Country Cousin

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Hi Folks!

Autumn is here. The weather has been spectacular, but the weather, especially in the evening, has definitely been cooling off, even as the political campaigns have been heating up. Less than two months left before all the campaigning ends and we find out what the future holds in store for us.

Halloween is only a month away and decorations are already coming out. But whatever haunts and horrors Fright Day throws at us, it can’t be a scary as contemplating what the election results might be. Let’s all pray that we make the right decisions!

DROUGHT

TIMESland wasn’t hit hard by this summer’s drought, but much of the rest of the country was. Heard that a couple of farmers down in Illinois were worriedly looking over their drying fields one day when one of them spotted some rain clouds moving in from the north.

“Looks like we’ll get some rain after all,” said one.

“Naw,” replied the other. “Those are just empties coming back from Wisconsin.”

WINTERIZING

Now, while the weather is fine, is a good time to do some preparations for winter, and cleaning your car’s interior is another chore that is a lot more fun now than when the winter winds blow.

Summer fun can make lifelong memories, but it can also make a terrible mess. Before you spend winter locked in a car filled with beach sand, candy wrappers, suntan lotion and extra pairs of flip-flops, take an hour to clean and vacuum your car’s interior.

Use a vacuum with good suction, and don’t be afraid to try some of the special attachments. For detail work, use a clean, 1-inch paintbrush or even an artist’s brush to get rid of crumbs and dust in tight places.

There are lots of specialty products designed for cleaning the interior of your vehicle, including upholstery and dashboard cleaners, but if you want an inexpensive solution, just use a little laundry soap on a cloth and a bucket of clean rinse water, perhaps laced with a little ammonia. If you use the ammonia, be sure the detergent you use doesn’t contain bleach.

Keeping your glove compartment organized is a good policy any time of year. Having ready access to your current car registration and proof of insurance will save you from fumbling through old receipts and plastic fast-food forks if you get pulled over or meet up with a fender bender. Make sure all your paperwork is current.

Tackle the trunk, too. Carrying extra weight in your vehicle wastes gasoline, and that’s not good in these days of sky high gas prices. Get rid of accumulated clutter and replace it with a lightweight emergency road kit. Carry an extra jug of anti freeze, motor oil and brake fluid.

Stock your ride with winter necessities, like gloves, two plastic bags (to use as emergency overshoes),a small shovel, an ice scraper, umbrella, blanket, warm gloves, a candle and a lighter.

CONFUSION

Mom, supervising bed time prayers, was surprised to year her youngster pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, and when he hollers, let him go. Eenie, meenie, miney, mo.”

MONEY MATTERS

They claim the recession ended about three years ago. Don’t know what sort of yard stick they used to measure “recession” by, but something seems wrong.

Recent figures show nearly 13 million Americans still can’t find work, and that doesn’t include those who have stopped looking. More than 5 million Americans have been out of work for six months or more. The national unemployment rate stands at 8.1 percent. Many of those who are still working have accepted jobs that pay far less than their prior positions.

Don’t know exactly what can be done at this point, but do have some ideas, including cutting government regulations, and quit trying to cure unemployment by creating more government jobs. We’ve proven that doesn’t work.

Then, let Americans do what we have always done best - put our independent ingenuity to work.

Get government out of the regulation business.

Forget zoning!

If your neighbor can make a living by creating widgets in his garage, more power to him! If he can put a couple of other neighbors to work helping him make those widgets, by all means, go for it!

Let ambitious housewives produce jams, jellies and other good things in their own kitchens and sell them. Let farmers sell the fruits of their labors, and also their milk, without getting bureaucrats involved, and without high transportation costs.

If you aren’t the trusting sort, insist that their products carry a label warning that they have not been inspected by any government anything, and you’re eating at your own risk. Really, we adults should be smart enough to decide those things for ourselves.

ON THE SOAP BOX, SORT OF

NATIONAL DEBT

While American working families have been tightening their belts the last several years and struggling to pay off credit card and other debts in the days of poor job markets, our government just keeps spending, and our nation’s debt just keeps going up.

Some blame President Barack Obama, and yes, he deserves a large share of the responsibility. But in all honesty, things started going downhill in America years before he took office.

Obama just took a bad problem and made it worse. Well really, a lot worse. Some of today’s debt spiral is caused by his Socialistic philosophies. Some is not. To be honest, a great deal of it was brought on by the policies of prior presidents and the parties that supported them.

But the fact is that Since Barack Obama entered the White House, the U.S. national debt has increased by an average of more than $64,000 per taxpayer.

According to one researcher, it took more than 200 years for the U.S. national debt to reach 1 trillion dollars. In 1986, the U.S. national debt reached 2 trillion dollars. By 1992, that had doubled to $4 trillion. It took 13 years, until 2005, for the debt to double again. Now, just seven years later, the U.S. national debt is now at 16 trillion dollar mark.

If the average interest rate on U.S. government debt rises to just 7 percent, we Americans will find ourselves spending more than a trillion dollars per year just on interest on the national debt.

By the end of this year, Barack Obama will have become the first president to run deficits of more than a trillion dollars during each of his first four years in office.

So far, the current Congress, with Republicans in control of the House and Democrats controlling the Senate, has added more to the national debt than the first 97 Congresses combined.

During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more new debt than it did from the time that George Washington became president to 1993, when Bill Clinton became president.

HOW MUCH IS A TRILLION?

If you spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.

If you were alive when Jesus Christ was born and you spent one million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.

REALLY ON THE SOAP BOX

TAX THE RICH

There’s a lot of hype these days about how the wealthy in this nation don’t pay their fair share. Seems to me that anything above 25 percent or so isn’t taxation, it’s confiscation.

But that thought aside, socking more taxes on the wealthy really wouldn’t do much toward solving our nation’s financial woes. Encouraging them to invest their wealth in enterprises that create jobs, more wealth and consequently more taxes would.

As it stands today, if Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days.

And if you took every single penny that every American earns above $250,000 a year it would only fund about 38 percent of the federal budget for that year, at our current rate of spending.

Meanwhile, U.S. households are now actually receiving more money directly from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes.

Is there something wrong with that picture?

Remember, Government has no money of its own. Government cannot give anybody anything that it did not first take from someone else. If one person receives money without working for it, another person had to work for it without receiving. Sound fair???

So let’s cut it out! Let charity be distributed by charitable organizations, not taxations! If our government is going to give anything away it should only be in the form of seed capital that it will get back fourfold.

GROWIN’ THINGS

Garden chores lighten as the Fall season progresses, but there are still things that should be done.

In the flower garden, continue deadheading to allow plants to use energy reserves for a final flower display.

Late season problems on deciduous plants should be of lesser concern than those that appeared earlier in the season since leaves will soon change color and drop anyway, but they still should be examined occasionally. Diseased leaves and/or plants should be removed promptly to minimize pest problems next year.

If there are signs of diseases, remove all leaf litter and spent plants to prevent the spread of spores. Burn these damaged discards or send them to the landfill. Do not compost!

Some vegetables are done for the year, but others, like Brussels Sprouts, will keep producing until the snow flies if we let them. Just keep picking.

COOKIN’ TIME

School is on, and mornings are cool enough most days to allow using the oven. Here are a couple of unique recipes, some for a special Sunday morning treat, others quick enough for a school or work day sendoff.

MAPLE BLUEBERRY PIZZA

This luscious treat takes only about 15 minutes to assemble and bake.

1 pre-made pizza crust

1 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

8 slices thick cut bacon

1/2 cup mascarpone or cream cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a small saucepan bring the maple syrup and cinnamon to a simmer. Add blueberries and cook on low heat for five minutes. Let cool, then drain the berries, reserving the syrup. While the berries cool, chop the bacon and fry over medium to high heat until golden, which should take five to six minutes. Spread small spoonfuls of the mascarpone or cream cheese on the crust, then scatter on the blueberries and bacon. Bake about 10 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Serve with the reserved cinnamon-maple syrup on the side.

BACON AND EGG PIZZA

1 pre-made pizza crust

8 slices of thick-cut bacon

4 to 6 eggs

2 cups Cheddar cheese

6 leeks (or 1 large onion, diced)

1 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Chop bacon and cook in a large saut� pan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, 5 to 6 minutes. Meanwhile, wash and thinly slice leeks, both white and light green parts. Add to bacon and cook until tender, 6 to 8 minutes more. Add salt, remove from heat, and cool slightly. Spread bacon mixture evenly on dough and top with grated Cheddar cheese. Bake 10 minutes at 450�, then remove from oven and use a spoon to make little “nests” in bacon mixture; crack eggs into nests. Return to oven and bake until crust is golden brown, egg whites are set, and yolks are slightly runny, 5 to 7 minutes more.

TOMATO BRUSCHETTA

Tomatoes are ripe, fresh basil is readily available. Enjoy this now, maybe while watching the ball game. Easy and delicious!

6 Roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil

3 cloves minced garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup fresh basil, stems removed

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 French baguette

2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven on broiler setting. In a large bowl, combine the Roma tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper. Allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes. Cut the baguette into 3/4-inch slices. On a baking sheet, arrange the baguette slices in a single layer. Broil for 1 to 2 minutes, until slightly brown. Divide the tomato mixture evenly over the baguette slices. Top the slices with mozzarella cheese. Broil for 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

PERFECT PESTO

Just mix. No cooking involved.

3 cups packed fresh basil leaves

4 cloves garlic

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup pine nuts (or almonds)

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Combine basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, and nuts in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Blend to a smooth paste. Add parsley if desired. Serve with chunks or slices of French or Italian bread for dipping.

S’MORE CAKE

This “cake” was created by a lovely young lady for a grandson who said he wanted Rice Crispies Candy instead of a birthday cake. He was delighted to get a treat that looked like a cake and tasted like a cross between his favorite candy and his favorite campfire treat.

4 cups mini marshmallows

5 cups of Rice Crispies

1/4 cup butter

1 packet graham crackers

1 can Hershey’s chocolate syrup

More mini marshmallows (optional)

Put the marshmallows and butter into a big bowl and microwave on high for two minutes or so, stirring after first minute. When it’s soft enough for the butter to be stirred into the marshmallows, do that, and then stir in the Rice Crispies. Put into 9x13 cake pan and let it cool completely. Meanwhile, crush the graham crackers, preferably in the food processor. Pour part of the Hershey’s syrup over the Rice Crispies candy in the pan and sprinkle the crushed graham crackers all over it. Pour on more Hershey’s syrup and sprinkle on some mini marshmallows for decoration if you like.

Store covered in refrigerator.

STRAWBERRY DAIQUIRI CAKE

1 package Betty Crocker� SuperMoist� white cake mix (or coconut cake mix)

Water, vegetable oil and whole eggs called for on cake

mix box

1 box (4-serving size) strawberry-banana flavored gelatin

1 tablespoon grated lime peel

1 to 2 teaspoons rum extract

Lime Frosting

1 container Betty Crocker� Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting

1 tablespoon grated lime peel

Garnish: 8 fresh whole strawberries

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325�F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease bottom only of 13x9-inch pan and lightly flour, or spray with baking spray with flour. In large bowl, beat cake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Stir together lime frosting ingredients. Spread frosting evenly over cake. Sprinkle on flaked coconut if you want an even more tropical flavor. Store loosely covered at room temperature. Just before serving, cut each whole strawberry in half, leaving leaves on. Garnish cake with strawberry halves. Store loosely covered in refrigerator.

Thought For the Week: Getting through life and driving an automobile are somewhat similar, to paraphrase a thought expressed by Jimmy Buffet in “A Salty Piece of Land.” The difference is cars have three general gears: forward, neutral and reverse, but life has only two - forward and neutral. We can never go back, only forward. But we can hope for some nice “neutral” stretches to rest and regroup.

COUNTRY COUSIN

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