Lasagna!

As a kid, I was always a big lasagna fan. My mom always made really good lasagna. One thing I never appreciated was the amount of time it took my mom to prepare it. That is, until tonight, when I made Guy Fieri's Pepperoni Lasagna. When I was home sick last month, I saw an episode of "Guy's Big Bite" on Food Network, and pepperoni lasagna was the dish he made. As I was watching it, I thought, "I can make this." Today, I printed off the recipe and set about making it.

This pepperoni studded lasagna was one of the best lasagna dishes I've ever had. The pepperoni provides a nice, spicy bite, but isn't overwhelming. The best thing was the sauce, which I originally thought was going to be too sweet, but it blends nicely with everything for a good, rich flavor. One other personal note about the sauce. I was shocked that you could actually have a tomato sauce that doesn't come from a can or jar. I'm thinking their may be more homemade tomato sauces in our future. This sauce was easy to make and really good.

A few notes, if you decide you want to try making this yourself.

1) It took me 2 hours and 40 minutes in total to get this dish to the table. I started the sauce at 3:30, and we ate about 6:10. This was the first time I've ever made lasagna, so I can probably shave some time off that in the future, but I'd recommend allocating at least 2 hours.
2) I would make more sauce than is recommended in the recipe. I ran short on the last layer. Since I did a half batch, I made 3 and 1/2 cups of sauce...I wish I would have made 4 to 4 and 1/2 cups. Also, I added extra onion and oregano to the sauce recipe.
3) You don't need 2 lbs. of pasta. For a full recipe, 1 lb. would be enough...I used 1/2 lb. of pasta for the half batch, and that was plenty.
4) Definitely brown the pepperoni first. The little bit of crisp that this adds is really nice.

I highly recommend this lasagna recipe if you want to try something a little bit different. It was DELICIOUS!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

For once in my life I am actually speechless. I can't think of anything profound to say today. I wish I could, but I got nothin'. I do know that I am especially grateful for my family and friends this Christmas day.

I hope everyone who takes the time to read this blog has a very Merry Christmas. Heck, even if you don't read this blog, I hope you have a Merry Christmas. But if you don't read this blog, then you'll never see that wish. Most importantly, though, I hope everyone remembers the true reason we celebrate this Holy Day.

We're All Prophets

Every morning (well almost every morning) for the past 3-4 months, I've tried to start my day by reading the Bible. My father-in-law got me a subscription to "Living the Faith" to help me with daily readings. As I finished my reading this morning, I noticed that tomorrow's gospel reading is the Canticle of Zechariah, from Luke 1: 68-79. Now, 8 or 9 months ago, this wouldn't have caught my attention, but the weekly men's group I attend always opens by praying the Canticle of Zechariah. It's the prayer that Zechariah prayed following the birth of John the Baptist, and it really is a wonderful prayer.

So, why am I blogging about this? Well, this morning as I was showering (where I do my best thinking), one phrase from this prayer started rattling around in my head. It's from Luke 1, verse 76, which says "You, My child shall be called The prophet of the Most High, For you will go before the Lord to prepare His way".

Now, Zechariah was talking about his own son, John, but isn't it true for all of us? Aren't we all called to be Prophets of the Most High in our own unique way? All of us who believe in Jesus Christ are called to do our part to let His light shine in the world. And it doesn't have to be something grand. We can bring Christ's light into the world in our daily lives, with how we act as husbands, wives, parents, children and friends. We can be an example of His love at work and in our volunteer activities. We can be a prophet by stepping out of our comfort zone and sharing our faith through a blog writing. There are lots of little ways we can be prophets of the Most High every day, we just have to listen and act on what God is leading us to do.

The Liberal Point of View

All day long I kept hearing about an impending snow storm, and that some areas may receive up to 2 feet of snow. As someone who does not own a snow blower, 2 feet of snow is daunting. We have chosen not to own a snow blower, because my wife doesn't like them. A guy I work with has 2 snow blowers, 1 for clearing the heavy stuff, and a smaller one for cleaning up the lighter stuff. This guy is really happy with his set up, and I am happy for him.

With all the health care debate going on, I got to thinking, how would Barack Obama view this situation with my coworker having 2 snow blowers, while I don't have any snow blowers? Here's how I think it would go.

Obama would see social inequality in this situation. Of course, he wouldn't ask me how I felt, because he is an elitist and he knows what is best for me, even if I disagree with him. He would begin with a campaign-like speech, decrying the inequality in snow blower ownership in this country. He would cite sob stories about poor, disadvantaged people with only shovels, clearing massive amounts of snow, while multi-snow blower fat cats sit back and laugh at the snow blower challenged people.

Next, President Obama would demand a snow blower bailout package, and force the snow blower companies to take the money. He would claim the snow blower bailout had to be done because the snow blower industry is "too big to fail." This bailout would be paid for by tax increases on rich snow blower owners. Of course, since the snow blower companies took bailout money, Obama would fire some executives, because he would essentially be the CEO of the snow blower companies now.

Then he would appoint a snow blower czar to regulate snow blower prices, and punish snow blower companies that make snow blowers too expensive. The czar would, obviously, set pay wages for all snow blower executives and regulate bonus packages.

Finally, Obama would demand Congress get to work on sweeping snow blower reform. But, he wouldn't provide any specifics, so he could "let the legislative process work." After months of back and forth, multiple prime time speeches, and plummeting approval ratings, Obama would get a snow blower reform bill that, while not perfect, meets most of his objectives (which he never actually specified in the first place). This snow blower reform bill would unconstitutionally force all Americans to buy a snow blower, whether they want it or not. But, fear not, tax incentives would be provided for Americans who can't afford a snow blower. And all of this would somehow be "magically" deficit neutral.

The media and Democrat pundits would claim a historic victory for our young, beloved, energetic President. And, I would be stuck buying a snow blower I didn't want or need because a meddlesome government passed a stupid law, all because of a perceived inequality that was never really there.

About Movie Ratings

If you really pay attention to this blog, you will notice 2 things with my movie ratings lately. There are fewer of them, and they are almost always positive.

Well, there are fewer because a few months ago I cut back to the 1 disk plan on Netflix. What this means, is I can only have 1 movie at my house at a time. Previously, I was on the 2 disk plan. As my kids get older, I have less and less time to watch movies, so I thought I'd save a few bucks a month by dropping back to the 1 disk plan.

The 1 disk plan has forced me to prioritize my movie watching, which means I'm adhering to the Netflix recommendations more and more. I have found that the software Netflix uses to determine recommendations is almost spot on. For those unfamiliar with Netflix, you can click on any movie, and you get a global rating from all subscribers who've rated it, but you also get what they call "Our best guess for...". The "Our best guess..." rating is what Netflix predicts you will rate a movie, based on your past ratings. And, it's correct roughly 95% of the time...kinda scary eh?

Since I've been on the 1 disk plan, I almost always get movies anymore that are predicted to be 3.5 stars or higher. So, it's not that I like everything, it's just that I'm picking movies I should like, which is really how we all should do it when it comes to movie watching.

Movie Review: Terminator: Salvation

On to something more fun, after all these dire political blogs lately. Last night, I watched "Terminator: Salvation" on a friends home theater system. I am not the biggest fan of the "Terminator" franchise, but I enjoy the movies. They've all been 3-4 star movies, and "Salvation" continues that, rating 4 stars.

Christian Bale takes the role of John Connor in this movie. I like Bale a lot, so that was a plus for me. "Salvation" is set in the year 2018, and the few remaining humans are waging a losing battle against Skynet and the Terminators. Connor is not yet the supreme leader of the resistance, but is sort of an inspirational leader to everyone, making regular radio broadcasts to spur on the troops, so to speak. I enjoyed seeing Connor all grown up and in control. I always found it hard to believe from prior movies that he was ever going to be humanity's last hope.

Where "Salvation" falls short is the plot. There wasn't really much of one, and frankly it didn't really seems like anyone was really trying. Very few of the actors demonstrated any emotional range, other than sadness and rage. But, for an action junkie, that's ok. For me, the battle scenes and special effects made up for the relatively simple plot. It also didn't hurt that I was watching it on a 110 inch screen with 7.1 surround sound and Blu-Ray picture quality.

If you like action and you like the "Terminator" franchise, I think you will enjoy "Terminator: Salvation" at some level.

Ideology Rules the Day

Given that the health care debacle now seems to be all but a done deal, I think it's time I make my predictions for the repercussions of the Democrats putting political ideology ahead of the American people. And don't let the supposed "concessions" in the Senate fool you, this is all about the liberal/socialist ideology. The left wants a single payer health system for this country, but they figured out they can't get it all at once, so they've decided to start taking "small" steps. As I've stated before on this blog, if this really was about reforming health care there are many steps that could be taken that would get bipartisan support.

Anyway, here's my predictions of what the fallout of this will be:

1) The Republicans will take control of at least part of the Congress in 2010. The American public does not want this, and they've said so in countless polls. Strangely enough, when Bush wanted to reform social security, the Democrats used polls showing that the American people were against his reform plans to stop that plan. But now, the will of the American people doesn't matter to the Democrats.

2) Some in the far left will sit out 2010. The not so big secret is far left wackos like Howard Dean don't like the current plan either. For them, it doesn't punish the rich, greedy insurance companies quickly enough, and it doesn't provide enough government control of the health care industry.

3) The tax increases in this bill will stop any economic recovery, and unemployment will continue at 10% or higher for the foreseeable future. Anyone with half a brain knows you don't raise taxes during an economic downturn. But the 60 democrat senators who are voting for this are all demonstrating they don't have half a brain.

4) Obama's approval will continue to plummet. He's out of touch if he thinks this is what our country needs right now. We need to get people back to work, we need to get Americans innovating again. We don't need another federal handout and more taxes. It's the economy, stupid!

5) The deficit will increase once the expenses of this plan hit. Remember, the taxes start now, but the benefits don't start until 2013 (coincidentally after the 2012 elections.)

6) By 2028, we will have a single payer health care system.

I believe this is yet another step in forever changing our country for the worse, and it makes me terribly sad. I honestly, hope I am only correct about numbers 1, 2 and sort of 4, but mostly 1 and 2. However, I fear I will be right on all 6 predictions.