The Respectfully Republican Conversation

Pansy, I'm slow...very slow..and don't multi-task to well anymore.  I'll blame it on chemo brain and AI fog.

I made a dish called Vegetarian No-Pasta Lasagna.  Eggplants are used instead of lasagna noodles.  And the eggplant slices have to be roasted.  The peppers have to be roasted..yada yada.  I doubled the recipe, thus more roasting time.  Here's the recipe if anyone likes this kind of stuff.  I used a little more cheese.  It's from South Beach Diet.  Of course I added more calories by adding more cheese.  But I had not eaten all day..yes I did...some cottage cheese and a few nuts.  No, I'm not on a diet.  I need to be.  Is it Linda who wears a size 8? 

Don't ask me why it took me so long.  One reason is, like I said, mult-tasking, and the other is sitting down a bit cuz my back was bothering me. 

Vegetarian No-Pasta Lasagna

Vegetarian No-Pasta Lasagna (Phase 1)

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons garlic, chopped fine
2 tablespoons onion, chopped fine
2 (14.5-ounce) cans stewed tomatoes
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 large eggplants
2 tablespoons dried thyme
1 large yellow squash, thinly sliced lengthwise (optional)
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1/2 cup fresh-grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups (4 whole) roasted peppers
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella
1/4 cup fresh basil, shredded
2 cups spinach (optional)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 450°F. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in skillet and cook garlic and onion until they become aromatic and begin to brown. Add stewed tomatoes and 1 tablespoon dried oregano. Once tomatoes begin to bubble, stir in tomato paste. Reduce heat to low, add salt and pepper to taste, cover, and let simmer lightly while you continue.

Slice eggplant lengthwise in 1/4" slices. Spread out eggplant slices on a rimmed cookie sheet sprayed lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Salt the slices generously on both sides, sprinkle with thyme, and lightly brush (fingers are fine) with the remaining olive oil. Roast eggplant in oven until tender and slightly browned. If using yellow squash, also roast briefly until soft and pliable. Remove and let cool enough to be able to handle. Reduce oven to 375°F.

Meanwhile, stir together ricotta cheese, egg, remaining oregano, and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. In a 12" x 9" baking dish, spread 1/4 cup of tomato sauce. Cover with 3 or 4 eggplant slices, then half of the roasted peppers, and then a third of the ricotta-cheese mixture, followed by a third of the mozzarella. Sprinkle half the basil over cheeses, and then spinach and yellow squash (if using). Cover with more tomato sauce, eggplant, peppers, ricotta, mozzarella, and basil. Top with remaining eggplant, tomato sauce, mozzarella, and any remaining Parmesan. Cover with foil and bake for about 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake for about 15 minutes more or until cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown. Remove and let cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Nutritional information
354 calories
12 g sugar
18 total fat (7 g sat)
67 mg cholesterol
35 g carbohydrate
17 g protein
3 g fiber
755 mg sodium

Katie carol questioned Senator Palin on Russia.  I need to enlighten folks on the fact that Alaska pays a big toll on protecting the U.S. interest, as any Country (with all due respect to any country) does.  Katie just doesn't get it. 

The 'Distant Early Warning Line', also known as the 'DEW Line' or 'Early Warning Line', was a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It was set up to detect incoming Soviet bombers during the Cold War, a task which quickly became outdated when intercontinental ballistic missiles became the main delivery system for nuclear weapons.
The DEW Line was the northernmost and most capable of three radar lines in Canada; the joint Canadian-US Pinetree Line ran from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, and the Mid-Canada Line ran somewhat north of this.

Improvements in Soviet technology rendered the Pinetree Line and Mid-Canada Line line inadequate and on February 15, 1954, the Canadian and American governments agreed to jointly build a third line of radar stations, this time running across the high Arctic. The line would run roughly along the 69th parallel, 200 miles or 300 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. The Americans agreed to pay for the line using Canadian labor. The majority of Canadian DEW Line stations were the responsibility of the Royal Canadian Air Force (Canadian Forces after 1968) although some manned facilities were jointly staffed with the U.S. Air Force.
The massive construction project employed over 25,000 people. The line consisted of sixty-three stations stretching from Alaska to Baffin Island, covering almost 10,000 km. The locations were mapped out by John Anderson-Thompson^[1] The project was finished in 1957 and was considered an engineering marvel. The next year, the line became a cornerstone of the new NORAD organization of joint continental air defence

.There were three types of stations: small unmanned "gap fillers" that were checked by aircrews only every few months during the summer; intermediate stations with only a chief, a chef, and a mechanic; and larger stations that had a variable number of employees and may have had libraries, movie projectors, and other distractions. The stations used a number of long-range pulse radar systems known as AN/FPS-19. The "gaps" between the stations were watched by the directional AN/FPS-23 Doppler radar systems, similar to those pioneered only a few years earlier on the Mid-Canada Line. The stations were interconnected by a series of radio communications systems, often relying on tropospheric scattering.
Quite quickly after its completion, the line lost much of its purpose. It was useless against ICBMs and submarine-launched attacks. A number of stations were decommissioned, but the bulk were retained to monitor potential Soviet air activities and to assert Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic.
In 1985, the more capable of the DEW Line stations were upgraded and merged with newly-built stations into the North Warning System. Automation was increased and a number of additional stations were closed. In 1990, with the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States withdrew all their personnel and turned full operation of the Canadian stations over to Canada, while retaining responsibility for NWS stations located in Alaska and Greenland.

In Point Lay, Alaska, the main AN/FPS-19 search radar is in the dome, flanked by two AN/FRC-45 lateral communications dishes (or AN/FRC-102, depending on the date). To the left are the much larger southbound AN/FRC-101 communications dishes. Not visible is the AN/FPS-23 "gap filler" Doppler antenna.
The DEW Line was upgraded with fifteen new FPS-117 phased-array radars between 1985 and 1994, and re-named the North Warning System.^[2]

A controversy also developed between the United States and Canada over the cleanup of deactivated Canadian DEW Line sites. The stations had produced large amounts of hazardous waste that had been abandoned in the high Arctic. Especially damaging were the large quantities of PCBs. While the United States insisted that it was Canada's responsibility to cleanup the sites they had managed, the Canadian government disagreed. In 1996, an agreement was reached that saw the United States contribute $100 million to the estimated $600 million cleanup

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Linda,

Terrible withdrawal symptoms.  That old saying, may we live in interesting times is only as good as when we can talk about these interesting times.  I had no one to talk with about all this.  No one around me seems interested in politics.  They're going to vote for whomever and don't have much to say about it.  Or aren't keeping up.

Here's a case in point:  This lady is saying why she is voting for Obama because he's more frugal and he'll do a better job on the economy.  He has suggested $1 trillion in spending so far.  He even wants to pay for everyone's college education. Then add our infrastructure repairs, not being mentioned, and the bail-out money and we're bankrupt.  But to this lady, he's more frugal:

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080926/pl_bloomberg/a32tl5c5hhc

"Poll respondent Dolcie Rogers, an 80-year-old retired copy editor and Republican, attributes the nation's woes in part to a spendthrift mentality of the younger generation now in control, including Bush. While she hasn't decided who she will vote for, Rogers said she prefers Obama's approach to the economy.

``I was a Depression child, so you don't get too excited about stuff and you don't spend, spend, spend,'' said Rogers, who lives in Botkins, Ohio. Obama, 47, is ``my kind,'' she said. ``He's frugal and he wants to make every penny count.'' "

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I'm watching the Palin - Couric interview- part one, thanks Shirley for finding it.  Did anyone notice Katie's face?  Her and Charlie, what's with the faces they are making?  Katie's look was more of disdain to me.

I found out last night on the news that there still is a half a million Texans without electricity.  They're putting signs on their homes, plug us in.

On the equal pay thing - Legislation passed by the Federal Government of the United States in 1963 made it illegal to pay men and women different wage rates for equal work on jobs that require equal skill, effort, and responsibility and are performed under similar working conditions. (From Wikipedia).

The so-called wage gap is because women tend to take time off to have children, don't want to travel as much etc. Men tend to take jobs that are riskier, etc. Studies have been done and they have found that for men and women doing exactly the same job for the same amount of time they are paid the same. The studies that say women make less than men are looking at all women against all men - does not take into account that men may be doing things that the women have not done or that the women may not have as much seniority because they took time off to have a family, etc. It is just a ploy to get women to vote for them. The pay discrepancy in Obama and McCain's offices is because the staff in McCain's office have been there longer. I also heard that in McCain's office the women make more than the men - again probably because they have been there longer.

Shirley - that recipe sounds yummy. My youngest dd is a vegetarian so I will have to try it.

Rosemary - those people only know about Obama from what they get from the MSM who think he is the second coming!

Linda - Obama can say anything he wants right now and the MSM will paint it so he smells like a rose - more like garbage to me! I do hope that McCain will go to Mississippi tonight and debate him. Can you imagine if the roles were reversed Obama went to Washington and McCain said "call me if you need me" - he would have been skewered.

I heard last night that some Democratic PAC groups are airing ads about McCain's history of cancer questioning if he is fit to be President. I haven't seen one yet but apparently they show a picture of him taken after one of his surgeries with a big bandage on his face. They try to imply that because he won't release his medical records he is hiding something. Apparently, he did let reporters look at them but not make copies - for heavens sake - medical records are private! Obama did not release his - just a statement from his doctor to say he was in good health. As a cancer patient myself I think this is appalling. Aren't we trying to NOT discriminate.

Linda--on Italian food, not politics, although Italian politics are fascinating, even more than here.

We liived in Italy for five years and you're right about Italians not trusting anyone else's food.  We lived near Perugia and would go there occasionally for Chinese or Indian food but we would rarely see Italians in any of these places, only ex-pats.  And if we had Italians for a meal it had to be something (not Italian) but Umbrian, as Italians in one region don't eat the food from other regions. And another thing to learn is one should never praise the olive oil from another part of Italy, much less from another country.  It's viewed as a great insult. Since we lived in the center of Italy, one of the few places not near the sea, we couldn't even get fish in a restaurant, only lamb and pork, and the sea was only 70 minutes away. I did find Umbrians somewhat limited in their food choices, but the choices available were so good, we didn't miss the variety.  I never had a bad meal in Italy, just on rare occasions a medicore one, but usually the food was excellent and fresh. I loved shopping in the small vegetable market near our apartment--and always on a daily basis.  We never purchased in bulk, and never anything frozen. 

You didn't mention that Americans use far too much sauce on their pasta. In Umbria they use just a small amount of sauce, whatever the sauce may be.  You're absolutely correct about the cheese.  We always use fresh cheese and grind as needed. Must say, I miss the food a lot!

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I hope you guys don't mind my asking an O/T question. The recipes are making me hungry. Linda, since you know about italian cooking...do you have an easy meatball recipe? 

I think Shirley's idea for a recipe thread is a good one!

(((HUGS)))
Diane

There is no doubt Italians have perfected the art of cooking, and each different region of Italy puts it's own twist on cuisine.

Thanks Linda for the ideas--I should have thought about nukking the eggplant---Would that work?   I bought two of them on sale----What a mistake for me of little stamina---- Thought I'd bread them and oven bake them for some eggplant parmesan........Then I decided they wouldn't get done enough that way or have the right texture----

Back to the salting, rinsing, draining, eggwash, breading, frying---having every pot and pan in the house needing to be cleaned........ nope never again...... Not in any condition for that kind of cooking anymore----need to simplify and streamline!   

Linda you have an issue with eating baby animals?.............you are no Republican...............we Republicans only eat baby animals.........you do know we are the heartless, mean, cruel, hate the earth party right?...........are you sure your not Democrat?........ha..............Shokk

{{{burp}}

Please pass the tiramisu; I need another helping..................

Love,

An Italian Chef wannabe