SPICE Up Your Life

Namaste and welcome my friends, family, and fellow knowledge seekers to another posting on my blog the Quiet Mouse Strikes Back. Today is a  special day. I am a certified professional chef, among other things and talents I possess. So with that in mind, I want to discuss the topic that is herbs and spices.

In my interactions with others, across my travels, and in my own kitchen I have learned a great deal about the culinary arts. I have received praise from 3 former chefs of the year about my "McLaren's sweet heat bbq sauce". I have eaten the finest, richest, and most succulent foods in my lifetime and I honestly believe that the key to building flavors is in the mastery of 3 things:

1) Basic cooking techniques
a) Baking/ roasting
b) Sauteing/ pan frying
c) Deep frying
d) Grilling/griddling
e) Boiling/ poaching
f) Braising

2) Basic food knowledge
a) things that pair well together
b) difference between fruits, vegetables, fats, and animal products such as meat, eggs, and dairy

3) Herbs and spices

Sadly, I have come to see that all too many people are unaware of the plethora of herbs and spices that are in the world. Americans in particular have been lulled to sleep by eating bland, tasteless, and artificially manufactured foods instead of cooking with the bounty mother Earth has blessed us with.  I have to caveat this part of my discourse with an obvious fact: there are TOO MANY herbs and spices too accurately mention them all on this blog. Sufficed to say, while attending Le Cordon Bleu, I achieved the highest grade in my class for knowledge of herbs and spices. I scored a whopping 99 out of 100 or 99 percent. So, I know a little bit about the subject. My father and my mother also have inspired my culinary passion, along with teachers, friends, and family.

Moving on...  I think the basic 3 spices that Americans are fond of are the basics of SALT, PEPPER, and GARLIC. Which are all fine and well, with salt in moderation, but what of the rest of what is needed to build exquisite flavors?
What about CELERY SEED? BASIL? BAY LEAF? MUSTARD SEED? OREGANO? THYME? ROSEMARY? ONION POWDER? Oh my!
GINGER, PAPRIKA, CAYENNE PEPPER, and CHILI POWDER?
MARJORAM, DILL WEED, CUMIN, PARSLEY, CINNAMON, CILANTRO, NUTMEG, ALLSPICE, CARDAMOM, and CLOVES?
WHITE, BLACK, GREEN, and PINK PEPPERCORNS!!!
Sooooooooooo many kinds of CURRY! TURMERIC! GARAM MASALA! Cajun seasoning. Greek seasoning. Asian 5 spice. Taco and fajita seasonings... et. al...
Oh so many ways to combine these herbs and spices with foods. Oh, and I haven't even started on the different varieties of chilies and peppers. I'll save that for another blog...

The point of all this is to SPICE UP YOUR LIFE!!! Don't just settle for bland and boring. There are stores everywhere selling herbs and spices from all over the planet and some can be expensive, like VANILLA BEANS and SAFFRON, for example. My personal favorite store bought seasoning mixes are ANY of the MAGIC SEASONINGS and TONY CHACHERE'S. Wal mart sells a good variety of herbs and spices for cheap and local Winco stores have herbs and spices you can buy in bulk, which can lower your food costs. Beware of paying extra just for a glass bottle and a fancy brand name...

I hope that all my readers will go out and try a new herb or spice, both, a little bit, a lotta bit, or some combination of flavors...expanding your horizons is paramount in growing and evolving as a human being. Bring some flavors into your meal and SPICE UP YOUR LIFE!!! This has been the one and only Quiet Mouse. You are what you eat. Eat CONSCIOUSLY! Live CONSCIOUSLY!

"That's Gay"

Namaste and welcome to another posting on my blog. Thank you for joining me today. Yesterday was the 8 year anniversary of this blog: the Quiet Mouse Strikes Back

I don't know how it works for some folks... but I understand everyone has a right to their own opinions. This doesn't make it any easier to tolerate intolerance toward others. For the sake of this blog I want to talk about homosexuals.

One of my best friends in life is a homosexual man, a cousin of my wife's. He is in a committed relationship with another man. We behave civilly. We talk about our thoughts, feelings, world issues, politics, veganism, etc. Sexual preference doesn't change the heart of a person. My friend is a good person. He deserves a life to pursue happiness, free from persecution and ridicule.

I remember growing up in the South, school age in Oklahoma. There was a lot of homophobia that I could never understand. I now live in Washington, a much more progressive state and the prejudice is still present, unfortunately. And I still don't get it. Besides archaic dogmatic religious beliefs that condone prejudice, what ACTUAL evidence is there that someone is ANY different than another person, solely based on their sexual orientation. There isn't. When I served in the Navy, there were many proudly serving lesbians and homosexual men: don't ask, don't tell. I never judged them then because they were willing, just like myself, to sacrifice their own life and freedom to serve something greater than themselves. That's heart. That's honor. That's courage. Can all the homophobic men say the same? Some can. Some can't. But most of the homophobia stems from men.

As humans, we all desire human connection, contact, and love. We want to find the one that will accept, support, and love us, despite our imperfections and insecurities (cause we ALL have 'em). It's universal. One person loving another, unless it harms children or animals, should never be perceived as negative. We should feel happy when someone else finds love and happiness, regardless if it's a man/man, woman/ woman, or man/woman, or even trans relationship. What's important is CONSENT.

We all are born from our mothers. We all breathe air. We all eat, sleep, piss, shit, fuck, play, and dream. We all bleed. We all seek out love and companionship from others. Most of us want the world to be a better place.

The world seems like a crazy place, but can be cured through tolerance and empathy. We have to admit that the old way of doing things and thinking has led the world to ruin, war, and suffering. Hearing ignorant people say "that's gay..." is frustrating. Young men are throwing these words around, spreading intolerance and senseless hate. WHY?!? It's not contagious! Perhaps you are having thoughts about the same gender? Regardless, the hate has to stop. The hate speech has to stop. The ignorance has to stop. So many of our societal issues stem from lack of education among the population. The late George Carlin once said, and I paraphrase, "Republicans don't like abortion and they don't like gays. Who has less abortions than gays? It seems they would be natural allies...".
I joke, but the issue is serious. We cannot claim to be the land of the free AND be homophobic. We cannot claim to be the land of the free AND be gender and sexually prejudiced. We cannot claim to be the land of the free AND talk in a manner that spreads hate and division ("that's gay"). We cannot claim to be the land of the free AND be racist, xenophobic, ethnocentric, and intolerant of other cultures and religious beliefs. We cannot claim to be the land of the free AND be homophobic.

We're all human and make mistakes. We are a product of our environments. We cannot help the ignorance of our forefathers, BUT we CAN do better and NOT spread ignorance and hatred. Instead we should trade the old ways for respect, integrity, and dignity. Let's go from saying "that's gay" to saying "that's great!" being happy for the happiness of others. You don't have to be gay to support the rights of gays. You don't have to be a woman to support the rights of women. I support the EQUAL rights of all, based upon mutual respect, dignity, and integrity.
If the world is controlled by fear, it can only be healed with love. Namaste.

This has been the one and only Quiet Mouse.
Peace. Love. Respect. Tolerance.