Homemade vegetable beef soup on the fly!

Making vegetable soup is almost as easy as getting it from the can, that is, if you have a slow cooker and just a little bit of time!

First off, there is really no 'correct' way to make vegetable beef soup, other than having a few veggies on hand to throw into a pot or slow cooker. Obviously, having some chunks of beef cut up into bite-sized pieces would be nice also. Other items that are required (for my version of this soup anyway), is a can of petite diced tomatoes, a carrot or two, a small potato, celery, green beans, corn some spices and a cup and a half of water. The only precooking required is to braise the beef chunks in a medium hot skillet for a few minutes.

Otherwise, just cut every thing into small pieces and dump it all into the slow cooker. For the spices, I like to use Lite Salt (50% fake salt), pepper and a smidgeon of cayenne pepper for  some added bite. I add all these at the same time, replace the lid on the slow cooker, set it on high for three hours and then reduce the heat to the low setting for another three. Voila! Soups on!

That's all there is to it! Other than to go and enjoy the soup, that is!

Email tax coming soon?? If so, I can't wait!

Well, it was only a matter of time, wasn't it? It seems a California official is breathing new life into the argument that ‘since most everything else is taxed’, why then he asks, is email exempt!

Berkley City Councilman Gordon Wozniak brought up taxing emails during a recent council meeting. His thinking was that the taxes collected could be used for stuff like saving the local post office. Gordon is currently suggesting that the tax be tiny, initially at least.

There have also been suggestions that this seedling of an idea could be rapidly expanded to tap into all data that a person uses including heftier amounts in the area of e-commerce. Sort of like a sin tax without the sin.

His plan is not really new. It was addressed back in 1998 and resulted in the passage of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which bans Internet taxation. However, that law is set to expire in November, a fact that our cash strapped Federal Government is well aware of.

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Personally, I think this is a great idea as it would allow for Washington to find some much needed relief for programs that the Sequester Act has currently slowed down. If the amounts of taxes for data could be raised high enough, then perhaps some of the monies could be used to form a new entitlement program or two, who knows. In either case, taxing a person by the volume of data they use would hopefully slow down those who overuse the Internet for personal gain while slowing it down for the poor who don’t use it as much. And, that not fair or very progressive.

Iceberg lettuce at $2.59! And, even higher prices to come?

These romaine seedlings will be ready for harvest in 60 days!

As I am already jittery and primed to panic after watching hours and hours of doom and gloom on the TV media outlets, I did a double take at the local grocery store when I saw a head of iceberg lettuce going for $2.59!

Was it time for me to panic and begin throwing stuff into my basket willy-nilly? Was ugly inflation finally taking a serious hold? No, to all the above. Blame the price increase for this and other veggies on cold temperatures that have ruined crops from California to Arizona and beyond.

Retail and wholesale prices for everything from iceberg lettuce to asparagus are soaring because of shortages and crop damage. Warning signs have gone up in some supermarkets. Price hikes are also hurting restaurants, where some vegetables have more than doubled in cost. Want some fresh asparagus? Don't even think about it.

In the winter, about 90 percent of vegetables consumed in the U.S. are grown in Imperial Valley, Coachella Valley and Yuma, Ariz., according to the Irvine-based Western Growers Association. About 25 percent of leafy greens grown in that region – such as romaine and iceberg lettuces – have been damaged, the association said this week. So, get ready to pay higher prices, at least until the spring growing season cranks up - or - do what I'm doing by growing your own!

Punxsutawney Phil to get a 'special' party!

CINCINNATI (AP) -    America's most famous groundhog might want to go back into hibernation.

Punxsutawney Phil is facing a "criminal indictment" for falsely predicting an early spring. Tradition has it that winter will end quickly if the rodent sees his shadow after emerging from his western Pennsylvania lair on Feb. 2, an annual ceremony that dates back to the 19th century and was immortalized in the Bill Murray movie "Goundhog Day."

Read more: http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/weather/groundhog-indicted-over-wrong-spring-forecast#ixzz2OTh3Tier

The novel that’s the talk of Asia!

'I guess every man has a secret somewhere in their lives. Mine was a woman, a mail order bride if you will, who came into my life speaking a language I could just barely understand and who began demanding things from me that are unspeakable to describe to this day... 

Her name was Niamomnni and I guess in her native tongue it meant ‘endless talker’, for from the day she arrived, Nia (my name for her) wouldn’t stop talking. Ever! I’d arise in the morning to her endless chatter, none of which I had even the vaguest idea of what was being said. And, I would go to sleep at night with here lips constantly moving next to my ear. All mostly gibberish.  In fact, the only English she ever seemed to pick up, for the years that she was with me, was ‘visa card please’ and ‘do washy washy’ when she needed money or the laundry done. But that wasn’t the worst of it, that wasn’t what caused me to begin plotting her death…'

Unfortunately, this book was banned in America due to the President's new 'Safe Reading' initiative.

More unintended consequences! Now we’re running out of ammo!

If it were not for the likes of President Obama and some of the others comprising the Far Left, the current incredible run on guns and ammo might never have transpired. As it is, Americans everywhere have bought so much ammo and so many guns, all based on fears concerning new laws, that even many enforcement agencies are now facing their own shortages!

This shortage has also affected the Department of Homeland Security which has announced that it wants to buy more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition in the next four or five years for it own ‘training programs’. (This would be somewhat more that the estimated 470 million rounds that were used to fight all of the last Civil War)! And, all this pressure is sure to have at least two other effects; 1) the cost of purchasing ammo will increase dramatically in the near term, and 2) Obama will be soon seen as a real asset to gun and ammo manufacturer’s everywhere! Heck, they may even give him some sort of award!

Does the threat of snow cause altered behaviors!

After all the early media coverage of an impending snowfall that was originally publicized by the National Weather service as a ‘snowstorm’ on Tuesday, maybe people in the Forsyth area were perhaps a bit over primed for what was in reality going to be a very minor snowfall. Or, maybe it would be nothing at all…

After arising early, I made my way over to the local Country Mart where breakfast is served from 7:30 AM to 10:30 AM most every day. As I ordered, one of the ladies in the Deli area asked me what I thought. She had one eyebrow arched and was about to add a heaping pile of scrambled eggs to my plate.

I answered, ‘About what?’

‘The weather, of course', she retorted. (It seems my reputation for being a weather nut had preceded me).

I told the lady that I felt whatever snow did mange to fall would more than likely melt once it came into contact with the road surfaces. And, I couldn’t help adding, ‘And, gee lady, are ya scared of two measly inches?’

As those words left my mouth, I had reason to immediately regret it as she gave me a much smaller portion of scrambled eggs than I was used to….Hmm, I thought to myself, maybe sometimes brevity really is bliss.

After eating, I got up and did my shopping. It was just after 8 AM and yes, I wanted to get it done early…just in case we got actually did get a boatload of snow.

As I exited the store, a short time later with a bag of groceries in tow, the sun came out and it turned out to be a fine day after all.