I had one acorn squash and one random little yellow "sweet potato" squash. I decided to stuff them. Here are the results.
Wanna have this for dinner - here's what you need.
3/4 lb or slightly less bulk sausage. I used spicey Italian chicken sausage from Whole Foods.
1 1/2 c hot cooked rice (I used basmati from my local Indian market)
1/2 c golden raisins (also from my local Indian market)
1/2 med yellow onion, chopped
1 Tbs ginger paste (yep, local Indian market)
1/2 Tbs garlic paste (yep, local Indian market)
2 Tbs hot water
1/2 c grated cheese (I used some leftover sheep's milk regiano)
Cut and seed the squashes. Place on a baking sheet and preheat oven to 400.
Place raisins in a large mixing bowl and and toss with the hot water. Cook the sausage, breaking it into small pieces. Add onions, garlic and ginger pastes to the raisins and toss. Stir in rice and cheese. When sausage is almost done, dump - drippings and all - into the mixing bowl. Toss to combine.
Stuff into the squashes, mounding it high. Extra stuffing can be baked off in a small casserole dish.
Cook for 35 minutes or until the squash is tender.
H is not a fan of raisins or squash exactly and he ate one of each.
I finally made good on my promise to myself this summer and took a sewing class. My basic skills are decent, but I want to make myself some clothes and frankly I knew I needed some professional guidance.
Monday I took a sewing class at JoAnn's and we made option A from this pattern. I made a modification, becasue I wanted it to button differently. I am 98% finished and will post pictures once I complete the hem and ornamentation.
I feel inspired now to try more versions of the jacket this winter and to finally tackle some of the other dresses and such that I have been afraid to try.
(jacket A is the middle one in a aqua. I choose a very pretty burgundy print fleece for my jacket.)
Reasonably well spoken, energetic self starter, with an eye for details, fantastic reading comprehension skills, and unsurpassed active listening skills. Must be able to manage a staff and an active calendar of events, understand modern communication methods such as Twitter, SmartPhones and email.
Desirable personality traits include: humble nature, ability to put others and their well-being ahead of personal gain. Must be dedicated to working on behalf of others and still maintain the ability to say "No" when it is warranted.
Having read the Constitution of the United States of America is a requirement. Understanding what is and is not covered by said document extremely important.
The ideal candidate must refrain from involving him or herself in the private lives of others. All personal opinions of a moral, religious, or cultural nature must be kept to one's self at all times.
Extensive experience in accounting, money management and fiscal responsibility a bonus. Having taken classes or seminars or having on the job proven negotiation skills will be judged most favorably. An understanding of the concepts of "Prudent Man" and "Fiduciary Duty" also required.
Educational requirements vary and personal skills will be weighted equally to educational achievements.
Vacancies to be filled in early November - the applicant pool thus far, substandard.
So - while away this week, the power of email hit me square between the eyes. I got a facebook email message that one of the women from my Kenyon Review writing workshop had died. She was 20. She had been living with cancer - no blossoming. She was a hell of a writer. Man, she could craft a poem. She could tear one apart also.
I had the privilege to learn with her. Grow with her. Write with her.
She was just finishing up a round of chemo and had fast talked her doctors into letting her attend the workshop. She rested alot and hung out with me at meals. She could jive with my diet issues and fear of an upset tummy. I never balked as she swallowed down horse pill after horse pill.
I told her about my mom. I got it. The process of cancer. I also was not hung up on it. She was not dying - she was living and I think - seeing my mom battle through chemo - that is important to note.
What she showed the world and continued to show - as I followed her on Facebook and Goodreads - is life is for living - ONE DAY AT A TIME. Squeeze it and hang on tight. Sure maybe an afternoon nap is in order, but do not coast, do not sleep it through, cuz you have no right to expect tomorrow to include you.
As a teenager it had to be tempting to just give up, get pissed, be angry at the world. Instead she took summer school, online and sometimes from the hospital, getting chemo. Seriously.
This spring, she and a friend were hatching some public poetry project and sent out a call for work. I sent her some of my work. Happily so. I hope her friend sees that vision through.
Her words, written during the workshop will never cease to inspire me and make me want to write my very best. Such skill with the pen and at such a young age. I wish I had the chutzpa to write like her when I was twenty. I was shy, maybe once you realize that tomorrow is not a guarantee you just write like you don't care. It took me years to learn to take those risks.
As the news settled into my gut, part of me wanted to be angry. What kind of Universe takes away someone with some much talent and such a gift to inspire. Then I remembered - it is not how long you have - it is how you lived what you were given.
I think M's words speak for themselves. She lived every single second... and just like a good poem. Ever single word counts.
Some of her lovely and and totally moving prose can be found here.
I saw this link on several FB friends' pages the other day. The article, I think get's it about half right. I think we are seeing the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but to aim the ax mostly at US corporations is disingenuous. To blame this administration or the past two is likewise not the answer either. The American consumer, as much as the American worker also shoulders some of the responsibility.
For every bit of Chinese manufactured bit of fluff purchased at Wal*Mart or Target or where-ever that is one less manufacturing job in the US. The quality is sometimes shoddy, but hey it is cheap. It will likely break in a few months, but then it did not cost that much so what's the big deal. The big deal is the rich get richer and the poor, well poorer.
The REAL problem is as someone in the comments section of the article stated - it is all about short term solutions. In both business and government, and dare I say our culture in general we favor the short term quick fix to long term problems. ...Couple that with corporations being encouraged by Wall Street, to MAX out profits - notice I did not say be profitable - but max out profits quarter over quarter that you have CEOs and CFOs making short term profit maximization decisions and not decisions with an eye towards long term longevity and sustainable profitability.
The tipping point will be, I think, when the American consumer, cannot afford even goods and services using what I call the Walmart pricing model. That or we will all collectively stop supporting companies who fail to match their corporate strategy with our personal value systems.
We need less government intervention. I am very much a free marketer. We will live to regret not letting capitalism work its ruthless magic and allow Wall Street to implode itself. Someone would have stepped in with a business solution, not a tax payer funded solution. Money is like matter, it is never created or destroyed. Someone has money and will move to spend it, when the price is right. Governments creating artificial funding sources, just make matters worse and rarely better. Sometimes we only learn from terrible and painful lessons.
When I worked for Merrill Lynch a deathly hush fell over the office when Greenspan testified, I said then and I say now, it is dangerous fun to put so much focus and reliance on the ideas and theories of one man, no matter how much or little you think he knows. It was too much power, centralized in one part by the government and one part by the media. Was he brilliant, maybe. Was he savvy, you betcha. Could he read a crystal ball? Only at parties and only for fun. He got it wrong as much as he got it right.
The real issue is this, we lack a real sense of who we are and what we want to represent and the most worrisome statistic in the bunch to me is this one:
In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
This is the crux of a major issue in American business, the fleecing of the stakeholder and the employees. There is no reason for this type of wage inequity. I have YET - to see a CEO who warrants this type of pay. In fact most CEOs of most US companies are not worth a plugged nickle and some hog spit. A leader leads by example. He or she does not fleece the business, cut the wages of the rank file, to enrich themselves. In my opinion, CEOs who cannot produce sustainable, ethical profits for a business, year over year, should earn nothing. It should be a commission based job. No golden parachute for a crappy job, no bonus if you have cut shareholder returns and slash rank and file pay. Earn your keep, like the rest of us.
Not accounting hocus pocus, but real income, real profit. No fancy accounting gimmicks or games of depreciation. I am talking about selling a product and banking real cash. Providing a service, providing it well and banking the profit. Let's pick on my industry du jour - the airlines. The CEO's of all the big ones, need to be put on a CRJ and pelted with garbage, becasue that is exactly how they treat their customers. They should not pass GO and they certainly should not earn 8 figures. The CEO of BP, who is stepping down. He should not get his golden parachute, he should get some hip waders and a one way ticket to a FEMA trailer on a beach on the Gulf Coast and a roll of bounty towels, to wipe down water fowl. That would be leadership. That would be making a difference. All he has done thus far is fail to come up a solution, look stupid and tank the stock.
Business used to be honest and straight forward. When we return to that, to a time when a hand shake meant something - and no double talk and loopholes, then and only then will we start to see a level playing field. It is about an honest days work and a job well done.
I also am totally against any more regulation, let's enforce the regulations we have. Look back on my blog, I have advocated for some time some real accountability. When people who commit fraud and fleece the American taxpayers and corporate stakeholders, they should do hard time, then and only then will it be a deterrent.
There is more than enough blame for this situation to go around. So next time you are trotting off to Wal*mart, with the remains of your ever diminishing paycheck, ask yourself, what am I doing to send the message to businesses that I am serious about keeping the Middle Class and American jobs stateside.
Understand, I am not picking on Wal*Mart exactly, but it is the idea that we think cheaper is better... sometimes it is and in the longer term, sometimes it just isn't.
