12 March 2011. “Proshu k Stolu!” That’s “Good Eats” in Russian… Суп с тыквой и фасолью. Squash and Bean Soup

Squash and Bean Soup

Суп с тыквой и фасолью

6 servings

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 ribs celery
• 1 medium onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 500 grammes (18 ounces) fresh pumpkin/squash
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (Russians would use sunflower oil)
• 400 grammes (14 ounces) canned diced tomatoes in juice
• 1.5 litres (6 cups) of vegetable stock or water
• 450 grammes (16 ounces) canned beans
• Salt
• Ground black pepper

METHOD:

1. Peel the pumpkin/squash and cut it into small cubes. Finely chop the onion and garlic, and slice the celery thinly.
2. Place the oil in the bottom of your soup pot over medium heat. When it warms up, add the celery, and cook it for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add the onion, sauté it another 5 minutes, stirring often, until it softens. Add the garlic, cook it for one minute, stirring all the way (there’s nothing nastier than burnt garlic, kids).
4. Add the squash and tomatoes (along with its liquid), cook on medium heat until the liquid thickens slightly, stirring often.
5. Add the stock/water, reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and cook it until the pumpkin/squash is tender, about 20 minutes.
6. Drain the canned beans in a colander, rinse them under cold running water, and let them drain for a moment or two (there’s nasty-tasting stuff in the liquid in canned beans, trust me on that one). Dump the beans into the soup; give it a good stir, cover the pot again, let the beans come up to temp for a couple minutes. Voilà… you’re done! Get out the soup plates and serve it to your guests/family. I’d sprinkle over a little chopped fresh parsley or dill, but since I went to cooking school, that’s kinda instinctual for me. It’s nice and it does add to the taste.

You can use whatever beans are in your store-cupboard… it doesn’t matter in the least (Great Northerns, black beans, kidney beans, lima beans, and cannelloni all work). Hey, you could even use a can of baked or barbeque beans… once they’re rinsed, nobody will know save you and God. Just you watch… that’ll be the night when he says, “That was good, hon… you’ll have to make it again”. Whereas, something that you slaved over… you know the whole story, chapter and verse. The same goes for the pumpkin or squash… use whatever sort of squash strikes your fancy (or availability)… you could even use cubed sweet potatoes or yams. If you have a little more… no problem… if you have a little less… no problem. Please, don’t use canned pumpkin… that’s pumpkin purée, and that’s not what you want at all. Besides that, it has spices added for pumpkin pie; it won’t help the soup, dear.

12 February 2011

Irina Belyaeva

Православной хозяйке (Orthodox Hostess)

Православие и мир (Orthodoxy and the World)

http://trapeza.pravmir.ru/2011/02/12/sup-s-tykvoj-i-fasolyu/

Editor’s Postscript:

Well, my Nicky (who’s an excellent cook, too, by the way) decided to try out this recipe. He decided to add a small can of pumpkin purée (you could also substitute frozen puréed squash), a pinch of allspice, and a bit of dried rosemary, and it came out quite pleasant, indeed. It gives the soup a more solid character and rounds out the flavours a bit more… giving the original a bit more complexity in its overall impact. Hey… this is soup… it isn’t a bread recipe… experiment with it as you will (within reason)… it’s YOUR soup, after all. Lent needn’t be boring… even for monks!

Remember what the Holy Scriptures say about fasting… don’t go around with a long face so that everyone knows that you’re fasting. It tells us to SMILE… that’s right… SMILE. Will the konvertsy learn that? God willing, some shall… as for the rest…

BMD

Workers Punish Dropout Scott’s Fatcat Backers… Labour Keeps Up the Pressure on Dropout Scott… Bully for Them!

Thieves Should be Put in Prison

Arkady Arseniev

2004

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Here’s an old union song… it looks like the old-time spirit is coming back…

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Russia Today on the Rape of Wisconsin…

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It’s good to remind these corporations that there are risks as well as profits involved in supporting right-wing political campaigns. Unions must use their economic power to fight for labour rights.

Mark Weisbrot

Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research

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We’re never going to give up. What part of it don’t they understand? There’s hope here. I feel it. You feel the energy, the intensity. Somebody’s got to be out there feeling it, too.

Marilyn Rolfsmeyer

Art teacher, Argyle School District

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Read these:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20110311/cm_thenation/159190;_ylt=Am1QW_.Dwy9XNbNy6y5d.LX9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJhNjk1YTJhBGFzc2V0A3RoZW5hdGlvbi8yMDExMDMxMS8xNTkxOTAEcG9zAzE3BHNlYwN5bl9zdWJjYXRfbGlzdARzbGsDd2Fsa2VyMzlzYmln

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110312/ap_on_re_us/us_wisconsin_budget_unions;_ylt=AuIfd_suyoJdCewybdyNiG134T0D;_ylu=X3oDMTMwNzFkZnVtBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMzEyL3VzX3dpc2NvbnNpbl9idWRnZXRfdW5pb25zBHBvcwMxNwRzZWMDeW5fYXJ0aWNsZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA3dpc2NvbnNpbmxhYg–

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110312/pl_nm/us_wisconsin_protests;_ylt=AsF31L5._FiyAb9cMLLWhvZ34T0D;_ylu=X3oDMTJxMXFtOGh0BGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTEwMzEyL3VzX3dpc2NvbnNpbl9wcm90ZXN0cwRwb3MDMwRzZWMDeW5fYXJ0aWNsZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA3Rob3VzYW5kc2dhdA–

Workers are punishing the fatcat paymasters of Dropout Scott Walker in Wisconsin. If M&I Bank doesn’t denounce Walker… the unions will pull more than 1 billion dollars (28.74 billion Roubles 719 million Euros 622 million UK Pounds) in deposits from it. With literally trillions of labour money in retirement plans, pension funds, profit sharing and stock plans, and union reserve funds, workers have the ability to reshape the economic and political priorities of the economic élite. In 2009, a coalition composed of organised labour, religious groups, community organisations, and MoveOn.org spearheaded a successful campaign to get Ken Lewis pushed out as chairman of Bank of America.

In addition, Wisconsin police said that 85 to 100,000 people showed up for a massive rally in Madison at the State Capitol. Far from being a punch to the solar plexus, Dropout Scott’s temper tantrum only energised workers, not only in Wisconsin, but also around the country. Worker resistance is GOWING… not slackening. Dozens of fist-pumping farmers drew cheers as they chugged around the Capitol square on 50 tractors bearing signs with messages such as “Planting the seeds for a big season of recalls”.

Dropout Scott Walker is going to regret having passed his extremist measure, which was similar to legislation passed by the Nazis in the early part of their rule. Easily, most of the eight GOP state senators facing recall will be defeated… labour is already organising for January 2012… that’s when Dropout Scott will be liable to recall (he has to serve one year before a recall petition can be circulated).

Look at the poster at the top of this article… “Thieves Should be Put in Prison”. Note well that the thief wears a necktie! He’s a vulture, too… the Russian artist was referring to corporate jackals such as Khodorkovsky, who’s still in a Siberian corrective labour colony… with the full backing of the Russian people. Prison is where Dropout Scott Walker, Weekend Warrior Fitzgerald, and their fatcat backers belong. After all, they did try to plunge a knife into the backs of thousands of working people… and they deserve to be in prison orange for it.

I don’t think that I’m alone in thinking this.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Saturday 12 March 2011

Albany NY

Love BT Fires Back… He’s as Incoherent as Ever…

Buzz off, Tikhon… give us the proof or go home. It’s time for the OCA Holy Synod to gag this idiot… he’s becoming an embarrassment.

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Here’s the latest incoherency from “Love BT”. Cock-a-doodle-doo!

BMD

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Re: Gay Marriage and the OCA

The man in question was serving in the DOS during the time that Metropolitan Jonah was in charge of that diocese. There is no evidence that his suspension was ever lifted by the OCA.

Friday 11 March 2011 23.43 (PST?)

Melanie Sakoda

One shouldn’t imagine that such evidence would have automatically been recorded at the OCA Chancery as it would have been in the old days when the OCA had an extremely competent Chancellor, namely, Protopresbyter Rodion S Kondratick. There was an awfully long period after that Chancellor was given the bum’s rush by Metropolitan Herman when the Chancery of the OCA was like the orderly room of a tiny US Army attachment on the fringes of Goose Bay Air Base in Labrador. A lot of the staff was exchanged for a trusty, but possibly incompetent, miscellany. I would just guess that Bishop Mark and the priest from Miami quietly called on Archbishop Dmitri while he was nodding off and got him to agree to lifting the suspension (as Connie Tarasar was able to visit Metropolitan Ireney at the Cosmas and Damian home and slip the notorious OCA English “rendition” of the Divine Liturgy book onto his lap, hand him a pen and get his official, “Primatial” imprimatur.

Perhaps, when appraised of all this by Bishop Nikolai, Metropolitan Jonah DID try to investigate and have the Synod take the only possible canonical action, to recognise that by contracting marriage after ordination (ANY marriage), the Deacon had deposed HIMSELF with no action necessary at all by a Church court. However, perhaps a senior Archbishop told Metropolitan Jonah rather forcefully, “No action is necessary in any case, the man repented”. After all, that’s the way the Holy Synod now operates. It was almost a mirror image of Santa Fe. It seems to me that one may not, for various obvious reasons, expect that Metropolitan Jonah will be able to proceed in that matter, particularly if it is determined that he needs an extension or two or three of his leaves of absence until after the AAC.

Saturday 12 March 2011 07.33 (PST?)

Bishop Tikhon

https://listserv.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/wa-iub.exe?A3=ind1103B&L=ORTHODOX&E=7bit&P=208277&B=–&T=text%2Fplain;%20charset=ISO-8859-1

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Metropolitan Herman Swaiko was stationed at the base mentioned when he was in the US Army. BT is “zinging” Metropolitan Herman regarding his duties on that base. Well… Lee Fitzgerald was in the Air Force at the same base that Fr Basil Stroyen was chaplain, and Matushka Nina told me one time that Mr Fitzgerald hardly, if ever, showed up at services there. Talk about “turnaround is fair play!” The “forceful Archbishop” referred to is Archbishop Job Osacky. BT needs to smear the late bishop, for obvious reasons. BT isn’t letting the Burke story drop, apparently. I’ll point something up… BT has offered not a shred of documentary evidence from the Holy Synod or an official announcement from the Holy Synod on Mr Burke’s reinstatement. Give us a facsimile of an official letter on official stationery or a URL to an oca.org post, and that would suffice. Such a document or post must state explicitly and unambiguously that Mr Burke was reinstated. Mr Fitzgerald can’t do so… ergo, go home, sir.

Where is King Juan Carlos when we need him? Let’s just quote the good King:

¡¿Por qué no te callas?!

Why don’t you just shut up!?

Now, that’s the ticket… but don’t hold your breath… scummers like Tikhon Fitzgerald and John Whiteford are going to open their Southern-fried yaps until the respective Holy Synods involved sticks a sock in ‘em. That can’t happen soon enough for me (don’t encourage the pigeons by feeding them… don’t reply to ‘em)…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Saturday 12 March 2011

Albany NY

Blunder’s Reported Trip to the USA NOT Announced on Patriarchia.ru or the Official DECR Site

Looks like the Blunder’s confidential little jaunt ain’t so confidential any more… don’t forget JP had CLOSE ties with Podmoshensky AFTER his deposition… should the Blunder be defending such?

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Some people have asked me about a reported trip to the USA by the Blunder and an unnamed Russian metropolitan. A friend asked me that earlier today. Take a look at what I wrote.

BMD

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I checked patriarchia.ru… there’s nothing about a trip by the Blunder to the USA [as of 15.30 EST 12 March], the last item was about him meeting the Columbian Ambassador, and the one before that had the snap of Biden and Tricky Dickie Wood. I held my nose and looked on the Blunder’s site… nothing there either.

Damned if I know… and none of my Moscow friends have heard either (it’s about 23.30 Saturday evening there now). I think that the Blunder could be a poofter… and he’s coming to help his gay blade buddies. There’s a squiffy little number at the Paris MP seminary that’s so obviously a queer that everyone thinks that he might be the Blunder’s love interest. The Blunder tonsured him at 22… ordained him a priest at 23, both are out of line with accepted practise. I have a link on him somewhere. I’ll find it and pass it on.

Don’t forget… it’s never boring in Orthodoxy! Silly wabbit… this ain’t Organised Religion… it’s Orthodoxy. That’s why it’s so much fun!

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Here’s the link that I mentioned, and an e-mail colloquy between an MP priest and me (ain’t modern technology grand… you can contact Moscow in nanoseconds). My interlocutor is in italics, I’m in normal type.

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http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/66881.html

Friend of Hilarion. Uncanonically tonsured and then ordained by him. Technically, he’s a heretic.

He looks like a queer… is he the Blunder’s lover? He looks like Isidore Brittan… Nikolai Soraich’s poofter pal. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that the Wonder’s gay… it would explain why KMG hates him. You see, the Blunder has too many Western connections for KMG to fire him, yet.

Queer? He could be. This guy looks about 14. I think, as usual, the Centre might be playing the long game. When the time comes, the Centre will get rid of him, and send him to Magadan with all the other golubye [Russian slang for gays].

He’s less than 30, tonsured at 22, ordained at 23… that’s against all the rules. I can just see, in my mind’s eye, Fr Dmtri [Smirnov] giving the belt to this kid. This will come back to haunt the Blunder, I’m sure. There’s going to come a day when the Blunder’s Western connections won’t help him. I’m sure that hip people like Yuvenaly Poyarkov, Charlie, and Dmitri Smirnov are all too aware that the Blunder could be a poofter. They’ll move at the proper time… probably using this little queen as a pretext.

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That’s the long and short of it all. Your guess is as good as mine is. If the Blunder’s coming to the USA, he’s not announcing it in the usual venues. Take that for what you will… I don’t have enough intel or info to make any considered conjecture, let alone a conclusion. Nevertheless, it’s probably a sign that things are far worse for JP & Co than they’re letting on to.

We’ll have to wait and see… however, know that this wasn’t a planned outing nor does it have the full backing of His Nibs. Don’t forget, 31 March 2009 when KMG took most of the DECR away from the Wonder, placing Mark and Charlie beyond his grasp… and bear in mind that KMG refused to make the Blunder a ruling bishop… he’s only a “Vicar of the Patriarch”, dontcaha know (most other leading figures are ruling bishops as well as central bureaucrats).

Remember… perspirin’ minds wanna know!

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Saturday 12 March 2011

Albany NY