Mama's House

Sorry guys, no sponsorship is forthcoming but I'm sure that's going to change after we win the championship this season. So if everybody who has signed up to play every game drops off $33.00 to me sometime before this coming Friday we'll be all set. I'd like to get in all the money before Friday so I can drop by their office that day and hopefully find out the park and day we'll be playing. Also, expect to hear some time after that about meeting up at the batting cages for some practice.

Everyone who has gone to school knows that recess is better than third period Math class or any other class for that matter. And everyone remembers fondly, waiting and watching with great anticipation for the clock to signal the end of class and the beginning of recess. So I suppose Congress is much like school where recess is much more welcomed than more trivial matters like learning math.

At the stroke of midnight tonight, a vital intelligence law that is helping protect our nation will expire. Congress had the power to prevent this from happening, but chose not to.

The Senate passed a good bill that would have given our intelligence professionals the tools they need to keep us safe. But leaders in the House of Representatives blocked a House vote on the Senate bill, and then left on a 10-day recess.

At midnight, the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence will be stripped of their power to authorize new surveillance against terrorist threats abroad. This means that as terrorists change their tactics to avoid our surveillance, we may not have the tools we need to continue tracking them — and we may lose a vital lead that could prevent an attack on America.

Does anyone think it's important to get into a relationship with someone who is also of Filipino descent? Looking at our family we have Melanie, Darryll, Austin, EJ, and Oliver who are currently in relationships with non-Filipinos. On the other side we have Annette and Faye. That's a 5-2 split right there. That's not to say that Annette and Faye think it's important to be in a relationship with someone who is Filipino though nor is is to that the others think it's not important. But it is an indication of which way our family leans. And to take it further I don't think Vanessa, Roland, or Mehran find it important either as do I. So that would make the informal count, 9-2 with only Lindsey and Joni left out of the count.

So do any of my cousins think it's important to be with someone who is Filipino or someone who is at least asian?

Being the old-fashioned type of guy I am, I'm pretty much in the camp that a man should ask his parents-in-law to be for their blessing. But what about the same guy asking his own parents for their blessing? Let me be clear, I'm not saying that the guy should ask either set of parents for permission to marry but rather for their blessing. That said what are your thoughts about the guy asking his own parents for their blessing?

A friend said he might ask his parents' blessing to see what they thought of the girl's suitability for him. And he thought one should be even more inclined to say something if it is known that the parents didn't particularly like the girl so as to give them a heads up.

I think that it's pretty pointless to ask one's own parents. First, if you have to ask your parents what they think of the girl, then it's probably not meant to be. Second, the idea that one should give them a warning as a courtesy seems to me that you would only be inviting them to persuade/bitch you out of an idea that you should already be committed to at that point.

Any thoughts about this? Relatedly, do any of you girls still want their special guy to ask their parents for their hand in marriage or at least their blessing?

[T]he company is redesigning hundreds of restaurants to encourage customers to hang around like they do at Starbucks. We're so lucky: The first McDonald's in the nation to get feng-shui-ed is in Hacienda Heights... where "earth tones and exotic fauna" will replace the former Hi-C red and electric yellow palate. There will also be a McCafe, an upscale coffee bar, and exterior water elements symbolizing "life and relaxation."

Is there anyone here who would even consider hanging out at one of these newly renovated McDonald's?

Grooms kiss their brides during a mass wedding in Muntinlupa city, south of Manila February 14, 2008. At least 230 couples were married in the mass Valentine's Day ceremony. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco (PHILIPPINES)

Well I suppose here's one reason to visit the Philippines.

It turns out that love is incredibly democratic, and is as common in poor countries as it is in rich countries. And, encouragingly, about 70 percent of us report feeling a lot of love on any given day. This isn’t as obvious as it may sound, as love’s enemy, anger, is significantly more prevalent in poor countries than in rich.

The data suggest some interesting places to look for love: the Philippines, Rwanda, and Puerto Rico top the “love tables.” Meanwhile those in Armenia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan are feeling the least love. (Unfortunately, the love question wasn’t asked in the United States.)

Yup, I'm way behind posting these recipes but I'll catch up soon enough.

So one of the dishes I learned to cook has nothing to do with using a slow cooker for once. The good ol' chicken adobo, also known as the national dish of the Philippines, is easy to make.

Ingredients
Chicken - 3lbs.
Soy Sauce - 1 cup
Filipino Vinegar - 1 cup
Garlic - at least 3 cloves crushed
Dried Bay leaf - 1
Peppercorns - several
Fresh Ground black pepper - to taste

Instructions
1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl or a plastic ziplock bag and marinate in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
2. Preheat a pot (preferably not a non-stick one) with a little oil. Remove the pieces from the marinade/sauce and brown the pieces of chicken first.
3. Pour the marinade/sauce in with the browned pieces of chicken in the pot, bring to a simmer, cover pot, and let sit with occasional stirring for about 1 hour.

That's it. Really simple. The hardest part might be finding filipino vinegar but I encourage a trip to an asian market rather than substituting it with another kind just because vinegars can have really different tastes to them.

So if you try this recipe out let me know what you think.


Notes
1. Now some people like to "slow fry" their adobo afterwards which, "result(s) in a delicious caramelization of the meat and the creation of the much desired crispy bits that go so well with a plate of freshly cooked, steaming hot rice." It's not really the way I like it though. I prefer a wet adobo and like to use the sauce over my rice. But if you do want to have the dry adobo, you'll have to account for the extra cooking time of slow frying it by cutting down on the time you stew the chicken in the pot or else you'll have really dry chicken.
2. The 1 cup of soy to 1 cup of filipino vinegar produces a very tangy sauce which is the way I like it. But if you don't like tangy or want to control how tangy it is at the end, you can cut it down on the vinegar to about 1/2 cup or even less and add more later but don't leave it completely out (see note 3).
3. Some people, maybe lots, don't marinate their adobo. But the acidity from the vinegar makes sense to turn the adobo sauce into a marinade (while the salt from the soy sauce also kinda makes it a brine, which makes the chicken juicer) which can only bring more flavor to the chicken itself. But if in a rush I guess you can skip the marinating process as the sauce will provide plenty of flavor.
4. Although I didn't use the slow cooker for this I'm willing to bet that the slow cooker would help make a very tender, juicy chicken adobo.
5. I like to use at least 5 cloves of garlic and plenty of fresh ground black pepper.

ed. - Bumped for those too lazy to scroll down.

Just to test out if Faye is good enough at it, we should do a cousin snowboarding trip. Who'd be in? And which resort? I'm thinking Big Bear.

Like? Dislike? Hate? Am I missing anything in the sidebars that you would like to see? Let me know.

I know I won't be able to cover this live, that almost all of the winners will be known by the time the west coast telecast starts, and that just about everyone doesn't care about these awards but none of that is going to stop me.

The 50th Grammy Awards is tonight at 8p on CBS. Here are the nominees for some of the categories and my picks to win in the comments. Feel free to make your picks also known.

Record of the Year

• Beyonce - "Irreplaceable"
• Foo Fighters - "The Pretender"
• Rihanna featuring Jay-Z - "Umbrella"
• Justin Timberlake - "What Goes Around...Comes Around"
• Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"

Album of the Year

• Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
• Vince Gill - These Days
• Herbie Hancock - River: The Joni Letters
• Kanye West - Graduation
• Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

Song of the Year

• Plain White T's - "Hey There Delilah"
• Corinne Bailey Rae - "Like a Star"
• Rihanna featuring Jay-Z - "Umbrella"
• Carrie Underwood - "Before He Cheats"
• Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"

Best New Artist

• Feist
• Ledisi
• Paramore
• Taylor Swift
• Amy Winehouse

Best Rock Song

• Daughtry - "It's Not Over"
• Foo Fighters - "The Pretender"
• Bruce Springsteen - "Radio Nowhere"
• White Stripes - "Icky Thump"
• Lucinda Williams - "Come On"

Best Rap Song

• 50 Cent - "Ayo Technology"
• T.I. - "Big Things Poppin' (Do It)"
• Kanye West - "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
• Soulja Boy - "Crank That"
• Kanye West - "Good Life"

Best Country Song

• Carrie Underwood - "Before He Cheats"
• George Strait - "Give It Away"
• Tim McGraw & Faith Hill - "I Need You"
• Tim McGraw - "If You're Reading This"
• Dierks Bentley - "Long Trip Alone"