The problem we need to solve (and fast) is the fact that we are producing so many (or any at all) young people who consider these actions to be very real options in their tortured lives.

There was an abundance of guns in the 50′s (we’ve always had guns in this country) but these things almost NEVER happened. We have a culture that glorifies violence, makes a scary percentage of the population (especially prevalent among the nation’s youth) feel utterly hopeless, and has seen a precipitous drop in moral awareness as we systematically rejected traditional sources/institutions (organized religion etc…) and have yet to replace them with anything that might work as well. Note: I’m an agnostic and not a fan of organized religion, but there needs to be some universal moral force in play.

Parents, families, schools, the media and popular culture have abdicated their roles and responsibilities in creating a network of influence that cannot be legislated. Call it mind control, manipulation of the masses, the suppression of free thought, but we have failed to do what every successful society has done since we climbed down from the trees, and that is instill in every member of society the value of life, the importance of collective adherence to a code of acceptable conduct, and respect for their fellow man (or countryman at minimum).

When a teenager of a broken home with minimal supervision, who perceives he has no future, is not inspired by school or other institution, is angry and alienated from everything and everyone (all of whom have failed to acknowledge or understand the tell-tale signs), acts out the anti-social, misanthropic violence he sees in his daily diet of ultra-violent video games and movies, all we can come up with is to get rid of the guns.

More than 40,000 people (more than a jumbo jet load every single day) die in auto-related tragedies every year in the US. Do we react to the epidemic of this roadway carnage, and drunk driving, by an outcry to ban all cars? No, we launch massive campaigns to educate people about the BEHAVIORS that cause these actions.

As with virtually every aspect of modern life, this issue is rife with complications. But simply getting rid of all the guns will only result in the these same individuals blowing up a school bus full of children to make the same desperate, extreme statements. It is a widespread cultural problem that will only go away when we address it as such. How many innocent people have to die before we realize why it’s happening?

I’m moved to tears by the recent killings in Newtown Connecticut. A clearly disturbed kid of merely 20 years forced his way into the elementary school and killed 20 children, five adults, and himself. He had previously killed his mother at home after stealing guns that she had legally purchased and possessed.

The hue and cry of those that oppose guns is, understandably, to make it more difficult to buy guns. From that perspective, it’s a reasonable approach. But it’s an approach that doesn’t get to the heart of the matter. It’s an approach that cannot work.

Making it harder to get guns is not the answer. Guns are already hard to get. With few exceptions (black market notwithstanding), in order to purchase a gun, you have to have a license, so you are known and vetted by the local and state police. In order to purchase a gun, you have to pass an on-the-spot FBI background check, so you are known and vetted by the FBI. In order to purchase a gun, you have to purchase it from a licensed dealer or someone who knows you.

It will never be impossible to get guns. There will always be a black market. Heroin is illegal. It’s pretty easy to get. (heroin deaths in Massachusetts have risen 6-fold over the past 13 years). Marijuana is illegal. It’s pretty easy to get. If guns are made illegal, they’ll still be easy to get – machine guns are illegal, but they’re still used on the street by criminals, mostly by drug cartels.

It’s not the guns, clearly evidenced by the recent attack in China in which 22 children and an adult were wounded by a knife-wielding attacker. Thankfully, those people will apparently survive.

It’s not the guns, as evidenced by all of the guns in the country during the 1940′s, 1950′s, and 1960′s. There were no mass murders like what we’re seeing today.

It’s not the guns, as evidenced by the Oklahoma City bombings. The bomb was made of fertilizer and diesel fuel. I’ve known how to make that kind of explosive after reading a Field and Stream article while I was in junior high. (yet I’ve never blown anything up).

It’s not the guns – it’s the people. But how?

What is it that makes people do these terrible things, whether they use guns, knives, Sarin or Ricin? Or trucks full of explosives?

What is wrong with a society that produces people who think it’s OK to blow up a building in Oklahoma City?

What is wrong with a society that produces people who think it’s fun to poison a subway?

What is wrong with a society that produces children who think it’s OK to go shooting in a theater, mall, or elementary school?

As long as these people are being produced by society, there will be a danger of mass killings like this, regardless the tool used to do the killing.

What is wrong with these people, and how do we fix it?

I just wish I had an answer.

The lemonade concentrate can is the traditional measure.

1 can (any size) frozen pink lemonade concentrate
1 can whiskey [1]
2 cans water
1 jar maraschino cherries, stems or no at your preference.

In a freezable container, combine all ingredients, including the syrup
from the cherries. Stir. Freeze at least overnight.

The result after freezing is the Slush.

[1] By tradition, one must use the cheapest available whiskey. I thought I did well last year, purchasing a fifth of Kentucky Bourbon for $8.95. It might have been Old Forester. This year I picked up 1.75 l of Old Crow for $12.99 at the New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlet. Score!

But making “real” risotto takes time, most of it right at the stove top. A typical recipe for risotto would include a cup of arborio rice, a half cup or so of finely chopped onion, a cup of Parmesan, four or five cups of chicken or beef broth at a simmer, and some nice olive oil. Oh, and I usually finish it with about two or three tablespoons of butter. (Oh, God, why am I overweight?)

The onions are sauteed in the olive oil, the rice is added and that’s sauteed as well. Then the broth is added about a half cup at a time, stirring more-or-less constantly, until it’s absorbed, and the process repeated until the rice is done (al dente), about 25 minutes or so later. Then the butter and Parmesan are stirred in. Delicious, but I’m at the stove for a half hour or more.

That’s risotto. Now, fauxsotto is much easier.

I picked up a package of fresh pico de gallo at the supermarket, about a cup or so of coarsely chopped onion, red pepper, jalapeno, and just a touch of cilantro.

Into the skillet went about two tablespoons of olive oil and half of the pico de gallo. Saute for a bit, then add a cup of long-grain rice, and saute that a bit. Then add two cans of chicken broth. Bring that all to a boil, turn the flame down, cover, and simmer for about twenty minutes. Voila.

It’s not as good as risotto, but about 90% easier and 20% faster. You could probably toss in the Parmesan and butter and get it even closer to risotto, but I didn’t even bother. There are about a million variations on this theme that could be done, but I’m just starting.

Until next time, bon appetit!
(love you, Julia!)

At least it was a decent experiment…

I tried for whole wheat pasta, but whole wheat has a lower gluten proportion than semolina – somethimg I neglected to take into account. So there wasn’t enough water in the eggs, so the whole wheat pasta just didn’t hold up. I switched back to semolina in time to make dinner. That pasta was OK but I rolled it too thin and it was difficult for the ravioli to hold up.

Ravioli filling was

• finely diced chicken breast
• finely diced sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil)
• Italian seasoning (a mix of dried herbs)
• a finely diced shallot
• some diced garlic
• some olive oil

I really need to get a ravioli press – making them by hand is a real pain in the ass. A lot of them broke, spilling chicken and tomato bits into the boil. It was ugly. And frustrating to see the raviolis break open like that after putting in the time to make the filling, pasta, and assemble them!

The sauce was pretty good:

• 3 T butter
• 3 T flour
• 2 C milk
• 3/4 C tomato puree
• 1 T dried onions
• 1 T Italian seasoning
• salt
• pepper

Make a roux with the butter and flour, cooking it until bubbling, but not enough to brown it. Whisk the milk in gradually, avoiding lumps (!). Stir in salt and pepper to taste, along with the Italian seasoning and onion.

Let the mixture thicken up nicely, then whisk in the tomato puree. Adjust salt and pepper.

Cook the ravioli in rapidly boiling water, drain. Serve with sauce and grated Romano or Parmesan cheese.

The filling would have been better with ground chicken and sundried tomato pesto. As it was the chicken and the tomatoes were both kind of tough and rubbery, and Peg and I think that could have been avoided with ground chicken. Since the tomatoes were rubbery, I thought pesto would be a better approach.

4 cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled 4 shallots, sliced sage 3 large red onions, sliced 3 large white onions, sliced 3 leeks, cleaned, trimmed, and sliced 3 yellow onions, sliced 3 T olive oil (maybe a bit of butter too?) 3 cans of beef stock bread for large croutons grated cheddar cheese

Final Product

Jamie made it look dead simple, and it was, plus I got to use my new food processor! I’ll reduce everything next time – I had a bit too much oniony stuff relative to the beef stock. Or maybe I’ll just make sure I have more beef stock around!

But the olive oil was put into a large pot (it’s 8 quarts or better), and the sage and garlic was tossed in as well. Jamie used sage leaves, but I just had ground. I don’t have an English garden and a gardener, either…

The leeks, shallots, and onions were tossed in shortly after, seasoned with salt and pepper, stirred around a bit, and then just left to cook, slowly over medium heat, for about an hour, stirring every fifteen minutes or so. They lost about 75% of their volume over time.

Then I poured in the beef stock, and brought it back up to simmer for another fifteen or twenty minutes.

Slice the bread into half-inch thick croutons. If you have the presence of mind to do this ahead of time, the croutons can dry out a bit to their benefit.

Ladle soup into oven-proof bowls, arrange a crouton or two to cover the soup, then cover the croutons with the cheddar. Pop under a broiler for five or ten minutes until the cheese is melted and browned.

Yum!

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 C semolina (about 2 C. What me, measure?)
• pinch of salt
• 2 T olive oil

Dump the flour on a board, make a well in the middle, and put in the oil, salt, and eggs. Pull the flour into the eggs gradually until it all comes together. You might want a little water or a little more flour to make the mixture a stiff, yet pliable dough.

Read the instructions on the pasta maker, or roll the pasta out by hand until it’s ridiculously thin. Then keep rolling until it’s half as thick as that. Seriously, decent pasta is very thin.

I made cheese filling because I wanted to concentrate on the ravioli making part of it, not get all caught up in the filling. So

• 1/2 C grated Parmesan
• 1/2 C grated mozzarella
• 1 C “4 cheese pizza mixture” (it was leftovers from making pizza earlier in the week)
• 1/2 C ricotta just to hold it all together
• salt & pepper to taste

Mix all of that up until it’s workable. Add more ricotta if it’s not binding together.

Then I laid out a sheet of pasta, and placed teaspoons of cheese mixture on the pasta, staggered so there was some room between the filling. I wet a finger with water and traced around each ball of filling to help seal the pasta sheets.

I laid another sheet of pasta out over the filling, and pressed gently down around the filling to squeeze out the air and form a good seal. Then I used a large shot glass (seriously, this is about a 3 oz glass!) as a cookie-cutter, and cut out the individual ravioli, reserving them on a plate. I made about 12 or 15 ravs with the materials I had made.

Into the boiling water for about 8 or 10 minutes they went. Only one ravioli broke open, so that was considered successful.

The sauce recipe came from a cookbook “365 ways to cook Pasta” that we’ve had forever:

• 12 oz jar of roasted red peppers, drained
• 3 T butter
• 3 T flour
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 C milk

In a food processor, puree the red peppers and hold.

Melt the butter in a quart saucepan. Add the flour and stir. Cook this roux for a minute, then slowly whisk in the milk, ensuring that the mixture stays nice and smooth. Gently bring this basic white sauce to a boil for a few minutes until the sauce starts to thicken nicely. Slowly whisk in the beaten egg, remove this bechamel sauce from the heat, and mix with the pepper puree in the food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Grate a little parmesan cheese over the sauced ravioli, and graciously accept the compliments.

I think it was pretty good…

1. Of course I look familiar. I was here just last week cleaning
   your carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator.
2. Hey, thanks for letting me use the bathroom when I was working in
   your yard last week. While I was in there, I unlatched the back window to
   make my return a little easier.
3. Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste… and taste
   means there are nice things inside. Those yard toys your kids leave out
   always make me wonder what type of gaming system they have.
4. Yes, I really do look for newspapers piled up on the driveway.
   And I might leave a pizza flyer in your front door to see how long it takes
   you to remove it..
5. If it snows while you’re out of town, get a neighbor to create
   car and foot tracks into the house.. Virgin drifts in the driveway are a
   dead giveaway.
6. If decorative glass is part of your front entrance, don’t let
   your alarm company install the control pad where I can see if it’s set. That
   makes it too easy.
7. A good security company alarms the window over the sink. And the
   windows on the second floor, which often access the master bedroom – and
   your jewelry. It’s not a bad idea to put motion detectors up there too.
8. It’s raining, you’re fumbling with your umbrella, and you forget
   to lock your door – understandable. But understand this: I don’t take a day
   off because of bad weather.
9. I always knock first. If you answer, I’ll ask for directions
   somewhere or offer to clean your gutters. (Don’t take me up on it.)
10. Do you really think I won’t look in your sock drawer? I always
    check dresser drawers, the bedside table, and the medicine cabinet.
11. Here’s a helpful hint: I almost never go into kids’ rooms.
12. You’re right: I won’t have enough time to break into that safe
    where you keep your valuables. But if it’s not bolted down, I’ll take it
    with me.
13. A loud TV or radio can be a better deterrent than the best alarm
    system. If you’re reluctant to leave your TV on while you’re out of town,
    you can buy a $35 device that works on a timer and simulates the flickering
    glow of a real television. (Find it at http://www.faketv.com/)
14. Sometimes, I carry a clipboard. Sometimes, I dress like a lawn
    guy and carry a rake. I do my best to never, ever look like a crook.
15. The two things I hate most: loud dogs and nosy neighbors.
16. I’ll break a window to get in, even if it makes a little noise. If your neighbor hears one loud sound, he’ll stop what he’s doing and wait to hear it again. If he doesn’t hear it again, he’ll just go back to what he was doing. It’s human nature.
17. I’m not complaining, but why would you pay all that money for a fancy alarm system and leave your house without setting it?
18. I love looking in your windows. I’m looking for signs that you’re
    home, and for flat screen TVs or gaming systems I’d like. I’ll drive or walk
    through your neighborhood at night, before you close the blinds, just to
    pick my targets.
19. Avoid announcing your vacation on your Facebook page. It’s easier
    than you think to look up your address.
20. To you, leaving that window open just a crack during the day is a
    way to let in a little fresh air. To me, it’s an invitation.
21. If you don’t answer when I knock, I try the door. Occasionally, I
    hit the jackpot and walk right in.

If you see yourself in any of these scenarios, pay heed.

Tip o’ the hat to Kathy!

The recipe is simplicity itself.

• 1 C orzo
• 3 T butter
• 2 C grated parmesan (I’d capitalize it to Parmesan, but it was from Wisconsin, not Parma)
• Salt & Pepper to taste

• Grate the parmesan
• Boil some water
• Stir the orzo into the boiling water, and bring it back to a boil
• Turn down to a gentle boil

When the orzo is “done” per your definition of what constitutes pasta done-ness, drain it, and put it back in the pan with the butter until the butter is all melted, then stir in the cheese until it’s all melted. Grind in some pepper (salt is very likely not needed), and serve.

Some chopped fresh parsley would have been nice, but I didn’t have any.  Maybe next time.