Prayer Intention of Pope Benedict . . .

The Holy Father's September 2012 prayer intention is particularly poignant: "That politicians may always act with honesty, integrity, and love for the truth."

Butterscotch Lemon Walnut Bars

Still going through the 'B' list for cookie recipes although they are all A+ in taste! These are a fast, easy bar cookie that tastes just great and their humble appearance provides a tasty surprise.

Butterscotch Lemon Walnut Bars
2 1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup butter
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest
1 teaspoon orange extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup toasted and chopped walnuts

Melt together the sugar and butter until sugar dissolves. Cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Either vegetable oil spray a baking sheet with sides (aka jelly roll pan) or line with parchment paper.

Add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture and beat until well combined.

Add the flour, baking powder, and salt to the egg/butter/sugar and mix well. Stir in the zest, extracts, and walnuts.

Spread evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until the cookie is a pale brown and a slight dent is left when you press the top gently. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Cut while still very warm into your desired size.

Pizza dough - cheap and no problem!

 So many people seem to have a fear of yeast. Yes, it might take a time or two before you produce the perfect loaf of bread or batch of cinnamon rolls, but a good place to practice is making pizza. My basic recipe for two, large pizzas is:

2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons dry yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
Enough cold water to form a workable dough

Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. If you have a mixer that will handle it, so much the better (and quicker!) but by hand works perfectly well. Add the olive oil and enough water to form a workable dough. Knead the dough for a few minutes to smooth it out. Add a dusting of flour as needed. The dough should not be stiff.

Vegetable oil spray two pizza pans. I got these at Walmart and the holes on the bottom insure the crust cooks through. Divide the dough into two, even portions and slap them down on the prepared sheets. Start patting out one to fit the pan. It will resist a bit so let it rest and work on the other one. Go back and forth on this until both are stretched to fit the pan.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Thinly spread on prepared pasta sauce (canned is great). Add your cheese and toppings. Brush the edges of the crust with some olive oil and sprinkle them with Italian seasoning.

Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until the crust edges are browning and the bottom is no longer pale. See? It pays to have those holes on the bottom of the pan!

If you compare the price of buying pizza or a packaged crust, you will see how cost effective a treat like this can be.

Viewing the world from the safety of the window . . .

 Marcela is pretty sure she doesn't want to go out into the big, wide world but likes checking it out from the safety of the window sill. She is becoming friends with our dog and they enjoy wet nose touches through the window screen. Until Marcela is a bit bigger, however, closer contact than that with our dog is probably not a good idea. Not sure who would win an altercation but I'm not willing to find out!

Low profiles don't often get respect . . .

Why wouldn't the United States and it's president want to protect our interests and people serving overseas in embassies? If even half this article were true, it should be considered a national shame.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/09/17/British-Firm-Provided-Benghazi-Security-Under-No-Bullets-Rules-of-Engagement

What can you really defend . . . ?

There is a personable young man in our parish church who is willing to challenge anyone to a debate regarding the incumbent president and Governor Romney, the challenger for the seat in the Oval Office . . . only this young man is defending the current president's re-election. And I have to wonder, as a Catholic, how he can be so adamantly in favor of a man who has been outspoken in both his first election and the current one in favor of abortion at any time in a pregnancy. In fact, his one 'claim to fame' as a short-term senator was to fight to have the Born Alive Act overturned meaning that if an abortion didn't 'work', another doctor was to come in and see to the killing of the infant.

I have another friend, who is a priest, and he votes for the Green Party and a look at their site reveals they are also in favor of abortion. When I challenged him on this issue, he seriously admonished me with, "You know I have always abhorred abortion!" Uh, well, yes, so why are you handing your support to any group that will uphold that right.

Recently, our bishop wrote an article on voting in the diocesan paper and although he did mention abortion, the sum total of his article was voting down the death penalty. Abortion got mentioned twice and early on in his writing but the bulk of it dealt with the death penalty. I do have concerns about the death penalty but how many people have suffered this punishment in comparison to the over 50 million babies that have been murdered? I felt like the shepherd was leading his flock along a side path when the real challenge took another avenue.

Interesting to see that three obviously thinking people has so little thought about the unborn. Yes, Governor Romeny isn't totally against abortion but voting one's conscience or not voting at all may land us with another four years of abortion at any time in the pregnancy.

A big campaign blame is that the Republicans are waging a war on women. Since more than half the pregnancies seem to be female, doesn't abortion wage a war on women? A baby is not a parasite. A parasite is a life form not related to the host. A baby is another human being. Legal may be legal but it doesn't always make it right.

In the UTube "33 Minutes to Rock Your World, the host points out that Jews were not illegally killed in World War II Germany because Hitler made it the law and as an elected official, he made use of that 'right'. But, being legal didn't make it right to kill Jews. Abortion is also legal . . . does that make it right to kill another human being?

You have to wonder about the Christian/Catholic gene pool these days when one of them comes up to you sporting an obama tee shirt at church and tries to convince you of the validity of a vote that will give someone another open season of murdering babies.

Socialism - it hasn't worked yet!

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
― Winston Churchill