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The team of All In with Chris Hayes puts out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. These are their finds for October 22, 2013

(1): The other Chris Hayes;

(2) a Duggar flub;

(3) the one-legged skier, author and motivational speaker who has already won Halloween with his costume.

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

The night is coming earlier and the air is cooler, crisper. In many places the leaves have already fallen off the trees. It’s the end of the growing season, the final harvest is at hand and all those tomato plants are now starting to look a little rangy but are still laden with unripe tomatoes, green tomatoes. Don’t let them got to waste. Now is the best time for Fried Green Tomatoes, traditionally a Southern recipe but versions of the dish are also found in the more northern states. In Louisiana, fried green tomatoes are served with cold tart rémoulade sauce.

This is the basic southern version of Fried Green Tomatoes substituting vegetable oil in place of bacon fat.

Ingredients:

• 4 large, firm green tomatoes, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup finely ground cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon paprika or pimentón (a Spanish smoked paprika, available at latienda.com)
• 2 eggs
• Vegetable oil

Preparation:

1. Sprinkle the tomato slices with the salt and pepper; set aside.
2. Combine the cornmeal and paprika in a shallow bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs.
3. Cover the bottom of a heavy skillet with 1/2 inch of oil, then place it over medium-high heat.
4. Coat the tomato slices in the egg, then dredge them in the cornmeal mixture.
5. Fry as many tomatoes as fit comfortably in the pan until nicely browned, about 2 minutes a side.
6. Transfer them to a paper towel-lined platter. Repeat until all the tomatoes are cooked.

Now if you have some firm sandwich bread, toast it on one side under the broiler until golden brown. Fry up some bacon until crisp. Then take some fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices, a few washed and dried basil leaves, the crispy and several slices of the Fried Green Tomatoes and layer in the untoasted side of the bread. Slather you favorite sandwich dressing and top with another slice of the toasted bread, toasted side up. Voila! A Fried Green Tomato BLT.

If you want to go Creole, you can top it with a spicy rémoulade sauce that’s a favorite in New Orleans where the sizzling Fried Green Tomatoes are top with the sauce and chilled cooked shrimp. Rémoulade is a great substitute for tartar sauce. too.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard
• 1 teaspoon tarragon vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 2 teaspoons drained tiny capers, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 scallion (3 inches of green left on), very thinly sliced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Combine ingredients in a bowl. Set aside, covered, in the refrigerator.

Makes one cup.

So get out there and harvest those green tomatoes.

Bon Appétit

Republished from 10/27/2012 with up date.

Re-posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

When most of us think of pumpkins, we think of the orange orbs that get carved up for Halloween and pumpkin pie with gobs of whipped cream for dessert at Thanksgiving but pumpkins come in all shapes, colors, sizes and varieties. Some are good only for decoration, while others are not only decorative but very tasty in pies, soups and stews.

According to Wikipedia pumpkin “is a gourd-like squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae (which also includes gourds). It commonly refers to cultivars of any one of the species Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita mixta, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata, and is native to North America.” Some of the fun activities besides decorative carving for Halloween are Festivals and competitions with pumpkin chucking being among the most popular. Chucking has become so popular that some competitors grow their own special varieties that will survive being shot from catapults and cannons. The festivals are most dedicated to the competition for recipes and the competition for the largest pumpkin. This year that honor went to a 2032 pound beauty from California that was on display at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx.

The pumpkin is one of the main symbols of Halloween and the Wiccan holiday of Samhain, which is a celebration of the end of the year, the final harvest and the coming of winter. The earliest that a craved pumpkin was associated with Halloween is 1866. Throughout Britain and Ireland the turnip has traditionally been used at Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which are both readily available and much larger, making them easier to carve than turnips.

In cooking, the the fleshy shell, seeds, leaves and flowers are all edible. Canned pureed pumpkin is readily available in stores, as are the small, sweet variety of fresh pumpkin for the ambitious cook to make their own puree or for stews. When it comes to pies, the easiest is the canned, my favorite being Libby’s with the recipe on the label, label, label. It’s the only recipe I have ever used for pumpkin pie and I’ve never has a complaint.

Pumpkin and all it parts are also very nutritious, containing many vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidents. There is also an interesting medical study of pumpkin extract on type-1 diabetic rats:

(P)ublished in July 2007, suggests that chemical compounds found in pumpkin promote regeneration of damaged pancreatic cells, resulting in increased bloodstream insulin levels. According to the research team leader, pumpkin extract may be “a very good product for pre-diabetic people, as well as those who already have diabetes,” possibly reducing or eliminating the need for insulin injections for some type-1 diabetics. It is unknown whether pumpkin extract has any effect on diabetes mellitus type 2, as it was not the subject of the study.

One of my favorite recipes is Pumpkin Cheesecake with Bourbon Sour Cream Topping that is more popular than pie with my family.

Recipe and baking tips are below the fold

The team of All In with Chris Hayes puts out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. This is their [finds for October 14, 2013]

1)a Banksy pop-up;

2) Anthony Hopkins praises Bryan Cranston and the entire cast of “Breaking Bad”;

3) the average American male doesn’t stack up to his international counterparts.

First published 10/27/2012 at The Stars Hollow Gazette

Rather than try to explain how to carve a pumpkin here is a video that is a handy 5 minute guide.

And for the more ambitious and artistic pumpkin carvers among us, here is some inspiration with seasonal music.

The team of All In with Chris Hayes puts out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. This is their finds for October 7, 2013.

1 ) The government may be shut down but lucky for us, America’s sarcasm and wit is in full force.

2)  Resident bad boy of astrophysics, Neil deGrasse Tyson, took to Twitter this weekend to fact check the blockbuster “Gravity”. It was amazing.

3) Cat sees balloon, reacts:

The team of All In with Chris Hayes puts out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. This is their finds for October 4, 2013.

1. Sleepy Congressman. Aww.

2. Tweeter stock is up through the roof. Tweeter and Twitter are not created equal.

3. The seal keeps a beat.

Adapted from Rant of the Week at The Stars Hollow Gazette

New Rule: Conservatives Who Love to Brag About American Exceptionalism Must Come Here to California

Bill Maher, Huffington Post

New Rule: Conservatives who love to brag about American exceptionalism must come here to California, and see it in person. And then they should be afraid — very afraid. Because while the rest of the country is beset by stories of right-wing takeovers in places like North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin, California is going in the opposite direction and creating the kind of modern, liberal nation the country as a whole can only dream about. And not only can’t the rest of the country stop us — we’re going to drag you along with us.

It wasn’t that long ago that pundits were calling California a failed state and saying it was ungovernable. But in 2010, when other states were busy electing whatever Tea Partier claimed to hate government the most, we elected a guy who actually liked it, Jerry Brown.[..]

Since then, everything Republicans say can’t or won’t work — gun control, immigration reform, high-speed rail — California is making work. And everything conservatives claim will unravel the fabric of our society — universal healthcare, higher taxes on the rich, gay marriage, medical marijuana — has only made California stronger. And all we had to do to accomplish that was vote out every single Republican. Without a Republican governor and without a legislature being cock-blocked by Republicans, a $27 billion deficit was turned into a surplus, continuing the proud American tradition of Republicans blowing a huge hole in the budget and then Democrats coming in and cleaning it up.

The team of All In with Chris Hayes puts out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. This is their finds for

1. JJ Abrams don’t screw up the new Star Wars. Here’s how.

2. That thing where your computer freezes and it’s horrible and your last hope is contorting your fingers and holding down “ctrl+alt+delete.” Yeah, that thing, according to Bill Gates, was a mistake.

3. Haunted houses are scary. You know?

Adapted from Rant of the Week at The Stars Hollow Gazette

The US: world’s policeman or schoolyard bully?

by Bill Maher, The Guardian

Ever since 9/11, it seems America’s just been itching for a fight – and any Muslim country will do. Really, who acts like this?

New rule: 12 years after 9/11, and amidst yet another debate on whether to bomb yet another Muslim country, America must stop asking the question, “Why do they hate us?” Forget the debate on Syria, we need a debate on why we’re always debating whether to bomb someone. Because we’re starting to look not so much like the world’s policeman, but more like George Zimmerman: itching to use force and then pretending it’s because we had no choice. [..]

Since 1945, when Jesus granted America air superiority, we’ve bombed Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Serbia, Somalia, Bosnia, the Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and Yemen. And Yemen only because the tenth one was free.

How did we inherit this moral obligation to bring justice to the world via death from above? Are we Zeus? It doesn’t make any sense. Our schools are crumbling, and we want to teach everyone else a lesson?

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

The sun will pass over the equator for a moment at 4:44 PM EDT on September 22 as it moves to warm the Southern hemisphere and ushers in the first day of Autumn for the North.

For those who practice the earth religions, it is the second harvest, a time for gathering the Summer’s last fruits, giving thanks for the harvest and marking a celebration in gratitude as the soil and plants die away. This year’s Harvest Moon, traditionally the full moon closet to the equinox, fell on September 19.  The moon gets its name from the amount of light it emits, allowing farmers to continue harvesting the summer’s crops through the evening. The Farmer’s Almanac explains why the Harvest Moon is special:

The usual behavior of the Moon is to rise distinctly later each night — an average of about 50 minutes later. [..]

But around the date of the Harvest Moon, the Moon rises at almost the same time for a number of nights in our intermediate northern latitudes. [..]

Because the Moon’s orbit on successive nights is more nearly parallel to the horizon at that time, its relationship to the eastern horizon does not change appreciably, and the Earth does not have to turn as far to bring up the Moon. Thus, for several nights near the full Harvest Moon, the Moon may rise as little as 23 minutes later on successive nights (at about 42 degrees north latitude), and there is an abundance of bright moonlight early in the evening, a traditional aid to harvest crews. By the time the Moon has reached last quarter, however, the typical 50-minute delay has returned.

One of the myths connected to this celebration/time of year is the myth of Demeter and Persephone.  The Autumn Equinox signals the descent of Persephone back to the underworld to be with her husband, Hades and the Harvest Mother, Demeter’s mourning for her daughter…thus, the explanation of the dying back of plant life.  This myth gave explanation to our ancient ancestors for the changing of the seasons.  The symbolism that is present for us today is the letting go of our youth, child-bearing years and moving closer to the crone/elder part of our lives.  But it is only a preparation, the opening to what needs to be prepared when the Winter inevitably comes.