On a lighter and rather lovely note

This entry is straight out brown-nosing, bragging and some other word starting starting with a "b" expressing the same sentiment that I will have to think of later. My wife - Angie...easily the most wonderful woman on the face of this Earth.  A brief background: she is also a Christian but much more dedicated to studying the Bible and expanding her knowledge than I have been, mother of my two boys, volunteer to the school, church, etc, etc and a few more etc's, cook extraordinaire, artist (mediums: paint, Styrofoam board, and my favorite - cake).  

This extemporaneous exaltation will focus on her art.  Angie's fatal flaw is humility...normally a fatal flaw would be pride but in this case her humility limits the volume of painting she does.  So my prescription for humility is to brag on her endlessly until she gets a big head.  Unfortunately she discounts my compliments due to the fact that I am her husband and "have to" like what she does..not to mention she is skeptical of ulterior motives I may have.

So the first medium mentioned - paint.  While this has the fewest examples of her artistic prowess, it is the most long lasting example and the only one that can be handed down to children and grandchildren etc.  Angie loves to paint and hates to paint.  As long as she has momentum things go wonderfully.  Getting her to start a painting is like figuring out how to bring the mountain to Mohamed.  If she stops mid-stream in a painting - the mountain has mysteriously made it back to its original geographic position and she has doubled her distance from it.  The mere mention of attempting to sell a painting garners me and her art extensive condemnation (even though she has had a number of people have commissioned certain pieces and family members have the freebie orders in queue...and yes I am pushing her to get those going).  All this being said...here are two examples:

 

The first is 3 18"x24" panels that the photo does no justice to:

If you look closely you can see that she painted the sides of the canvas to ensure that there would not be white showing in the gaps between the panels.  While to an artist or critic, that is certainly a requirement if you intend for the painting to be hung without a frame...the amount of time and attention to detail she showed to this slightly less than an inch strip is an example of her insistance on things being done "right".  It also highlights why I could never be an artist.

The second Angie referred to as her "bad Bob Ross imitation".  Frankly I like it, we got it framed and it is hanging just around the corner.  

The second medium foam-board: not the most typical of artistic mediums but certainly Angie's most prolific...  Angie made the fortunate mistake of volunteering to help with the stage sets for vacation Bible school at our church.  Since then she has created Mexican themed villages, Western deserts, science labs, and even a train that stretched across an entire wall and made 3 sets of double doors look like the you are getting on the train.  

What you cannot see on the cacti is that she carved out ruts to create depth for the darker colored lines ... attention to detail again.

Each of the beakers started as a 4'x8' piece of foam-board.  While "simple" from her perspective.. my son standing in the background gives and example of the scale.

On this set...each of the beakers is an individually cut, sanded (yes we sanded the edges of the foam-board to be sure they were smooth and even) and painted.  

These are just a few examples...we have literally had close to 100 4'x8' sheets of foam-board in our garage over the years; each transformed into beautiful, detailed, large scale works of art.

On to the third and most tasty medium: cake!!!  Angie's mom did the most wonderful and horrible thing in the world for her as a child.  Each year for her birthday, Angie's mom slaved away and made beautifully decorated cakes.  In this tradition, Angie blesses us and torments herself multiple times a year to make birthday cakes.  

The first example is proof again that she does not back away from a culinary challenge...Josh asked for her to make a Bakugan cake (replicas of his favorite toy at the time).  One would clearly not be enough to feed everyone at the party so two were in order.  She proceeded to make spherical cakes and rather precisely copy the pattern from the toys onto a round surface....how I have no clue but as you can see...pretty dang cool.

Angie will likely kill me for this one as she will say it is not precise or something like that but she made a tank out of cake...the time she spent making the general form of the cake was nothing in comparison to the untold hours creating a camouflage pattern out of icing.

And yes she does girly cakes too..my niece was up here for her birthday so Angie make a cake...just threw something together.

Jake's birthday is coming up soon...yummy.

More Cake Samples

 

Following Christ vs. Being Religious

I know - start off the blog with religion, politics and grilling methods...three topics not brought up in polite conversation.  Fortunately, polite conversations are not my goal.  They are normally much more boring than what we really think.

Disclaimers first: This post is mainly directed at  those of us who call ourselves "Christians"; I am far from perfect, this applies to me as much as it does to anyone calling themselves a Christian; I am not a theologian nor do I intend this to be preachy (I'm sure I will miss the mark on that goal); I could easily fit a large portion of the stereotype mentioned below... with that said....

If you read through the New Testament, Jesus - Son of God, perfect, etc, gets very mad on a number of occasions.  Look through those episodes and you will notices a trend; he gets ticked at the religious - not the sinners.  He doesn't let the sinners off the hook nor does he tread lightly so as not to hurt their feelings (but that is another post).  Time and again Jesus lashes out at the "Religious Right" (there is that stereotype I was mentioning above).  Turning over the tables in the temple, his most sarcastic and biting parables, his most hard condemnations are all for those that say "how good are we, look how horrible everyone else is".  And yet we have "Christians"today protesting any number of issues, holding signs saying that "God Hates ____s (fill in group of "sinners" here).   

I believe my mother has the best paraphrase for how Jesus looked at sin - hate the sin, love the sinner.  I truly believe that God hates abortion - I DO NOT believe he hates anyone who has had one or performs them.   Jesus showed compassion to the woman at the well - she was a class A sinner then or now.  Jesus didn't skirt the issue that she was sinning but He also didn't degrade her because of it.  Jesus didn't shy away from Zacchaeus (tax collector back then - would look more like a mafia thug shaking down businesses for protection money today); He had dinner with him.  Zacchaeus didn't have to "turn from his evil ways" before Jesus would associate with him.  

To truncate an argument that could take 200 pages...If we call ourselves "Christian", we should really work on showing everyone we come across that Jesus' love applies to them.  Christians, the Religious Right, etc have rightly earned a reputation for being hateful, exclusionary, elitist, and even "not at all like what I think Jesus was like" (paraphrased quote from a friend of mine). So next time you are protesting...add something to your sign..."God hates ___ (insert sin), God loves you - no matter what!". We might just break through much of the animosity that has rightly built up against religion, churches etc.  

I will follow up at some point with my thoughts on goats vs sheep (without the reference point it could sound like a really inappropriate posting topic... for those of you who may not be big Bible readers that is a reference to God separating out actual followers of Christ from those who call themselves Christians but didn't get it).

As an epilogue...for those of you who know and interact with me in real life...I more than realize that I'm not there yet, I have words not always backed up by my actions, there have been a number of times I have not kept the standard espoused above.  First, I am a sinner.  Second, hold me to it - it will help me get better. Third, (if you call yourself a Christian) look in the mirror.

Another Post to Increase the Random Nature and Volume of Content

Even with my limited blog reading I have discovered a few supposed truths; the content needs to not only be good and interesting but needs to have a particular draw.  From what I can tell it needs to be singular in topic and focus (like my wife's favorite blog Cakewrecks - 6 days of the worst cakes you could ever buy with one day devoted to pros that actually got it right); OR - you need a unique montage of seemingly random topics that stream together to expose the personality of the writer that others can identify with.... I am going to try my best to fake the second method.  I will likely write copious amounts of pseudo-planned, seemingly random entries over the next few days to give you something to read...at which point I will hit an inevitable wall and grind to a slower more reasonable pace.  

At some point I will have to write on charcoal vs gas grills in the near future - an "acquaintance" that read my "Food, Wine and me" entry told me to turn in my man-card for using the latter.  I'd have called him an "old friend" but since he told me to turn in my man-card... this cannot go on without a significant rebuttal.

Political Philosophy

Much of my interest in politics lies in the political philosophies behind the systems vs the actual execution of politics (given how politics has gone in the last 50 years or so, execution may be the right word).  I have been particularly interested in the Social Contract theories such as those proposed by Locke and Rousseau etc.  In general the concept is this: if I am stronger I could come take over your land...until someone stronger than me comes along.  We agree to leave each other alone and help protect each other against the next big guy that comes along.  We agree to give up a "natural" instinct to take and overpower, in order to assure that we are not the victim of the same instinct from someone else.  The evolution of this concept is the foundation of our modern democratic and republican systems (referring to the methodologies of rule not the political leanings of individuals and parties that have overcome the original meanings).    

My personal theory will likely become a book some day...the United States has moved from a government based on the Social Contract theories to a government based on a Socialised Contract.  The Social Contract implies a conscious decision to exchange "freedoms" for security and certainty.  When you look at the US today there are two minorities that fit that description: naturalized citizens and expats.  They have actively chosen to adhere to or move away from the laws of the land.  An extremely large majority of the remaining population grows up hearing that the US is the best country in the world and our system of government is second to none.  I'm not saying it isn't - I am saying that by the time we reach an age where we can actively participate in our governing or move away from it we are socialized into the concept that there is not other way to go.  We accept our method of government as if there isn't an alternative.  This eliminates the very base of the Social Contract - a decision.  Even the extremists at both ends of the spectrum rely on the understood and assumed level of freedom and rights in the system.

The short of the message is think it through.  Understand what government is and should be.  From their you will likely - as I have - know you are in the right place.  

Food, Wine and me

I could have my first true post on religion, my wife and kids, or even on something like my current job search.... Nope, food.  For those that know me this will come as no surprise - it has been said of me that I live from meal to meal and everything in between is just filler.  Luckily for me I married one of the most talented cooks anyone could hope to find.  Angie mixes precision, research and a bit of adventure.  She knows of more cooking sites, secret methods and substitutions than should be recalled by anyone less than leader of a secret society of culinary librarians.  She rarely backs down from a challenging recipe and I rarely back away from anything but an empty plate.  I am no slack in the kitchen myself - a bit more of a MacGyver.  To this point in my kitchen experimentation I have only chucked 2 "experiments".  I whole-heartily believe in cooking with your nose...pick a central ingredient and start smelling your way through the rest of it.

While I appreciate the unique and the extravagant - the simple pleasures of simple foods done right sit just as well with me.    When I title an entry with anything related to "food" expect a short bit on my recent bites.  

On that note - last night: nothing fancy, sirloin from Costco (unless you have a specialty shop or butcher near by Costco likely the best choice you will have for good meat).  While I didn't take the time to age the steaks last night I have been known to do so.  A simple method I use when grilling steaks is to give them a light coating of butter before placing them on the grill (when I say light I mean that in a Paula Dean way).  I find this gives a steak a nice but thin crust.  By the way, medium rare is my personal recommendation on a steak.  If you are going to err toward more or less done - always go toward more rare.  Medium is overcooked - anything past is burnt.    We had some sides etc with dinner but I can't remember a dang one...the steak was too good. 

I am marinating the rest of the steaks for tomorrow (the other reason I buy at Costco is there is too much for one meal...darn I have to have steak twice this week).