Musing of the Moment: Lime Water

When you go to restaurants, servers often bring your water with lemon on one of the rims. I don't like lemon in my water. 

But I like limes. 

And apparently lime water has a number of health benefits. 

If you're interested in reading that information, here are some links:

• Healthline's "Lime Water Benefits"
• Medical News Today's "12 Health Benefits of Lime Water"
• VeryWellFit's "7 Lime Water Benefits"

Music Friday: "Heaven Only Wants Us Once We're Dead"

Joey Kneiser is one of the best songwriters alive. The band he was the lead of, Glossary, was a great rock-n-roll band. 

Here's a song from one of his solo albums. 

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Mushroom Chicken Bake

Mrs. Nasty gave me a recipe to try a while back, and I finally got around to making it. The original recipe is called Chicken Gloria Casserole.

I have no info on why it's called "Gloria." Also, it's really not a casserole. And I made some changes that made it my own. 

Ingredients

• 3-4 chicken breasts, cut lengthwise
• 2 packages of baby Bella mushrooms, medium-size slices
• 1 carrot, chopped finely
• 1/2 of a yellow onion, chopped finely
• 1/4 of bell pepper, chopped finely
• AP flour
• 4 TB of butter
• 1/2 cup of Chardonnay
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• Swiss cheese slices to cover (8-10 slices)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Process

The original recipe called for only three chicken breasts, but I recommend four to fully cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. 

Slice the breasts lengthwise and season with salt and pepper. Lightly dredge them in seasoned flour, coat a cast iron skillet with oil, and sauté them in batches on medium-high heat. Just lightly brown them because they'll cook in the oven, which should be at 350 degrees. 

Put the breasts at the bottom of a greased baking dish. 

Add a bit of oil to the skillet and add four tablespoons of butter. Dump in the aromatics and sauté for approximately ten minutes. Put the sliced mushrooms in the skillet, add salt and pepper, and cook for an additional ten minutes. 

Put in the Chardonnay and let that go for about 2-3 minutes. After that deglazing move, add the cream of mushroom soup and mix thoroughly. 

Slather the chicken breasts evenly with the mushroom mixture and top with slices of Swiss cheese. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. 

Take the foil off and broil the top for a couple of minutes. Serve and enjoy. 

Music Friday: "Bitch on the Run"

One of my friends turned me on to the music of Samantha Fish. 

I haven't bought any of her albums yet, but I see purchases in my future. 

Here's a live performance. 

Musing of the Moment: Zombified by Faux News

A BBC article talks about how one reporter talks about how the Russian people are "zombified" by their country's propaganda: "Marina Ovsyannikova: Protesting Journalist Says Russians Zombified by Propaganda." 

Here in the US, there's a wide swath of the American people who are zombified by Faux News and its vapid coterie of conspiracy peddlers, "I'm just asking questions" hucksters, and GOP propagandists. 

I only watch the 24/7 news channels when I have to. 

People get their news from an infotainment network that intends to inflame and scare people and dish out right-wing hokum. 

I read articles from trusted, reliable sources.

I wish more people would do the same.

Musing of the Moment: I'm Not Irish, But...

I like Irish whiskey, Irish beer, and Irish music. 

And while House of Pain is known for "Jump Around," this song is my favorite. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Jennifer Berskhire has a great article in The Nation that anyone who cares about public education should read. It's titled "Why Teachers Are Dropping Out." 

Because of a confluence of low pay, exploitation, shitty benefits, attacks against teacher unions, and stupid cultural battles about what's being taught in classrooms that is aided and abetted by Fox Faux News and other right-wing media outlets, I worry about the teachers we're losing in public education. 

Then again, having witnessed the sorry state of social studies education my daughter has gotten in her high school, some of those folks' teaching practices (or lack thereof) need to be examined. They wouldn't know squat about critical race theory and would only hazily understand it. Unfortunately, as the stereotype goes, the social studies faculty all too often are an intellectual backwater of coaches. 

The crap going on in Iowa in regard to K-12 education, for example, is ridiculous. And other nonsense like that is happening in other states. 

Meanwhile as Russia's invasion of Ukraine goes on, the ratings leader of Faux News, Tucker Carlson, is a darling of Russia's state-run propaganda machine: "How Russia Is Using Tucker Carlson In Its Propaganda." 

Random Notes from a Crank

My optimism for Spring was met with a dusting of snow before our spring break. 

I planted two rows of spinach and a row each of different varieties of lettuce. The snow won't bother it much. Those plants love the cold. I'm just hoping I can get back in the garden to plant more. 

The freezing of assets of Roman Abramovich has put Chelsea is some financial turmoil. It'll be interesting to see who takes over ownership of the football club. Another oligarch will take it over I presume, but it remains to be seen whether the new owner/s will shell out the kind of money Putin's buddy put out during his time owning the club. 

The owners of Newcastle United and Man City don't exactly have squeaky clean reputations and/or human rights records either. They have money like Chelsea used to have. 

The Crimson Tide got bounced out of the SEC basketball tournament early. I'm hoping they do something quite different during March Madness. 

Music Friday: "Closer to the Heart"

Rush was always a band I liked but never got heavily into. It makes sense that I would like their sound. I'm a geek about really good drumming, and in general I like my rock with a harder edge. 

This song was running through my head yesterday for whatever reason. It's not even my favorite Rush song, but it was acting as an earworm yesterday. 

Music Friday: "Electric Avenue"

I can't remember which car manufacturer used this song in one of their ads, but with the gas prices skyrocketing I think more and more people might be considering going electric for their vehicles. 

I know I'm glad I don't have a long commute to work, but I'm fearful of all the gas travel I'll be doing for this travel baseball season. 

So here's a video that was played constantly on MTV when it came out in the 80s. 

Musing of the Moment: Opening Word Gambits for Wordle

With the ruble in free-fall because of the economic sanctions against Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine, I wonder if "ruble" will come as the word of the day on Wordle. 

Hell, they used "rupee" the other day, so why not ruble? 

When I do Wordle, my opening word gambits are typically the following:

• stern
• juicy
• moist

I do the latter two just for the "Ewww..." factor I get from using them. I pine for the day when I start with "juicy" and I get it on the first try. 

A person I know usually starts with "adieu" because that word narrows down the vowel choices quickly. That's smart.