It's really not that hard to understand

  Odie is light years away from being perfect and I have many regrets when I look back on my 65 years. There was a time when I was in church every time the doors opened and held many offices in the church organization. Although I do not attend a specific church today I still love God and believe His word. 

  God loves me and everyone else on this planet and nothing has ever been more true. However, while He loves us and sent His Son Jesus to die for us, He hates certain things that people do and made it quite plain in His word.

  Dr. D. James Kennedy made the following statement in 1990. "I know a number of homosexuals who have been transformed by the Gospel of Christ and have come to lead normal and healthy lives. God can change you if you are in this bondage. God can forgive you. If you are a fornicator or an adulterer or a homosexual or whatever, God is willing to receive you and waits with open arms. Come unto Him. But you must come in repentance and faith, for Jesus said, 'Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.'"

  In the Word of God in Leviticus 18:22 "Thou shalt not lie with mankind,as with womankind: it is abomination."

Leviticus 20:13  "If a man also like with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall be surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

1 Corinthians 6:9 "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind."

  Too many times in history christians have kept quiet while the rest of the world promoted activities that "their" bible clearly stated was evil and was hated by God. Not the person, but the evil they do. If everyone is doing something wrong, it is still wrong. I do not hate homosexuals and never have but I do know that my bible says what they do is against nature and the Word of my God. 

  This is my blog and my opinion based on God's written Word. It is not a debate for the matter is settled as far as I am concerned so you cannot comment. As Dr. Kennedy quoted above God wants them to come to Him, repenting and I pray they will before it is too late.

Let's go to Roanoke Rapids

 Contrary to possible ideas that I had vanished from blogland I am back. Just haven't had the proper inspiration for a blog lately and I wouldn't call today's blog inspiration but at least it's Odie. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Wordless Wednesday-Love a pine cone

What were they thinking??

   In 1979 the US Mint flooded the United States with the Susan B. Anthony dollar coins and created a great amount of confusion since this coin just happens to be the same size as the quarter.

It even was given the name "Carter's Quarter" since it happened during Jimmy Carter's time in office.

   You would think that people would learn from their mistakes but not our government. Back in 1875 someone decided to mint a 20 Cent piece that also just happened to be the same size as the quarter. It caused as much grief as the 1979 mistake.

   Almost 1 billion of the above pictured coin was produced that are really not any good for anything except confusion. I shudder to think how much it cost when that money could have been spent on schools or anything beneficial. 

   What were they thinking?

Nature Walk

  This video is all about some things I see while out walking with the dogs and in it I mention a plant that is edible. I looked it up and it is actually called "Oxalis" and can be added to salads or even boiled to make a drink that is similar to lemonade. Now on to the video.

Strolling with the dogs

We've been having thunder storms the last couple of days with lots of rain which we really needed. Saw a really good movie earlier in the week and wondered if anyone had seen it too. It was called "The Other Side of Heaven" about a young Mormon missionary that was sent to an island in the south Pacific for a couple of years. Whether you are Mormon or not it is a really good movie. Now on to the video I made while exercising the dogs yesterday.

Facts, not myths in the kitchen

Facts, not myths in the kitchen!!

This article was taken from Yahoo.Com written by America's Test Kitchen Cooking School

Myth 1. Searing meat seals in juices. 

Forget this one. It's not true, never has been and never will be. Most likely the idea came from the crusted exterior that meat develops as it is seared; surely that crust will seal in the juices, right? But in the test kitchen we tested this old maxim by weighting steaks before and after they were cooked. Some were seared first, others weren't. There was no difference in the amount of juices that were lost between the various steaks. None, nada.

The main purpose of searing is to add flavor by converting natural sugars and amino acids into flavor compounds via browning. If you want juicy meat, you can slow roast it (which prevents meat juices from being squeezed out.) And always let meat rest after cooking so that it can reabsorb any of those precious juices.

Myth 2. Marinating meat makes it juicy and tender.

No, it doesn't. Marinades are usually made with some kind of oil, citrus, and herb combo that can only penetrate the very exterior of the meat. In the test kitchen we found that after 18 hours, a red wine marinade made it's way ONE MILLIMETER into beef. Hey, that's perfect for tenderizing those two millimeter thick steaks!

Now if that marinade contains an acidic ingredient--like the above mentioned citrus, or vinegar, you can actually do more damage to the meat. Acids will begin to break down the exterior fibers of the meat. Left too long in an acidic soak, that exterior will go from meaty to mushy, and eventually, chalky and dry.

So the takeaway here is that if you want to flavor thin cuts of meat--cut for a stir fry or paper thin palliards for example--go ahead and give them a quick 10 minute-or-so marination for flavor.

Myth 3. Eating pink pork will make you sick.

Once upon a time this may have been true as there was a fear of ingesting an ugly parasite named trichinosis.  Cooking pork to a safe but gray interior temperature of 160 degrees would kill off trichinosis--but who would want to eat that dried up chop?

Today, government standards have all but eliminated the risk of trichinosis contamination from pork. According to the Center for Disease Control, between the years of 1997 and 2001, the average reported cases of trichinosis was twelve.

So go ahead and go for a slightly rosy hue.  The test kitchen highly recommends cooking that pork chop or loin roast until it registers an internal temperature of 140 to 145 degrees. And be sure to let the pork rest for 10 minutes or so--the internal temperature will continue to rise 5 to 10 degrees but the meat will still be beautifully moist.

Myth 4.  Always rinse off poultry that comes from the supermarket.

Back away from the sink my friend. I know that it has been pounded into your brain that you should unwrap that poultry and give it a good rinse in the sink. But beware that what you most likely doing is splashing all of those yummy surface pathogens over your sink, faucet and surrounding area. Now, if you are willing to give the sink a through scrub down it will be fine, but you are better off simply cooking the poultry to a safe internal temperature (165 degrees for the breast meat and 175 for the thigh meat.)

So those are a few of the myths out there. I hope that busting through these gives you more confidence when preparing meat.