Allyson

I wanted to make a birthday cake for my vegan friend, and that meant no milk, no butter, and no eggs. I decided to search for vegan alternatives, and came up with several awesome looking ones. As a side note, chocolate is easy to make vegan. However, I didn’t have the ingredients for most of the cakes I found. I did what I usually do, however, and I took an existing recipe and re-made it in my own image. That’s right, I am a Food Goddess! This is my lovely sweet treat: Orange Cake

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 5 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 tsp orange extract
• 1 cup orange juice

Preheat your oven to 350*F. Line a 9×9″ pan with parchment paper, leaving an inch over each side overhanging, for easy removal.**

In a large mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients and mix well. Form three depressions in the dry mixture. In one, add the vinegar . In the second, add the orange extract , and in the final one, add the oil. Pour the orange juice over the top and, using a whisk or wooden spoon, mix together until fully combined.

Transfer your cake batter, which will be quite runny, to the lined baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes and then check. It will probably take close to 45 minutes to bake entirely, but you need to start checking every five or ten minutes after the 30 minute mark. Continue to bake until a skewer comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely. If desired, frost the cooled cake.

** I used a round springform baking pan, fully lined with no-stick-sprayed parchment paper. You do have to allow the cake to cool completely before removing the parchment paper, but it works very well. I used a 9 inch diameter pan that was about 1-1/2 inches deep.

I had frosting for this cake. We didn’t use it. We literally ate hunks of it with our hands. It was moist, sweet but not unbearably, and delicious. I would recommend removing 2 tbsp of orange juice from the cup, if you plan to frost the cake. It was so moist, if I had tried to frost it, it would have fallen apart despite having good crumb.

We are a rich people, here in America. Even our poorest has enough food (or could if they applied). We just don’t see people in the US starving. It doesn’t happen. There are no swollen bellies here.

That doesn’t mean people aren’t hungry. As someone who’s lived on food stamps and charity at one point, I can tell you that the pickin’s are slim and you don’t get a lot of veggies. I had to be creative to keep myself and my family fed. But I managed.

This is an art that too many people just don’t get. I covered it briefly in my last article about food, but it bears repeating. There are too many people in our country who have such a sense of entitlement that they think everyone should have “great food.” While I’m liberal enough to believe that we should be providing just enough food for people to survive on, even if they’re poor, I’m not of the opinion that it should come in the form of filet mignon or lobster tails. If you are poor (when I was poor), you have to learn to budget.

And therein lies the problem. This generation has a terrible time with budgeting. They can’t seem to budget time, money, credit… and who can blame them, with the various people who’ve been in office over the last couple of decades. “Budget” has not been much in the vocabulary of any of our leaders. It definitely doesn’t seem to be in that of the parents of today’s generation.

I remember a time, about ten years or so ago, when I was picking up supplies in a bump and dent store. We were tight, and I wanted to make my grocery dollars stretch. I walked past a gentleman with his very young daughter, staring forlornly at the dried beans. I paused, and asked if he had a favorite bean, and he looked at me with tears in his eyes and explained. Seems his wife had left him, and he was trying to work, care for his daughter, and feed her. Money was too tight, and he couldn’t afford meat. He knew beans were a way of getting protein, but he had no idea how to cook them from dry. He’d only ever had canned. I sat and explained to him several really tasty recipes that I thought would go over well with a toddler, and he bought up bags of beans with a grateful thank you over his shoulder. After that, I actually printed out several bean recipes and with the store’s permission, posted them in the beans aisle. They would be picked up every single week. I got a lot of thank yous.

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I am well and truly confused over the panic that’s currently occurring over the use of tariffs. An acquaintance of mine just posted the following (changed slightly to protect the author, who I didn’t ask before posting this):

“We have to reconstruct the exterior stairs that were ripped off this house before we moved in, so there is a second exit during an emergency. This requires wood. Which comes from Canada. I also sell books, otherwise known as printed paper. Which comes from China. Tariffs, that’s where my money goes.”

I had to ask said person, where are they printing their books? The last price hike I had, via Amazon KDP, was a couple or three years ago, and came to a grand total of about four cents on each of my books. I chose to eat the cost; it wasn’t enough to bother the customers. There doesn’t appear to be any kind of price hike going on at KDP for print-on-demand, and while there’s no definitive answer available (as with all things Amazon related), it appears as if about half their paper is recycled (meaning we recycle it and turn it into more paper here in America), and the other half is “sourced from the cheapest domestic available,” which to me means whatever they have on hand but local if it’s not prohibitive. At the very least, it’s not enough to cost me more per book to print.

Obviously I can’t speak for other companies, but I have to say… if Amazon, the Great Gouger, isn’t raising prices… well, I am going to guess no one else is either.

When it comes to wood, I can speak a bit more authoritatively. In 2024, about 72% of our wood for building (lumber) came from domestic sources. That means it was sourced here in the good ol’ United States. That’s about to change, because of the tariffs on Canadian imports. The cost of new homes will go up. Currently, that cost is NOT up. And it is entirely possible to buy American lumber for making exterior stairs or other small projects. Does American lumber cost more? For the moment, that’s possible, though I couldn’t find an example of it. Once the tariffs kick in, American lumber will go up slightly in price (because we don’t have the huge forests that Canada does, and so we can’t be cutting down as many trees as they do and have it be sustainable), but it’ll still be less than wood from Canada.

I just don’t get it.

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I haven’t touched on the topic of what to drink when you’re enjoying your post-apocalyptic spam, so I think today I’ll go there. 😉

There are several really tasty, easy to make drinks for when you’re doing a lot of labor or it’s extremely hot, but you don’t have access to Gatorade or its equivalents. I would hazard to say that they’re much better for you, as well.

Sekanjabin

This is what we refer to as “Viking gatorade” because it was popularized by the Vikings. It originated in Persia as a mint based drink, but the Vikings played with it, and I played with it more. It is basically a simple syrup that you add to water to make it more palatable. The vinegar and sugar help balance your electrolytes, and the ginger makes it just “warm” enough (from your body’s standard) to drink even in very hot weather without causing yourself cramps. Just a note, the Vikings and Persians both added crushed mint to this. I don’t, so it isn’t included in my recipe. Feel free to add it to yours!

Ingredients

• 4 cups red wine or apple cider vinegar
• 4 to 8 cups sugar/honey/sweetener/blend of choice
• 2 tbsp minced or grated ginger
• fruit of choice (I like lemon, strawberry, and blackberry, or a mix, but you do you)

In a pot, add the vinegar. You can even mix red wine and apple cider vinegars for a different flavor if you like. Get the cheap stuff, by the by. This is not something where the vinegar has to be bougie. Bring the vinegar to a low boil, then begin to add the sugar, a cup at a time. I usually use four cups of a mix of sweeteners, but always use at least one cup of real sugar to help it become syrup. Stir in between, preferably with a wooden spoon. When all the sugar is in and has dissolved, add in your ginger, and your fruit. When it comes to fruit, you can use fresh, but frozen works better because it sort of dissolves in the vinegar. I’ve done it with fresh, though; just cut it up into chunks so the “meat” of the fruit is exposed.

Simmer your fruit stew for a minimum of 20 minutes, and likely much longer.  You should reduce the amount of liquid in the pot by AT LEAST one third. It’s usually easy to tell, because it leaves a sugary ring on the edge of your pot. What you want is a syrup, not a liquid, so wait for it to really begin to thicken up. You want it to have the texture of a light corn syrup or maple syrup, but not be as thick as molasses. Allow your syrup to cool for several hours.

Once it’s cool, strain the sekanjabin through cheesecloth or a lint-free towel, and store in jars. I usually purchase the apple cider vinegar that comes in a glass bottle (it’s cheap), and so I pour it right back into the bottle and put the diffuser thingie back in. That way I can easily shake out just enough to sweeten my water.

To use, add about a tablespoon of syrup to 8 oz of water, stir, and enjoy. You may want to add a bit more or a bit less depending on both your tastes and the intensity of your sekanjabin. Store your sekanjabin at room temperature for up to a week, or in the fridge pretty much forever (I’ve never had it go off).

Note: it’s pronounced seh-KAHN-ja-bin

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There’s a mindset, these days, that everything is disposable. If something breaks, just get another one. Toss the old one in land fill and ignore it. This is not a sustainable practice.

Why did we become the strongest country in the world? We made do. We took everyone else’s outcasts, people who wanted to work and were motivated to become citizens, and we said “let’s do this.” Those people, coming into America, were coming here to become AMERICANS. They didn’t come to be African Americans or Cuban Americans or Chinese Americans or Polish Americans. They came here to be Americans, plain and simple. They came here because America provided (and still provides) a place for hard work and sacrifice to pay off in the creation of strong family and safe home.

Use It Up

If you buy something, use it up. It seems simple when you say it that way, but I have to ask you, how many times have you allowed that cabbage or bit of leftover stew in the back of the fridge until it turned into something approaching sentience? Too often, I’d wager. I’m bad at it myself, frankly. This is a basic thing that Grandma would have wanted you to know, though. If you’re in doubt, ask yourself: would Grandma be disappointed in me for doing this (or not doing it, as the case may be)?

Learn to turn little bits of leftover vegetables into something new. Learn how to make stews and soups. Learn how to dehydrate and can. Learn how to compost, too. If you have animals like chickens or goats or pigs, feed things to them rather than putting them in the trash. Make certain that every bit of food you purchase is actually eaten or preserved in some way.

This is how we end up with scrap quilts, by the way. When you buy (or thrift) fabric for clothing (or sheets or towels, or whatever), you will almost always be left with a handful of scraps. Sometimes they may be tiny, because you’ve patterned extremely well, and you can congratulate yourself. Still, stash away those scraps. They can be used to patch up clothing or sheets, or to fill holes in jeans. When you have enough scraps of whatever size, you cut them into a lovely pattern of squares or hexes or triangles, and now you have a quilt. Our grandmothers turned their leftover bits and pieces into huge sheets of stitched love that are now passed down from generation to generation. You, too, can do that.

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Right now, as we all know, the media is in a tizzy. At one time, they owned the airwaves, and everyone had to report whatever it was that the letter agencies (ABC, NBC, AP, etc) found out at the White House press room. All the “little people” were forced to get their news from the NEWS agencies. That’s not the case, these days. Leavitt has opened the press room to other media platforms, and routinely makes certain that people other than the letter agencies get to ask their questions. This makes Big Media very angry.

We can speculate about who owns Big Media, but it seems fairly obvious to most of us, I believe. In the end, it doesn’t really matter who owns them; what matters is that the “standard” news is being used to wage war. For those who’ve known this for a long time, you  may not realize just how difficult that is to swallow, especially if you’re generally a thinking person.

I grew up with news being the place to turn to for up to date, factual information. I could look at news on the television at 6pm, or I could look in one of the newspapers local to me. Sure, there were some less than savory newspapers, but we all knew they were only good for their page two girlie of the week. It was easy to know what was good news and what wasn’t. It was obvious for a number of reasons, and there wasn’t any confusion over it.

I consider myself a thinking person. I am not traditionally educated, but I have put a lot of effort into keeping myself educated. I’ve attended classes, both formal and informal, I’ve gotten certificates, I’ve always achieved good grades. I can think my way through most problems, even if I do still struggle with the math**. When Chris started telling me that the media was lying to me, I was disbelieving. Sure, Weekly World News was all made up, but ABC nightly news? That was just the facts. How did I know this? Because all of the news agencies reported the same thing. Statistically speaking, it is quite silly to think that the entirety of every news agency out there would be lying, and lying in much the same (or sometimes exactly the same) way. That would be a statistical anomaly the size of New Jersey.

It’s a hard mouthful to chew, the idea that ALL of the news agencies are telling whoppers every day. The problem, of course, is that anything they say could be true, or might not be. There must be a balance of actual facts thrown in there. It allows newscasters and stations to say, “Hey, look, we covered that thing at the library, all that was factual. What makes you think the rest of it isn’t?” Plausible deniability, I think it’s called. Regardless, it’s been quite the eye opener realizing that basically none of the news stations I’d counted on (even ones like AP) were accurate or to be trusted.

This brings me to the concept of capturing minds.

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Each summer, I spend an inordinate amount of time dressed up as a medieval kitchen drudge, cooking feast foods over an open fire in a cow field. Beside me, knights and dames fight with sword, pole arm, axe, and shield to display their prowess to huge crowds. I’m not much noticed during the fights, but before and after I always have a bevy of fair patrons coming by to ask questions and see what I’m up to. They’re always amazed to see the foods I produce, from pies to salads to stews and soups.

Last summer, it was beastly hot, and I didn’t want to do much cooking at one particular event. The heat was too oppressive to think of spending hours kneeling by the flames, tending to whatever morsel I felt like making. Instead, I retreated to the shade of the kitchen tent, and put together a cold meal for our fair knights and gentle ladies. This dish is deceptively simple, but incredibly tasty and pretty to boot.

Based on A Sallet for Fish Daies, aka a cold shrimp salad:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb carrots, minced or shredded
• 2 cups small shrimp, cleaned, cooked, & cooled
• 1/2 cup finely minced red onion or green onion
• 1 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 cup olive oil
• salt to taste

Mince your carrots with a knife or food processor, or do what I did and cheat: purchase the finely shredded carrots in a bag. In a bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, and salt, and whisk until thoroughly mixed. Drizzle the carrots with just enough of the dressing to lightly coat them, and then use a mold to shape the carrots. This could be a circle biscuit cutter, a fancy and large cookie cutter, or whatever you have on hand.

If you want a heavier onion flavor, use the red onion. Otherwise, use the green onion (whites and greens together). Mix together the onion and shrimp, then toss with just enough of the dressing to lightly coat them, and arrange them gently on top of the carrots. Serve chilled.

Notes:

Traditionally, this was made in the shape of a fleur de lys using a gelatin or pudding mold, but I skipped that entirely and just tossed everything together. The first time I made it, I used red onion, and the second time I used green onion. I liked both, but my taste testers (the various knights and dames) preferred the green onion one. I found it definitely looked more “fancy”, for what it’s worth. I also sprinkled some minced parsley over the top of the sallet, and garnished it with a carrot coin carved to look like a Tudor rose and a few sprigs of parsley. It was well received, and I could have made a lot more of it and it would have disappeared.

As we were outdoors (in the aforementioned cow field) with no modern cooling equipment, I made the salad in a metal bowl, and set that into a wooden bowl filled with ice. This kept it lovely and chill for most of the day. It was cool, refreshing, tasty, and the perfect foil for the sliced sausage, cheese, and bread that I served it with.

I have been a fan of shawarma since I tried it back after the first Avengers movie. I wanted to see what it was like because I knew the scene of them all eating shawarma at the end of the movie was actually them eating, and it sparked my interest. I totally fell in love. The flavors are amazing, and it’s very easy to make dairy free. This is a fairly quick dinner if you set the meat to marinate the evening before. It comes together fast, and hits the table with a minimum of mess and fuss.

Ingredients:

• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp plus 1/2 cup full-fat Greek yogurt, divided
• 5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• kosher salt
• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, sliced into 1/2″ strips
• 2 garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 2 tbsp plus 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided
• 1 cup cucumber, finely chopped
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered or halved
• 1 medium red onion, sliced into 1/4″ to 1/2″ wedges
• toasted pita, for serving

In a large bowl, mix together the lemon zest, tomato paste, coriander, cumin, paprika, black pepper, turmeric, cayenne, cinnamon, 2 tbsp yogurt, 2 tbsp oil, and 2 tsp salt. Alternatively, you can use a pre-made shawarma mix, which is what I did, though I still added the tomato paste in. I get mine from Auntie Arwen. Add chicken and toss to coat. Let marinate 30 minutes or overnight.

When you’re ready to make your meal, use a small bowl to whisk garlic, tahini, lemon juice, 2 tbsp oil, and the remaining ½ cup yogurt together. Stir in 2 tbsp parsley. Refrigerate at least 20 minutes or until you’re ready to use it.

In a medium bowl, toss together the cucumbers, tomatoes, a heavy pinch of salt, and the remaining parsley. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Arrange a rack in lower third of your oven; preheat to 425°F. In a small bowl, toss onions, ½ tsp salt, and the remaining 1 tbsp oil until onions are coated. Transfer onion mixture to a large baking sheet. Arrange marinated chicken around and over the onion wedges in a single layer. You’re going to need to use your hands, and it’s messy, but it’s worth it. If there’s any marinade left in the bottom of your bowl, drizzle it over the chicken on the pan.

Roast the chicken until cooked through and some lightly charred bits form. If you want to be sure it’s ready, an instant-read thermometer should registers 165°F, and it will take about 25 minutes to cook. During the last ten minutes of cook time, add a pizza pan or baking pan with pitas on it, to toast. You can put them in dry, or you can brush them lightly with olive oil. Take the pitas out before they get too crispy; you want them to be able to fold taco-style around your other ingredients.

To serve this, put out the salad, tahini yogurt sauce, and the meat in separate containers. Give everyone a pita or two, and then layer the ingredients onto the pita. Fold like a taco around your ingredients, and eat. Alternatively, you can halve your pitas and stuff the meat and veg inside the pockets.

Sorry for posting so late, lately. It’s almost fair season, and I’m having a minor procedure done on my foot tomorrow, so I’ve been going crazy getting things ready. With any luck at all, after tomorrow I might be able to heal up and start to wear shoes again. Oy.

The Left is going nuts over the knuckle pic posted of Garcia by Trump. Because Trump had his people label the tats with “MS13” so people understood, the Left is now saying that the “MS13” is photo shopped. Um. Yeah. Like, Trump had the letters and numbers put there. The Left is NOT saying the tats are fake. Just the numbers. You can’t make this shit up.

I’ve seen a number of articles and videos talking about how American citizens have been “wrongly detained” in the immigration crackdown. Of course, if you read through, you find out that they were pulled aside, had their documentation verified, and then released. Sometimes, if it was busy, it took a few hours. Yes, that sucks. No, I don’t like it. But yes, right now it’s going to happen to anyone who looks like they don’t belong in America. Please note, that doesn’t mean a different skin color. It means people who don’t speak English, people who seem to want to destroy American culture, etc.

Still, I firmly believe in what Heinlein wrote:

“When a place gets crowded enough to require ID’s, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.” — Robert A. Heinlein, from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

It sounds like China is about to give in with regards to Trump’s tariffs. Some 50 other countries have already caved. The Left is still melting down over how horrible it is that we’re trying to force other countries to pay more to sell things here in America, and how Americans will suffer. I’ve become rather unpopular for presenting the (admittedly VERY Leftist, imo) view that if you Buy Local [tm], you avoid tariffs altogether. Aren’t we all supposed to be buying local? *I* buy local, don’t you? That usually leaves them confused and unable to respond.

I admit to being concerned over Trump pushing AI into schools. I’d like to see LESS electronics in schools. Let’s face it, AI used incorrectly is basically just theft. It takes an inherently ethical person to use it without stealing from others surreptitiously. I really don’t think we can expect elementary or high school kids to have that kind of responsibility. At this point, teachers are having to work their asses off to find out which essays come from AI and which are actually written by the students. It was bad enough when the parents were doing the homework, but now it’s Siri and ChatGPT, and teachers can’t always tell because AI is better at it than the parents were. I’d like to know more about what kind of AI Trump wants in our schools, because based on what I’ve read in mainstream media, I’m concerned.

And of course there’s still the overarching panic over making the government smaller. It’s amazing how many Dems seem to be down on trades people, negative about buying local, and pissed off to have more control at local levels. TDS is still in full bloom.

On the other hand, I’ve seen more and more people on the Left questioning their own folks. Of course, they immediately get tossed out of the party, which leaves them floundering. I offer cookies and a place to catch their breath. I’m unhappy that the Left has no leadership and no direction right now. This country works best with a two party system, and while I’d support the idea of MORE parties, I definitely don’t want one party, and that seems like where we’re headed.

Alright, time for bed. I’ll try and write something for Friday, but if I don’t, forgive me. 😉

I have always loved this song. I first heard it some 20 odd years ago, and it has stuck with me ever since. There’s a specific verse that comes to mind once in a while, when I’m feeling down or bad or wrong…

Now, depression’s not a million laughs
But suicide’s too dang’rous
Don’t go leapin’ out of buildin’s
In the middle of the night
It’s not the fall but landin’
That’ll alter social standin’
So go first and ask your father
And I’m sure he’ll set you right

I miss my father. I was always a daddy’s girl when I was young, and even as an adult, it was dad that I wanted to spend time with. My mother was an abusive cunt, and I had little interest in anything to do with her, and we’ll leave it at that. Dad made a hard choice, some years ago, when he chose to stick by his wife and to let go of his daughter. I barely talked to him the past 20 years, and he died a couple of years ago. It hit me funny. Until that schism, I could have gone to him with anything, and he would have shared good advice. I miss that.

Anyhow, this isn’t political, it was just… introspective. I hope you enjoyed.