E-Cig, SUCKS!

   Well, not literally.  I suppose I would be the sucker behind it.  The fact is though it is not a great product; I am not saying that it couldn't be.  The first 24 hours were fine, except it would not hold a charge and it still won't.  One of the cartridges was empty or faulty, other than that, hey it was great.  I liked the fact of not smelling of smoke and choking my non smoking husband.  Unfortunately, since it did not hold a charge I ended up buying cigarettes.
  I think once financials are back in order and my husband has healed and back to work I am going to give acupuncture a try.  It's the times like these I really wished I could step away from them and say "No more, it is not for me" one of these days it will happen and I will feel better for it.

Cheddar Bacon No Knead Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 and 2/3 cups water
1/4 tsp rapid rise yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1/2 drained and chopped bacon

Optional:
1 or 2 tbs bacon grease


Start off with your dry ingredients.  Add your flour, yeast and salt to a bowl and whisk ingredients until well blended or 30 seconds if you want to be sure.

Next add your bacon, cheddar cheese and bacon grease if you chose to use it and stir them until the cheese and bacon are well coated and it looks like a bit of a crumbled mess.

Now pour your water in use the handle of your spoon to stir.  Using the handle of your spoon to combine it will keep from having it stuck in the well of the spoon and is similar to using a dough hook.  When the dough starts sticking to the bowl stop. It will be a gooey mess.  Place a towel over the bowl and let it raise.

You need to allow the dough to raise anywhere from 8 to 24 hours.

Once the dough has risen, lightly flour your surface and turn the dough out.  Pat the dough flat with the ball of your hand into a rectangle shape.  With a dough scrapper fold the dough into thirds, similar to folding a letter.

Now you are going to place the dough into a lightly oiled skillet "your choice what use" olive, veg, pan spray, letting it rest for another hour.  After an hour pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees for 30 minutes.  If you are using a dutch oven or other covered dish place it in the oven to pre-heat as well.  If you are using the skillet the dough is resting in or another pan; don't worry about it.

Now that the oven has pre-heated for 30 minutes your dough is almost ready.  If you are putting your dough in a heated dish now is the time to move it.  Using the skillet to help make the transfer easier, after transferred or if leaving where it is, score the top of the bread twice with scissors.  Please make sure if using the skillet you allowed your dough to rest in, that it is an oven safe vessel.

Score the top of the bread before baking!

I myself like this with a bit more cheese on the top before baking, this is just a preference.

Bake for 30 minutes if in a covered dish and you want it a bit more brown uncover bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Pull from the oven and dump bread onto a cooling rack.  Enjoy.

Please remember that different climates and altitudes can affect your baking adjust where needed.

E-Cigs

   Today I received my starter package for E-Cigs.  I have been a smoker for near twenty-five years, more than half my life.  I started young and have been trying to find a way to quit the last ten plus years.  It really irk's me when non-smokers say just put them down and walk away.  "REALLY!!  That is all I have to do?"  I know there are some out there that have been able to do that and that is fantastic; realistically, most people have to deal with it as any other addict would have to deal with their addiction.

   This product may or may not be the answer but I am excited to be able to get away from the smoke itself. If nothing more I am thankful for that, not for just myself but for my husband as well.  So far it has been doing the trick, it is taking some getting used too.  It is heavy and a bit of a shock when the water vapor comes out like real smoke.

   So we shall see what lies ahead.

  Just a key note:  Cigarettes, e-cigs, chewing tobacco, cigars and whatever other tobacco product there is contains nicotine which can be habit forming, cause cancer, stunt your growth and turn you into a blue martian with fuchsia genitalia.  So, just say NO!

   Thank you that is all.

Newest work in progress

   Well I am still working on my novel.  The story is complete I am adding content and decided on a bit of a change in the story line but still coming along nicely.
 
   In other news today.  I have written a children's book and found a wonderful illustrator to do the drawings; I have started a second book to this and hope to do a few others.  It is nice that I found someone as excited about the project as I am.

  I have also started a short story I will probably post some where in the next week or two so keep your eye's open.  Other than that not much else exciting going on other than continued physical therapy for the husband.

  Hope everyone enjoys the blizzard that is due in, myself I am thinking of hiding under a stack of blankets until the snow disappears! 

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Abortion.

   In the news there are arguments of all sorts now days.  One being abortion, with pro-life and pro-choice at

each others throats.  I myself am pro-life, not just for the fact I cannot have children; but that I do believe that if there is a heart beat and by stopping a beating heart you are committing murder.

  

    I do think that some fail to realize is that if they go through with legalizing abortion as a form of birth control, and yes many will and do use it for that purpose.  Is that they are opening doors to many other issues and technicalities.  If the woman has the choice because she isn't ready to be a mother, then aren't you also giving the same choice to a man who impregnated a woman?  Many of you are more than likely screaming "NO" it's my body only I can decide that.  Well then you do understand and this is to the women who use getting pregnant for ulterior motives, that now there is going to have to be a law allowing a man that does not want to be a father to immediately terminate his rights and responsibilities to the child you decided to carry that he had no choice on.

   Yet, with the way our world is "progressing" I can see the day that this will happen.  Many believe the fetus to be a parasite, in a way perhaps.  Though most of those parasites are life long and like it or not you were and most likely are still to your parents in some form or another.

   If organizations can fight against the horrible things that are done to an animal, why is it they believe this is ok?  A heart beat can be detected 18 days after conception. That is less than a month, a heart beat that means it is pumping blood through it's still forming body.  A living body, that though they have not been born is still a life.

   I do believe that there are circumstances that unfortunately abortion is necessary.  Rape, peril to the mother and of course incest.  I do however think that if a woman wants an abortion because she refused to protect herself in a willing situation  (or just say no), she should be aborted.  That is just my opinion!

   I hate hearing a woman going on about how it is just as much the mans responsibility to help keep them protected.  Wake up sweetheart, your the one screaming your body.  You are the one that should make sure you are protecting you and your body.  They have birth control, women's condoms, spermicidal foams the list goes on and on.  If you play you know the price you could pay. Don't like it, make sure you are protected.  He doesn't want to protect himself and you, kick him to the curb, buy a vibrator and invest in Duracell.  

   Stop using this nonsense of it is your body.  When you become pregnant it is no longer "your body", but a shared vessel.