Jada Pinkett Smith

Jada Pinkett-Smith: “The War on Men Through the Degradation of Woman” -  "How is man to recognize his full self, his full power through the eye’s of an incomplet... e woman? The woman who has been stripped of Goddess recognition and diminished to a big ass and full breast for physical comfort only. The woman who has been silenced so she may forget her spiritual essence because her words stir too much thought outside of the pleasure space. The woman who has been diminished to covering all that rots inside of her with weaves and red bottom shoes. I am sure the men, who restructured our societies from cultures that honored woman, had no idea of the outcome. They had no idea that eventually, even men would render themselves empty and longing for meaning, depth and connection. There is a deep sadness when I witness a man that can’t recognize the emptiness he feels when he objectifies himself as a bank and truly believes he can buy love with things and status. It is painful to witness the betrayal when a woman takes him up on that offer. He doesn’t recognize that the [creation] of a half woman has contributed to his repressed anger and frustration of feeling he is not enough. He then may love no woman or keep many half women as his prize. He doesn’t recognize that it’s his submersion in the imbalanced warrior culture, where violence is the means of getting respect and power, as the reason he can break the face of the woman who bore him 4 four children. When woman is lost, so is man. The truth is, woman is the window to a man’s heart and a man’s heart is the gateway to his soul. Power and control will NEVER out weigh love. May we all find our way.

Kitchen days

Some days I seem to spend all on kitchen stuff- not that I mind, I just wonder where the time goes. Yesterday was one of those days - lots of wee jobs to get done to stop things going off, get thingsmovedout of the way, used up, etc. First up was getting the pickling onions into brine, all done now and will be into vinegar by the end of today. Next was slicing onions into rings for a first try at drying them. I laid them out o a rack over the cooler end of the Rayburn, and by this morning they were ready for storage; I 'd like to get a few jars done for the store room so will tackle some more later today or tomorrow - very pleased with these I got two big roots of ginger last week as well; some for preserved ginger, and some to immerse in a jar of honey with lemon to make a home-made cough/throat medicine - one that was doing the rounds on the net a couple of months ago. It's been soaking for 24 hours now, and is ready for it first simmering this afternoon.     Intersperesed with washing up, tidying, internet and cups of tea, that's where my day seems to have gone on wee fiddly peeling and slicing jobs!   Today sees me continuing with the ginger and pickled onions making that medicine, paperwork and making venison pasties for supper, and an apple crumble; there is a chicken in the fridge to finish stripping and a brace of pheasants to deal with too. Just as well I like my kitchen! No snow here at all yet, but it is cold, so the Rayburn is turned up for most of the day while I'm in here, and I'm wearing a shawl, as a terrible accident befell my good thick Celtic jumper when I inadvertently sent it through the 60 degree wash with a load of tea towels lol  Needless to say it will be made into something else, but I will dig the pattern out and knit a new one as I was very fond of it :) The sun is shining out there, looks  beautiful, but............ I've had the top gate open the apst week or so, and all the birds can come and go as they please for now over the winter garden; it will get a total re-vamp in the spring, so they're welcome to what they canfind there. The Scots Dumpies and the Setland ducks have integrated very well, so I have no worries on that score. The biggest and oldest (by one day ) cockerel out the three is crowing very well now, and is called Geordie after my grandfather; he is teaching one of the others and he's coming along nicely - that's  Wee Donald. The thrid cock hasn't crowed yet but he will! The hens are doing fine, likewise the ducksand i'm thrilled to bits with my first forays into hatching and rearing. Off to put the kettle on now, hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying the snow if it's your sort of thing :)

Gin and tonic cupcakes

Cake and gin in one - what's not to like? 6oz butter 6oz sugar 6oz self raising flour 2 large eggs gin tonic one lemon -juice and zest of half, shred rest for decoration tub of mascarpone cheese icing sugar Beat the butter with the sugar then add in the beaten eggs. Add the flour gradually, giving a stiff doughy mixture; add gin to give a loose dropping consistency, add in zest and juice,  beat well together. Divide between ten muffin cases in a tin and bake in a hot oven until well risen and golden. Transfer to wire rack to cool. Whilst cooling, make icing by sieving icing sugar and mixing with the mascarpone. Make a gin and tonic, and when the cakes are cool, prick well with fork and drizzle over 2 tbsp of g&t per cake. Add a little g&t to the icing, making sure it's not too runny, top the cakes with it and decorate with lemon zest shreds. Put feet up and enjoy with the leftover g&t because you made it FAR too large to all be used in the cakes, didn't you?  ;)   lol