And He's Gone

Ronny Jackson withdraws as from his nomination to head the Veterans Administration:

Ronny L. Jackson, President Trump’s embattled nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, withdrew from consideration Thursday amid mushrooming allegations of professional misconduct that raised questions about the White House vetting process.

“The allegations against me are completely false and fabricated,” Jackson, the White House physician, said in a defiant statement. “If they had any merit, I would not have been selected, promoted and entrusted to serve in such a sensitive and important role as physician to three presidents over the past 12 years.”

Jackson’s nomination had become imperiled even before Capitol Hill Democrats on Wednesday released new allegations of misconduct. The claims include that he had wrecked a government vehicle after getting drunk at a Secret Service going-away party.

The allegations were contained in a two-page document described by the Democratic staff of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee as a summary of interviews with 23 of Jackson’s current and former colleagues. The document also described Jackson’s “pattern” of handing out medication with no patient history, writing himself prescriptions and contributing to a hostile work environment where there was “a constant fear of reprisal.”

I have a feeling that Dr. Feelgood's promotion to 2 star admiral might be delayed as well.

Trial By Fire Recap

As I mentioned yesterday, I participated in a historical cooking competition Trial by Fire.

The basic rules are that the medieval dishes must be prepared under camping conditions.

Unfortunately, because the prep took longer than I thought, I could only complete one dish (the apple pastys)
in the 4 hours available, though I did complete all the dishes in the 2 hours following.

Note to self:  I am never going to do two baked dishes in Trial by Fire again.  Camping ovens turn out to be a choke point, and my camp oven was balky, so between the two of these, I ran out of time.

All the recipes turned out well, though.

Recipes are below
Pastys are made with a shortcrust (non-rising) dough, and is the core of any pasty recipe.

Shortcrust Dough

500 g	strong bread flour
120 g	solid fat (shortening, lard, suet, or schmaltz)
25 g	unsalted margarine or butter
5 g	salt
175 g	cold water (important, because you want little bits of fat to make the dough flaky and tender)

Mix salt and flour, and then grate the frozen fat and margarine into the flour, and work until it resembles coarse cookie crumbs.

Slowly add the ice cold water, and work the dough until it pulls together enough to pull off the walls of the mixing container.

Place dough in a cold place (cooler or refrigerator) for at least an hour tightly wrapped so that it can come together.

Making multiple batches instead of making larger batches unless you are using an industrial strength stand mixer, it gets unmanagable

Beef Filling

450 g	quality beef (skirt steak is preferred)
450 g	red potato
250 g	Swede (Rutabaga)
4 tsp	chopped garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Slice ingredients to about a ⅛" thickness by ½" x ½".

Roll out he dough into 4 equal balls, and then flatten into disks about ⅛"-¼" thick, and then add filling by layering, from bottom to top, with Swede, beef, potato, onion, and garlic, putting salt and pepper on each layer as you lay them out.

Seal with an egg wash , and crimp along the side (Cornish) or along the top (Devonian), cut vent holes, and then paint the top side of the pasty with an egg wash.

Bake at 400°F for hour, until the pastry is a golden brown, and shiny from the egg wash.
Allow to rest for at least 10 minutes before eating. Otherwise, you will likely burn your mouth.
It is traditional to eat with a hot English mustard, both this and a Dijon are next to the pasties.

Chicken Filling

As per the beef filling, except for brining the1 lb of chicken strips for 30 min to 2 hours.

2 cups	water
1 tbsp	kosher salt (half that if table salt)
1½ tbsp	brown sugar
¼ tsp	oragano
½ tsp	marjoram

Fruit Dessert Pastys

It's pretty much the same as the meat pastys, except that you divide the shortcrust dough into 8 rather than 4 to make smaller pasties.

Also, sprinkle granulated sugar on the top of the pastys before cutting vents in the pastys and check at about 45 minutes, as it cooks faster.

Apple filling

1	Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut thin
1 tsp	lemon juice
1 tsp	crushed ginger (can also use 1 cube of the frozen)
½ tsp	cinnamon
1 tsp	arrowroot
1	small pinch kosher salt

Mix lemon juice, salt, and arrowroot thoroughly, and then toss with the rest of ingredients and allow to marinate.

Blackberry filling

½ cup	blackberries
1 tsp	lemon juice
1 tsp	crushed ginger (can also use 1 cube of the frozen)
1 tsp	arrowroot
1	small pinch kosher salt

Exhausted

We went to an SCA event today, a historical cooking competition called Trial by Fire.

So, I drove there and back, and spent 5 hours on my feet wrestling with a balky camping oven and dough.

I was making various forms of pastys, both fruit and the Cornish variety.

The dishes went well, but took longer than expected, so only one dish was entered.

But I've spent the day in the sun cooking, and I am completely wiped.

I will post recipes tomorrow.

Posted via mobile.

More Evidence That Conservative Christianity Has Degenerated Into a Vehicle for Hate

This is beyond contemptible

Once Again I need to invoke Shelby Spong's question, "I have quoted the controversial theologian's question, "Has religion in general and Christianity in particular degenerated to the level that it has become little more than a veil under which anger can be legitimatized?"

In Tennessee, a Talibaptist cleric has equated equal rights to Satan:

A Tennessee pastor said this week that his church was “not trying to offend anyone” when it put up a sign linking “equal rights” to Satan.

Members of the community expressed outrage over the weekend after photos of marquee outside the Knoxville Baptist Tabernacle Church were circulated online. The sign read, “Remember, Satan was the first to demand equal rights.”

“Who was your target audience? Who were you speaking to when you put it up there?” Knoxville resident Rick Staples, asked, according to WBIR. “And when you say you’re asking for your equal rights, who’s asking for their equal rights and who are you comparing to Satan? That was very strong language.”

Andy Henry said that the church was trying to make a statement about gay rights.

“It’s clearly a sign that was meant to offend a particular community – the LGBT community. Because of (the church’s) lack of foresight, they ended up offending everybody who had ever fought for equality or civil rights in general,” Henry observed.

But Pastor Tony Greene insisted that everyone misunderstood the message.

“Our sign referencing Satan demanding his equal rights to ascend into the heavens and be God was simply ‘I’ and all about that individual,” Greene told WATE. “It was not a statement against any one group in particular, you know what about the rights of the unborn babies, the rights of children, the rights of everyone?”

He added: “My heart breaks in the dividedness of our country.”

No, Rev. Greene is not calling for unity, he is expressing a world view for which faith is indistinguishable from hate.

At its core, this is the same spirituality that we see from Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the Taliban.

H/t Neo at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day Day

And so, I am going to be camping in New Jersey my family.

We are driving to the Lakewood, NJ Renfaire.

Hey, don't judge me!  We are each allowed to celebrate this holiday in our own special way.

Needless to say, it will be light posting until sometime Sunday.

Medieval Archeological Find Pr0n

The Staffordshire Hoard, the largest find of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver ever found.

One of the odd things is that there is not a single bit of feminine gold, this is all things like sword hilts, etc. It looks like war booty of some sort.

Here are some pictures, CC license, Photographer: David Rowan, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery :

Knights Templar Not Heritics, Vatican Says Paperwork Misfiled

Really, I'm not joking about the last part. The Vatican will be publishing the minutes of the trials of the order of the Knights Templar (limited edition, 799 numbered copies and costing €5900 each), and the lost paperwork is no joke:

The most titillating part of the documents is the so-called Chinon Parchment, which contains phrases in which Pope Clement V absolves the Templars of charges of heresy, which had been the backbone of King Philip's attempts to eliminate them.

Templars were burned at the stake for heresy by King Philip's agents after they made confessions that most historians believe were given under duress.

The parchment, also known as the Chinon Chart, was "misplaced" in the Vatican archives until 2001, when Frale stumbled across it.

And I thought that my desk was messy....700 years.

Back from Camping

Went to Atlantia Coronation. Basically, this is an SCA thing, historical reenactment set in medieval times.

We all had fun, and were very well fed. It was held at a boy scout camp about 40 miles west of DC.

The worst thing that happened was that one Natalie's dulcimer strings snapped while tuning (Cheap dulcimer).

I also strapped on my stupid had and got some getting hit over the head lessons¹. Got a doozy of a bruise on my leg, a wrap shot to the leg. The Bruise pattern shows that it was a quite well executed shot.

I need to get into bloody shape...I was puffing like a buffalo.

My wife entered her stump work² in the arts competition, and while she did not win, she got some useful and constructive criticism.

¹This is simulated medieval combat using armor and wooden weapons swung at full force.
²A sort of textured embroidery done various thicknesses of threads, beads and/or sequins...Also called raised work.

Putting On Your Stupid Hat

As some of you are no doubt aware, I'm in the SCA, a medieval re-creation group, which simulates a number of activities, such as cooking, calligraphy, garb, and medieval combat

For the past 5 years, between the kids, and my involvement in other aspect of the SCA, most notably cooking, and I haven't put my armor on at all.

I put my armor and re-authorized (qualified to be a safe fighter) yesterday.

The combat is full contact, with rattan (a sort of solid bamboo) weapons, and we wear armor (16 gauge steel on the head, minimum).

I did OK, though after qualification, I laid down, and put my hand on a hornet, with the expected results, so I spent the next half hour getting Benadryl^® on that the sting, and I decided not to fight after that, because the (admittedly minor, I'm not that allergic) swelling looked like a blister just waiting to happen.

When all is said and done, I did OK in the authorization bout. I actually "killed" my opponent from my knees after my legs were taken (think Monty Python and the Holy Grail), which I almost never do.

I've got to get back into my "getting hit over the head lessons".

Unfortunately, fighter practice here is Friday night, which is right out because it's Shabbos, so I can't show up.