Day: June 24, 2014

Hillbilly Bruschetta Grits

Hillybilly Bruschetta Grits Chef Bill Sr

Chef Bill Sr. recently put to use some leftover grits to create hillbilly bruschetta, which as far as we know is an original dish.

Chef Bill would be the first to tell you it is not as good as the traditional way. On the other hand, why let good grits go to waste?

And it is a fun and tasty meal.

Here’s the recipe, which — if you cook the grits just for this — makes about two dozen. Really though, it’s best to be used for leftovers:

Hillbilly Bruschetta Grits

3 cups water
1 cup uncooked stone-ground white  grits
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
3/4 cup sliced cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup chopped red or green sweet pepper
1/2 cup  sliced green olives
1/2 cup sliced black olives

Combine water, grits, and salt in a medium, heavy saucepan. Bring it to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes or until grits are very thick, stirring often.

Remove the grits from the heat, and stir in Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and pepper. Pour out onto a flat baking sheet and spread to about 3/8-inch thickness (10-inch square). Allow to cool completely (about 1 hour in a refrigerator) so that the mixture is firm to the touch.

Cut the grits into 2-inch squares. Place them on a skillet coated with cooking spray; brush with a tablespoon olive oil and grill at medium heat  until golden brown, which should be about 15 minutes. Flip the squares over, and brush other sides with remaining olive oil and put on the tomatoes, olives and bell pepper slices. Fry for about 10 more minutes. Remove, cool and eat.

Sarah Murnaghan Rule Permanent

Sarah Murnaghan Rule Permanent

Sarah Murnaghan is breathing on her own.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, yesterday, June 23, made permanent a rule that let  children under 12 apply for adult lungs, and the Murnaghans of  Newtown Square are celebrating.

An change to the policy made June 11, 2013 in response to then 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan’s fight for a new lung had been set to expired July 1.

Then Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius refused to waive the rule instead offering a review that would have taken two years. This would have resulted in certain death for the little girl.

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey took the fight to the bureaucracy while the Murnaghans sought relief in the federal courts, which they got and which resulted in the temporary change in policy.

In the last year,  seven children  received adult lungs they would have previously been prevented from receiving.

Some will say that is a modest result. Others will point out that seven families have been spared the heartache of losing a child and wonder why the fight had to be made in the first place.

Sarah, by the way, is doing great and had her tracheostomy removed June 15. She is breathing on her own for the first time in years.

Sarah Murnaghan Rule Permanent

Obama IRS Joke And The Banality Of Evil

Obama IRS Joke And The Banality Of Evil

Obama IRS Joke And The Banality Of Evil

Way back in May 2009, Barack Obama gave the commencement speech at Arizona State University in which he said “I really thought this was much ado about nothing, but I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets. . . . President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS.”

Ho ho ho.

In light of how the administration used the IRS, it showed a pretty sick sense of humor. Further it revealed a rather banal man indifferent to the responsibility of wielding power, and, even more troubling, indifferent to the rights of others.

He’s joked about drone strikes too.

Thank God for our Constitution. All Obama voters should hang their heads in shame.

 

 

IRS Chief Partisan Democrat

IRS Chief Partisan Democrat

John Koskinen, IRS Chief Partisan Democrat

John Koskinen, the man who heads the IRS which is now looking more and more like an apparatus of a police state whose administrators feel beholden to no law, is a partisan Democrat.

That’s right, he has given over $100,000 to Democrats over 40 years including $7,300 to the Obama campaign.

Koskinen was named IRS commissioner in August of 2013 in the wake of scandals showing the agency unfairly targeted groups opposed to the Obama administration.

Was he going to institute needed reforms and see that justice was done to allow the American people to once again trust their government?

Or was he just a hired fixer picked to sweep things under rugs?

Well, he is now telling Congress that documents subpoenaed twice have been lost in ways not possible, and that no effort was made to find them anyway.

The documents — the email archives of former IRS tax-exempt division chief Lois Lerner — would have revealed whether the discriminatory treatment of opponents of the president was done as a result of policy.

Ms. Lerner has invoked the 5th Amendment regarding testifying before Congress.

Hat tip Bryan Preston at PJMedia.com

IRS Chief Partisan Democrat

 

 

HB 2107 Punishes Digital Degraders

A bill to protect against digital degraders is now before the Pennsylvania Senate.

HB 2107, which passed the House on June 9 with a 197-0 vote, wil make it a third-degree misdemeanor to share an intimate image of another person without consent.

“With the rise of digital photography through the use of social media, protecting one’s privacy continues to be an important issue, especially when unscrupulous individuals use social media to post intimate images of others,” says State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).

The law allows for state-level prosecution of an alleged perpetrator, if the victim is a Pennsylvania resident, regardless of the perpetrator’s state of residence.

The bill also would allow victims to bring both criminal and civil charges against someone who engages in this activity. Conviction for this charge includes a criminal sentence of up to six months in prison and up to a $1,000 fine. Civil penalties could be much higher, including the cost of actual damages, attorney fees and additional relief the court deems necessary and proper for loss of reputation, money and property.

HB 2107 Punishes Digital Degraders

HB 2107 Punishes Digital Degraders