Avocado Toast, Advanced

Avocado Toast

Ingredients

2 medium	Eggs
2 thick slices	Wheat bread
1 T	Toum*
½ cup	Cherry or grape tomatoes
1 medium	Avocado
½ cup	Mint leaves
1 cup	Baby spinach leaves
2 rashers	Thick cut streaky bacon
1	Sweet lemon
	Salt
	Pepper

Instructions

• Place eggs in pan of cold water, then bring to a boil over high heat. Once it reaches the boiling point, turn the heat off, leave the pan on the burner, and allow to sit, undisturbed, for 15 minutes, to finish cooking the eggs without overcooking.
• Cut bacon into narrow strips (1/8”-3/16” wide), then cook over medium-low heat until crisp but not overly browned. Drain fat as needed. Drain bacon on paper towels.
• Cut avocado into a small dice (approx. 1/8-3/16”), and place in a medium-to-large bowl.
• Squeeze 1 T lemon juice over avocado and toss lightly to distribute.
• Clean and dry mint and spinach leaves. Cut each into a chiffonade and add to avocado.
• Using an egg slicer, cut egg in two perpendicular directions so that egg is cut into strips. Add egg to avocado mixture.
• Wash and quarter tomatoes, and add to bowl.
• Grind salt and pepper over salad, then toss gently to distribute everything. Add lemon juice, if needed, to moisten evenly.
• Toast bread and smear generously with toum* (as desired).
• Place toast on large plate, and cover with avocado-tomato-egg mixture.
• Serve immediately.

*Toum recipe:

Ingredients

1 cup	Garlic cloves, peeled (3-4 heads)
1 t	Salt (opt.)
4 cups	Canola oil
	Juice of one lemon (about ¼ cup)

• Place the garlic cloves and salt in a large food processor and puree until smooth. It’s a good idea to scrape down the sides two or three times to ensure that all of the garlic is finely processed.
• Turn the machine back on and slowly drizzle in the oil through the lid starting with ½ cup. After the first ½ cup has been added, pour in a teaspoon of the lemon juice.
• Continue alternating between ½ cup of the canola oil and a teaspoon of the lemon juice until you’ve added all of the oil and lemon juice. Alternating between the two is the key to proper emulsification which creates the light and fluffy garlic sauce.
• You know it’s done when the sauce is white and thick with a similar consistency of mayonnaise. It usually takes about 10-15 minutes.

 

Green Cookies!

Ingredients

2 Medium	Avocadoes, diced into small cubes
4 ounces (one stick)	Butter
½ t	Salt
½ t	Baking soda
2 ¼ cups	a-p flour
1 t	Vanilla extract
1 t	Lemon juice
6 ounces	Candied lemon peel, in a small dice
3 T	Brown sugar
½ cup	Granulated sugar
2	Medium eggs, or 1 large egg

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to either 350°F (convection) or 375°F (conventional).
2. Soften butter in a stand mixer.
3. Add diced avocadoes, and continue to mix so that avocado pieces begin to break down and blend into the butter.
4. Add sugars, and continue beating to blend.
5. Add egg(s), lemon juice, vanilla, and salt. Continue running the mixer, scraping bowl as needed.
6. In a smaller bowl, measure flour and baking soda. Add candied lemon peel, and toss gently to coat so that the pieces of lemon peel separate.
7. Add dry ingredients to egg-butter mixture and mix until all flour is incorporated.
8. Scoop by tablespoons onto a silicone-lined baking sheet, spaced about 3” apart, and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until slightly browned on top.
9. Cool on baking sheet for one minute, then remove cookies to a rack to finish cooling.
10. Enjoy!

Soup!

A hearty soup for a cold winter’s day:

Cashew and Coconut Soup with Tofu and Noodles

Ingredients

• 1 block silken tofu, finely diced
• ½ cup raw cashews, soaked overnight*
• 2-5 T white miso (to taste)
• 3 cups chicken stock (homemade or store-bought – if using homemade, add salt to taste)
• 2 cups coconut milk (refrigerated or canned)
• 8 ounces fresh rice noodles

Steps

• Take noodles out and cut into bite-sized pieces (cut into widths as desired, or leave whole).
• Place soaked cashews and 1 c coconut milk into food processor and process until smooth.
• Add miso 1 T at a time, to taste.  Add remaining cup of coconut milk.
• Pour soup into pot and add stock, tofu, and noodles.
• Bring to a boil, then simmer for one to two minutes.
• Ladle soup into wide bowls and serve immediately.

*note on soaking cashews: Pour 4 cups boiling water over cashews, cover, and let sit overnight to soften.

Enjoy!

 

Absolute Bull___ Coming out of TheRump

IN re:

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-09-18/hiltzik-progressive-california-legislature

In this article, the author(s) write that, should Uber and Lyft be forced to acknowledge their drivers as employees and not contractors, that there will be fewer people using their services.  This is utter nonsense.  Since their inception, “ridesharing” apps have enabled many people to give up their “day” jobs to effectively become full-time cabbies (that’s what cab drivers, whether they owned their vehicles of not, in NYC used to be called), determining their own availability depending on what their other work (if any) and personal commitments were.

I remember using Lyft when it first introduced itself as an alternative to Uber, whose owner has been known to abuse his drivers and ignore the plight of riders when they reported complaints or assault.  I often converse with my drivers, and, if given the choice, often will sit in the front seat, since, as a shared ride, it’s not a car-for-hire (in theory).

However, with the companies’ rules regarding which cars can be used for service, as well as their pay scale, drivers must be given either greater autonomy, or Lyft and Uber must provide W-2’s for them, recognizing them as employees who do not have other (significant) employment.  These companies are depending on the “gig” economy, in which each person must look after their own interests, often leading to exploitation unless workers are allowed to unionize (as they were finally able to do in the early twentieth century) or, at the very least, claim employee status as opposed to de-facto contractor status, in which they are paid, essentially, a flat rate and must live on that for the totality of their income, meaning that they must pay higher income taxes (employment taxes of 15% as opposed to splitting it with their employer and only paying half that) and maintain their vehicles to an acceptable standard as defined by these companies.

What does this all have to do with the shite coming out of the Ass-in-Chief?  He’s living under the impression that what is good for him must be good, and, by defining everyone else as competition, he justifies his unfair sense of competitiveness on completely selfish (and easily visible) motives.  His jealousy for the success of other (rich, mostly white) men (not to mention non-Aryans who dare tread into the world of financial success, ie, beating him as this own game) is based on his assumption that he must constantly prove himself better, not by actually being a better person, but by kneecapping whom he perceives to be his competition.  Those whom he cannot control through his draconian rules, he wishes to destroy and eliminate (independent actors, such as the vast majority of women, who recognize him for the joke of man he clearly is).

For example, he sees California, as a state (and, some would say, a state of mind), as an enemy, not only because California is, on its own, the 7th largest economy in the world, but because California is able to do so and enact policies that take care of its people.  TheRump cannot abide by this, for his own wealth and power comes from essentially screwing others, as opposed to producing anything good.  He lacks the power to create.  He can only destroy the creations of others, as if to claim that his power to destroy is to negate the creations of others, as if they never existed.  If there be a god, then TheRump has turned himself into Shiva, The Destroyer.

 

‘Tis Nobler

Is it just me, or has Liz Warren lost her integrity by listening to the advisors who failed to secure the 2016 election for Hillary?

I have, by choice, been ignoring the polls and the ridiculousness of the Democratic primary race.  At first, I was very much pro-Warren, just as I was pro-Hillary in 2016.  Unfortunately, Liz has fallen prey to the same idealogues who usurped Hillary’s good intentions.  I know Liz is in intelligent woman.  My disappointment lies in her naivete, leading her to trust the political machine otherwise known as the Democratic National Committee.  I often think to myself, Liz should know better!  when she behaves like a typical politician.  It hurts my brain and my heart.  It saddens me to think that the DNC may cost our country another election to The Rump, who deserves either life imprisonment in solitary confinement or an excruciatingly painful and slow death.

My favored candidate these days is Bernie Sanders.  He’s someone who has most consistently maintained his positions on all issues over the entirety of his political life, and is the most honest candidate to run for the Presidency since at least 1980.

Yes, Bernie’s white, and he’s male.  But don’t let that distract anyone from giving him his due.  His heart and mind remain unpolluted by the filth that dominates American politics, from name-calling to false accusations.  When pundits argue that Bernie is “unelectable,” they are clearly out of touch with the vast majority of the American public, who yearns for a fair shake at life for themselves and their progeny.  Bernie doesn’t bother with the bullshit that is thrown at politicians by other politicians, for he cannot be forced to take his attention off the real-world and the issues that demand address.  He’s an adult, unlike the current man-child residing in the White House.  He’s mature, not only in years, but in outlook.  He’s the senator who stopped to help a woman onto her feet at a street crossing in Washington, DC, because it was the right thing to do.  He has integrity, which has been sorely lacking in the Oval Office for the past three years.  He’s a thinker, and he chooses the meaningful battles that would allow the citizens of this proud nation to stand, heads held high, again.