March, er, Lay Down For Life

I took Monday off with a view to going on the annual March For Life and maybe meeting some Catholic bloggers on the way.

Unfortunately, I threw my back out on Friday and have been somewhat laid up all weekend. So, no "marching" for me. :-(

Substitution, ref! Wynken will be going with his 7th grade class, so we will have representation. The weather historically has been cold, bitter, wet, and freezing. This year will be no different.

I'm sure the big media will continue their news blackout and/or offer their perfunctory 2-line reporting, but Life goes on, and so does the March. I want you to think -- as you see and hear of the thousands of (young!) people who went on the March For Life and stood up for what is right -- that for every one who went, there were five, ten, twenty, a hundred more who wanted to but couldn't.

So I will lie here and support you with my prayers and offer my tiny sufferings, that this scourge will pass from our nation and that [H]e shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers. (Mal 4:6)

Not sure what it is, but it tasted good ...

Had some stuff in the kitchen that needed eating before it went bad, so I whipped this up for dinner.

A chicken sandwich with melted Swiss, asparagus, dill, and Alfredo sauce on a croissant. Sounds weird, tastes goooood. Washed it all down with a Samuel Adams Double Bock.

Hey, I do all my own stunts.

Why I Love Religion, And Love Jesus || Spoken Word

More good vid from Spoken Word || Spirit Juice Studios

24:15 Say It (Don't Say It)

We were just commiserating  over children when she blurted it out. “You know my children were conceived by in vitro fertilization don't you?”

I was stunned into silence. What could I say?

I was caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, I knew Church teaching and I felt the obligation to set things straight. 

On the other hand, we were in a public place and I did not feel that this was the place for a showdown. 

What's a body to do? 

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Rockin' the Scallops

I like to cook because I love to eat. Mostly I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy -- okay, maybe a juicy, medium-rare, marbled ribeye and Yukon gold potatoes with parmesan and rosemary kind of guy -- but still.

Fish, on the other hand, has always left me kind of ... meh.

The first time I knew fish could be something other than Long John Silvers or fish sticks was when I went to work in a Japanese restaurant and discovered the nom! nom! deliciousness of sushi.  At the restaurant I'd see people order the scallops and I thought: looks like fish wheels. Who cares?

But THEN I discovered America's Test Kitchen on TV. They made some pan-seared sea scallops that actually looked like they might taste like something other than rubber bands. Know what? I was right.

I went to their web site and checked out the recipe (for free). The thing I love about this site is that they tell you exactly how they did it, including the little tricks that turn an OK dish into an amazing one. They've tried half a hundred recipes and techniques and found that this is the one that rocks in your kitchen.

We found that waiting to add the scallops to the skillet until the oil was beginning to smoke, cooking the scallops in two batches instead of one, and switching to a nonstick skillet (so that the browned bits formed a crust on the meat instead of sticking to the skillet) were all steps in the right direction.

But it wasn’t until we tried a common restaurant technique—butter basting—that our scallops really improved. We seared the scallops in oil on one side and added butter to the skillet after flipping them. (Butter contains milk proteins and sugars that brown rapidly when heated.) We then used a large spoon to ladle the foaming butter over the scallops. Waiting to add the butter ensured that it had just enough time to work its browning magic on the scallops, but not enough time to burn.  (America's Test Kitchen)

I've made these scallops 3 times now and each time it was spot on -- it actually looked like this picture. And the taste? Amazing. I am now a pan-seared scallop lovin' fool. 

Check it out.