FAVORITE RECIPES:INAUGURATION DAY AND SUPER BOWL SUNDAY UPDATED

         

Ladies and Gentlemen:  Where or where have your recipes gone?

Inauguration Day is January 20th and many, many, many of us have been looking forward to this quadrennial day for at least 8 years.  Those "lucky" enough to live in the District of Columbia metropolitan area will have a free holiday.  In addition, Super Bowl Sunday is coming to a local NBC station on February 1, 2009.  All of America will have that day off and for both occasions there will most likely be cooking galore.  I also know we here at Off Topic have not requested ANY recipes in a very long time.  Well, what better time than for the inauguration and the greatest football day of the year. 

Break into Nana's recipe file, Dad's BBQ files, Aunt Tillie's hidden papers and give us your very best shot.  Drinks, pastries, breads, meats, donuts, coffees, mixed drinks, snacks, dips, rolls, and anything you wish to have published on line.  Should we get enough recipes to create and share an online "cookbook" we will do so.  That will allow everyone to download a copy and have it courtesy of OFF TOPIC.  Now, the only rules to this whole thing are that you ought (Leonardo, you know what that means) to contribute at least two (2) recipes, they should be your favorites and each recipe should come equipped with a brief story on the recipe (not required but nice).  Do Not let the story thing slow you down!  You may contribute as many as you like and we will try and remember to get each one credited correctly.  

To top this off we are going to at least sub-title the on-line cookbook something like "With A Little Help from Jake's Friends".

Thanks for your help!  You may begin now and continue until we run out.  If you need time to look something up, go for it.  We will not "publish" until after the Super Bowl so please add as many different recipes as you like.

PS: If you don't happen to have recipes for either day but would still like to contribute by all means please do so!

Sunday Music from John Gardner

A new twist on an old text, performed by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge.

Research Time

As we all know there are several organizations in the "real world" bent on continuing the exclusion and marginalizing of segments of our society. Organizations like the Institute on Religion and Democracy. James stumbled into another and I have tried to figure out where the group is coming from but have been unable to do so. My curiosity has been aroused. The group is called the Becket Fund (supposedly named after Thomas à Becket) and here is just a little of their cause:

"Religious people and institutions are entitled to participate in public life on an equal basis with everyone else, and should not be excluded for professing their faith."

Now, if you go to The Three Legged Stool, James has referenced an advertisement that ran in the NY Times. (James, can you leave the URL for us?) If you look them up the information is interesting. For example, on the issue of gay marriage they talk about religious freedom and they use some sophisticated language BUT they repeat old saws like to one about Catholic Charities closing down in Boston. They talk about guaranteed religious liberty and defend public school vouchers. This group is very difficult to pin down because of the apparent sophistry but it sounds very much like the IRD. If you have any information (one way of the other) please leave it here. It might appear in another writing -- please leave your retrievable citation.

Thanks, Fred.

Happy New Year with - ABBA?

I promise this will be the only ABBA song in 2009.

Silent Night (Christmas Music)

It seems Fred and I have the same favorite Christmas song. This lovely arrangement is in both English and German. Enjoy, and a blessed Christmas to all.

Lynn K. & Fred S.

Christmas And Children

Have you ever shared a hospital emergency room with a child?  Ever visited a foreign country like Viet Nam or Laos or Cambodia or Nigeria or India where children suffer from malnourishment?  Were you aware that each and every day between 20,000 and 27,000 children die from hunger each and every day?  When was the last time you went to the bathroom and flushed the toilet?  Sounds pretty basic but when you did that two miracles happened!  Your plumbing swept away about 40 diseases and incubation problems and it was done with running water!  Both of those luxuries most people in the world DO NOT enjoy.  So guess what, we have three basic needs met (food, water and health) and most of the time we do not even think about them.  

Your thinking to yourself, well what is this crazy person trying to do?  Ruin my Christmas?  After all it is Christmas and I am trying to get ready with and for my family.  How is it that someone is trying to intrude on my Christmas with all this depressing talk of hunger and death?  And, you ask yourself, how is this my concern?  Well, first, Matthew 25 tells us it is our concern.  And yes, statistics show that the wealthiest 4,000 people of the United States could wipe out hunger almost over night, if they chose to do so.  But they do not and so we, as the Good Samaritan are the next best thing, maybe the only next thing.  

And, yes, it is Christmas!

Yes, there was no room at the inn when Mary and Joseph arrived and so the innkeeper shared a stable with them.  You are busy and we all know it.  Certainly you cannot change the fact there was no room at the inn but you can, today, make room in your heart.  You can dedicate a small piece of your heart to the Christ.  (Suffer the little children).  And now you ask how can I do that?  Well there are many organizations all over the globe but I am going to suggest just one.  http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/about/who-we-are?OpenDocument&lpos=top_drp_AboutUs_WhoWeAre  Yep, it is World Vision  Adopt a child or give a goat but this Christmas add to your wish list the ending of world hunger -- and then adopt a child.  Don't like this one, find one you do like and support it.   Don't let another child go to bed crying from hunger.  Let's make this a Christmas to remember!

Fourth Sunday Music

The mellow voice of Josh Groban singing My Confession, with scenes from The Nativity.