Americans turned out in huge numbers. They politely, peacefully, and respectfully fullfilled their responsibility to this country.

Some voted their hearts. Some voted their indoctrinations. And some voted their pocketbooks.

But they voted. All across this beautiful land, for offices large and small. For issues that will shape our country's future forever. For issues that were important only to them and their neighbors.

I just finished watching some of President Obama's acceptance speech and some of Mitt Romney's concession speech. What gentleman they both are!

Now it is time to support our President and work together as a country to solve our big and our small problems.

Democrats, your work isn't finished. Your President doesn't belong just to you. He belongs to the entire country. He wants to do the best job he can. And he can do that job best if he is allowed to serve the entire country by governing from a rational middle ground.

Support him. Don't ask him to do things that hurt the country as a whole in order to make a partisan point.

Republicans, your guy lost. But he fought honorably. he lost the popular vote as well as the electorial vote. Take a lesson from this loss. It is in your very best interests to help our country continue to improve for everyone who calls it home. Don't join the dividers and obstructionists.

Encourage your representatives in Washington to reach out to President Obama to work together. Now that he no longer has to focus on securing his base he can stop running for office and focus on serving his country. What he deserves now is the chance to secure his legacy. Help him do that.

Help him become an Abraham Lincoln, a Teddy Roosevelt, or a Harry Truman.

Help him become the best Barack Obama he can.

We will all be better off.

It has the highest GDP of any other country in its region. It is listed as a High-Income Economy by the World Bank. The United Nations lists it as “Very High” on the Human Development Index. It is also ranked highly for press freedom, economic freedom, democracy, and political freedom. On the State of World Liberty Index, this country ranks 1st out of 159 countries.

This country is a democratic parliamentary republic. It identifies itself as a “non-welfare-state” with a flat income tax rate of 22% that is paid by both worker and company. With no “exemptions” to be calculated, this country collects income tax fully as the income to which it is applied is earned. No need for a tax industry.

This country has the lowest ratio of government debt to GDP among all EU countries. It has a mandatory balanced budget, almost non-existent public debt, free trade regime, and competitive commercial banking.

Its government operation is based on technology with everything from national elections to the payment of taxes being handled by e-services. The ratio of government bureaucratic employees to citizens is the lowest in the EU.

This country supplies more than 90% of its own electrical needs and locally mines its own oil shale, making it nearly 100% energy independent.

It has a 99.80 percent literacy rate among young people aged 15-24. It has less than a 2% high school dropout rate. Post-secondary students who choose to pursue a trade or technical education are as respected and valued as those who choose traditional university.

The biggest challenge this country faces in its breathtaking charge forward is a pressure to rapidly upgrade its post-soviet era health care systems. They have chosen to keep control of health care in the public sector in order to continue to focus on inner efficiencies. They have a comprehensive plan with a 2015 goal line.

If the young new United States of the late 1700s had access to technology of the early 21st century, it would have looked like this country – the fiercely can-do spirit is the same for both.

Even as this new young country is emulating all of the principles that made the United States great, the United States is now sadly, and rapidly emulating the bureaucratically stifling policies that are destroying the economies of its socialistic western European neighbors.

I didn't know anything about this country before I closed my eyes, stuck a pin in the map, and chose it as our vacation destination for this summer. A big part of our yearly trip planning is the research and discovery before we ever leave home.

Thanks to their technological advancement, I won't have any trouble finding wifi hotspots. So I'll be reporting in on our in-country impressions as we travel around the country.

As the United States of America slides further into mediocrity, it might be a good idea to check out the immigration rules for Estonia.

She asked him to bring me a small gift. So he & his wife travelled to Switzerland, picked up my gift, carefully packed it in their luggage, and brought it with them to St. Louis.

When they arrived, they called to asked me to meet them during one of the breaks in their convention.

So, I drove the 45 minutes from SW County to their hotel downtown; paid the parking attendant $10 to ignore my car was in a loading zone for 20 minutes; and visited with them for a few minutes before bringing the bag holding my gift home.

When I got home, I opened the bag to discover two gift boxes of Lindt Chocolates. One was Batons Kirsch Kirschstengeli -32 pieces. The other was Lindor - 20 pieces.

So very sweet of her to think of me. And so sweet of her to want to send me a representative product of her country. These are the same candies she brought with her when she visited a few years ago.

I didn't tell her then, and I won't tell her now, that Lindt is a very commonly available chocolate brand all over the US. That I can walk into any number of stores and buy the very same chocolates - for a fraction of the total cost of getting those two boxes to me.

So why am I writing what sounds like a very ungrateful, even snarkey, note about this?

Because, it holds a mirror up for me to view my own gift giving habits when I travel. The gifts I take to friends in other countries are harder to decide on than when we first started travelling. Back then, in Italy for example, you couldn't get some of our most common products in the local markets - peanut butter, for example. Now, it's hard to imagine anything you can't find in a Coop. And what you can't get in the local market, you can order on the internet.

My excuse is the cooking project I'm involved in right now - Pomodori e Vino. But the truth is, I'm only responsible for one post a week, so it really isn't a valid excuse, is it?

I bet there are thousands of bloggers out there who, like me have let their blogs languish. And I bet that today there is a flurry of dormant blogs being dusted off with a New Year's resolution post just like this one.

I resolve to start posting again. Although, I'm making no promises that this will last any longer than a hungover frat boy's remorse.

But in the back of the room was a dark winding stairway leading up to a beautiful formal dining room complete with white linens and tuxedoed waiters.

A beautiful restaurant, improbably located in a sleepy little town nestled in a river valley between Spain's Reserva Nacional de la Sierra de la Colebra and Parque Natural del Lago de Sanabria.

I ordered gambas stuffed pimientos morron in romesco sauce, the best romesco I've ever tasted.

It was amazingly rich and as smooth as silk, not like any of the more rustic romesco sauces I was used to. For some reason the other day, that dish popped into my head. I had all the ingredients in the fridge so I tried to replicate it. I came pretty close to what I remember. But only close. The real thing is still just a distant and fond memory. Might need to go back to central Spain and beg for the recipe.

The food booths have expanded and they can no longer accomodate all of them on food row, so they are in several additional locations. One of this year's new food offerings...

I took that picture for Jerry and Doug. :grin: Believe it or not, I didn't even ask them what Canadian 'speciality' they were offering. Any guesses?

I filled up on my two favorites: Eritrean and Haitian.

I had a full meal at the Eritrean booth. I just can't resist their spoungy flat bread called injera served with zigni (which is a kind of spicy beef stew), mixed veggies, and the best greens this side of Clarksdale, Mississippi!

The reason I love the Haitian booth is summed up with a single word - goat. Kabrit, (roasted goat meat) from the hands of a good Haitian cook is the most sublime thing you will ever taste.

We gave in to the heat before we saw everything we wanted to. With so much left, I'm seriously thinking of going back tomorrow.

Turn that statue of yours around and let her shine her light inward for a while. The rest of the world no longer has any need or desire to come to your shores.

Militarily, you are a hulking dinosaur. Why do you continue to maintain bases around the world? All they do is put a strain on the resources and economies of their host countries. Those countries don’t want the protection and deterrence you claim to offer. You should immediately close all offshore bases. Bring every last troop home to deal with the problems you have in your own vile, lawless country. Imagine how much safer the people of Canada and Mexico would feel if you stationed all your troops along both borders of your country? It would ensure that US citizens didn’t attempt to sneak across the southern border for a better life in Mexico. Or into Canada for faster health care service, or better shopping.

Besides, it’s long been known that US military bases aren’t really there for the good of the economies of the host countries or the safety of the citizens. They’re only there to protect the business interests of US based corporations that prey on that citizenry.

And what about those businesses? Do your corporate buddies improve the general wellbeing and economies of other countries? Of course they don’t. They are merely exploiting the innocent, forcing unnecessary technologies, not to mention Coca Cola and Big Macs, down their throats.

You should demand, for the sake of the world, that all US corporations immediately suspend activities in other countries. Bring their manufacturing back to within your own borders where they belong. You should never have exported your poor working conditions and capitalistic heresy overseas in the first place.

Latin America, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Europe, and Canada all have much better health care systems than yours. They’ve all said so. They are completely capable of training their own medical personnel and staffing their own hospitals without your interference. I don’t think you’ve noticed, your pharmaceutical research and technological innovations, are of no interest to the rest of the world.

And since all of these health care systems are so much better than what you have to offer, it makes perfect sense for you to step back and allow them to take the lead in all things humanitarian throughout the rest of the world. Start by instructing all of your non-profit aid organizations to mind their own business and provide services only within your borders. That alone would cause the world to breathe a huge sigh of relief. So what if you give 40% of the world's aid? You should be embarrassed to be so stingy. Keep your lousy generosity.

Another thing, about you - where do you get off thinking you are the only country with the capability to host the world’s diplomatic community? It's high time you admitted that there are dozens of other countries around the world that are better suited to become the physical home of the United Nations. Life itself would be more pleasant for UN diplomats if they could live and work in a more forward thinking and exciting city, instead of the backwater that is NYC.

And think of all the countries that have to put up with the presence of your embassies in their cities. What good are they except to replace lost passports for loud, rude, arrogant American tourists that nobody wants there in the first place? Close the embassies, America. Tell your citizens to stay home and visit their own country for a change.

Who do you think you are, anyway? You’ve got unemployment of your own. Build your own factories on your own land and put those people to work. You’ve got farmland and ranch land going to waste. Worry about feeding the hungry and homeless in your own country. The rest of the world is sick to death of all the corn and wheat you keep shipping to their shores. Enough already! Raise your own sheep and make your own wool. Grow your own cotton and make your own clothing. Dig your own oil wells and produce your own energy. Mine your own minerals and metals and make your own steel and tin. You need to quit relying on the rest of the world to make your life easier. Time to grow up, America!

Yes, the world will be much better off when you realize that you just don’t belong any longer. Start minding your own back yard and leave the rest of the world alone.

So, America, this message is for you. Time to butt out.
Please exit graciously. Stage right.

©2010, Deborah L. Horn

So I started a search of kitchen stores online and came across fantes.com

They have one of natural birch wood, made in Canada. There was a note on the listing that suggest the pins are likely to bow, but it won't matter if you know how to use them properly. Then it pointed to a YouTube demonstration.

That demonstration was one of 28 in the account of a restaurant in Japan called Tritone. I got a fresh cup of coffee and sat down to enjoy all 28 of them. One of them is actually a waiter's entrancing tableside preparation.

They are completely facinating, but my favorite has to be this demonstration of soba noodles. It begins with the grinding of the grain and ends with the chef enjoying the fruits of his labor.
Amazing.

Now I have an overwhelming urge to book a flight to Japan.

I can't believe that I - a stubborn advocate of the physical book - am admitting this, but here it is...I'm in love with my NOOK. At first I was just in like . But that was before I discovered the treasure-trove of antique and out of print books I can download for free. Hundreds and hundreds of books that have been hiding on shelves in university libraries like Harvard, Radcliffe, & Stanford. Most of them were published in the late 19th century and early 20th. Some are much older. If you could find them on the rare book market, they would likely cost a fortune. And most are simply unavailable to purchase for any price in their physical form.

Thanks to the GoogleBooks, you can find hundreds of thousands of listings on NOOK for free. Type in $0.00 and a few search words and presto.

I've downloaded more than 100 so far, and I'm just getting warmed up! Books about things I'm specifically interested in...travel, food, beverages & wine, cooking.

Books many people have heard of, like Annie Lemira Gillette's famous "White House Cookbook".

And forgotten books like the 500+ page 1886 publication entitled "The Unrivalled Cook-Book and Housekeeper's Guide" by Mrs. Washington (pseud.)

One of my immediate favorite discoveries is the 1922 offering from C. Mac Sheridan - "The Stag Cook Book: A Man's Cook Book for Men" (Seen above is the actual scanned front cover of the book with Radcliffe College's inventory bar code visable.)

The book is a compilation of favorite recipes from famous men of the day. Men as dissimilar as President Warren G. Harding, Harry Houdini, Booth Tarkington, John Philip Sousa & Henry Van Dyke. Ninty-eight contributors in all. Some of them taking the task seriously, offering recipes I actually plan to try. Others with their tongues obviously planted firmly in their cheeks.

As you might expect, one of the contributors with his tongue in his cheek was cartoonist Rube Goldberg. Here is his recipe for Hash.

All joking aside, my favorite dish is hash.

- R. L. (Rube) Goldberg

One, who seemed to take his recipe seriously was Hudson Maxim, the inventor of smokeless gunpowder. Here's his recipe for Spaghetti. I can't even imagine how vile this must be and I'm sure I would have preferred to eat the gunpowder.

Take one package of vermicelli or spaghetti, and put it into a saucepan, crushing it in the hand, then put in hot water, and salt a little more than will suit the taste, and boil for an hour.

Then add three-quarters of a pound of good, ripe, old American cheese, and about half a pound of butter. Then drain the water off the vermicelli or spaghetti and put in from one and one half pints or a quart of canned tomatoes. Heat the vermicelli or spaghetti to the boiling point; and while the mixture of cheese, butter, milk and flour is still hot, stir the two together, then keep hot and serve hot. Do not boil any more, because further boiling would tend to cause the tomatoes to coagulate the milk in the mixture. I prefer to use a mixture of spaghetti and vermicelli instead of all spaghetti or all vermicelli. - Hudson Maxim

Here are a few of the recipes I plan to try:

Actor, Guy Bates Post's Lamb Curry a la "Omar, The Tentmaker"
William Jennings Bryan's French-Fried Onions
Author John A. Moroso's Spaghetti-For-The-Gang
Actor Richard Barthelmess' Spiced Grapes
And especially...Artist W. T. Benda's Barshck With Ushka -- which is a Polish beet soup with what can best be described as Polish meat-filled tortelinni.

Perhaps I'm going to have to start a completely new blog in which I Cook from my Nook. What do you think?

Three of my next four Pomodori e Vino recipes call for homemade pasta. I needed to get it done on Saturday. Grandson #1 became my very able assistant. He thought it was a game, and great fun.

I dug out my pasta machine. The box I keep it in is worse for the wear.

But the trusty ol' Pasta Queen is still bright and shiny. It does have one tiny little nick in one of the rollers. But I choose to look upon it as my own personal identifying mark.

I assembled the ingredients and let Grandson #2 crack the eggs into my '00' flour. He immediately lost interest and wondered off to other persuits.

Grandson #1 wanted to mix the dough. He thought getting his hands into that egg and flour would be quite a bit of fun. I declined the offer, by telling him that I had a much more important job for him -- running the pasta machine. What boy can turn down something with gears? Right?

A double batch of spinach pasta required a lot of cranking. But he didn't get bored or give out on me. He was a real trooper. We rolled the dough, cut it into fettuccine. Then when it was still just moist enough to loop, we made our nests for drying.

There were just a few odd short or broken pieces left over. So I cooked them; dressed them with a little bit of butter, salt & pepper; and the pasta pro enjoyed the fruits of his labor.

I gave him my blog information, and now feel compelled to do this blog entry on his ancestral isle for him.

Iona was where Irish missionary St. Columba began his crusade in 563. In doing so, he made the island the first home of Christianity in northern Europe. Iona became an influential center for the spread of Christianity. It is where Scottish Kings were crowned. And it is said that this is where the famous Book of Kells was produced by monks in the late 700s. By extension, this cemetery is argued to be Christian Scotland's most hallow ground. In this very abbey graveyard, 48 Scottish kings are said to have been buried.

Don't let the photo fool you. Preservation concern is the reason why the cemetery looks so bedraggled. Most of the grave slabs were removed to an indoor museum to protect them from weathering.

The current abbey was built in the 1100s and expanded in the 1500s. It is beautiful in its simplicity. Walls made of rough hewn stone of uneven sizes, and an unplastered interior.

In the museum along with the grave slabs is the remains of St. John's Cross. It was carved between 750AD and 800AD and erected just west of the shrine of St. Columba. The carvers were too ambitious and made the arms of the cross too long, causing it to collapse soon after it was put up. They tried to strengthen it by adding a supporting stone circle around the head. This circular 'halo' design was widely copied afterwards throughout Scotland and Ireland. The cross later broke again, and lay for centuries before it was brought into the museum and reinforced with plexiglass to represent its original look.