The Democrat Thread

[bmags]

GENT•LE•MEN

 

Here's a nice vegan dessert recipe to cool off with. (OR HEAT UP WITH, BUT THEN COOL OFF WITH THE ICE CREAM)

 

 

Vegan Caramel-Apple Pie

The Crust

Best part. I need to re-work the recipe to make just a wee bit more dough so I can attempt a real, non-meddled with basketweave next time with a little more dough. I have also heard to chill as many of the ingredients and utensils used in making a pie as possible beforehand. The bowl, the fork, everything...next pie, I will try this and see if it improves the crust at all. Taste-wise, the crust was delicious, and the recipe a keeper.

First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Then sift 1.5 C flour, 1/2 C. brown sugar, 1 t. ginger, 1 t. cinnamon, 1/4 t. allspice, 1/2 t. salt and 1 t. baking powder. Add 1/2 C. softened margarine, 1 tablespoon at a time, cutting it in with a knife. Then drizzle in 1 T. molasses and 2 T. cold water and mix the ingredients with your fingers just till the dough clings into a ball.

Set aside 1/2 a cup of dough and kneaded the pieces into balls. Press the larger bit into a pie pan and bake in the over for 10 minutes.

 

The Filling

I have found a lot of conflicting ways to cut the apples to put in the pie. Some recipes want you to slice thin pieces, others want you to cube the apples or cut them in thicker slices. Which way do any of you out there prefer your apple pie filling?

For this recipe I cut slightly thick slices, which I would make thinner next time. All taste testers agreed the apples could be a little mushier.

Take 4 granny smith apples and cut them into slices. Sautee the slices in 2 T. margarine for five minutes. Remove them from the heat and toss the slices with 1 T. flour and 1/4 C. sugar. Set aside.

Now, since the apples end up getting caramel sauce poured on them, I debated whether or not I should omit the 1/4 sugar. I think I ended up tossing the apples in roughly half that.

 

The Caramel Sauce

Worst part of the recipe for me. I winged it a little, which was in hindsight a bad idea. I also wasted a lot of sugar and margarine in the process. For some reason I always think that cornstarch is a suitable equivalent for arrowroot, and sometimes it is. But when making something as tricky as vegan caramel sauce -- I should have just dragged my ass to Whole Foods and sucked it up. But instead I thought, as I have thought at least several times before in my pie-making past, 'No no, cornstarch is like practically the same thing. No need to make an extra trip when you can be lazy!'. Disaster, always. The sauce ended up not gelling properly, and was a soupy mess. I still put some in the pie, however, and it tasted fine. I was afraid it might soak the pie crust, but it didn't. Next time if I can succeed in making it a little gooier, it will be an amazing sauce...I just need to play around with recipes and find a good balance.

Combine 1/4 C. soy milk and 2 T. cornstarch; whisk and set aside. Melt 1/2 C. margarine in saucepan and stir in 2 C. brown sugar. Add 1/2 C. soy milk. Boil for four minutes, stirring. Add milk/arrowroot mixture after taking the saucepan off of the heat.

 

 

The Assembly

Pour apples and caramel sauce into pie crust. Top pie with the remaining ball of pie dough and cover with tin foil. Bake 35-40 minutes. Remove tin foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

 

 

Serve with vegan ice cream.

 

Delicious.

Overall a pie worth experimenting with. Expect the caramel-apple pie with gingerbread crust saga to continue...

 

from a friend's vegan cooking blog.

[GoSox05]

I came here to argue the importance of what we eat and how it effects everyone, but now i'm just hungry.

[bmags]

Yeah, her vegan red velvet cupcakes were boss.

[lostfan]

I didn't speak for the entire human race.

 

I never said you can't care about what you eat.

 

I said NOBODY CARES ABOUT THAT ARGUMENT. It NEVER resolves itself.

 

What needs to stop, is you need to a) stop putting words in peoples mouths, and B) acting like a democratic god of all and telling people what they should and shouldn't do, and last but not least, c) stop jumping to idiotic conclusions on what people say without f***ing asking them first.

Y2HH, you're like Dennis the Menace dude.

 

But for the record I can never recall any time where BS has been preachy or self-righteous about his lifestyle towards anybody here, or on Facebook, or anywhere.

[Y2HH]

Y2HH, you're like Dennis the Menace dude.

 

But for the record I can never recall any time where BS has been preachy or self-righteous about his lifestyle towards anybody here, or on Facebook, or anywhere.

 

I didn't say him, in particular. I just know that this debate is ongoing between the meat eaters and non meat eaters, it's endless, it's annoying, and it NEVER resolves anything.

 

I wish people were just happy with eating what they eat, without having to bring it up whenever possible on how they eat and why. That goes for both meat eaters who find it necessary to tell veggies why meat is good, and it goes for veggies who tell meat eaters they're murdering polluters who are killing themselves.

 

The whole thing is an endless, pointless war. Neither side will ever win this one.

Edited March 25, 2010 by Y2HH

[Heads22]

BS....

 

Grassley may be a bit of a douche, but he's never ever gonna lose in Iowa.

[bmags]

i have a feeling with grassleys long-running shtick and scott browns shtick soon everyone in the senate is going to buy a beat up truck and say "HEY I'M JUST LIKE YOU"

[Heads22]

i have a feeling with grassleys long-running shtick and scott browns shtick soon everyone in the senate is going to buy a beat up truck and say "HEY I'M JUST LIKE YOU"

 

Both Grassley and Harkin could be dead and they'd still win elections in Iowa. My dad, who's a steadfast liberal, always votes for Grassley because I guess he thinks Grassley tries really hard to fight for Iowa, even if they don't agree, plus he's liked how he's taken on differing watchdog roles in the past.

[BigSqwert]

BS....

 

Grassley may be a bit of a douche, but he's never ever gonna lose in Iowa.

Stranger things have happened.

[Heads22]

Don't see anything that strange in a state that's wanting to elect Branstad again.

[Balta1701]

Q (Helen Thomas) McCain said he's going to oppose everything.

 

MR. GIBBS: Well, yes, I find it curious that not getting your way on one thing means you've decided to take your toys and go home. I don't think -- it doesn't work well for my six-year-old; I doubt it works well in the United States Senate, because we have issues that are important for his constituents and for all of America.

 

Look, again, when it comes to financial reform people are going to have an opportunity to weigh in on behalf of the banks or on behalf of consumers. And I'll let their vote on that dictate which side of that ledger they feel most comfortable on.

 

Q (Chip Reed) Are you comparing McCain to a six-year-old?

 

MR. GIBBS: I'm saying that I think the notion that if you don't get what you want you're not going to cooperate on anything else is not a whole lot different than I might hear from a six-year-old.

Link.

[BigSqwert]

Love the hypocrisy:

 

President Obama gave an interview earlier this week to an Indonesian television station in lieu of the scheduled trip to that country which was canceled due to the health care vote. In 2008, Indonesia empowered a national commission to investigate human rights abuses committed by its own government under the U.S.-backed Suharto regime "in an attempt to finally bring the perpetrators to justice," and Obama was asked in this interview: "Is your administration satisfied with the resolution of the past human rights abuses in Indonesia?" He replied:

We have to ac

k

nowledge that tho

s

e pa

s

t human right

s

abu

s

e

s

exi

s

ted.

We can't go forward without loo

k

ing bac

k

ward

s

. . . .

When asked last year about whether the United States should use similar tribunals to investigate its own human rights abuses, as well his view of other countries' efforts (such as Spain) to investigate those abuses, Obama said:

I'm a

s

trong believer that it'

s

important to loo

k

forward and not bac

k

ward

s

, and to remind our

s

elve

s

that we do have very real

s

ecurity threat

s

out there.

That "Look-Forward/Not-Backward" formulation is one which Obama and his top aides have frequently repeated to argue against any investigations in the U.S. Why, as Obama sermonized, must Indonesians first look backward before being able to move forward, whereas exactly the opposite is true of Americans? If a leader is going to demand that other countries adhere to the very "principles" which he insists on violating himself, it's probably best not to use antithetical clichés when issuing decrees, for the sake of appearances if nothing else.

Full Article

[Balta1701]

The Republicans are gearing up for a stronger fight against another extension of unemployment benefits.

[BigSqwert]

The Republicans are gearing up for a stronger fight against another extension of unemployment benefits.

All those lazy people collecting checks need to go find a job.

[Rex Kickass]

The Republicans are gearing up for a stronger fight against another extension of unemployment benefits.

 

This is a gift from God for the Democrats, I think.

 

If I was Harry Reid, I'd propose all the cuts come from the home states of the Senators who object. Maybe cut a Boeing contract from the plant based in OK. Or just pull all the stimulus funding from the state of OK altogether. Since Coburn was opposed to that in the first place, he should be fine with giving back the 2 billion, right?

[BigSqwert]

Frum Is Fired By AEI

 

David posts his resignation letter and insists it had nothing to do with his recent scathing criticism of the GOP. Bruce Bartlett sympathizes:

I don't

k

now all the detail

s

, but I pre

s

ume that hi

s

Waterloo po

s

t on

S

unday condemning Republican

s

for failing to wor

k

with Democrat

s

on healthcare reform wa

s

the final

s

traw.

 

S

ince, he i

s

no longer affiliated with AEI, I feel free to

s

ay publicly

s

omething he told me in private a few month

s

ago. He a

s

k

ed if I had noticed any comment

s

by AEI "

s

cholar

s

" on the

s

ubject of health care reform. I

s

aid no and he

s

aid

that wa

s

becau

s

e they had been ordered not to

s

pea

k

to the media becau

s

e they agreed with too much of what Obama wa

s

trying to do.

 

It

s

addened me to hear thi

s

. I have alway

s

hoped that my experience wa

s

unique.

But now I see that I was just the first to suffer from a closing of the conservative mind. Rigid conformity is being enforced, no dissent is allowed, and the conservative brain will slowly shrivel into dementia if it hasn't already.

 

Sadly, there is no place for David and me to go. The donor community is only interested in financing organizations that parrot the party line, such as the one recently established by McCain economic adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin.

 

I'm lucky I have a blog.

 

Emphasis mine

Edited March 25, 2010 by BigSqwert

[Balta1701]

I don't want to start another food fight, but I found this fascinating. What happens when you let a McDonalds happy meal sit out for a year?

[BigSqwert]

Saw that the other day. Disgusting.

[bmags]

how the f*** does the bread not mold!??!?

[BigSqwert]

Tons of chemicals/preservatives.

[bmags]

# James Barr March 12th, 2010 11:37 am:

 

Sorry to burst your bubble everyone, but this is a worthless test. Go cook a USDA prime filet mignon and let it sit on a plate indoors for a year, and it’s not going to rot because it DRIED OUT. Set it outside, and it will rot.

 

Common sense…this test is 100% worthless and furthermore, extremely misleading.

 

Seriously, try it with a prime cut of beef if you don’t believe me. Anything that is allowed to dry and remain in an indoor, dry environment will have the same result. There are valid reasons to avoid fast food restaurants, but this is not one of them.

# Nonna Joann March 12th, 2010 12:10 pm:

 

Okay, I know the climate played a part in my Happy Meal’s preservation. I’m well aware that this was not a scientific study. I did NOT call it an experiment. I saved the Happy Meal to observe and blog about. Which I did. I recorded my opinions.

You might want to take a look at these McDonald French fries which were placed in a sealed jar. It’s amazing that after 461 days they don’t look too different from mine> http://www.davisonshire.org/Junk/McMold.htm

 

 

[kapkomet]

This is a gift from God for the Democrats, I think.

 

If I was Harry Reid, I'd propose all the cuts come from the home states of the Senators who object. Maybe cut a Boeing contract from the plant based in OK. Or just pull all the stimulus funding from the state of OK altogether. Since Coburn was opposed to that in the first place, he should be fine with giving back the 2 billion, right?

 

You better put all that money in from the last 8 years on your lower tax rate while you're at it.

[StrangeSox]

Sarah Palin to host a show about Alaska on the Discovery Channel:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0032502541.html

 

Also, I just lost what little respect I still had for the Discovery Channel.

Edited March 26, 2010 by StrangeSox

[Balta1701]

RNC to hold a fundraiser at a Xe facility.

[GoSox05]

RNC to hold a fundraiser at a Xe facility.

 

 

Who doesn't want their own private army.

 

This is a really bad idea.