Macaroni and Cheese

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Vegan Shepherds Pie

My wife just came home from work and we really did not have a lot on the shelves. We wanted a quick meal and it basically had to come from what we had. Sometimes that is when I cook the best. This was actually that good that I feel I should write it down so I could pass it on. I also might have to refer back to it at a later time. That is something I do not do often.

My Mom used to make Shepherds pie when we were kids and it was one of the ten meals my Mom made that I abhorred. Hers of course was the Hamburger variety with peas. On extra good days they were frozen peas. The Gravy made it edible because it was fun playing with the gravy.

Vegan Shepherds Pie

Potatoes

• 2 1/2 Cups Gold Potatoes -The real little white ones.
• 2 tbsp. Vegan butter.
• 3/4 cup Soy/Rice Milk

Simply boil the Potatoes and make traditional mashed potatoes. I prefer using an old fashioned potato masher. Keep the skins on for this dish. Notice there is not a lot of butter or milk like in the traditional mashed potatoes.

The Fake Meat Portion

• Traders Joe's Psuedo Ground Meat. Other brands may work but this works well).
• 1/2 Onion
• 1 Cup Mushrooms (This time of year use corn cut off the cob)
• Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp. Red Chilly Sauce

Brown Onions and Fake Cow in a pan lined with Olive Oil. Add Red Chilly sauce after 5 minutes. Pretty Darn Easy.

The Gravy (This is the fun part.

1 cup Lentils
1 tbsp. Curry Powder
1 tbsp. Cumin
Tamari ( I just pour it in -probably a half a cup)
Corn Starch 2 Tbsp,
Brown Sugar

Boil the lentils in water. Add the Cumin and Curry as the Lentils start to soften up. The water will reduce. You know the routine, add another cup of water and Tamari. When the Lentils are near done add Corn starch and wick in to allow it to thicken. Add the Brown sugar near the end. Voila, you now have the gravy.
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Simply spoon in the Potatoes into a casserole dish. You can figure out the size because I just grab one that looks like it going to work. Next Layer in the Meat mix. Finally add the gravy on top. The gravy should be fairly thick.

Fresh Basil on top would be a nice touch

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Serve hot.

Cheating on My Kindle

Books are Better than Ebooks Much To My Surprise


Well in a round about way. I am a big fan of the Kindle and I was one of the first to scoop one up at a hefty price tag. It was a sweet gift from my wife. So I have a bit of an sentimental attachment to my kindle.

My wife also got me into a book club with some of her classmates from grad school. It is a great group and I really like going to book club. Every book we have read has been interesting to say the least. But many in the book club are teachers so they want pay as little as possible for a book, So our goal is to get books at the Library or even at local thrift shops. Which for the last six months our books have been of the old fashioned variety. Yes books with covers, books with pages and books that sit on the coffee table that say, “Read Me”.

And then there have been books that I read outside of bookclub that for some reason or the other were books of the traditional variety. “What is the What: sits on my coffee table and says read me. It has been six straight months of old fashioned books.

I hadn’t even noticed that I had not read my kindle for six months. I have deeply enjoyed everybook I have read. I more than likely would have loved them on the kindle. Nut they would not have been sitting on the coffee table saying, “Read Me” But the story probably would have lure me much the same.

I still love my kindle, but as the masses now think it is cool to read a Kindle that they have been sucked in by the hype that is now advertising. My initial allure to the Kindle was word of mouth. That’s usually how I make my consumer decisions.

No judgemrnt is made on my part here, Hey if a slick advertising campaign has everybody reading again. So be it. The influenced masses amay find books once again in the near future.

Its Okay to root for Somebody to fail.

My wife and i were discussing that it somehow does not feel right to root for somebody else to fail and for a few minutes I kind of accepted that. But in Lebron Jame's case I am going to make an ardent exception.

These were the comments of King James after his epic fail in game six of the playoffs.

All the people that was rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today,” James said. “They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that.

Okay your royal highness. You made an assumption when you brought your talents to South Beach that you would just win a title. It is something you were entitled to. You also make an assumption
 that everybody who does live your life has a life worse than yours.That simply is not the case. Yes we all have the same problems we had yesterday. So do you King James. You are still a tool and think you are entitled to a life better than everybody else and hopefully you learned you are not entitled to an NBA title. You still have to make the foul shots and play defense for a full 48 minutes.

But we not only rooted for King James to fail. We were happy to see Dallas win a championship. Dallas paid its dues and played as a team. They beat our Portland Trail Blazers on the way to the championship. My initial response was not to root for Dallas, but one the Portland series was over it was easy to recognize that this team deserved it. They won with gritty determination and and the ability to come through in the clutch.

You have to love that. 

You know what happens when you make an assumption, but in this case (especially given your comments) you only made an ass out of you.

Useless stuff for your Birthday

There are 6 people with the named "William Wechter" in the United States.

There is a Bear keeping A Tualatin school from opening. Five Guys Large Fries packs 1,464 calories--as many as 18 bottles of Rolling Rock!
1792 – Kentucky is admitted as the 15th state of the United States. (Sister state to Vancouver, Wa)
1796 – Tennessee is admitted as the 16th state of the United States. (Redneck admittance day)
 
and Born on this day.
1981 – Brandi Carlile, American singer and songwriter



and Today is
"Children's Day", as an event, is celebrated on various days in many places around the world, in particular to honor children. Major global variants include an International Children's Day on June 1 as adopted in the former Communist bloc, and a Universal Children's Day on November 20, by United Nations recommendation.[1] Children's Day is often celebrated on other days as well.

Things done in Hot Buns Pants

Lets see as Eric better known as Hot Buns has given some of us Hawaiian Print pants as a going away present and I love to wear these pants because Hot Buns is a cool dude and it was a good idea and it is an extension of who we are , Monday night Kahuna Hashers.

So far the fore mentioned pants have played four games of soccer accumulating 1 win and 3 losses, have sent some wild shots off the framework with only one goal recorded. These pants have run the Monday night hash when asked to and even made it to a wedding in Maui where I forgot that Hot Buns had actually autographed the pants.

Barkley the Buck

When I was in grad school I simply did not have my act together. I really liked this girl named Kathy and I think she knew it. I was going through a tough time and she invited me over to her place for dinner. I was really excited as we always had friends around and I was excited to spend a quiet evening with JUST her.

It was a Thursday night and I showed up right on time and she looked like she was up for a great evening. We both talked about different things and she asked me if I was ready for dinner. She seemed quite excited about what she had prepared. I blindly commented that it smelled great. So she sauntered out into the dining room with a cookie tin full of Fish Sticks. They weren't even the deluxe fish sticks but rather the little ones we always had on Fridays in the eight grade cafeteria. I was not to be deterred as this was going to be a good night.

Despite the fish sticks we had a great conversation and we were a bit flirty. She asked me if I would like to watch television. I said why not. We sat on the sofa and started watching television and then I heard a knock on the door and the door opened. It was my friends who were always around. We always seemed to hang around in groups.

I was frustrated but, hey life goes on. I said hello to EED (he, a PHD student, couldn't spell ED) and Jeff and we exchanged quizzical looks as I headed to the bathroom. As I was going to the bathroom I noticed Kathy's Red and White shorts hanging on the towel rack and thought nothing more of it.

I grabbed a beer and sat next to Kathy to continue watching the show.  The next thing I know EEEED (with an extra E this time) heads into the bathroom and after a few minutes EEEED comes out of the bathroom wearing Kathy's shorts.

I sat there in stunned silence and I could see Kathy slowly turning red and she was mad. I mean she was really mad. It reminded me of a volcano.

She was fuming and walked over to EEEEd and stated quite loudly.

ED please "TAKE OF MY SHORTS".

Of course EEED replied "Why certainly Kathy" (she was wearing shorts).

And at this point chivalry was all gone because dumb old me ended up laughing my eyes out and I was promptly sent home with fish sticks on my breath.