Recipe Tuesday: Summer Mayonnaise Pudding

It's nearly summer and I'm jumping the gun with one of my classic seasonal pudding: Summer Mayonnaise Pudding. It's refreshing, delicious and nutritious. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup regular raisins

1 cup golden raisins

9 cups mayonnaise

2 teaspoon salt

8 eggs

4 cups of sugar

1 cup of vanilla

1 bag of prunes

1 Combine raisin, mayonnaise, and salt in 4-quart pot on medium high heat. Stir until boiling. Simmer 1 hour, uncovered at the lowest possible heat, adding sugar gradually.

2 Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Mix in some of the hot raisins very slowly to equalize the temperature of the two mixtures (to avoid curdling).

3 Return eggs to pan with raisins. Slowly bring mixture barely to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and stir several minutes at a low simmer, stirring constantly until you get a nice thick pudding consistency. Cool 15 minutes. Add vanilla. Serve either warm or chilled. Pour into pudding cups. Garnish with prune.

Note: If you want to make a more light and fluffy, but still rich, summer mayonnaise pudding, separate the eggs. Use the egg yolks to stir in first to the pan with the raisins. Once the pudding has become nice and thick, beat the egg whites in a separate bowl to soft peaks. Remove the pan of mayonnaise pudding from the stove, fold in the beaten egg whites into the pudding.

Margaret and Helen: lefty bloggers on scooters

Margaret and Helen have been best friends for over 60 years now, and they blog together as a way to keep in touch.

The subject of their most recent post: Life's a bitch... and so is Dick Cheney.

Margaret, I am here to tell you that Dick Cheney is a bitch – a big one too. I mean I thought that Sarah Palin was a bitch, but even she can’t hold a candle to this guy. Have you been listening to him recently?

There's a conspiracy theory running across the web that Margaret and Helen are fakes. Just characters made up by a bored prisoner with access to a computer, or something. But the paranoid in this case are in the minority. Are they for real? Who cares. They think Dick Cheney's a bitch, and that's all that matters.

Unjustly Targeted Individuals Meeting

David Plouffe of Organizing for America, a political action group composed of the holdovers from Barack Obama's presidential campaign, sent out an email blast last Friday. The subject -- June 6: It all begins.

Plouffe wrote:

Remember this date: Saturday, June 6th, 2009. We will look back on that day as the moment when the fight for real health care reform began in your neighborhood -- perhaps even in your own living room...These kickoffs are so crucial that President Obama will join confirmed hosts and attendees on a live conference call.

Great. I'll go to a neighbor's house to talk health care. I followed the link in the email to search for local meetings. Most of the meetings listed are standard fare with plain titles, like, say, Organizing for Health Care. The most significant exception: Unjustly Targeted Individuals Meeting.

Their agenda:

As weak as we are, let us stand up and be the force to stop the illegal proliferation and illegal use of microwave radiation weapons, high radio frequency weapons, non-lethal weapons, through-the-walls weapons.

The truth is, I want to go. But I'm scared. Only one person is going so far and that's the organizer. There's room for 24 more, and there are still volunteer opportunities. I imagine the big question of the day is, "Will the president discuss 'through-the-walls weaponry?'"

Thanks to David Plouffe, Barack Obama and Organizing for America for organizing absolutely everyone on this issue, including parties of one.

This Anteater is protesting Max Baucus' refusal to allow supporters of Single Payer Health Care testify at Senate Finance Committee hearings on Health care reform.

It's gross.  And this guy knows it.  Unfortunately, he's staging his protest in a field miles away from anyone.  But he's pissed and he's not gonna let Max Baucus get in the way of change we hope we can believe in.

Recipe Thursday: Tomato Peanut Bread

I know most of you only know me as a political analyst for Gorhonio, but the fact is that I'm writing a cookbook in my spare time. That said, I'm going to post some of my recipes here and ask all of you - or at least some of you - to follow these recipes and offer me any and all feedback. Don't worry about being direct. I appreciate the feedback.

So without further ado, here's my newest bread recipe: Tomato Peanut Bread.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large ripe beefsteak tomatoes, mashed

1 cup peanuts

Preparation:

Grease bottom of a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.

In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. In a mixing bowl with a hand-held electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar on medium speed. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.

With mixer at low speed, beat in flour, alternating with mashed tomatoes. Stir in peanuts. Bake at 350° until golden brown -- a toothpick inserted into center of bread comes out clean.

Cool bread in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes; turn bread out onto rack; cool completely. For best flavor, wrap tomato peanut bread tightly in foil and store overnight before slicing and serving. Makes one loaf of tomato peanut bread. – Josh

This is why I can't stand the CA initiative system.

This is why I'm glad New York doesn't run it's government by ballot initiative like California.  

Blue Cross Double Cross

It was bound to happen.  Blue Cross, Blue Sheild of North Carolina is launching an ad campaign against a "Public Option" as part of health care reform.  

Blue Cross is my health insurance company.  I would love to leave them and join a public plan where profit is not a part of the equation.