(no subject)

So this time the way I failed my muffins was by leaving them out all night. I set them out to cool and then was so tired I forgot to put them away. Woke up at 3am, realized they were still out, and decided to just get up for the day, thus having time to have oatmeal, eliminating the need for the muffins for breakfast. Having one, anyway, just to see how they are, and they still seem pretty good. They haven't suffered too much from being out all night. I don't see any mouse poops on the counter so I'm going to assume that mice have not peed on them. (There have been very few signs of mice this winter, although we did catch one out in the pantry.)

Good thing I did get up early, though, as I had forgotten to pack lunches, too. I don't know what I was doing last night, just wandering off to bed like I had no care in the world. I made a checklist a few weeks ago to keep me focused in the evenings, but I haven't been keeping up on checking it. The most important item on the checklist has to be "check the checklist." I just added that at the bottom. ;)

Here's my current almost perfect muffins:

1/2 C garbanzo bean flour
1/2 C oat flour
1 C 3 rice/spud/tapioca flour*
1 T psyllium
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3 T butter
1/4 C honey
1/4 C applesauce <--trying to make more chewy, less dry.
1/2 C milk
2 eggs
3/4 C cranberries
1/4 C chopped cashews

Mix dry ingredients in small bowl.
In large bowl, melt butter (I use a microwave), mix in honey, applesauce, milk, then eggs, in that order.
Combine dry into wet, slowly.
Allow to sit ten minutes.
While it's sitting, grease muffin tin, and
Preheat oven to 375.
Cook about 18 minutes.

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* 3 Rice flour = 2 parts white rice, 2 parts brown rice, 2 parts glutinous rice, 2 parts potato starch, 1 part tapioca starch - I have a bin of this I've mixed previously.

(no subject)

This friend of my Dad's used to be on Maine Public Radio 'til they kicked him off for being too liberal, but he continues to make radio shows where he rants about stuff in between playing old jazz - he just posts them online, now. If you scroll down this page - The Hhumble Farmer's Maine Private Radio show and No Things Considered - you can listen to them. In the most recent one he apparently might be found doing the following rant:

7. For the first time in a long time I want to applaud President Obama --- for suggesting that we bring back something that we had 50 years ago: free college. I can remember saying when I was 15 or so: "I can't go to college. I'm not rich." I was a veteran who had sailed around Moose Peak for two years before I realized that back then it was cheap and it was possible. Free college was a good idea back then and it is a good idea now. It will never get Congressional approval, as there is nothing Republicans fear more than a population of young voters who can read. Better our young folks go in the military or clerk in a big box store where they can learn everything they need to know about the world from Fox News or basic training films. I think tuition was $100 a semester when I was an undergraduate in 1958. You could work all summer at $5 or so a day and get enough to pay your tuition. I played for a dance on Saturday night which paid $10. Half of that went for rent for my off-campus room and the other half went for food. I heard the talking heads on TV tell about President Obama's proposal. Every time they mentioned "Free college," they ended with, "How is he going to pay for it?" I don't think I've ever said, "Duhhhh." But when I heard the talking heads ask, "How is he going to pay for it?" ---- Yes. I said, "Duhhhh." Anyone who thinks about it knows that free college more than pays for itself. Any inhabitant of northern Europe will tell you why they are rich and happy. The more education you have, the more money you earn. And the more money you earn, the more you pay in taxes to support healthcare, education, and the infrastructure. To be sure, in Europe a war machine doesn't eat half of their country's wealth every year so they're ahead of us there. It can be statistically proven that people with educations and good incomes are much less likely to rob grocery stores or collect welfare, which in itself is a great savings to society. Can you hear corporate America's cries of indignation over lost income should it no longer feed and house the largest prison population since the days of Stalin? Wherever education is popular a country saves, but many Americans want everything Now. Today. Too many Americans can't think 20 or 30 years down the road. Our corporations are run to make a profit for that quarter for stockholders. Their ability to compete with China and India and Brazil in 5 years is not a consideration. So innovative research is now a thing of the past and is left to our friends in the many countries that are leaving us behind. Enough educated voters could change this, so I'm proud of President Obama for suggesting that we bring back free college. Its implementation would certainly be the most efficacious economic stimulus package to be suggested in this country since the days of FDR. Which is why I'd bet my Model T and 50 acres of forest that it doesn't stand a chance of being passed by a Republican Congress.
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