Sea bass and sprouts

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Ok, friends, I have finished mourning Benedict because, in the oh-so-truthful words of my trainer, "he was never yours anyway, girlfriend." True that. People, look at what my darling Oliver chose to wear to school yesterday:

www.em-i-lis.com

Today he went for a different vest/jacket/bowtie mash-up, and I was newly grateful for Jack having gone through the "fancy dress" phase several years ago: back-up clothing stashes are clutch!

After feeding the boys army-sized portions over the course of three separate dinners last night, I got them to bed and busied myself making a good, good meal. I'd bought a gorgeous hunk of Chilean Sea Bass and also had a pound of Brussels sprouts that I wanted to use.

For the sea bass I made a marinade of Mirin, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar and jalapeños. While that enjoyed its soak, I considered the fact that my stove was so very clean, so shiny and neat. Imelda had just worked her twice-monthly magic, and thus I couldn't possibly make my Crispy Brussels Sprouts -despite how delicious they are- because as y'all probably know, having a clean stove is a rare thing. It certainly is in my house. I couldn't bear to splatter it with oil after just a couple hours.

Instead, I made the recent winner of Food 52's Your Best Green Holiday Side contest: Brussels Sprouts with Pears and Pistachios by Bevi. I had a Bosc pear at the ready and love anything with pistachios, so there you have it. I shaved ten minutes off the cook time and would recommend doing that unless your sprouts are extremely large or you like them extremely done. With that minor tweak though, this was very delicious, and I happily enjoyed the rest of the batch today for lunch!

www.em-i-lis.com

www.em-i-lis.com

 

Baffled, Kansas et al

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Oh dear. What will it take for people to vote IN their best interests? A few snapshots of electorates failing to do so. By all accounts, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's tax experiment has been an unmitigated disaster:

"Indeed, the individual income tax revenues were more than $300 million under projections in the 2014 fiscal year that ended June 30. And this year,they already are more than $80 million shy of predictions, through four months of the 2015 fiscal year."

-Kansas City Star, 4 November 2014

Also, Brownback defamed his opponent via dishonest attack ads, but that's the ugly par for the course in political campaigning these days.

In Iowa, newly elected Senator, Joni Ernst, wishes to do away with the federal Department of Education in order to drive things back towards state-driven policies and control. That would leave 213,000 Iowa students without the Pell grants they currently receive to help defray college tuition costs. She also wants to close the EPA, yet another ugly par for the course in the right wing at present.

And Droopy Dog, you're never going to leave, are you? Certainly we will all now have to be dragged through the ridiculously asinine, damaging "Repeal Obamacare" diatribe once more, despite the fact that Kentucky, much of which is impoverished and in desperate need of subsidized care, has benefited greatly from both the Affordable Care Act and Kynect, Kentucky's insurance exchange.

"McConnell's government-funded programs haven't had anything close to Obamacare's effect on Kentucky: More than 330,000 Kentuckians have qualified for Medicaid thanks to the Affordable Care Act, and more than 80,000 have obtained health coverage through Kynect, the state's insurance exchange. But by earmarking funds for the occasional small program, McConnell has won votes among Kentucky's low-income residents."

-Huffington Post, 3 November 2014

Voldemort from Florida beat Charlie Crist despite FanGate (I mean, WHO could take him seriously after he refused to come on stage because of the fan under Crist's podium?!). And do not even get me started on all the calls out there to limit women's rights in making decisions about their OWN bodies and health.

Really, it boggles the mind.