Pearsons Progress

John’s Letter to the President of the United States

Please read John’s letter that he sent to the sitting president of the United States of America. My blog usually doesn’t cover this kind of content, but I am enthusiastically behind this. May God have mercy on us all, Bobbie

Saturday, February 06, 2010

President B. H. Obama

United States of America White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

We see that you have appointed another member to the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.  I would like to enthusiastically support this initiative HOWEVER; I ask that you immediately remove Harry Knox, from your council.  In light of Mr. Knox’s recent comments regarding the Catholic Church, the Pope and, Mr. Knox’s unwillingness to moderate his hateful attitude and speech regarding both; we believe Mr. Knox demonstrates a clear preconceived prejudice against any kind of possible Faith-Based partnership whatsoever!

Mr. Knox’s position regarding condom use in Africa flies in the face of clear scientific evidence against his position.  Why would we possibly want someone like Mr. Knox to advise you, our president, while Mr. Knox himself refuses wise counsel?

We are told that the success of Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships and multi-sectarian cooperation by foreign nationals with our military service members in far away places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan are critical to USA future national security.  But, we at home endure bigotry and extreme prior bias in the attitudes and words of this specific appointee.  Mr. Knox is supposed to foster Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.  How can this happen? Mr. Knox’s criticism of the Pope; (“harming people in the name of Jesus”) shows a pre-established bias against the Catholic Church.  Let me add, we are Protestants (not Catholics) and we find Mr. Knox’s intolerance of our Christian brethren unconscionable!  Mr. Knox brings division and prior prejudice to what might otherwise have been one of the more useful councils in your administration.

Mr. President, in order to keep your promises to the American People; to heal our divisions, to promote openness and transparency, and to work to reduce the highly polarized positions that prevail in our land, you MUST remove and replace this inappropriate representative with someone less biased and without prior prejudiced.

May I remind you that the Catholic Church represents about 40% of Christian America?  Mr. Knox’s prejudices establish him as an enemy to these 40%.  You should consider this in your decision.

I trust you will take definitive action to remove Mr. Knox as soon as possible.

Respectfully,

John M. Pearson

A USA citizen

Jalapeño Peppers

New Seeds to plant

It´s time to start my Jalapeño peppers indoor! Our friends Tom and Jeanne, sent me this fantastic seed catalog and offered to send me seeds. I chose 2: peppers and kale (see photo). These peppers are extra large and good for canning, which is my intention. Since  hot peppers and not available in Spain, I would like to can them and also can enough Mexican salsa to last 1 year.

Roasted Red Peppers

I bought 3 kilos of really nice red peppers for a good price in Madrid then roasted and canned them. Here are the results:

About 20 large red peppers rendered 16 jars of peppers.

Oranges

Well, here we are in the village, and the day we came in, our neighbor came with this bag of oranges from her tree. Boy, the way the Lord provides is just wonderful!

Now I’m in the process of looking for recipes that make  use of them. Here are a few recipes that I am planning to use to take advantage and not waste a single one of these blessings.

I’m going to make these Whoopie pies for our friends on Sunday. We are having Luis & Conchi for a meal after church and I’ll serve these for dessert. When I chatted with Conchi, we agreed to just have a simple family meal together. This can only happen in Spain with really good friends. They are a continual blessing to us and we are thankful.

Orange Almond Cream Whoopie Pies

30 min | 30 min prep

SERVES 30

• For the Cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 – 2 orange, zest of (depending how orangey you want the cookies)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

For the Almond Cream Filling

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 5 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 3 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2-3/4 teaspoon almond extract

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside. In another bowl, mix the egg, oil, orange zest and sugar. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, alternating with the buttermilk, until all the ingredients are well combined.
3. Drop the dough, a teaspoonful at a time keeping the shape as rounded as possible, onto the prepared baking sheet, taking care to leave enough space between the cookies as they expand while baking.
4. Bake about 8 minutes, until slightly golden around the edges, but do not overbake for they will get hard. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. While the cookies are cooling, prepare the filling. In a mixing bowl using an electric mixer, mix the cream cheese and butter until light and well blended. Add the sifted powder sugar, in batches, until the filling is perfectly smooth. Add the almond extract, mix well.
6. To fill the cookies, use a pastry bag or spoon to spread the filling onto the the flat side of one cooking and then sandwich another cookie on top.

*It’s nice to have all the ingredients in the house already! Here is another recipe to use the oranges. These I will use when we have house guests for 3 days at the end of the month.

Blueberry and Orange Cupcakes

37 min | 10 min prep

SERVES 18 , 18 cupcakes

• 1 white cake mix (515 g)
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 orange
• 2 3/4 cups frozen blueberries

1. In a large bowl, prepare the cake mix by mixing it with water, eggs and oil (follow the instruction on the box). Finely grate the orange peel (reserve a little bit of zest to garnish, if wanted). If wanted, you can toss 3/4 cup of blueberries in a little bit of flour and incorporate delicately to the dough with the zest.
2. Distribute the dough in 18 greased muffin tins. Distribute 1/2 cup of blueberries on each cupcake. Cook in the center of a preheated oven of 325 F for 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
3. Meanwhile, press the orange to obtain 1/4 cup of juice. In a small saucepan, bring to boil the orange juice and remaining of blueberries. Reduce heat and let simmer 5 minutes (add sugar if wanted, but just a little bit). Let cool. Serve the cupcakes with the blueberry syrup and garnish with orange zest if wanted.

* again, I’m looking to use the ingredient that I have on hand. Our kids, Jerusha and Nathanial brought us cake mixes

and I have blueberries in the freezer. LOVE IT!

Starting my tomato plants

I’ve started 2 trays of tomato seeds.  Can you see the 2 tiny little sprouts? One in a plum tomato and the other a large tomato called ‘muchamiel’  and these tomatoes have red bottoms and green tops. Last year the only ones that did well, were the cherry tomatoes, of which I will plant more of this year too.  I had cherry tomatoes until December! All we needed was a few everyday! Also, I save all the containers our meat comes in from the market and use these to start my seeds in.

Oregano

I realized, that I am nearly out of oregano! Yes, I can buy it here; but since I have the seeds, why not just grow it?

It has been just freezing here…literally! The snow is on the ground and even the greenhouse is cold. I have a tray of oregano started in the kitchen under a light along with my tomato seeds. I noticed today that my oregano has started to come up. It’s very exciting!

Canning Beef Stew

Beef Stew

After Christmas Anita and I went to Makro (the Spanish version of SAM’s Club or COSTCO) so she could buy

Canning for fun & frugality

Anita and I did some canning over the Christmas holidays.  Above is the photo of some meatballs and bolognese  sauce I made; 22 jars of one and 17 of another. I also canned chicken, butter beans, & taco soup (with ground beef, hominy etc). It’s funny to say that it’s fun and work at the same time! I even think it’s relaxing/satisfying…go figure! I guess that’s what hobbies are all about! The pressure canner that I use is on the carousel below.

Pain de Mie

One of my favorite Christmas gifts from John this year was a new bread pan. With the help of our daughter Jesseka, who purchased it, boxed it up and had it shipped to us, I now have this…

Canning Turkey

Please leave your comments.

One of my favorite things to do is can meat. It relaxes me and gives me a sense of satisfaction when I see all the jars lined up on the shelves.

canned turkey

I always know when it’s time to can when I have a shelf of empty jars, so I start making my plans. This week I hope to can about 10 quarts of goulash. I’ve never canned this before but it would be nice to have it on the shelf. My sister-in-law, Vanita sent me spices as couple of months ago and it’s perfect for this. I’m also running low on my Spaghetti Meat Sauce seeing that I only have  2 jars left on the shelf.

The one of the things I would like to can is lamb, which would be excellent for Shepherds pie but I need to find it at a good price first.

Anita (child #5) will be here next Monday and we hope to squeeze some canning in for her too. Nice to travel down with empty jars and take up full jars of  food and meats. They are very handy. I can have most every casserole ready in just a few minutes, no thawing of meat, just open the jar and add the already cooked meat to the other ingredients. Easy!

* please leave your comments