dinner

Grilled Turkey 

on a 

kitchen sink salad

wait.... when do we deep fry it ?

From our imaginary best gal pal, that on the go, mother of two, Alexis Stewart - via the NYT :

Okra, Avocado and Tomato Salad 
with Chili and Lime Juice

NYT PHOTO

 Alexis' Photos

from the NYT

This lively combination is inspired by one of my favorite Mexican salads, which is made with diced cooked cactus paddles (nopales), onion, tomato and avocado. Cactus paddles are gooey, like okra, so I figured okra could stand in for nopales in this salad. The result is prettier and, I think, tastier -- and certainly easier to work with than cactus. There is no need for oil in this salad. If you want less viscosity, you can marinate the okra in vinegar and salt first (see this week’s other recipes), but you will lose the beautiful color. You must serve this right away.

•  1 pound okra 
•  1 jalapeño pepper, seeded if desired, minced 
•  1 Hass avocado, cut in small dice 1 pound tomatoes, cut in small dice 
•  1 small white or red onion, chopped, soaked for five minutes in cold water, then drained and rinsed (optional) 
•  Salt to taste 
•  1/2 cup chopped cilantro 
•  5 to 6 tablespoons fresh lime juice 
•  1 to 2 ounces crumbled queso fresco or feta for serving (optional) 

 1. Trim the stems and tips from the okra, and place it in a steamer above 1 inch of boiling water. Cover and steam four minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and rinse with cold water, then slice about 1/4 inch thick and place in a large bowl.
 2. Add the jalapeño, avocado, tomatoes and onion, if using. Season generously with salt, and toss together.
Add the cilantro and lime juice, and toss well. Serve garnished with crumbled queso fresco, if desired.
 Yield: Serves four to six.
 Advance preparation: Because the colors will fade and the okra will become impossibly viscous, it’s best to serve this soon after assembling and tossing.

silence means security

Nadia Comaneci - 1976 Olympic Gold Balance Beam Routine

Watching the woman's ( girls ) gymnastics from London tonight it's pretty amazing how much this sport has changed... this was perfect in 1976... and would not come near qualifying these days.

daily Koda

Early evening walk, has not been overly hot the last couple of days.

And the last three days of rain have greened everything up!

The Greater Metro Rochester / Finger Lakes Niche Market Garden Sale

Really, more than you ever wanted to know about Sempervivums.

 A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR IT

 We were there for the Irises 

and 

the red headed step children that are day lillies

yeah, I pretty much sat in the car, in the shade, and read the newspaper.

dinner and a field trip

 Chicken Shish Kabab 

w/ eggplant, peppers and mushrooms

( those red peppers are something from the farm stand, they look like small bell peppers but have a fantastic spicy, not hot, flavor! )

Cous Cous

 Linda is in the country so we went to spend time with Jack and Max

 10 yo and very much the puppy

( Max, not Jack )

 Rochester from their front garden

Ye Olde Eastman School o Music

dinner, in the spirit of things!

Chicken TIkka  Masala

Rice

Bhindi with carrots

( the British National Dish )

The Olympics Sweetie Darling!

HAIL BRITANNIA !

COOK OUT

 We went to a lovely party somewhere up on the lake

 I took the basic baked potato salad

the the dish in the front is GERMAN POTATO salad, 

which I have either never had, or just never had this good.

 A little garden with in a garden

 These lovely people had a most lovely back garden.

Kyle, that is just rude

These are two VERY BAD ( and TOO BAD ) photos of seriously, the cutest contractor EVER. He should be back in a few days, I will be more bold

 It is so much worse than you can see here.

One leaky toilet, that we did not even know about!

Mittens Across The Sea

or

Mitt Romney's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

GOP Dauphin Mittens is on his traditional " first international trip " that all Presidential candidates have to take. Start off in London - Hell, they speak pretty much the same language and the Tories are in power. Piece of Cake Pudding.

Let's check in on how that is going:

• The whole thing started off with the Barack Obama is black not an Anglo Saxon, where as Mitts is, and AND to make the British LOVE me, I will put a bust of WINSTON CHURCHILL in my office. " Can you feel the love tonight"
• Said WHILE IN ENGLAND  that  he did not know if Britain was ready for the games, TWO DAYS BEFORE KICK OFF - and questioned the enthusiasm of the people..... 
• Meet with the Labour Party leader - and forget his name
• Let everyone know you had a meeting with MI6 ( first rule about MI6 is : DON'T TALK ABOUT MI6 )
• When asked about HIS FREAKING HORSE that is in the London games - Dressage, a working mans dream - Say you pretty much know nothing about it and it is all your wife's deal and that you were not even going to watch , no, I don't know nothin' bout no horses!
• keeps talking aboutTHE NATION of GREAT BRITAIN, which is fine for you and I , but he wants to be representing The United States of America and SHOULD know that " there is no such nation exists. The Nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all nations under the United Kingdom - since 1800. "

Prime Minster David Cameron came back to Mittens with this " We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest , most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world, Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere " OH SNAP! 

The Mayor of London chimed in as well :

Chick-Fil-A and Proverbs 25:21

I have sort of stayed clear of this one. It was absolutely not news to me that Truitt and his klan were obsessive Baptists. Maybe it is because I am from Georgia, lived for years on the Southside of town. Brenda or Jodi/Jenny/Celia was in love with some high up Chic-fil-a guy in college - or he became that after school, what ever - the point being, I have all ways known about this company's politics.
I'm a taco bell / Del Taco guy, so I never really cared that much...

But, what is totally fascinating to me about this story IS the backlash.That people were shocked - and are making a stand. Mayors of Chicago and Boston, college kids all over the country wanting them off their campus' etc.
Just a snap shot of where we are in 2012....

1996 Atlanta Opening Ceremonies

For any newcomers here - be prepared - I will get a little weepy more than once in the coming weeks.. The Olympics have always had that affect on me.



( and you know, The Clintons don't hurt )

waters edge

Ok.
It's time.
I am going in the morning to Target or Staples, get me a piece of poster board and lay out a grid, for .... 10 days / two weeks something like that,and block in the  dates. I'll divide those blocks into three sections. morning, noon and night. Place your bets, date and time because in the next 10 days/ two weeks - Mitt Romney will call the President of the United States of America a nigger.
He has no place else to go.

From London's THE TELEGRAPH :

As the Republican presidential challenger accused Barack Obama of appeasing America's enemies in his first foreign policy speech of the US general election campaign, advisers told The Daily Telegraph that he would abandon Mr Obama’s “Left-wing” coolness towards London.

In remarks that may prompt accusations of racial insensitivity, one suggested that Mr Romney was better placed to understand the depth of ties between the two countries than Mr Obama, whose father was from Africa.

“We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” the adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have”.

Mr Romney on Wednesday embarks on an overseas tour of Britain, Israel and Poland designed to quash claims by Mr Obama’s team that he is a “novice” in foreign affairs. It comes four years after Mr Obama’s own landmark foreign tour, which attracted thousands of supporters.

He lands in London early on Wednesday morning, in advance of meetings with David Cameron and other senior ministers on Thursday. He will also meet Ed Miliband and Tony Blair before attending two lucrative fundraisers and the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

....

“Obama is a Left-winger," said another. "He doesn’t value the Nato alliance as much, he’s very comfortable with American decline and the traditional alliances don’t mean as much to him. He wouldn’t like singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory'.”

The two advisers said Mr Romney would seek to reinstate the Churchill bust displayed in the Oval Office by George W. Bush but returned to British diplomats by Mr Obama when he took office in 2009. One said Mr Romney viewed the move as “symbolically important” while the other said it was “just for starters”, adding: “He is naturally more Atlanticist”.

  ( full story )

The comments were the latest attack by the Romney campaign on Obama’s multi-cultural heritage. Last week, Romney campaign co-chair John Sununu said Obama didn’t understand the “American system” because he “spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia.” Sununu also said Obama needed to “learn how to be an American.” (Sununu later apologizeD for that remark.) Later that day Romney called Obama’s policies “extraordinarily foreign.”

Real American Hero

Sally and Tam

Sally Ride, an astronaut and physicist who in 1983 became the first American woman sent into space and reluctantly served as an idol of feminist strength and a hero of women’s progress, died Monday at her home in La Jolla, Calif, of pancreatic cancer She was 61.
 Ms. Ride made history on June 18, 1983, when she orbited the Earth aboard the space shuttle Challenger. At 32 years and 23 days old, she was the youngest American to go into space.
 In a statement, President Obama said that Ms. Ride “inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars.” He continued, “Sally’s life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come.”
 Survivors include her mother, Joyce; and a sister. She is also survived by her partner of 27 years, Tam O’Shaughnessy. The two women co-wrote several books, including “The Third Planet” (1994), which won the American Institute of Physics Children’s Science Writing Award. ( full WAPO OBIT )


Does her being a lesbian make her more of an American hero?
You bet your ass it does.

back to it

 Either heat or bugs or extra dogs have kept 

us away from our swimming hole the last couple of weeks!

 beautiful day today, some spotty showers about

 the water was still very low

 pretty amazing how just a POP of rain can re-green things so quickly

quick roll in the grass and back home

GODS and MONSTERS

We are  also :

• paying SIXTY MILLION dollars ( or one years estimated football revenue to a special child abused fund....
• not going to a bowl game for four years
• having a big drop in scholarship for the same four years
• ANY entering or returning player can avoid the one year penalty and go straight to any other school they want. Anyone on the team that wants to stay and NOT play ( ?!?! ) can do so, and keep their scholarship
• they will enter a five year probationary period - in which at any time the NCAA can "implement further punishments "
• you also retro-lost every game you played between 1998 and 2011. Huh? That means your once Sainted JOPA is no longer the winningest division college football coach. That now goes to FSU's Bobby Bowden. ( yeah  )

You know, I am torn. 

Something major had to be done... other than one freak going to jail. I am not sure that hurting the current players and all of the fans is the way to go - but wiser heads than me , I guess.

The thing is  - Penn State did not violate any NCAA rules! Funny thing, they never thought to write down " don't rape little boys". So, this is purely PENN STATE taking this punishment. A shit ton of State and Federal laws , yes. NCAA, no....

Will the faithful show up at BEAVER STADIUM this fall ? Hell yes.. that won't change, if anything they will be more loyal to the guys that stay. 

HAPPY 20th!

I think I took this photo...

My very good pals Dan and Grady get their fame on.

From the Freedom to Marry website.

DANCE THIS MESS AROUND !!!

Read the whole story in a most rare BDay Bubble Blog Post.

1. Keith is never worthless.
2. I loved the last studio album - but there was the song about Winder on there

A mid-summers wedding

Best Wishes Deven and Fritz !

The Newest Member of the Houghton-Crawford Household

The mess the old one left us downstairs is a long way from being fixed.

getting there...

A very sweet story with a happy ending to keep you from k+b withdrawals

From SLATE :

THE WEDDING

Will and Erwynn met in church and fell in love. But they had a big problem - 

" don't ask /don't tell" was still the law. 

The unlikely story of the first gay military union

housekeeping

I'm in the throws of some full blown Ebola like mid Summer allergy melt down. Hope to be back to full blogger strength asap....

Enjoy a very funny episode of the
BBC's EXTRAS
to tide you over.

......... hope I die before I get old .......

The Who announced that they’ll bring “Quadrophenia” to the road this fall for a 36-date tour, including a stop at Gwinnett Center Arena at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5, the third date of the tour. ( the rest from the AJC )

dinner

Ribs

potato salad 

w/ lemon, sun dried tomatoes and cilantro

local summer squash

THIS goes a long way to forgiving the scourge of the Palins

John McCain Slams Michele Bachmann's 'Unfounded' Attacks On Muslim-Americans

( and he was ALL the hot when he was young )

don't ask

BUT !, do stay tuned as Neil and I put in a new dining room ceiling on our own.

Really - grab some pop corn - come on over.....

R.E.M. - I Believe [Lifes Rich Pageant]

T.G. it is going to be F.

because you know, gay people are bad for children

By DAVID CRARY The Associated Press NEW YORK — After a confidential two-year review, the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday emphatically reaffirmed its policy of excluding gays, ruling out any changes despite relentless protest campaigns by some critics An 11-member special committee, formed discreetly by top Scout leaders in 2010, "came to the conclusion that this policy is absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts," the organization' national spokesman, Deron Smith, told The Associated Press. [ the rest ]

wolf, wolf, wolf, wolf, wolf, wolf, wolf, wolf, wolf....

YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS !!

Yes, I say that all the time, but really:

YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

dinner

 white fingerling eggplant

salad

white fingerling eggplant cous cous

broccoli slaw with honey and cardamon

roast pork