A Truth Journal: Our Freedom: Living Courage, Dying For Honor: Celebrating Vietnam War USMC GSGT Charles "Chuck" Perkins

A Truth Journal: Our Freedom: Living Courage, Dying For Honor: Celebrating Vietnam War USMC GSGT Charles "Chuck" Perkins: From Denny:  Today is more than just that long needed holiday vacation with the family, fun backyard barbecues and country music festivals.  It's one of those few days of the year that Americans come together to remember the fallen in our too many wars over the past few centuries of our young country.

Some of those wars were justified for the greater good to bring back world peace.  Other wars spilled precious blood for nothing more than the Pentagon leaders' selfish need for personal glory and the just plain money-grubbing greed of business people:  otherwise known as war profiteers.

Profiteers and War and Bad Politics 

FYI, for those who don't remember or don't know:  The Vietnam War was a proxy war between the U. S. and Russia.  Russia backed North Vietnam and the U. S. backed South Vietnam.

"Feeding the Beast" of Russia with American Money 

Profiteers are still with us today, not just the Vietnam War era.  Take a look at how our current day Pentagon is busy "feeding the military beast" of Russia.  The latest nonsense is giving away half a billion dollars to the Russians in exchange for Russian rocket engines that you know Putin will sabotage.  Come on, really?  Putin is supposed to be under sanctions, and, yet, our Pentagon and Congress find a way to feed his ailing economy another $500 million???  The sanctions won't work as long as the Pentagon, Congress and Wall Street cockroach around them...

GO HERE to read full post.  It's a real eye-opener:  A Truth Journal: Our Freedom: Living Courage, Dying For Honor: Celebrating Vietnam War USMC GSGT Charles "Chuck" Perkins

Military Sacrifice Shower Curtain

"No sacrifice is ever left behind or forgotten - thank you." - denny lyon

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets

                                             Photo: Helana Brigman

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets: From Denny:  Do you enjoy cheesecake but want an easier way to make it?  Then this recipe is for you.  I like cheesecake too but find it too large for just two of us to eat and too time consuming to make unless I plan on entertaining a hungry crowd.

A springform pan is an absolute must to make a proper cheesecake - and the patience of a saint to leave the oven door cracked open as it slowly cools down for hours so you can hopefully avoid it cracking straight down the middle like an ugly scar.  Usually, I've been pretty lucky over the years.  Of course, when I wasn't lucky it was evident that a wonderful fruit topping like blueberry or strawberry could hide a multitude of sins just like gravy on a screwed up dinner. :)...

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets

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Keep Calm, Really? Potholder

Unleash your funny inner emotional diva!

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Dennys Food and Recipes: Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole

          The Advocate photo: HEATHER MCCLELLAND 

                                                                    
Dennys Food and Recipes: Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole: From Denny:  Whether it's the holidays, a busy summer when the kids are out of school or company came to visit, we all need something fast and simple to put together that's a crowd pleaser.  This simple easy to assemble breakfast casserole fits that bill!

All the ingredients required are a loaf of good French bread, a full 8 ounces of your favorite brand of cream cheese, milk, maple syrup, butter, sugar and eggs.  Add fresh fruit to serve and it's that easy!

Usually when a recipe calls for sugar I often substitute agave syrup or brown rice syrup or even molasses.  If you don't like or can enjoy cow's milk why not substitute almond milk?  When butter is in a recipe I choose to clarify it just because we love the extra boost of flavor at our house from browning and filtering out the milk solids - as well as the added health benefits.  You could use margarine in this recipe as a substitute too.  And, to gild the lily, why not add a few shakes of nutmeg and/or cinnamon, some chopped pecans or walnuts before baking?  Yeah, Flavor Town is the name at our house...

Dennys Food and Recipes: Breakfast: Easy Simple French Toast Casserole

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Sports Blue Soccer Woven Throw Pillow

A blue abstract background with bold lettering declaring your love of the sport from Louisiana artist Denny Lyon.  Available on other products too!

Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new! 

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler

     The Advocate photo: HEATHER MCCLELLAND 

                                                                                  
Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler: From Denny:  Blueberries.  The awesome blue food we all love.  So, I went hunting for something interesting in the cobbler department for us this week.  The first recipe is from our local newspaper, a blueberry cobbler made with a cream cheese pastry and a filling that consists of a combination of blueberries, apple and lemon.  A cream cheese pastry always tastes great with a fruit filling, especially blueberries!  It's a simple and straightforward pastry recipe with flour, salt and butter but also with cream cheese and a bit of orange juice added to the pastry to spike up the flavor.

The filling calls for fresh blueberries, an apple and lemon juice and lemon zest.  While this recipe calls for sugar I often substitute brown rice syrup or agave syrup in its place for a lower glycemic index than refined white sugar.  Try it half sugar and half agave as an idea, whatever you like at your house, just try experimenting until you find that sweet spot Goldilocks zone for your taste buds!

The second recipe is a traditional blueberry cobbler made in a 9-inch square baking pan like you do for brownies and is from a local Louisiana blueberry grower.  When a recipe calls for margarine, well, I'm no fan of margarine, so I use clarified butter.  If you don't have the time to make your own clarified butter it's now available in grocery stores as I saw a jar in Trader Joe's just last week.

Also note that I use "Tablespoon" and "teaspoon" as an easier read so you don't get confused by small type - by writing it out instead of an abbreviation and also capitalizing Tablespoon.  There have been those moments when I was busy and scan read a recipe only to make a mistake with too much or too little of an ingredient so I changed all my recipes to reflect what I do here on my food blogs.  The whole point is to enjoy a good food experience!

Oh, and the Denny Lyon Gifts ads are from my Cafe Press store.  The profits go to my two favorite charities:  the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank that feeds half of Louisiana and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital that has helped thousands of children on the Gulf Coast.  After all, should anyone go hungry in America?  Should any parent have to emotionally stress and experience financial ruin because their child got sick?  Thank you to those of you supporting my gift store effort!...

(As these articles post this week I'll add the links, so check back often!)

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Louisiana Seafood Reusable Shopping Bag

Check out awesome Louisiana eating: oysters, shrimp, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya

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Poems From A Spiritual Heart: Peace Upon The Land

Poems From A Spiritual Heart: Peace Upon The Land - A Memorial Day poem to honor ourselves. All of us need to work together to pressure world governments for Peace.  It's past due time for the violence to end in modern societies.

* * *  Support Warriors Pearl Foundation - contributing to fund efforts to help homeless female military veterans come home.  Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  - see what's new!  

Dennys Funny Quotes: Funny Relationship Issues Cartoons, Remember Your Special People Memorial Day

Dennys Funny Quotes: Funny Relationship Issues Cartoons, Remember Your Special People Memorial Day: "From Denny: These cartoons will really get you thinking about your current - or, uh, er, past relationships. It sure takes all kinds to make the world go 'round, doesn't it? A little light humor based off reality is just the ticket for a way to ease into a long holiday weekend...



Have a great Memorial Day holiday, chill out to shed yourself of some stress, enjoying some time with family and friends. Be sure to lift your glass to toast those who came before us, sacrificing their lives for our freedom during war time or those who sacrificed as good friends to help keep us balanced in the mundane places of life. Take time to remember the best people in your life and celebrate them this special holiday."