Sunday, April 10, 2005

Death, Dying The Ultimate Baked Onion Soup

When we are born we start to die. To die is a part of life. Fear is the predominate emotion in those rare instances that we allow our selves to contemplate the actual event. Humans have adapted many stratagems to handle the fear of dying. We have created or at least accepted abstract postulates such as, Religion, heaven, hell, reincarnation, universal mind etc. These are comforting postulates but they can only be accepted on faith. (Unfortunately, all faith can be disseminated by close examination and discussed to the point of abandonment.) Since afterlife cannot be guaranteed absolutely. How we handle this basic truth, successively defines the type of person that we are. Death is the end of an accumulation of experiences, actions and remembrances. How we live our life for good or bad (none of us are all virtuous or all immoral) is how we accept the inevitable. Death should not be feared (after all fear is an emotion like laughing or crying, if we accept this premise then we can control the emotion) it should be only a steeping stone to the next level of knowledge. This makes more sense to me than gossamer wings or burning torment. I believe that god is an absolute and that he is neither loving nor vengeful. That we are placed on earth for a reason and that it is not merely random selection. The reason is neither good nor bad but rather an attempt to take progression of knowledge to the next step. God maybe the summation of all souls or the absolute essence of spark of life. (Did you know that we can duplicate a cell chemically, but for all of this we cannot give it life, spark of life maybe a misnomer? The spark of life may be the definition of God.)

 We have bad things happen to us and ask, “why me Lord why me”. What you are really saying is “Why not someone else Lord why not someone else”. You invite and/or attract what happens to you for good or bad.

 I have for years had a sign on my desk, (don’t know where it came from) that pronounces, “You Become What You Think About”. As I have grown older, I have found this to be a self-evident truth without equal

 When we pray we do not change Gods mind or even influence him to take notice. God doesn’t change his mind, we do.

 Prayer is powerful; there are too many documented examples to simplydismiss it as a crutch of the masses. My best advice is, “don’t save prayer as a last resort”.

Belief in God is a fundamental building block of the person we think we are. It makes no difference what you call him:

Allah, Almighty, Deus, Divine Being, God, Heavenly Father, Hosanna, Jehovah, Supreme Brahman, whose three primary incarnations are Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma, Lord, Master Of The Universe, Omnipotent Being, Supreme Being, The Creator, Etc. The name is only semantics’ for the intelligence we define as God. Even the Atheist* believes in God. How can you disbelieve or deny something that you don’t believe exists.

*Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods. b. The doctrine that there is no God or gods. 2. Godlessness; immorality)

Baked Onion Soup

INGREDIENTS

2 oz piece of salt pork

4 onions julienned onions (see picture above, think of a apple cut into tenths lengthwise IMPORTANT TO DO

3 tablespoons garlic minced (yes; I meant 3 tablespoons

4 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 cans (about 14 ounces each) beef broth

2 can (about 14 ounces) chicken broth

1/4 cup dry sherry

1 loaf  thin slicedFrench bread        

grated Parmesan cheese

8 ounces shredded Monterey Jack or Mozzarella cheese

 

PREPARATION:

In Dutch oven or stockpot, add olive oil and untrimmed piece of salt pork. Cook salt pork slowly until done (uniformly crisp like bacon) DO NOT BURN or OVERCOOK. Remove cooked salt pork and discard or eat with toast and jam.

 

Sauté onions and garlic in butter in the same large Dutch oven or stockpot over low heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and tender. Add beef and chicken broth to the onions. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for about five minutes to blend flavors. Add sherry and season to taste with NO SALT, a little pepper, MSG, big splash of Worstershire sauce.

 

Toast bread slices; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Ladle hot soup into four individual ovenproof casseroles. Float one to two slices of toasted French bread on top of soup. Sprinkle each with Monterey Jack or Mozzarella cheese. Bake at 375° for about 25 minutes, or until soup is bubbly and cheese is lightly browned. Baked onion soup recipe serves 4 to 6.
 

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