Baked Pineapple Chicken

This recipe is per chicken breast so you can multiply as needed.

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BAKED PINEAPPLE CHICKEN

• 1 Chicken Breast
• 5-10 oz can of pineapple chunks (all-natural, no sugar)
• 1/2 Sweet Yellow Onion
• 1 jalapeño 

• Slice onion into discs & place on bottom of oven-safe pan (I prefer glass);
• Place chicken breasts on top of the onions with the exposed-bone side up (I chose skinless chicken breasts, but I left the bone in. Boneless and/or skinless breasts will work as well);
• Pour pineapple chunks & juice over everything (you can drain the juice off first, but I chose to include the juice and cook it off);
• Cut jalapeño in half & slice the ends off to create a cylinder where moisture can pass through (there's no need to de-seed the jalapeño unless you're SUPER sensitive to spicy food, I mainly use these for the subtle flavor they add), stand them on their cut end, doing your best to expose one end so it can toast;

• Bake uncovered at 425° for 30 minutes;
• Turn chicken breasts over, sprinkle garlic salt (optional) on the top of the chicken breasts and bake another 10-15 minutes with the oven door slightly open.  At this point, the chicken should be VERY juicy.  If you prefer a drier chicken, simply cook longer paying close attention to how the juice evaporates so as to not over-cook.

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I predict: If Obama is assassinated, Ronald McDonald will be investigated as a co-conspirator

Death threats against government officials are a major topic this week.  One particularly interesting article, titled Feds Investigate Death Threats to IRS Employees After Health Bill Approval, states:

While these threats are being investigated, experts doubt there is much that law enforcement can do to predict if any of these (internet) commenters actually plan on taking action. The only thing certain is that the online community of anti-government extremists is growing, and it is increasingly being viewed by law enforcement as a threat.  "I've never seen anything like this before," said MacNab. “The health care bill could very well be the tipping point.”

If MacNab thinks people are pissed about the health care bill, just wait till the fast food addicts realize they are going to be targeted like smokers have been targeted for the last 2 decades or so, including attempts to tax fast food brands out of business under the so-called sin tax.  Time Magazine is already saying: Study finds that sin taxes promote healthier food choices.  And The Village Voice blogger, Rebecca Marx (I wonder if that’s a given last name or a chosen pen name?), has compared this new fight against Ronald McDonald to the previous battle against the Camel brand cigarette mascot, Joe Camel:

Corporate Accountability International, the corporate watchdog group who brought down penis-faced Joe Camel, has now set their sights on a less phallic but equally pervasive target: Ronald McDonald. The group is planning to release a report tomorrow calling for the clown's retirement as the fast food chain's mascot, and running an accompanying campaign on its website to track Ronald's presence across the country.

Summoning recent statistics about childhood obesity, CAI is blaming the 50-year-old clown for getting kids hooked on junk food; the group's senior organizer, Deborah Lapidus, told CNN that he's "a deep-fried Joe Camel for 21st century." -- Corporate Watchdog Group Says Ronald McDonald Is Bad for Children and Other Living Things

All this coincides with the BREAKING NEWS today that a study from Scripps Research Institute in Juniper, Florida juxtaposes junk food addictive with addiction to heroin, cocaine, crack, etc.  I’m not kidding.  Look here for over 100 topical articles.  Even rats show signs of addiction, according to the CBSNEWS.com report: Rats Starve Rather Than Eat Healthy Food.

Do you think I’m crazy for making these connections?  Perhaps being a tad eccentric or hyperbolic?  Well, here is evidence of a growing anger in connection with fast food:

Fast Food Makes Us Impatient, Study Suggests

New sin taxes anger consumers, ignore issues

McDonald's Customer Crawls Through Drive-Thru for Fish Sandwich ... and slaps employee for order taking too long.

And, best of all, THIS guy! - The Fast-Food Freakout of Cheeseburger Josh (NSFW!)

Mark my blog: Ronald McDonald will be investigated if anything happens to Obama... 

Oh, and Jesus is being connected to the initial growth of portion-size: Did Jesus over feed the 5000?

To those who want fries with that, let them hear..

Cormac McCarthy had his Lettera 32 Olivetti. I want a keyboard I can love for a lifetime!

I believe it was Paul Auster who wrote an essay for Toni Morrison's Burn this book: PEN writers speak out on the power of the word in which he described his obsession with writing instruments. I've shared this obsession since I was taught to write my name. I was one of the kids who would ask for pen sets and think the mechanical pencil was childish (which is ironic, because until I was nearly finished with my Bachelor degree, I wrote everything except for checks in pencil, in case it needed editing). But I've always LOVED pens and journals and paper and yadda yadda.

In fact, I currently have a pen in my desk drawer that I've owned for probably two decades (& I'm only 30, so it's been with me over half my life!). It ran out of ink long ago and I haven't been able to find a replacement cartridge. But it has such a perfect height & weight that I'm unable to part with it. It's not even comfortable to write with! It's metal and causes a horrible indention on my finger that feels like it has reached and begun to grind on bone if I use it very long. But there's just something about the way I remember my penmanship appearing (when the dang thing still had ink) that keeps me from throwing it away.

ANYWAY __ THE POINT IS __ Knowing this, I am astonished that I've just realized the hideous design of my current Dell Studio laptop keyboard! It's flat, unresponsive and utterly painful to use after 2,000 or so words.

I'm not romantic enough about writing to think I need to toil away on my beige IBM Selectric II, though I do thoroughly enjoy using it. In fact, I probably WOULD use the darn thing if I could find sensibly priced ink ribbons. But a good keyboard built for those of us who spend hours at a time typing away MUST exist somewhere, right? So, I'm on the hunt.

Any heads-up on where to look is greatly appreciated!

52 books in 52 weeks

I had intended to blog my attempt to read 52 books in 52 weeks. But I'm already having to play catch-up in documenting my reading list for this year. So, I'm bailing on the 52-52 structure. I don't feel bad about it. Seems a pointless way to structure your artistic intake or intellectual expansion anyway. Instead, I'm just gonna keep things loose.

One thing I've read so far this year is Chris Offutt's No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home. I like it. It is a simple and easy read, but I thoroughly enjoy the candidness behind Offutt's post-college take on his rural homeland. A lot of it rings true for myself. I didn't know until after reading it that Offutt was involved in Weeds Season 5, which is simply an interesting digression and not really relevant to the book. I plan to read more from Offutt.

I also read George Singleton's The Half-Mammals of Dixie, which is a collection of overlapping short stories that borders on being an episodic novel. It was the same type of Southern/Rural appeal as the above mentioned Offutt work.

While working on a stack of other titles, I completed K.R. Moorhead's The First Law of Motion: A Novel. It kept my attention and is a fast read - something to carry with you to help kill boredom. The protagonist of the story is utterly despicable, but she somehow starts to make you pity her. I wouldn't recommend it outright. But, if asked, I wouldn't discourage someone from reading it, either. It's ALMOST a female version of Chad Kultgen's the average american male, but not quite.

The latest concluded novel is S.E. Hinton's Hawkes Harbor. While the escapades of Jamie and Kellen are thoroughly entertaining, toward the middle of the book the story looses focus and becomes convoluted. If you want to read something great from Hinton, read The Outsiders. If you want to read a good vampire story, go to your nearest bookstore, find a woman (most likely dressed in black with long purple-tinted hair and smelling of cats) and ask her for a recommendation.