup butter, softened (not melted!)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Blend the butter and sugar together thoroughly. Work in the dry ingredients either with your fingers or with a pastry cutter. It should come together into a workable dough. Chill while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or use vegetable oil spray. I like using parchment for these cookies as it absorbs some of the butter fat and gives a nice, brown underside without burning.

Roll out dough to about 1/2-inch thick and cut with your favorite, small cookie cutters or just use a glass and make circles. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the top just starts to get a golden tinge. You don't want brown cookies as they will be dried out.

Ideas . . .
Make circle cookies and when they are baked and cooled, dip each cookie half way into melted chocolate. Let set on waxed paper.

When the half-dipped cookies are set, drizzle white icing to make a contrasting design.

Before baking, brush tops of cookies with beaten egg white and sprinkle with colorful sugar or chopped nuts.

Use dough for a pie crust for a pre-baked crust for a pudding-type pie or fresh strawberry pie

Quotable Points to Ponder . . .

"Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought."
-- Sir William Osler

"I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."
-- George Bernard Shaw

"Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember."
-- Oscar Levant

"Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined."
-- Samuel Goldwyn

Motivating Thought for the Day . . .

How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.

- Johann von Goethe

The Three Little Kittens Story . . . revisited!

 This mother cat, we call her Mrs. Black Cat, brought her three kittens over to our front step a couple of weeks ago. Just what we needed when another cat had already brought her brood of three over a week before that. The kittens are happy to reside in our bushes and we plan to turn them over to the Humane Society this Saturday and pray they all get good homes.

The kittens have provided us with a lot of interesting moments. Besides being very cute, they have disappeared twice which gave us som concern as to their safety. The first instance, we discovered Mrs. Black Cat with only one, black kitten in tow. She was very protective of the kitten and looked worried about the whereabouts of the other two. We kept looking and checking around thinking the scatterbrained babies had wandered off too far to find their way back. No luck and no kittens.

I was preparing dinner the evening of their disappearance and heard some kittens crying. Thinking it was the other set of three, I checked, but they were sound asleep in their box. I looked outside and the one black kitten was curled up with Mrs. Black Cat . . . yet the meowing persisted. We finally discovered the two kittens in our garage. They must have thought it was a veritable Disneyland for kittens because they hadn't made a sound all day. A bowl of stinky canned cat food soon lured them out and we made a successful grab for them and return the missing babies to a grateful and happy Mrs. Black Cat.

The next day, my husband had to clean the front porch. When he started up the blower to get the leaves and dirt out of the corners, etc., he knew it would scare the kittens so he made sure the garage door was shut and angled his work so as not to startle them and made sure they didn't head in any adverse direction. When I went out, later, all three of the kittens were missing! My husband thought about checking up and down the street but figured he would be suspect if he went up to every neighbor's foliage and bushes and batted around trying to see if he could scare up kittens. We were sad as it seemed they had really gotten themselves totally lost this time. Naturally, we checked the garage but since the door had been closed, we didn't hold out much hope.

My daughter showed up and we told her the sad story. She immediately checked the garage and caught a glimpse of the kittens having a great time back in their kitten wonderland! I guess they were having such a good time, they didn't make enough noise for us to realize that, some how, they had gotten in the garage, again. We easily caught the gray kitten because all he thinks about is food and was quite happy to find an unexpected plate in the garage. My daughter had more problems with the black kittens because they are more skittish being feral cats. They were busy thinking about having a snack from the tempting plate of cat food when my daughter crept up on them, swooped down and managed to get two in one grab!

Two, whole days, now, and they have remained in their usual haunt in our bushes. We discovered why the gray one is such a hefty fellow. His mother feeds him, we feed him kitten formula and cat food and he has made friends with the other mother cat . . . who has been feeding him. Talk about an opportunist!