Monday, September 17, 2012

225 Years Later...Get To Know Your Fathers

Happy Birthday to the Constitution of the United States.

(http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html)

Two hundred and twenty-five years later, and you can't look at the United States, particularly in it's current political climate, from within, without seeing a clear division. A country formed to be United splits itself apart, many times over words written Two hundred and twenty-five years ago. (Let's not draw the clear paralleles to the Bible and religion. We digress)

Stand by the constitution, and the rights it gives it's citizens, as we do, but remember in addition to not being widely accepted during it's time, it has also been amended (changed/added to) twenty-seven times to meet the needs of the times (most recently 40 years ago). Remember it was a document about organization and guidance of a country, not about controlling and abusing the rights of it's people.

No matter the side, there are several articles and amendments that have been subject to...heated debate. But we're not here to talk about those, or even the words of the constitution, per se.

No, today seems like a good day for some words from the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, on this day, the 225th birthday of our seemingly corruptible and exploited papers of freedom. Who were those men that birthed those important documents, and what were their thoughts...

John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. Among them are lawyers, political thinkers, wrtiers, plantation owners (slave owners), and then there was Benjamin Franklin...musician, scientist, satirist, inventor (who seems out of place with the political company he kept).

Here are some of our favourite quotes from the founding fathers. The words they say/write help us better frame the purpose of the founding documents of the country we call home, as well as the men behind the ink.

-----------------------

"[...] the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion" (The Barbary Treaties 1786-1816 - Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Signed at Tripoli November 4, 1796 http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1796t.asp)

And now, words from our Fathers...

George Washington:

Plantation owner, Office of Armed Forces, First President of the United States.

"It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world."
-- George Washington, Farewell Address to the People of the United States

‎"Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause; and I was not without hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy of the present age would have put an effectual stop to contentions of this kind."
-- George Washington, Letter to Sir Edward Newenham (22 June 1792)

"There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness."

-- George Washington, address to Congress (8 January, 1790)

"If they are good workmen, they may be from Asia, Africa or Europe; they may be Mahometans, Jews, Christians of any sect, or they may be Atheists..."

-- George Washington, to Tench Tighman (March 24, 1784)

"To give opinions unsupported by reasons might appear dogmatical."

-- George Washington, to Alexander Spotswood (November 22, 1798)

John Adams:

Lawyer, First Vice-President and Second President of the United States

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
-- John Adams, Argument in Defense of the British Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials, Dec. 4, 1770

"Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society."
-- John Adams, letter to J. H. Tiffany, Mar. 31, 1819

"Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant."
-- John Adams, Thoughts on Government

‎"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."
-- John Adams, letter to Jonathan Jackson, Oct. 2, 1789

Thomas Jefferson:

Plantation owner, Lawyer, Congressman, Third President of the United States

"Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive t
o their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.
We have solved, by fair experiment, the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries."
-- Thomas Jefferson, to the Virginia Baptists (1808) ME 16:320.

"[N]o man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779)

"I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance, or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Dowse, April 19, 1803

"[N]o man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779)

James Madison:

Plantation owner, Leader of the House of Representative Secretary of State, Fourth President of the United States. An author of The Federalist Papers (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html).

"Conscience is the most sacred of all property; other property depending in part on positive law, the exercise of that being a natural and unalienable right. To guard a man's house as his castle, to pay public and enforce private debts with the most exact faith, can give no title to invade a man's conscience, which is more sacred than his castle, or to withhold from it that debt of protection for which the public faith is pledged by the very nature and original conditions of the social pact."

-- James Madison, The National Gazette (29 March 1792)

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.
-- James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments § 7 (1785)

"Religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."

-- James Madison, Letter to Edward Livingston (1822-07-10)

Alexander Hamilton:
Writer, Lawyer, Economist, Soldier. First U.S. Secretary of Treasury. Principal author of The Federalist Papers (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html).

'"Ah, this is the constitution," he said. "Now, mark my words. So long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instument will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare, and mutual happiness. But when we become old and corrupt, it will bind no longer.”'

-- Alexander Hamilton,

"Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.
-- Alexander Hamilton, Elliot's Debates, volume 2, p. 364

**this dude was all about industry, manufacturing (obviously, because he was in charge of the money) and seemed to be pro-reasonable national deb ; but as the principle author of The Federalist Papers, so many quotes are attributed to that document.**

John Jay:

Lawyer, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Chief Justice of the United States, Author of The Federalist Papers (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html).

"Real christians will abstain from violating the rights of other, and therefore will not provoke war."
-- John Jay, Letter to John Murray (12 October 1816)

** There are very few words by John Jay, perhaps the most important things he contributed in writing was contained in The Federalist Paper. He is definitely the least commonly known founding father. **

Benjamin Franklin:

Scientist, Author, Musician Politician

"I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them; for having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others."
-- Benjamin Franklin, Speech to the Constitutional Convention (September 17, 1787)

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759)

"Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you."

-- Benjamin Franklin

-----------------------

The Federalist Papers

James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay were the authors of The Federalist Papers, the tool of indoctrination of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States, which was opposed to the Bill of Rights (one of the three main parts of the Constitution).

The opposition was most notably stated by the author of Federalist No. 84, Alexander Hamilton, who feared once the document, that eventually became The Bill of Rights was written down, it would later be mis-interpreted as a list of rights that people had, but seen as being limited to only those rights, and would then be used to restrict freedom through false-interpretation and self-interest.

The important things to remember is, these words we hold so dear in the United States, at the end of the day, we're still written by fallible man, and are equally perverted by them for personal gain and self interest, and even at the time of penning was still opposed by the public. It should not be used as a tool of control. It should be used as it was meant to, a guide for the growth and development of a prospering country. It should be revered, but it should not be held above the heads of "men", by "men".

As it was then, shall it be always, until we can learn to be tolerance of differences, while respecting the changing of times and people, and by educating ourselves on history to work towards a peaceful future.

Happy Birthday, Constitution. May civil dissent over your text some day, maybe 225 more years from now, be a thing of history.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Cooking With Frank: Green Tomato Chutney

That's right, back out now...it's another food-cooking related entry.

We've been in a lot of pain the last couple of days. Despite the pain the work must go on, the garden doesn't stop needing attention just because we hurt. Yesterday we added 13 more quarts of canned stewed tomatoes to our long list of summer accomplishments, while resting our elbows on the sink to ease the back pain, as we peeled the skins off of them. The day before we made a 1/2 gallon of sauce, but too achy to can it, we decided we'd just eat a whole lotta things with tomato sauce this week.

It's a good thing we have a passion for tomatoes.

Today we took to the green tomatoes that The Mother left for us to "do something with" and made another batch of Green Tomato Chutney. The first time was an experiment, we had little clue what to expect or do with it, but this past week we spread some on home-made bread and added a slice of Provolone cheese...and magic was created.

Deciding it's something we can really take advantage of from both a nutrient perspective, and a food conservation perspective; as we prepare for a lean year working on a renovation, investing much of our money in that; we set about making another batch for canning today.

But why green tomatoes after all the red ones we've been elbow deep in through the summer.

Each year as Fall harvest edges closer, and frost threatens what remains in the garden, there are always tomatoes on the vine that won't have time to ripen, also, during the growing season plants get weighed down with too many of the fruits, in general, so it's a good way to prune them back, and also doesn't waste anything.

Traditionally green tomatoes have been used for mincemeat, a preserve made with green tomatoes, apples, raisins, spices (like cinnamon, cloves, allspice, etc.), sugar....some have ginger, or cranberries, or other dried fruits, which is then simmered down to a nice jammy consistency. It's very good with plain, unsweetened yogurt, or in pies and pastries, on ice cream..and if you want a yummy, gooey spoon of something sweet and full of vitamins, just to get a sweet fix. It works for that too.

Mincemeat goes back to the 11th century. It's a food that went out of style at least by the 1960's in the United States - but you can probably find it on the rare grocery store shelf in certain areas of the United States (and likely several in Europe). We remember both our Grandmother's making it at some point, probably even The Mother made it.
Mincemeat is a great "depression time" or "poor" food, because it promotes not wasting food, and taking advantage of what you have. For example if you have an apple tree with tart apples that are a little too tart to eat, or you can't eat them fast enough...and/or you have dried fruits that are too dry to be very palatable kicking around, you can make a mincemeat, and you won't have to throw out food.

But wait, we're making Green Tomato Chutney, which is a term used for a mixture of spices, fruits/vegetables cooked down together (it originates from the Middle East and Southern Asia) into a jam-like consistency, and is usually a great condiments for meats, cheeses, crackers, sandwiches...whatever your creative mind can think of.

This recipe is OUR recipe, created this summer, so we'll go ahead and throw 'Frank' at the front of it.

*Warning* this recipe is spicy. Omit jalapeños and decrease chili flakes to make it milder.

Frank's Green Tomato Chutney
8 cups (2 litres) green tomatoes, chopped
4 cups (1 litre) yellow onions, chopped
2 jalapeños, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt, or 1 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp (15 ml) olive oil, extra virgin (good quality)

Sauté onions with oil in large heavy sauce pan, add salt and garlic and continue to sauté until onions are translucent. Add the jalapeños and cook for about 2 minutes then add green tomatoes and the following ingredients:

1 1/2 (350 ml) cups brown sugar
2 tsp (10 ml) ground ginger
1 Tbsp (15 ml) mustard seeds
1/4 cup (60 ml) chili flakes
pinch of allspice
1 cup (250 ml) vinegar

Simmer all ingredients until thick. Can for later use using the hot water bath method (makes about 5-6 pints). If storing un-canned in refrigerator for "immediate" use, use within a week to a week and a half.

Process Gallery:

Green tomato | Chopped onions

Jalapeños (the ones from the garden cross pollinated somehow

with the green peppers, so they became larger than average.
We only fell for their trick twice, eating them raw, before we figured
out what had happened)

With all the spices added.

Left: Before simmer | Right: After simmer

This recipe is great as a sandwich spread, or in quesadillas, or with corn chips. Also good in rice with chicken.

More of our food entries from the last two years, with food porn..if you're into that kind of thing. (some contain recipes)

Food & Cooking
2012

2011

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

A Pain Entry

Feels like the body is being crushed by gravity.

So much pain.

Even the head feels like it's being squished and is bulging at the temples.

We've got nothing clever to write...so visit our archive page, if you feel like it: http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/p/recommended-archives.html

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Revisiting A 9/11 Blog Post

We'll take the day off, for no particular reason other than we can. We drove nearly 12 hours yesterday, getting home at 12:30am, so we're just looking to decompress today.

If you want to read what we wrote last year, in honour of 9/11:
Doing Freedom Right, Our 9/11 Post
http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2011/09/doing-freedom-right-our-911-post.html

Try not to spread intolerance and hate, and have a thankful day. Remember every day, by making a change.

presidential-proclamation-patriot-day-and-national-day-service-and-remem)

Sunday, September 9, 2012

A Dream, Step, and Leap

Tomorrow is a big day. This coming week is a big week. Big changes are on the horizon for us.

A final offer on our dream property, Weeping Willow, is to be made. We're close to moving out time, and so despite the recent drop in price being less than we had hoped, it is somewhat manageable. Hopefully the bank who owns it takes into account that we have been the only one making an offer on it.

Tomorrow we drive the over five hours to look at the property one last time (the third time seeing the inside of the house...about the fourth/fifth being on the land), this time with a new agent - after not being happy with the last agent we worked with on the offers for this property - and then sit down and write up the offer.

It's nerve-racking. It's a lot of money, and a giant step. A giant step to be making with someone else too. Despite having owned a home (which we sold this past spring) before...this is a whole new adventure. A fixer-upper house on 40 acres (or 20, depending on if we have to go with our second property choice) in the country. James, also a former home-owner, is excited to have projects. With the condition of the house, we'll have projects for months, years. It's going to be great.

Our favourite find from the garden
this summer. A Kohlrabi.

We've been dreaming all summer about this property, ever since we saw it and put an offer on it (which got rejected, ultimately) the past June. Our dream is either coming to an end, or now going to soar.

It's time though, James and us have been living in The Mother's house since last October (minus the four months we spent in England at the beginning of this year), we're sure she and The Stepdad are just as relieved as we are that it's coming to a close.

It's been good (sort of) though, spending the summer in her house. She's taught us bits about gardening, which pests to look out for, rotating certain plant plots each year, and more; and tending her garden has given us many ideas about how to streamline our own. She has also helped us become more comfortable with canning, knowledge we will need one we grow our own giant garden next summer, at our own home.

While we have a few more batches of things to can, our time here has not been wasted.

The spoils of our summer:

Canned yesterday
From left to right hot salsa, green tomato mincemeat
and green tomato chutney.

4 - 1/2 pints of beet relish
3 - 1/2 pints mango chutney
4 - 1/2 pints green tomato chutney
2 pints green tomato chutney
9 pints green tomato mincemeat
4 pints banana peppers
6 pints pickled beans
7 pints mixed pickled vegetables
21 pints pickled beets
17 quarts whole/puréed tomatoes
21 quarts stewed tomatoes
2 pint stewed tomatoes
14 quarts stewed tomato chili mix (hot peppers, peppers, onion, garlic, tomato & cumin)
4 pints stewed tomato chili mix (hot peppers, peppers, onion, garlic, tomato & cumin)
14 quarts pasta sauce (with basil)
17 pints pasta sauce (with basil)
5 pints tomato sauce
6 -1/2 pints tomato sauce
2 quarts salsa
12 pints salsa
3 quarts hot salsa
11 pints hot salsa