Feast of St Anthony

Some friends invited us to Portugal to celebrate, belatedly as they were in Spain at the time, the Feast of St. Anthony. The patron saint of lost things, including lovers to be, he is celebrated in June with grilled fish and other tasty morsels.

 The sardines were very tasty and definitely not like the canned variety.

Everyone brought tasty snacks as well, including many types of pastel de nada, an egg custard pastry that is very tasty.

Garden Grows - Mid July

Through hard work and watering in early morning or late evenings, the front garden is paying off. Same for the back garden. It is simple and very rewarding to eat the herbs and vegetables that you cultivate.

We have kale, fennel, chives, garlic, swiss chard and pole beans growing in the front.

In the back we have Tomatoes, Basil, Cilantro, Parsley, pole beans and squash.

 As you can see the tomatoes plants are doing very well. Here's to hoping the flowers will be pollinated to get some nice red tomatoes.

Wisdom Without Zealotry - Same Sex Marriage

A vocal portion in the United States are arguing against making it legal for another portion of the population to have the same rights and privileges as themselves; namely same sex marriage. Sounds weird as America has been touted the land of the free...the place of equality and liberty. It appears that this vocal portion would rather have a system where everyone is equal but some are more equal than others...the others they don't like.

Under the rule of Voltaire (I may abhor what you say but will defend with my life your right to say it) I must permit them to say what they feel using bizarro world logic and emotion. It is when that vocal portion uses religion to determine law, that I have have a problem.

 

Its not difficult to exclude the writings of religion from being used exclusively to make laws, as religion does not have that right in an egalitarian democracy. To dance around using religion as a reason, or in some instances outright declaring it as the reason, this vocal portion says it is against "traditional marriage". This is laughable as I'm not sure which of the many forms of marriage that is depicted in the bible that they are referring to as "traditional" and which their biblical god is ok with. For example:

Monogamy in Titus 1:6
Polygamy: Abraham and David and loads of others.
Same Sex relationship: David and Johnathan, Ruth and Niomi and David and Ashpenaz (1 and 2 Samuel, Ruth and Daniel 1:9)
Male Adultery: Its alright for a married man to have sex with unmarried women (Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17)
Rape: The female victim must be forced to marry her rapist (Deuteronomy 22:28-29)
Marrying Sister-in-law: A man must marry his sister-in law when she becomes a widow regardless if he is married or not (Deuteronomy 25:5-10, Genesis 38, Ruth 2-4)
Celibacy in Corinthians 7:8 and 28
Castrating yourself "for the kingdom" (Matthew 19:12)
Forbidding marrying foreign women (Erza 10:2-11)

And here...

(image from an article on The biblical world website.)

There are also the ones described in the image above. They are all "traditional" if the vocal portion against same-sex marriage use the bible as their guidebook for defining it. The bible also says slavery and stoning people who work on Sundays are alright and we do not practice either of those two things in democracies. Only in theocracies.

There is a last point. A logical point using the old and new testaments of the bible. If you were in charge of a group of people who you viewed as special and wanted their bloodline to carry on, you might want rules and laws forbidding anything that could interfere with that. These laws and rules would prevent same sex relations and would promote any other relationship that would make more babies. After a while you sacrifice a part of yourself to yourself to forgive everyone from the sin you didn't stop them from committing in the garden when the project started. Now everyone can get down with worshipping you, not just those of a particular bloodline. The rules you made against a man laying down with another man no longer applies to proliferation of your special people. Now...what does it matter that two people who want to spend the rest of their living lives with each other and also want to be legally recognized for it by the government?

I do not expect those who base their decisions and outlook on life by emotion and outdated writings, rather than logic, to change their mind immediately. The above two things can at least get them thinking that the reasons why they think it are false. And many religious groups that accept same sex marriage so do not label them all with the same brush of disappointment.

References
Patheos.com
Religious Tolerance.org and here
rebjef.com

Quality Chocolat - Chocolat Bonnat Trinidad

For almost a decade now, because of poor treatment and payment of many harvesters and farmers of chocolate beans, read currently here, here and here,  I have been buying fair trade chocolate bars.

Now I am not naive enough to think that by a company or package saying that they are free trade, there cannot be hidden or uninspected bad things occurring. But at least its a step in the right direction.

There are also some companies that do buy fair trade chocolate but don't pay another organization to inspect, evaluate and determine if they can put their symbol on the package. That takes a little digging and trust on the consumers part.

In the Hudson Market, there is a company with a passion for chocolate and they have gathered a lot of it from around the world. I picked up this one, Chocolat Bonnat, as the seller stated that it and others he sells are committed to fairer pricing with the producers that they are equivalent to fair trade. In particular this company is committed to single-source bean-to-bar practices in fact they were the first company to do so. They also have few ingredients (cocoa, cocoa butter and sugar) and is the most expensive bar I’ve ever bought at $15. I knew I was in for a treat when I opened it...the smell was fantastic. The taste was also extraordinary and creamy while still having that dark chocolate bite of bitterness.

I like the more raw and higher cocoa content bars because I need less to have my fill so the bars last longer and I don't get oogy. I'll try a different sourced area bar from this company when next I'm in the Hudson.

Baby Bannock Brains

A friend was starting to show his newest run of movies, in the theme of zombie comedies, with "Shaun of the Dead". I thought it would be cool to make a themed snack to share. Thus was created baby bannock brains!

To make this you need to mix: 4 cups of flour (I used half white and half whole wheat), 1.5-2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt and at least a tsp of red food colouring.

Mix it together until it becomes a dough and make small one inch sized balls (timbit sized) and flatten them out a little.

Heat up your frying pan to medium with 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.

Fry up a bunch, leaving about a 1/2 inch between them for a little over two minutes a side. When both sides are cooked, put them on a cooling rack on a baking sheet with paper towels on the baking sheet.

While cooking, heat up some honey and you favourite berry jam (I used my wife's homemade strawberry) and put it in a bowl.

When the bannock is all fried, pat dry and add into the bowl. Mix well. Enjoy. It will keep for two days.