Lentil and chocolate chip cookies

For Thanksgiving I usually make something with lentils since we grow them on the farm and few people do much cooking with lentils. Yesterday, about an hour before we planned to leave for the farm I still hadn’t started making anything (yes, I’m who Xenia inherited he procrastination from). I pulled the The Pea & Lentil Cookbook from the cupboard and started looking through it. “Oh, that looks interesting”, I thought when I saw the lentil cookies. “Interesting” was to be a word used in conjunction with my cookies many times during the day. I thought we had all the ingredients and started work. It turns out we didn’t have enough of everything and I improvised along the way.

Word traveled fast through the house and James came in to look and express his scorn, “Lentil cookies? Have you tried this before?” “No”, I replied. As he walked off he said, “I’ll be impressed if you pull it off.” At the end of the day he came up with my QOTD for today.

Lentil and Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 7 dozen, approximately 3 cookies per serving
Lentils lend a rich, nutty flavor and cakelike softness to this classic cookie

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons vanilla
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups lentil purée (purée instructions below)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
5 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

  • Preheat oven to 375o F.
  • In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Add vanilla and eggs; beat until smooth. Cream lentil purée into butter mixture
  • In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture and blend lightly. Gently blend in oatmeal, chocolate chips, and nuts, just until evenly mixed.
  • Chill dough until ready for handling. Drop dough in rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 5 minutes; turn pan and bake another 5 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.

Lentil Purée

Add 2 cups water per cup of lentils. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer. Simmer 10 to 20 minutes for decorticated (skinned) lentils, 35 to 40 minutes for whole lentils. Add more water if cooking time is extended due to high altitude, hard water, or prolonged storage prior to cooking. Stir a few times. Cook lentils until they are very soft but just short of falling apart. Which cooking is complete remove from heat and let cool slightly but do not drain. In small batches purée the lentils with a sieve, food mill, blender, food processor, or potato masher. Purée should be the consistency of canned pumpkin. Add water to thin if necessary.

It turns out I only had 1 cups of brown sugar. I topped it off with white sugar and poured some molasses over it until I figured it was “brown enough”. I didn’t see the walnuts in the cupboard and crushed some pecans with the potato masher. We only had four cups of oatmeal and I topped it off with Raisin Bran. We only had about 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and I figured the raisins in the Raisin Bran would be a good enough substitute.

I put the mixture in the freezer while I took a shower and we headed off to the farm.

As I was putting them on the cookies for baking people came in and asked what I was making. The response was universal, “Interesting”:


Putting the cookies on baking sheets as Aunt Alice expresses her “interest”. Photo by Xenia Joy.

I baked the cookies for the suggested ten minutes and wasn’t happy with them. Even 12 minutes didn’t seem like quite enough time but they tasted very good. Everyone, even our food snob son James, liked them.

Thanksgiving pictures from the farm

Yesterday we went to my parents place to gorge ourselves. Xenia and I took some pictures. She posted some of hers here. Mine are below (except as noted). And yes, I’ll tell you about the lentil cookies eventually.


Everyone says Barb and I are “cute” in this picture. Cute? Photo by Xenia Joy.


Son James who is featured in my QOTD today.


Daughter Xenia.


Xenia framed in frosted tree branches.


My brother’s shooting bench.


A neighbors Black Angus cow and Xenia.


Barb and Xenia reflected in the eye of a cow. Photo by Xenia Joy.


Xenia and I. Photo by Xenia Joy.

Quote of the day–James Huffman-Scott

So, it’s not just impressive you pulled it off. It was a f****ing miracle.

James Huffman-Scott
November 22, 2007
[Our son James after learning that not only did I try out a new recipe for cookies on Thanksgiving for our extended family I improvised with numerous ingredients and they still turned out quite good. Everyone, when I told them what I was making said, “Interesting” which of course actually means “I can’t imagine anyone eating something like that unless stomach cancer has already eliminated any concern about their stomach rotting.” I’ll share both the original and modified recipe soon.–Joe]

The making of Dorothy

Remember when Xenia dressed up as Dorothy for Halloween? Here is the making of my Dorothy:

Lesson on Monopoly of Force

When I watched this video (via Dooce) I thought of it as a lesson on the concept of Monopoly of Force. Lions are the “King of the Jungle”, right? Don’t they represent government? The buffalo are the numerous “armed citizens”. The crocs must be criminals since they hide under the water like that and then disappear again when their opportunity slips away.

Yeah, I’m not normal.

Quote of the day–SayUncle

Not only should the president order the execution of the turkeys, he should kill both gobblers himself. With his bare hands, while wearing a loin cloth. He should then rise, his body glistening with sweat and blood, and take a bite out of its head and display it proudly to the American people.

SayUncle
November 22, 2005
My Platform
[While I strongly agree with the sentiment, and wouldn’t even mind the loincloth angle, I would be disappointed if he broke up a sweat or got blood on himself killing a turkey with his bare hands. In fact because the whole point of this it so show how manly he is to our enemies I’m thinking it should be a hog instead of a turkey. In which case if it was only bare hands I’d betting on the hog. So, I’d let him wimp out and him use a knife and/or a club. Now let the sweat and the blood glisten and our enemies cower.–Joe]

How to “do it”

Probably not safe for work. Funny video of couple learning about an “alternate lifestyle”.

Posted in Sex

Quote of the day–Michael D. Barnes

Q: Mr. LaPierre claimed membership of the NRA was about 3.5 million. What is the combined membership of the Brady Center, particularly after joining forces with the Million Mom March?

A: We’re a lot smaller, unfortunately. We’re working to grow, we’re about a half million. We’ve started a new effort through the Internet to expand our outreach and we’re now up to over a quarter million new people, who are not members, but have logged on to sign, for example, our petition in support of renewing the federal ban on assault weapons. The NRA likes to brag about its millions of members and our information is that it has dwindled significantly. They were over four million about four, five years ago, they used the Clinton administration as a real boogeyman to build up their membership, but The New York Times and others have indicated that their finances have suffered significantly recently and their membership is probably more like 2.5 million, but that’s still a lot.

But there are 90 million gun owners in the United States. Only 3.5 million want the insurance and magazines and the various things you get for joining the NRA. When you look on our side and who supports us, for example, in the fight to renew the assault weapons ban, we’ve got over 300 organizations in the United States working with us: teachers, nurses, doctors, the American Academy of Pediatrics, religious organizations, the League of Women Voters, the NAACP. I’ll put our supporters in this cause up against the NRA any day of the week. We represent far, far more Americans, and the polling is very clear on that.

Michael D. Barnes
President, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence
June 23, 2004
AN ASSAULT ON OUR SAFETY: GUN POLICY IN AMERICA
[It’s interesting to me that he quickly changes the subject when asked how many members they have. Did you notice that when he talks about NRA membership he jumps from four million to 2.5 million to 3.5 million. And if you want to talk finances the numbers I have show the NRA non-profit divisions solidly in the black and the Brady non-profit division running deficits. And the NRA Special Contribution Fund, Whittington Center alone has greater donations than the Brady non-profit (2005 numbers). If you look at the NRA Foundation numbers you will see their income is increasing and is nearly six times the Brady income which is falling. Add in all the donated money from other pro-gun organizations like The Second Amendment Foundation and you will find the Brady Bunch, by far the largest collection of anti-gun bigots, has income numbers on the order of one tenth that of the good guys. Barnes is just blowing smoke.

I bring this talk of membership numbers up because others have been talking about it.–Joe]

Anti-gun reactions

In response to the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing to hear D.C. v. Heller The Brady Bunch said:

The Supreme Court’s decision in this case will be extremely significant – the most important decision on guns in nearly 70 years and maybe the most important ever regarding the Second Amendment.

On that point I think they are right. If we win we will be on the offense in a much bigger way than ever before. If we lose we will be on the defense with a handicap we have never before experienced.

The Gun Guys said:

Clearly, if laser guns that could kill someone from a thousand yards away were to come on the market (and they will), it would not be in the interest of protecting our law enforcement officials and citizens to allow such firearms to be sold to civilians. So, there is no absolute right to manufacture, sell and own any type of gun that the NRA and the gun industry claims to be a firearm protected under the Second Amendment. That is a dangerous and legally unsound notion, given that the courts have allowed gun control in the United States for as long as the laws have been in existence.

Perhaps he isn’t aware of my Spud Gun which “could kill someone from a thousand yards away” and that it is nothing more than a finely tuned hunting rifle (Remington 700).

He goes on to say:

It should be noted that within the gun control movement there was vigorous debate about whether or not to appeal the D.C. ruling. This is because, as it stands now, the striking down of the D.C. law is only applicable within the D.C. circuit.

The decision that the Supreme Court will render will affect the entire country – and it may be that there is a desire to stir up a political hornet’s nest on the issue during an election year, hoping that it will favor the Republicans.

I said back in March that if they were smart they would not appeal. But the roller coaster has just left the loading area and we are all going on an exciting ride with a good probability that someone is going to get thrown out before it stops next spring. The election year angle just adds more twists and turns (opportunities and risks).

Then the VPC says the D.C. ban is saving lives because D.C. has fewer suicides. It could be the numbers are bogus. For example if someone wanted to commit suicide they might just find a drug dealer and try to take his product from him. It would be ruled a murder and not a suicide. Still, I find this amusing. The VPC wants to protect us from ourselves but we are not allowed to protect ourselves from others. The first thing that comes to mind is–I wonder if they practice what they preach. If someone were in the middle of trying to commit suicide would they insist they stop then offer to do it for them because that would be more consistent with their philosophy?

And second, does this relate in some way to the apparent celebration of victim-hood by many liberals? They would rather have victims who have no control over their lives than people that take (the ultimate) control over their lives?

Speaking of the DOJ

Rather than preparing to prosecute anti-gun politicians and organizations someone at the DOJ just visited my blog:

Domain Name   usdoj.gov ? (United States Government)
IP Address   149.101.1.# (US Dept of Justice)
ISP   US Dept of Justice
Location  
Continent  :  North America
Country  :  United States  (Facts)
State  :  Maryland
City  :  Potomac
Lat/Long  :  39.023, -77.1993 (Map)
Distance  :  2,059 miles
Language   English (United States)
en-us
Operating System   Microsoft WinXP
Browser   Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; DI60SP1001; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.1)
Javascript   version 1.3
Monitor  

Resolution  :  1024 x 768
Color Depth  :  16 bits

Time of Visit   Nov 20 2007 9:47:26 am
Last Page View   Nov 20 2007 9:47:26 am
Visit Length   0 seconds
Page Views   1
Referring URL http://search.msn.co…ze%3Alarge&FORM=SZIR
Search Engine search.msn.com
Search Words cake imagesize:large
Visit Entry Page   http://blog.joehuffm…date,2006-06-25.aspx
Visit Exit Page   http://blog.joehuffm…date,2006-06-25.aspx
Out Click    
Time Zone   UTC-5:00
Visitor’s Time   Nov 20 2007 12:47:26 pm
Visit Number   212,525

I wonder if they were really looking for the vagina cake. The thumbnail they clicked on here should have made it clear what they were going to end up with when they came to visit.

NRA news release on D.C. v. Heller

Find it here. The email I received from Ashley Varner (NRA public affairs) seemed to be shouting (yes, this was the font size in the original email):

U.S. Supreme Court to Hear First

Second Amendment Case Since 1939

I interpret this to mean she was happy about it. 🙂

The right question

The U.S. Supreme Court just announced their decision to take the D.C. v. Heller case. The question they will be answering is:

Whether the following provisions — D.C. Code secs. 7-2502.02(a)(4), 22-4504(a), and 7-2507.02 — violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes?

This is the most fundamental difference we have over the Second Amendment with the anti-gun bigots. They claim the Second Amendment guarantees state governments the “right” (governments don’t have rights, they have enumerated powers) to possess arms. Assuming any significant attention is given to original intent (this may be a big assumption) then it is difficult for me to imagine this will go against us.

This is good, this is very good. Now to answer Uncle and Pro-Gun Progress’s question. If we get the answer we want we start attacking the next most egregious laws such as those in Chicago, New York City, and New Jersey. We must be careful to attack them in the proper order to make sure we have a solid foundation to build upon as we get to questions like, “Does the individual have a right to carry a weapon on school grounds?” If we attack the “grey area” questions first they might be decided against us and the foundation gets built on the wrong side of freedom. Ultimately I want to see the DOJ prosecuting anti-gun politicians and organizations under 18 USC 241 and 18 USC 242. But that, if it ever happens, will be a long time from now. But still, it should be our goal.

Quote of the day–Kristopher Barrett

The NRA is the equivalent of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. If they don’t deal with the NRA, they will find out the hard way who the equivalents to Malcolm X are in the pro-rights movement.

Kristopher Barrett
November 19, 2007
[From the comments of this post. He was educating Michael D. Barnes, President of The Brady Bunch, who claimed the NRA was extreme.–Joe]

L.A. Times gets snarky

I sometimes wish I could output snark like this:

The report follows recent news that screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed 75% of the fake bombs that investigators tried to smuggle onto planes during tests two years ago. The excuse from TSA officials: The tests were difficult and designed to trip up screeners. Whereas Al Qaeda will doubtless hide its bombs in brightly marked packages.

But then I would probably want to use it for occasions that would jeopardize my job and marriage.

Clever kids lacking judgment

Clever trick–hacking a soda machine. But they qualify for an Insufficiently Myelinated Award for posting their faces along with their criminal acts.

[Via Bruce.]

National Ammo Day in the news

Today is the day (happy birthday to Kim du Toit) to buy some ammo and I just heard it on the radio news because the Seattle PI mentioned it:

Seattle resident Chris Pierce had left Butch’s Gun Shop on Sunday and was heading for the countryside in North Bend to fire rounds when he heard about National Ammo Day.

“I think it’s a great idea. It sends the message that firearms aren’t going away,” he said. “You can’t take out one part of the Constitution without ruining all of it.”

The thought of Monday as National Ammo Day, a period dedicated to buying bullets to support the Second Amendment, might send shivers down the backs of some Seattle residents.

But they are careful to get other opinions on the topic:

While many gun owners are preparing to part with their cash, a Washington CeaseFire spokeswoman said the day should have a different emphasis.

“As we approach Thanksgiving, we would better benefit from responsible firearms owners reminding the public of the importance of safe firearm storage,” group executive director Kristen Comer said.

“The safest place for firearms … is locked and out of reach of children and others who might otherwise place themselves in danger.”

She said she believes responsible gun owners are not in jeopardy of losing access to firearms and bullets.

A spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Seattle said his agency has no position on National Ammo Day.

And you just know what question was asked and the mindset behind it that prompted this response:

To mark it, Taff plans to buy 100 rounds and fire them at a Bellevue range.

While Monday marks the sixth annual National Ammo Day, Taff heard about it only recently.

He was not concerned that criminals would use the day to clear ammunition shelves and then commit robberies.

Make what you want of this

Someone in Iran is looking for information on liquid explosives:

Domain Name   (Unknown) 
IP Address   80.191.3.# (Tarbiat Modares University)
ISP   Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI)
Location  
Continent  :  Asia
Country  :  Iran, Islamic Republic of  (Facts)
State/Region  :  Tehran
City  :  Tehran
Lat/Long  :  35.6719, 51.4244 (Map)
Distance  :  6,695 miles
Language   English (United States)
en-us
Operating System   Microsoft WinXP
Browser   Firefox
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071025 Firefox/2.0.0.9
Javascript   version 1.5
Monitor  

Resolution  :  1024 x 768
Color Depth  :  32 bits

Time of Visit   Nov 19 2007 5:23:46 am
Last Page View   Nov 19 2007 5:23:46 am
Visit Length   0 seconds
Page Views   1
Referring URL http://www.google.co…ikipedia&btnG=Search
Search Engine google.com
Search Words exclusion ability for liquid explosive matter wikipedia
Visit Entry Page   http://blog.joehuffm…t,month,2006-08.aspx
Visit Exit Page   http://blog.joehuffm…t,month,2006-08.aspx
Out Click    
Time Zone   UTC+4:00
Visitor’s Time   Nov 19 2007 4:53:46 pm
Visit Number   211,987

Kids and Santa

We were probably a little more honest with our kids about Santa than most parents. We had to explicitly tell them to “keep the secret” from some of their cousins. Thus we avoided little unplanned revelations like this (thanks to Rob for forwarding it to me).

But our girls did somehow manage to find the contents of the top shelf in the work room with both volumes of The Kinsey Report and other books that had more photos that words. Which reminds me. I think there is still room on that shelf for this book.

First snowfall

We had the first snow of fall in Moscow, Idaho yesterday. I left about 13:20 to try getting over the pass to my hardened, underground bunker near Seattle before dark. It snowed or rained on me the whole way. The road had a little slush on the pass but I never had any problems although I saw a couple accidents where people made unplanned excursions from I-90.

Xenia took some pictures near our Moscow home but only posted one so I stole this one from her computer because I like it better:

Quote of the day–Samantha Carter

You know, you blow up one sun and suddenly everyone expects you to walk on water.

Samantha Carter
A character in Stargate SG-1
Played by Amanda Tapping
[James and I just finished watching this series on DVD. It was good. Very good. We’re sorry it’s over. The ending could have been a little bit better. James was probably a little more disappointed than I. I thought it left things such that you could imagine how all the unresolved things would probably be figured out and that was okay. But James was a bit annoyed saying that it wasn’t that much different than the ending of any other episode. I figure it gives them possibilities for the movies.–Joe]