My Rant about Memes About Homelessness

I hate it when I see a meme that over simplifies homelessness. It isn't just a drug issue. It isn't just a mental illness issue. It is a poverty issue in almost every case. 

If I didn't have the support I have from family, I would be homeless right now. Social security disability benefits do not pay enough for housing and the cost of living. Every time the government puts out a cost of living increase for social security, they deduct if from food stamps so there is no help for the rent after all. 

Yes, there are people who have drug problems who are on the streets. They have an illness that takes getting on a waiting list to get help. Some become homeless first and then self-medicate by using drugs and then get hooked. 

Some have mental health issues that keep them from seeking help to begin with. Some are on social security and are elderly and frail. They live in cars and on people's couches if they can, if not, they live in camps, and yes, they crap on the ground if there isn't a place nearby that has a bathroom they can use. Some people end up that way because they are unable to afford housing after having a medical emergency. Some because they don't have decent enough credit to get into a place. Some don't have deposit money and can't get a break. 

When you reduce it down to "They must want to be there or they would stop using" you are ignoring the issues that got them there. It's more complex than that. Please stop...

Why I do what I do

People sometimes seem incredulous about the time and effort I put into working with the homeless every week. The reason I do it is because I believe that it's up to those of us who are sane and have the time to do so, to pick up the people who are rolled over by a heartless president and government. Until we can get someone in office who picks up the slack and helps the poor, the homeless, the disenfranchised.  I think that we need to be the people who come along and give other people a hand up. 
I understand that it's easy for me to say since I am disabled and collecting disability, and I know that most people in our country are struggling like crazy just to keep from being one of the folks that are being rolled over by the rich, but I feel that we can all do a little something to help. 
I hate when programs are cut so that the wealthy can have tax breaks and not ruin what little stability our economy has. It breaks my heart sometimes when I'm out feeding breakfast to the poor and the homeless and I see just how desperate their situation is. I feel like I would be on the other side of the table if it weren't for my family giving me help. If they didn't help me, I would also not have enough to pay rent and have a decent diet. 
Maybe with a decent president and congress we would be able to fix some of this and the crowds at our Saturday breakfasts would dwindle and eventually not be there. I can hope and dream.

A Day For Celebration...sort of

Today Trump ended the partial shut-down! He stopped it until mid February and then will decide if he wants to start it up again to force his wall down the nation's throat. I'm really hoping that our legislators can come up with something to make it so that a politician can't shut down the government any time he gets a wild hair up his ass.

In the mean time, I am keeping busy with my baking for homeless and my knitting and crocheting. I went to a meeting yesterday with the republican PCO for the district to hear what he wants to offer our group. He discussed how the Republican party can contribute and we, even though I don't think any of us were republican and some of us are pretty much resisters to the president's term right now, listened without being too militant. It got a little weird at times, with him telling us how he tried to donate toys to the "Wear it Out" clothing closet and the Pastor of the church that runs it threw them back at him and told him to leave. He told us that he had received death threats that had kept him up at night. He is alarmed at the way people are treating him, even though he realizes that most people blame the president for the Shut-down that has sent 800,000 workers in the US home without pay for over a month. We commiserated with him, but didn't know much of what to tell him. We did let him know that we would except his help as long as it didn't advertise for any political party. 

As we left, they gave me food because they know that our family is one of the families that are scooped up in the shut-down frenzy.

I was sick last night, dealing with my diabetes problems, and didn't get up at a timely fashion this morning. So biscuits didn't get done until late today and I was slow and tired all day. I spent a lot of time on Twitter and my knitting today. I'm still working on wash cloths so I can get enough made up to sell.

Because I started so late, and because we were in the mind to celebrate that Michelle will be heading back to work on Monday, we ordered pizza and relaxed tonight. We drove John to work and then came back and just lounged about being lazy. I'm really relieved and pleased to get back to our regular routine and I look forward to giving out my baking tomorrow.

Berry Crisp Recipe

This recipe uses 2lbs of frozen mixed berries. It is baked in a 9x9 pan and if you use a 4-6lb bag, you would use a 9x13 pan.

Mixed Berry Cobbler

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Ingredients:

filling:

1 2-pound bag of mixed frozen berries, thawed.

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp ginger or nutmeg

Topping:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup butter or margarine

put all of the dried ingredients for the filling in a small bowl and mix them together, then add them to the fruit in a bowl and mix. Pour filling into a 9x9 pan that you have sprayed with cooking oil.

In a separate bowl, cut the butter or margarine into the dry topping ingredients until it is blended and crumbly. Sprinkle those evenly over the top of the fruit filling. 

Bake for 45 minutes. Let sit until cool, then refrigerate if not to be eaten right away. (best when hot with ice cream topping)

Baking Soda Biscuits

This is the recipe for my baking soda biscuits I make every week. They are super easy and yummy, especially with gravy. These are drop biscuits, but you can roll them out at about 1" thickness and cut out circles using a common water glass from your kitchen.

Baking Soda Biscuits

preheat oven to 450 degrees

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

2 1/2 tsp. of baking soda

1 tsp. of salt

1/4 cup of shorting

3/4 cup of milk

Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cut in the shortening until the mixture looks like pea sized granules. Mix in milk with a fork until the dough is sticking together well and all of the flour is mixed in. Knead it about 10 times. 

On a foil covered cookie sheet, tear the dough into 10 equal sized mounds 

Bake for about 12 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Low Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies

Low Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups creamy peanut butter

2 cups Splenda Sugar Blend

2 large eggs

(that's it!)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Mix the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Using a teaspoon, scoop up a spoonful and roll it into a ball in your palms. Set them on a foil covered cookie sheet spaced out 1 dozen to a sheet. Then using a fork, make a crisscross design on the top of each cookie. 

Bake for 10 minutes. 

Let them cool a bit before taking them off the sheet with a pancake turner or they will break apart. I usually store mine in a 1 gallon plastic bag to keep them from drying out. Yummy!

Remember that this Splenda product uses real sugar in it as well as Splenda. 

This is what the package looks like for Splenda Sugar Blend. 

Peanut Butter Cookies

This is the recipe I love for making peanut butter cookies. They don't use flour (good if you are looking for gluten free cookies to bake) and are super easy to make. 

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups creamy peanut butter

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

(that's it!)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Mix the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Using a teaspoon, scoop up a spoonful and roll it into a ball in your palms, then roll them in a small bowl of sugar. Set them on a foil covered cookie sheet spaced out 1 dozen to a sheet. Then using a fork, make a crisscross design on the top of each cookie. 

Bake for 10 minutes. 

Let them cool a bit before taking them off the sheet with a pancake turner or they will break apart. I usually store mine in a 1 gallon plastic bag to keep them from drying out. Yummy!

Banana Bread Recipe

This is my recipe that I make for my homeless guys. I have added the buttermilk, chocolate chips, and brown sugar to the original recipe. If you don't like the chocolate chips, just omit that part. You can also add 1/2 cup nuts, or raisins according to taste.
I hope you enjoy it. Super easy and pretty darned tasty!
Banana Bread Recipe

preheat oven to 350
grease one loaf pan with shortening and dust with flour

In a large mixing bowl
mix with fork
1 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

In another, smaller, bowl
mix with a fork
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cups of brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk

In a third bowl
mash 1 cup (3 medium) bananas

alternate mixing the two small bowls into the flour mixture until completely blended with a spoon. make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan and get any flour mixture that is on the bottom mixed in. add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips if desired.

Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

allow it to cool so it can be handled and remove it from loaf pan. I wrap mine in foil and refrigerate it if I don't plan to serve it right away.

Baking Day Number Two for the Week

I got a late start today because I was so tired this morning that I had to take a nap at noon, but when I got up I was finally feeling well enough to get some work done in the kitchen. First, OMG, I had to get the kitchen cleaned up. Nothing like being down a couple days for a couple guys to decimate a kitchen. I got it tidied up and then got on the baking kick.

This week I made an apple pie for sale:

I had enough apples left to make a small cobbler for my crew here at home. I didn't take a picture of it and it was gone in no time.

My next bake was this mixed berry cobbler (cobblers are fast to make and I really didn't feel like making more crust for another pie.haha)

I still have an applesauce cake in the oven, and won't get the chance to frost it until tomorrow after it cools, so I'll get a picture of it and put it on this blog post when it's finished. Tomorrow, like most Fridays, is devoted just to biscuits. I make up 120 to take with me on Saturday for the biscuits and gravy that we serve.

The rest of the day was spent farting around on Sims and doing dishes in between the baking. My daughter is still on furlough while the government is shut down, but we're doing fine so far. We got our rent for January, but next month might be challenging since it doesn't appear that Trump is planning on working with his congress any time soon. 

A Rugged Day

I have a disorder called gastroparesis. Basically, it is caused by nerve disease and makes it hard for your digestive system to move food through itself. Mine is brought on by diabetes and usually I don't have a hard time with it, exercise usually helps me keep things working. However, every so often, when I am not even expecting it, I get nauseous and end up sick. Mine decided to kick in on the night of New Years and kept me up late and then kept me continually uncomfortable throughout the night. 

So yesterday I got up with a sore stomach and tired. I still had to get work done in the kitchen, however, or I would end up backed up and frantic tonight. I baked 4 dozen peanut butter cookies and two loaves of banana bread while sick to my stomach. It was quite a challenge. The smell of the food baking was enough to kick the nausea back in and I had to wash dishes frequently to keep up. I managed, though, and even got dinner made as well.

Last nights kitchen accomplishemts: 4 dozen cookies, two loaves of banana bread, and a crockpot full of chicken and dumplings for my fam.

Today is day 12 of the government, partial, shutdown and my daughter is trying to decide if she should continue waiting on the people who are running our country to work things out or if they will continue to throw tantrums and squabble. Trump has already declared that he won't budge, no matter what compromise might be needed to work it out. She has found a good offer for a job that will use her diploma and studies from college. She has to decide if the "stability" of a federal job is enough incentive to stay when she knows that every time congress has to vote for funding for her job is another opportunity for our president to hold her job hostage.