I saw that more kale were up today, after last night’s 2″ of snow melted off of them. The forecast is for a low of 25°F tonight, which probably means 20°F in our neck of the woods, so I covered them. They are a remarkable plant.
Archive for March 20th, 2010
Kale
20 March 2010Chicken Stew
20 March 2010I don’t know as I’ve heard of “Chicken Stew” very often, but what I made for dinner tonight is well-descibed by that name. It came out really good!
I cooked it all on the woodstove in my new 7 quart Dutch Oven.
Ingredients:
8 Carrots, peeled and chopped not too thin
5 Large Potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4″ cubes (I’m starting to peel potatoes more than I used to because of the solanin thing — the potatoes we get at the store are almost always green under the skin)
2 Large onions, cut up (from garden)
1/2 C Rice
2 Large Chicken breasts
1/4 C vegetable oil
1 14-oz can Chicken broth (no msg, didn’t seem to have a lot of salt in it)
A few pieces of dried red pepper from last year’s garden (might be more down in the basement)
1 C of dried tomatoes (from garden?)
1 1/2 C water
1 Bay leaf
Salt, Pepper, Thyme.
Put first carrots, then potatoes, then onions, peppers and tomatoes, then chicken, then everything else except spices in the pot, covered it and put it on a hot part of the woodstove for 2-3 hours, then moved it off to a cooler spot for another hour or so. Added salt, pepper, thyme just before serving.
Should have used more chicken — could have fit a whole chicken in that pan, and although it was enough for dinner, could have used more for the leftovers.
I didn’t add the rice until it had already been on the stove for a while. Should have added it early, and low down so it would be in the water more — it was cooked, but still had a bit of a crunch to it.
Learning the Value of Money
20 March 2010One way to describe what’s happening in the world, and especially the US, right now is that we’re all learning the value of money. We’re learning it anew if we’ve never known it before, and we’re being reminded of it if we’ve only forgotten it.
If every day feels like Christmas, then you’re not living in reality, you’re living in a fantasy world. If, as an individual or a nation, it seems as if the laws of nature have been bypassed or cancelled, be assured they have not.
Money has value. If the place where you live does not tie the value of its money to a commodity, then the value of your money will vary (inflation and deflation), but it does have value. If it seems as if everyone has more money than they used to and that the level of material things in your culture increases more and more over time, be assured that the books are still in balance and that someone else in the world has less. Imbalances such as that can exist for a long time when defined in terms of a human life (that situation could be all the reality an individual knows), but the day of reckoning always comes.
It is that day of reckoning that we face in the next few years. You prepare for it by acquiring tangible assets, by saving, and by preparing to live without money as much as you can. But you cannot prepare yourself for it fully, no matter who you are how much you’ve got now. You can only do your best and bear in mind that flexibility and learning will be required.
Ending and Beginning 