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31 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: Super Simple Breakfast: Texas Hash, Sausage and Egg Casserole, More Casserole Links


Sausage Egg Casserole

                                                    Photo: Sausage Egg Casserole from AllRecipes.com


Dennys Food and Recipes: Super Simple Breakfast: Texas Hash, Sausage and Egg Casserole, More Casserole Links: From Denny:  Going to the beach for Labor Day?  Company coming and you are wondering what is easy to cook up for a hungry crowd?  Here are a couple of easy recipes for breakfast any time of the day.  They are also the kind of flexible recipes that you can add some of your favorite ingredients or seasonings to your taste...



Summer Food:  Deliciously Easy Small Blueberry Cake

Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler




Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All


Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets


Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole



Funny Coffee Cats Shower Curtain

Not ready for the world before your cup of joe? Quit hissing, COFFEE's brewing!
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28 August 2015

A Truth Journal: Hey, DNI Clapper: Demand Agency Heads Change Profile of IC Hiring To Get Real Productivity


nsa_eye.jpg


A Truth Journal: Hey, DNI Clapper: Demand Agency Heads Change Profile of IC Hiring To Get Real Productivity: From Denny:  Listen, Clapper, if your intelligence agency heads keep sending you the same profile over and over, as they have been doing for some time now, quit getting angry about it and just fire their lazy asses.  They are still operating on the outmoded and unsuccessful game plan of Andrew Marshall who seriously F'd up both the military and intelligence communities for the past 60 years.  The Andrew Marshall idea was to hire just the very young, because, he reasoned, they were the easiest to fool and the easiest to control both mentally and physically.  Seriously?

You just can't keep hiring young IT people.  Young people don't belong in the ugly intelligence business.  IT people are the worst choice because they have rarely developed any people skills.  That isn't how their brains move in real time. They certainly don't have much life experience yet either.  The skills they do have for technology is great but you only need a handful of them compared to requiring legions of critical thinkers, and, yes, to a lesser extent, some analytical thinkers.

The field you should be looking at are the Baby Boomers and older.  What a shocking revelation?  That's right; you should be pulling from the 55 - 85 age group, as long as their minds are sharp.  You can teach IT skills to most of them who would be delighted to learn it.  Many of them are either underemployed and bored or outright retired and bored, wanting new challenges.  And, guess what, they would not be frittering away their days collecting dick pics and spying on nude celebrities like at the NSA...

A Truth Journal: Hey, DNI Clapper: Demand Agency Heads Change Profile of IC Hiring To Get Real Productivity



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Get Involved: "if you don't have a seat at the table you are probably on the menu" - Senator Elizabeth Warren
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26 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets



Photo by Helana Brigman  --  Instead of cheesecake, try Raspberry Almond Cream Tartlets.
                                             Photo: Helana Brigman


Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets: From Denny:  Do you enjoy cheesecake but want an easier way to make it?  Then this recipe is for you.  I like cheesecake too but find it too large for just two of us to eat and too time consuming to make unless I plan on entertaining a hungry crowd.

A springform pan is an absolute must to make a proper cheesecake - and the patience of a saint to leave the oven door cracked open as it slowly cools down for hours so you can hopefully avoid it cracking straight down the middle like an ugly scar.  Usually, I've been pretty lucky over the years.  Of course, when I wasn't lucky it was evident that a wonderful fruit topping like blueberry or strawberry could hide a multitude of sins just like gravy on a screwed up dinner. :)...

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets



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Summer Food:  Deliciously Easy Small Blueberry Cake

Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All



Keep Calm, Really? Potholder


Unleash your funny inner emotional diva!
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25 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole


Advocate staff photo by HEATHER MCCLELLAND -- Gourmet Galley, French Toast Casserole
          The Advocate photo: HEATHER MCCLELLAND 
                                                                    
Dennys Food and Recipes: Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole: From Denny:  Whether it's the holidays, a busy summer when the kids are out of school or company came to visit, we all need something fast and simple to put together that's a crowd pleaser.  This simple easy to assemble breakfast casserole fits that bill!

All the ingredients required are a loaf of good French bread, a full 8 ounces of your favorite brand of cream cheese, milk, maple syrup, butter, sugar and eggs.  Add fresh fruit to serve and it's that easy!

Usually when a recipe calls for sugar I often substitute agave syrup or brown rice syrup or even molasses.  If you don't like or can enjoy cow's milk why not substitute almond milk?  When butter is in a recipe I choose to clarify it just because we love the extra boost of flavor at our house from browning and filtering out the milk solids - as well as the added health benefits.  You could use margarine in this recipe as a substitute too.  And, to gild the lily, why not add a few shakes of nutmeg and/or cinnamon, some chopped pecans or walnuts before baking?  Yeah, Flavor Town is the name at our house...

Dennys Food and Recipes: Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole



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Summer Food: Blueberry Lemonade To Beat The Heat


Summer Food:  Deliciously Easy Small Blueberry Cake


Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All



Sports Blue Soccer Woven Throw Pillow



Sports Blue Soccer Woven Throw Pillow


A blue abstract background with bold lettering declaring your love of the sport from Louisiana artist Denny Lyon.  Available on other products too!
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24 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All





Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All: From Denny:  This sheet pan cake of creamy goodness only requires two cups of fresh blueberries.  First you make a simple syrup of water and sugar, add cornstarch to thicken, then add the blueberries.  Set the blueberry topping aside to cool while you create the crust.

The crust is a yummy combination of finely chopped pecans, butter and flour that you pat into the sheet pan and bake for about 10 to 20 minutes to make your tasty crust.  Set aside to cool.

To make your filling you combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar together and when that is well combined you add in the whipped topping, pouring it into the cooled crust.

After the blueberry topping has cooled then pour over the cream cheese-powdered sugar-whipping topping mixture.  Now set the sheet pan of blueberry goodness into the fridge to chill well.  Serve to screams of total delight!...


Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All


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Cooper Name Mug





Shooting star Cooper says, "I'm the man!" What confidence! Who doesn't want to drink coffee every morning with him?  More products available in this name design for your pet or your man! 
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20 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler



Advocate staff photo by HEATHER MCCLELLAND --  Good Blueberry Cobbler
     The Advocate photo: HEATHER MCCLELLAND 

                                                                                  
Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler: From Denny:  Blueberries.  The awesome blue food we all love.  So, I went hunting for something interesting in the cobbler department for us this week.  The first recipe is from our local newspaper, a blueberry cobbler made with a cream cheese pastry and a filling that consists of a combination of blueberries, apple and lemon.  A cream cheese pastry always tastes great with a fruit filling, especially blueberries!  It's a simple and straightforward pastry recipe with flour, salt and butter but also with cream cheese and a bit of orange juice added to the pastry to spike up the flavor.

The filling calls for fresh blueberries, an apple and lemon juice and lemon zest.  While this recipe calls for sugar I often substitute brown rice syrup or agave syrup in its place for a lower glycemic index than refined white sugar.  Try it half sugar and half agave as an idea, whatever you like at your house, just try experimenting until you find that sweet spot Goldilocks zone for your taste buds!

The second recipe is a traditional blueberry cobbler made in a 9-inch square baking pan like you do for brownies and is from a local Louisiana blueberry grower.  When a recipe calls for margarine, well, I'm no fan of margarine, so I use clarified butter.  If you don't have the time to make your own clarified butter it's now available in grocery stores as I saw a jar in Trader Joe's just last week.

Also note that I use "Tablespoon" and "teaspoon" as an easier read so you don't get confused by small type - by writing it out instead of an abbreviation and also capitalizing Tablespoon.  There have been those moments when I was busy and scan read a recipe only to make a mistake with too much or too little of an ingredient so I changed all my recipes to reflect what I do here on my food blogs.  The whole point is to enjoy a good food experience!

Oh, and the Denny Lyon Gifts ads are from my Cafe Press store.  The profits go to my two favorite charities:  the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank that feeds half of Louisiana and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital that has helped thousands of children on the Gulf Coast.  After all, should anyone go hungry in America?  Should any parent have to emotionally stress and experience financial ruin because their child got sick?  Thank you to those of you supporting my gift store effort!...




Check out awesome Louisiana eating: oysters, shrimp, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya
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17 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Lemonade To Beat The Heat


Advocate staff photo by HEATHER MCCLELLAND --  Grandma's Blueberry Lemonade

                                     The Advocate photo: HEATHER MCCLELLAND 


Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Lemonade To Beat The Heat: From Denny:  Blue food.  It's pretty to look at and cooling in this summer heat.  Blueberries are the very essence of summer.  Did you know the silvery bloom on blueberries is a naturally protective waxy coating?

Most people don't wash them until just when ready to eat.  Well, that doesn't work in our house so I pour a large bowl of water, add about 2 Tablespoons of white vinegar and let the entire plastic box and blueberries soak for about 5 minutes to kill bacteria.  Drain the entire box well, dry off a bit with a towel and throw back into the fridge.  Usually, a reputable grocery store - and even from the farm - they give the berries a quick vinegar wash to brush off leaves and bugs.

We all like to dine on blueberries by the handfuls as snacks, toss them on to the breakfast cereal or yogurt and make breakfast muffins. Here's a new twist: how about blueberries in your homemade lemonade?

This interesting recipe (from our local newspaper food writer) combines two fruit syrups:  a blueberry syrup and a lemon syrup.  You only use the blueberry syrup to color the lemonade to your preference.  The remaining blueberry syrup can be used on pancakes, waffles, toast or even in salad dressings.  OK, you got me, this lemonade is so doggone pretty!  Great idea for summer entertaining...


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Louisiana Seafood Reusable Shopping Bag


Check out awesome Louisiana eating: oysters, shrimp, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya
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14 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: 3 Tasty Compound Butters To Compliment Your Recipes



Associated Press photo by Matthew Mead -- Compound Butters



Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: 3 Tasty Compound Butters To Compliment Your Recipes: From Denny:  Whether you are grilling or baking in the oven specially infused butters offer wonderful flavor choices to celebrate your food!  Chef Sara Moulton is known for easy recipes that can be done at home with a minimum of fuss.  She's also one of my favorite food teachers as she is so relaxed, giving even the novice cook a boost of confidence.

Her first recipe is for an herb butter.  Do you have some favorite herbs that you just can't cook without?  This recipe is all about your favorite combination of herbs, though she does suggest a few to get you started.  While you could substitute a Vidalia sweet onion in place of shallots, well, shallots are that much sweeter, and, oh, so wonderfully flavorful so try to find them in your area.  Shallots, a favorite of classically trained chefs, are usually in plentiful supply in the spring and summer months, often into autumn.

Are you more in the mood for a citrus butter?  Chef Moulton combines the zest and juice of lemons and limes for a sublime summer taste that everyone will enjoy.

How about something more substantial for those manly men who enjoy a great grilled steak?  Oh, this recipe is for you!  Combine this steak butter with Dijon mustard, a fresh finely minced garlic clove and Worchestershire sauce (we prefer Lea & Perrins at our house though you could use the brand you like),

If you can't grill outside just use a grill pan on the stovetop to get those prized grill marks, turn it over and place it in the oven to finish.  When ready to plate make sure the steak plate has been heating in the oven. Place a large slice of this steak butter onto the plate and then place the steak on top of the butter.  Talk about awesome taste as the butter melts on the very hot plate, spilling out like a gravy for your steak!  That's the method all the old steakhouses of the 1940's and 1950's used before restaurants went to open charcoal or wood fired grilling.

The beauty of all these butters is that all you have to do is roll them into logs and wrap in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and freeze until ready to use.  Just slice off the amount you need and return it to the freezer.  How simple is that?  You can make these up way ahead of when you will need them...



Funny Friday Weekend Mug



Funny Friday Weekend Mug


Tell the world how you really feel about coming back to work.

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13 August 2015

A Truth Journal: GOP and Rubio 2016: Women Should Suck It Up And Enjoy Results of Rape And Incest?





A Truth Journal: GOP and Rubio 2016: Women Should Suck It Up And Enjoy Results of Rape And Incest?: From Denny:  Does any one in this country actually promote or like abortion?  No.  Even as a liberal I agree with my Republican voting friends that abortion is disgusting and disrespectful of humanity.  But the way the Republican Party screams about the abortion issue does not solve the problem and has not solved the problem in over 40 years.  Obviously, the Republicans do not know how to lead the country - just stir up passions in cultural scream-offs just to win yet another election.  After the elections all the politicians sit on their hands doing nothing until the next election cycle of what will be broken promises.

Planned Parenthood has some serious problems with those insensitive doctors caught on video discussing the marketing of fetal body parts.  Of course, the calculating GOP strategists are promoting that video to rally the cause to defund Planned Parenthood - that also happens to do a lot of good for women's health issues in other areas like cancer testing.  Defunding Planned Parenthood is not the solution that will change the need for abortions.

The real questions every voter should be asking about that Planned Parenthood video is who the hell are these medical science creeps that are demanding said fetal parts be given for free or sold to them for their research and development of who knows what?  How pervvy can you get?  What exactly are they doing with that fetal tissue?  Why is there a "market" for fetal tissue, hearts and lungs in the first place?  Does this situation have anything to do with a severe shortage of donor organs in China with wealthy Chinese willing to pay any price to procure those organs?...


Why Get Involved Iphone Plus 6 Tough Case



"Get Involved: if you don't have a seat at the table you are probably on the menu." - Senator Elizabeth Warren
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11 August 2015

Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: Try Grilled Summer Cooling Puttanesca Gazpacho


Associated Press photo by Matthew Mead -- Grilled Puttanesca Gazpacho

                                                 AP photo/Matthew Mead


Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: Try Grilled Summer Cooling Puttanesca Gazpacho: From Denny:  Fancy a cold soup to counter the ridiculous hot heat of the summer?  Gazpacho is everyone's favorite, especially when entertaining for large groups.  This version involves grilling all those delicious veggies like red bell peppers, poblano peppers, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and a head of fresh garlic.

Let the charred peppers cool before removing the skins and the inside seeds and membranes. Squeeze the cooled soft garlic cloves out of their papery skins and into the food processor.  Add the delicious flavors of capers, Kalamata olives, anchovies, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Make the soup as chunky or as smooth as you like.  Chill well before serving.  To serve, garnish with yummy ricotta cheese and fresh torn herbs like cilantro and basil.  Then sit back and wait for the compliments to arrive!...



Sophie Name Dog T-Shirt

Sophie is a sweet pup -and wise - she deserves the very best!  More products like mugs and t-shirts, ornaments available in this Sophie name, so come see.
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06 August 2015

A Truth Journal: Why is Trump Catching on Fire? What Would His Cabinet Look Like? The Hilarious Lowdown





A Truth Journal: Why is Trump Catching on Fire? What Would His Cabinet Look Like? The Hilarious Lowdown: From Denny:  My fellow media are flabbergasted that billionaire Donald Trump is rising so fast in the Republican polls.  The media is so entrenched in their collective bias that they refuse to take his candidacy seriously.  Hold on to your hats, folks, because Trump will survive far beyond the summer flavor of the month.  Come on; we all know that former President Bill Clinton secretly got him to run as a way to help clean house on the Republican candidates, paving the way for Hillary to win.  Well, that strategy just might backfire since Trump is catching on with the disgruntled middle class.

Well, Trump may be stupidly wealthy but he still knows how to talk Middle Class in his brash Brooklyn accent.  In fact, Trump reminds me much of the very bold personality of President Teddy Roosevelt. And, he is every bit as passionate about his views, with plenty of real fire in the belly running for President that the American public likes in a presidential candidate.  We certainly are not seeing any of that fire in the belly with any other Republican candidates and only with one Democrat candidate, Bernie Sanders...


Funny Normal Is Boring Mens Wallet

Check out this funny saying promoting the human race! Plenty more products like mugs and t-shirts, even shower curtains and pillows available in this fun design.
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