Up Early, For a Change

Went to bed early, thus I’m up early this morning. Way early…like 0500 early. Spent the first 45 minutes of the day getting a batch of Navy Bean soup started. El Casa Móvil de Pennington already smells pretty good! Here’s the recipe I use, from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. I couldn’t find a date, but the intro talks about “…you, the cook of the ‘90s.” It’s sorta old.

Ham and Bean Soup

1 cup dry navy beans
4 cups water
1 to 1 ½ pounds smoked pork hocks or one 1 to 1 ½ meaty ham bone
1 ½ cups chopped celery
1 cup chopped onions
¾ teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
½ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon pepper
1 bay leaf

Soak beans overnight in a covered pan. (Alternatively, you can combine the dry beans and water in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for two minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for an hour.)
Drain and rinse beans. In the same pan, combine beans, 4 cups fresh water, pork, celery, onions, thyme, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer for about one hour or until beans are tender. Remove meat. When cool enough to handle, cut meat from bones and coarsely chop. Discard bone and bay leaf. Slightly mash beans in sauce pan. Return meat to sauce pan. Heat through. Makes four main dish servings.

OK…that’s the basic recipe. I begin with five cups of water and simmer the beans for at least four hours, sometimes longer, stirring occasionally to ensure the beans don’t stick. I also chop two or three habanero peppers (depending on size) extremely fine and add them to the mix. If my grocery store is out of habaneros, as it was yesterday, I add about a tablespoon of crushed red pepper. I also use three bay leaves, rather than one. I leave the meat on the ham hocks and don’t mash the beans.

You simply can’t beat Navy Bean soup on a chilly winter’s day. My favorite soup!

The Better Homes and Garden cookbook is the only cookbook I retained from my previous life when I moved into the RV. I kept that particular cookbook because it’s a very good general purpose reference book. One of the things I regret, in retrospect, is getting rid of all the other cookbooks I had. I particularly miss the Time-Life (don’t laugh!!) French cookbooks, of which I had at least three. Lotsa great recipes in those books, and they were used a lot back in the day.

Missed an opportunity to flog the blog on C-SPAN this morning. I had Washington Journal on as I was chopping onions and celery, and the initial discussion topic was blogs. The call-in question was “do you read or contribute to blogs?” C-SPAN apparently attracts a lot of moonbats, Democratic Underground and dKos were frequently cited as the blogs most read. When I say I missed an opportunity, I mean the moderator kept saying the Republican line was completely open. I have my priorities, though. Soup over calling in to Washington Journal. Kinda surprises me the Republican lines were open…I always thought Republicans were pretty civic minded and early risers.

C-SPAN doesn’t get a lot of respect, it seems. I recall reading an editorial during the Alito hearings that said something to the effect that since the major news networks have cut-off times for live coverage (usually around 5:00 p.m.), “only about 7 shut-ins watching C-SPAN actually saw…” the event or remark the editorial was commenting on. Well, I‘m one of those “shut-ins.” I watch C-SPAN a lot. And it seems to me I’m not alone, either. I could never get through to Washington Journal on those rare occasions I’ve felt motivated enough to call in. Seven shut-ins, my a$$.

I’m watching Bruce Laingen, the former US Charge d’Affaires in Iran, on C-SPAN right now (somewhere around 0700, as I wrote). Mr. Laingen was one of the captives that were held for 444 days during the seizure of the US embassy in Teheran during the Carter administration. He began speaking about four minutes ago, but his thinking seems to be classic State Department Lifer, which is to say Liberal-Left. He began the conversation by saying we need to have a “dialog” with the current Iranian administration and “get closer” to them. Mr. Laingen says: “I’m a diplomat, I was a diplomat. My prejudice is towards talking. We NEED to talk. I’m sorry, but that’s the way I feel.” (quote paraphrased, check the transcript on C-SPAN’s website later. You can bet I’m close enough!) Anyway: Bullhockey. We need to kill the bastards, not talk to them. (Sorry, I’m feeling a little belligerent this morning.)

If you don’t remember, Thursday was the 25th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration. Here’s the text of Reagan’s first inaugural address. I remember the event pretty well. I was a relatively new Republican at that time, and I voted for Reagan. His inauguration was a time of renewed hope for America. We had NO idea just how profound a change was about to take place in America, and the rest of the world, for that matter. January 20, 1980 was the beginning of the end of the Cold War, and marked the beginning of one of the most prosperous times, economically speaking, this country has ever enjoyed. Quite a change from Mr. Reagan’s predecessor.

The 20th of January was also the 25th anniversary of the release of the US hostages in Iran. Here’s the BBC on the anniversary of the hostage crisis. Some believe Iranian president Ahmadinejad was a key player in the hostage crisis. And some don’t.

Time to stir the beans!