My Brother John and his Wife Vicki Are Visiting

We had a great day today visiting with my brother John and his wife Vicki. They are both vegans so we eat the same things. I made scrambled tofu with Potatoes O"Brian for breakfast with homemade toast. For lunch we had hot french homemade bread and reheated vegetable soup. I made the soup before they arrived and it appeared to be a hit.

Tonight Vicki and I experimented with a biscotti recipe that was sent to me by my good friend Dana Conrad. We modified it quite a bit in an experiment that turned out fantastic. Here is the recipe.



Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Ingredients: Add them in order, stirring after each addition.

1 1/2 Cups Sugar
4 Cups Flour (We used King Edward Unbleached All Purpose Flour)
1 Tsp Baking Powder

Mix together:
1 Cup Water
3 Tbsp Egg Replacer
1/4 Cup Torani Sugar Free Chocolate Macadamia Syrup.
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
3 Tbsp Hershey's Special Dark 100% Cacao

Add mixture to the sugar, flour and baking soda.

1/2 Cup Enjoy Life Brand Semi-Sweet Vegan Chocolate Chips (They are smaller than regular chocolate chips)

Add Chocolate Chips to the mixture.

Mix together until the dough is stiff. You may have to kneed it with your hands to get the mixture to the right consistency.
It might end up a bit sticky, but that is OK.
Split the dough into four sections.
Cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Roll each portion of dough into a long log shape and place on one of the cookie sheets.
Each log should be about 3 inches wide.
Flatten each log to about 1 inch thick.
Square off the ends.
Bake for approximately 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow logs to cool.
Slice each log diagonally, starting at the lower right hand corner and slicing to the the upper left hand corner.
Place the cut side down on the baking sheet. You will need two cookie sheets for the final part of the process.
Bake for another 20-25 minutes until crispy.
Let cool, then store in a dry place.

Thank you Dana and Vicki. Everyone loved the results of this one.

Tomorrow we are going to join my sister Jeannie and spend the day at the Pike Street Market in downtown Seattle.

Why America's Woes Are A Blessing

As I consider current events, I realize that we American's are still being blessed while the economy staggers and attempts to recover. Generations before us had hard times and learned to adapt. Hard times builds character and a humbleness or heart that often disappears during the good times. We start focusing on the basics rather than consumerism. The more we work toward independence and saving, the better we begin to feel about ourselves. Little things like turning down the heat, or shutting down the pump the provides instant hot water. Using coupons to shop and focusing on a budget that helps us to live below our means. Stocking up on non-perishable food and drinking water. Making fewer unnecessary trips to the store. As you begin to see money staying in your pocket this month that wasn't there last month, there begins to come a sense of empowerment. Our government has worked for several decades to destroy the soul of this country through political correctness and an entitlement mentality that pits one group of Americans against another. I can remember, not that long ago, when a person would have been embarrassed to accept a handout from the government, regardless of what it was for. Now government wants to punish the hard workers in order to pander for votes from those who think the function of government is to take care of them. By fostering this way of thinking, we have sold the freedoms that were bought and paid for with the blood of courageous Americans who died to keep us free. We as a nation, should be ashamed that we have sold our freedom so cheaply. There will come a point when all Americans will realize that Congress won't save us. They don't produce anything that they can give us. All they can do is take away from one group of hard working Americans and give it to people who don't work to support the American standard of living. Anybody that doesn't earn what they receive from the government, is taking away from others who do the work. Therefore, everything is backwards. Our government vilifies hard working Americans and small businesses saying it is their patriotic duty to pay more in taxes to take care of others. What used to be done by the church to help the poor, has been taken over by the government who cares very little about need so long as they can get votes. If you rob Peter to pay Paul, you will always get Paul's vote. The ones who should be vilified are the non-producers in society who take from the system when they are capable of paying their own way. They are the Un-American parasites, many of whom, got the current Administration elected thinking they were going to get more freebees. It is looking like they were right. If the economy sinks further and further into depression, sooner or later the government is going to have to shake these parasites loose. When that happens, it won't be a pretty picture. We don't have government officials who really know what they are doing. Very few of them have ever had to make a payroll. I know when things are financially tough for my wife and I, I don't go out and try to borrow my way out of debt. The government is no different. They need to get their financial house in order. Since they don't produce a product that can be sold, they need to cut back to live within their budget and stop going to the private trough to satisfy their voracious appetite for money. By taxing more and more, they are killing the producers that provide the tax money to keep them going. If you need eggs, it isn't wise to kill and eat the chicken. Government needs to cut in all areas that don't provide for the public defense of Americans by at least 20% across the board. Whole departments like the Department Of Education that has a $70 billion budget need to be cut. After all, why do we need a Department of Education when all education happens on a local level? Employees need to be cut just like they are when businesses need to downsize. Then they have to compete for real jobs in the private sector or starve if they are too lazy to produce anything. Our Democrat governor here in Washington has said that she intends to cut all programs in the state because we have a $5 billion deficit. Then each program would have to justify itself in order to get funding. She said there are government agencies that nobody knows what they do and they report to no one. This is government out of control. We'll see how far she gets with this idea. When you have parasites, it is hard to shake them loose until the host is totally dead. I would like to suggest that we need a third political party "The Common Sense Party". Most working Americans could relate to this party's platform. Reward excellence, integrity, honesty, and hard work, reject and shun entitlements, unproductive and unnecessary political jobs, political correctness and laziness. Establish a basis for our country around the high ideals set by our branches of military service. Reinstitute the concept of shame for bad behavior. Support the Constitution and term limits of six years for all who serve in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. Encourage and reduce taxes on those who produce in our economy. Focus on the good, shun the bad. Control election campaign expenditures. The money can be better spent on providing security for our country. A government of the people, by the people and for people should not be a government that is for sale to any nation or special interest group. The sentence for violating the public trust should be life imprisonment without parole and nobody is above the rule of law. (I would personally advocate the death penalty, but many would see that as too extreme.) With some "Common Sense" in government, we could all work together with God's help to solve any crisis to befall our country.

Understanding where we are going from where we have been

Pr 17:20-21 Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.

Everything that has gone on around us recently has left us reeling like punch drunk prize fighters in the ring. I have read everything I could lay my hands on in order to try to make some sort of sense from all the uncertainty. I hadn't felt so helpless and dreadful of a future of constant pain since the 70's when Jimmy Carter lived in the White House, interest rates were 18%, cars were backed up at the gas pumps due to rationing, and the President's hillbilly brother was promoting Billy Beer. Good old Jimmy had a way of taking problems the nation was facing and, rather than leading with decisiveness and solutions, giving us his view that all we had to look forward to was more of the same and worse to the point of making everyone want to jump out of a window somewhere. I know I did. Fortunately, it was on the first floor. I was sure glad to see him and his hang dog politics go.

Just as I was shell shocked for a time, I am sure many in this country are asking "What happened?" and "What do we do now?". If history is to serve us like it did under the spell of Old Jimmy, we need to realize that, barring any other major catastrophes, things will get better over time. I asked myself, when we are daily bombarded by the news, why didn't we see this economic meltdown coming? I believe the answer to that question lies in the role of news reporting agencies. They are there to sell, not provide real insightful news reporting. They therefore focus on short sighted sensational events rather than providing a reliable source of knowledge and understanding of the world around us. For that reason, I am purposefully staying away from the news. I find it depressing. Just like always, the sky is falling for some and not for others. I understand that we are experiencing economic problems. All I have to do to understand that is to look at our retirement account that is worth almost half of what it was just a short nine months ago. Since that is gone, my positive nature tells me I need to focus on the half that is left to try to understand how best to protect it from further disappearing. Many other average Americans approaching retirement age are finding themselves in the same boat. Let's examine some alternatives together that I have seriously considered:
1. Sell everything and buy gold. In the past, our government has made it illegal for citizens to own gold during difficult economic times and have confiscated it, replacing it with paper money at a value determined by the government. This didn't apply to collector's gold like gold coins. The difficulty with owning gold coins is that the coin value is often determined by a grading system that is hard for the average investor to understand. A coin that is inappropriately graded can be worth much less than an investor might think. Storage is also a problem with owning gold. What bothers me about buying gold is that I don't like basing my life's decisions on fear. I have to admit that I own a small amount of gold in my safety deposit box at the bank, but not very much. If the government took it it wouldn't kill me.
2. Buy real estate. I could see the real estate bubble coming. Houses were being bought and sold over and over again and the prices were climbing. Each time a house changed hands, the real estate agents were adding their 6% to the cost of the house along with excise taxes and closing fees. I talked to realtors who were selling the same house 8-10 times over the period of a couple of years. A $200,000 home had to sell for $215,000 - $220,000 just to cover the realtor fees and costs. That increased the price each time the house turned over and kept the price of housing going up much faster than inflation. A house turned over 8 times in two years would have to have sold for $370,000 just to pay realtor fees and closing costs on that one home. It was like a government sponsored and guaranteed Ponzi housing pyramid scheme. Why wouldn't banks loan whatever the customer wanted? The loans were backed by the full faith of the US Government agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The last sucker to buy was the one who really got stuck when the house of cards began to crumble. Coupled with lenders who were often loaning over 100% of the value of a home with such creative financing that a couple could pay higher and higher prices they couldn't really afford, and you had the perfect storm for a housing disaster. What might have otherwise been an economical down cycle with a soft landing, became a major economic crisis as the leverage that took us up, began to multiply its effect on the economy on the way down. Just like the housing balloon went bust, I believe that another financial bomb looming in our future is a credit card meltdown. As things get tough, more and more people are putting consumable living expenses on credit. As they begin to fail to make minimum payments, they will start defaulting on their loans. Who will bail them out? You guessed it. We will? I'm not trying to preach gloom and doom. I just think it is a good idea to realize that there are other potentially big problems out there that we need to consider. As banks feel the pressure from unsecured credit card defaults, they will begin to tighten credit. This will cause further defaults as credit card borrowers aren't able to continue to charge their cards and get more cards to charge consumer purchases. As purchasing slows down, jobs will be lost, people will continue to buy less and less and the economy will suffer as a result.

I'm not sure that most real estate has bottomed out yet. This, along with large down payments now being required by banks, makes this a difficult place to bet your future. If renting, I would suggest continuing to rent for awhile longer. If you own a home and don't need to or have to sell it, hang on to it. After all, everyone still needs a place to live. If you do have to sell, remember, although you are selling in a down market, you will also be able to replace the home you sell with a home being sold in a down market. As more and more jobs are lost, families and friends may have to bite the bullet and move in with one another to share expenses. After all, that is the way our families used to get by during lean years. Just as happened in the past, it won't last forever.
3. Keep money in cash or stuff it in a mattress. This approach might seem prudent to some, but the truth of the matter is that, due to inevitable inflation, cash becomes worth less and less until it is worthless. When the government prints money up like it is all free, it has the effect of making your dollars worth less. As an example: Suppose you have an after tax dollar you earned making a product. In a perfect world, you would trade that dollar for something you need that somebody else produced or you would save it. Now suppose, the government prints up two dollars and gives one to your neighbor. Then they hire a government employee to make sure your neighbor isn't working and thus undeserving of the dollar he was given. The only one that has made something that adds to the economy and can be sold for money is you. When you go to the store to buy something produced by another taxpayer, your dollar will purchase 1/3 as much since you are now competing with your neighbor and the government worker for the same goods and services that neither of them had anything to do with producing. As inflation climbs, you will be able to buy less and less with what you have stuffed in the mattress. Plus somebody might steal it or you might forget where you put it.
4. Invest in stocks and bonds. As hard as it may seem, this is probably still the best bet for keeping up with inflation so long as it is done right. All companies are not going to go broke and their stock prices will return over time. The secret to investing is best summed up as a balanced combination of Time, Dollar Cost Averaging, Diversification In Many Funds That Aren't Actively Traded. It kind of goes like this. Over time the market will adjust. If I continue to put a fixed amount into the market, I will buy more stock when the market goes down and less when it goes up. If I buy well diversified index funds, I can sit on them while the market takes time to shake out the winners and losers and they won't cost me the fees I would be charged if I hired someone to actively trade my account. Forget about your neighborhood Edward Jones advisor. He will just lose your money by churning your account to make his fees. Learn about Index Funds that aren't actively traded like those in the Vanguard family of funds. Buy them through a discount broker like Scottrade. An index fund invests in many companies so that the overall risk is reduced.

Something Important To Think About

What a profound short little paragraph.....
"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."



~~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

There is nothing I can add that could say it any better.

Trying to Make Pam an Inaugural Birthday Cake

I have been all over the internet looking for a good birthday cake recipe. Here is something that I found that I thought was interesting on the website: http://www.steviainfo.com/?page=cooking_tips

//www.steviainfo.com/?page=cooking_tips

Instead of Regular Butter:

Substitute Apple Butter made with stevia instead of regular butter for a special treat that will keep your taste buds satisfied.
Recipe: Easy Apple Butter:
7 cups applesauce
7 tsp stevia clear liquid
¼ cup vinegar
1 tsp. cinnamon or allspice
Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat and turn down and let boil for 15 minutes; stirring occasionally. Pour into jars and seal at once.

Please remember when cooking and baking with stevia that for every 1 cup of sugar that is replaced by stevia there should be 1/3 cup of a liquid or other “bulk” added to the recipe. The liquid is needed to create the bulk affect that the sugar normally would. A few liquid substitutions include:

Yogurt
Apple sauce
Apple butter
100% Fruit juice: apple, pineapple, grape etc.
Fruit puree
Egg whites (use egg substitute)
Water
Any liquid that pertains to the recipe will work just fine, for example, use extra banana puree for the liquid in a banana bread recipe.

I finally found a vegan recipe for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I am not sure how it will be received, so I will keep you on the edge of your seat and let you know after tomorrow night.

Here We Are - 2009 Already

Here it is already. Where did 2008 go? Pam's birthday is on January 20th so we are going to have a Birthday Inauguration Dinner at a Stanley and Seaforts, a steak restaurant in Tacoma, Washington. They have good salads and potatoes, so we should have a great dinner. I have been checking on the internet trying to find a vegan birthday cake recipe.

My brother John forwarded me a recipe for soft molasses cookies that turned out great! So here it goes....

Vegan Molasses Cookies

1/8 cup - Brown Sugar/Splenda Sweetener (If you use actual sugar, use 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup - Applesauce (unsweetened)
1/2 cup - Cold coffee
1 tbsp - Baking Soda (Dissolved in the cold coffee)
1 cup - Molasses
1/2 tsp - Ginger
2 tsp - Cinnamon
1/4 tsp - Sea Salt (I left this out and it worked fine)
4 cups - Multi-Purpose Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup - raisins (optional)

Whip together the sweetner, applesauce, coffee, dissolved baking soda and molasses until frothy.
Stir in the remaining ingredients.
Chill the dough overnight. (If you can't wait, chill at least 1 hour)
Drop cookie dough on a non-stick cookie sheet and press cookies down with a fork. (Dough drops should be about the size of a silver dollar.)
Place in an oven that has been pre-heated to 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes.
Cool, scrape from the cookie sheet and enjoy.

I also received a recipe for Chewy Bread Machine Bagels. I couldn't get a picture of them because they were eaten so fast that I didn't have a chance. Pam loved them and said "This could be trouble".

Here is the recipe:

Chewy Bread Machine Bagels
Recipe by Kim Scott

3 tsp - yeast.
4 cups - all purpose flour
2 tbsp - sugar
2 tsp - salt
1 1/2 cups - very warm water

Serves 12 bagels.

Place ingredients in the bread machine. Select dough or manual cycle. When cycle is finished, remove the dough from the machine and roll into 12 snakes about 10 inches long. Press ends tightly together to form a doughnut shape. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place bagels in the boiling water for 2 minutes. (The longer they boil, the chewier they are). Remove from water and place on a stick free cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown in color.

Try also: half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. Add 2 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 cup raisins and an extra tbsp of vegan sugar for Cinnamon Raisin Bagels.

Wonderful News On Christmas Eve

As we get a little older, health issues have always seemed to be a forgone conclusion. Well this new way of eating appears to be changing things. At the end of January 2008 my annual prostate test came back with a PSA of 3.7. The lowest it had ever been was 3.2 back in March of 2004. I was happy with the results. Then I had a blood test in early September 2008 and the PSA had risen to 4.5. My doctor sent me to a urologist and he ran another test. In a matter of a couple of weeks, it had jumped to 6.1. For those of you who know about such things, quick jumps like this are a cause for concern. The urologist decided to put me on a month of antibiotics to see how things went. At the same time, I was following a totally vegan diet. No meat of any kind, no dairy products of any kind, no nuts other than a few walnuts, and no oils of any kind. Here it is, the day before Christmas 2008 and I show up at my urologist's office to check my PSA and determine our next course of action. Why I picked the day before Christmas, I will never know. Not a good time to be getting potentially bad news. To my amazement, it had dropped to 2.2. My doctor said he would see me again in six months. That is the lowest my PSA has ever been since I started monitoring it in January 2003. This was a great Christmas gift. (Even though my urologist is Jewish). What better present than the gift of health. I have taken antibiotics before and have seen my PSA drop to the high 3's, but never as low as it is now. Since I don't believe in coincidences, it is clear to me that being a vegan is literally modifying my health. I'm convinced that the radical lowering of my PSA was due to a combination of antibiotics and diet, and that diet played the more significant role. I haven't lost much weight lately. I am still down only 24 pounds, mostly the result of ingesting large amounts of carbs. Our new bread machine is great, but I have to learn to control myself from eating all the healthy bread I have been baking. It is so good, that I go through a loaf every two days sometimes. The interesting thing is that I haven't gained any weight.

Pam and I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy New Year.