Census says only 13% of the US population is actually Black – and considering the number of multi-racial folks who claim the black portion of their ethnicity rather than whatever the rest might be – it’s probably less.  No way can 13% of the voting population elect anybody – anywhere – to any office.

It’s all about education. Where you go to school matters more than your ethnicity. Consider how many important media figures , politicians, and financiers attended Ivy League colleges and universities and it stands to reason candidates without those early contacts suffer a sever  disadvantage from the beginning.

Ivy League schools cost big bucks. While it’s possible to attend on scholarship and merit, the student who doesn’t have the wherewithal to participate in the higher social echelons during their college years are unlikely to make and maintain the social contacts that eventually lead to successful political careers.

Those from humble beginnings don’t get to be President – no matter what color they are or how successful they might become by the time they’re old enough to run for the office.

Is it any wonder that the people who run our country appear to be totally clueless as to how the people they’re supposed to represent actually live?

How can you understand the true meaning of rising food prices if you’ve never had to ration that gallon of milk or loaf of bread to make sure it lasts until payday comes around again?

I’m a huge fan of audiobooks, as  I’ve said many times before. When I find an author I like, coupled with a great narrator for the series character, I’ve been known to break the bank buying the entire series, and then listening to every book in order.

Lee Child never wrote a bad Jack Reacher novel and Dick Hill is absolutely the perfect choice to read the series.

Sometimes the story is great but the narrator is so wrong, you can’t get past it. Some of the great match ups between writers and narrators include Tony Roberts reading Stuart Woods’ Stone Barrington series, and Tom Stechschulte can make any book sound great.

Tom narrates books by several of my favorite authors, Christine Feehan, Rick Riordan, James Lee Burke, and I’m tempted to begin reading David Handler’s Hoagy series because I know you can’t go wrong if Tom’s the reader. I need more credits on my Audible account to do that.

Running out of credits become a serious problem for the obsessed. My husband doesn’t enjoy hours of listening as much as I do, forcing me to headphones and the iPod.

My old iPod runs out of juice in four or five hours, requiring  me to drape charger cables over the back of my chair, and under my pillow. My daughters teamed with my husband to buy me a new iPod for Mother’s Day, and the word is that it will run thirty hours without recharging, Bliss!

Plus, it has enough room for most of my books. Now I won’t have to add and subtract files when it’s time to re-listen to an old series.

Nice, huh?

All of Michael Connolly’s Harry Bosch novels are now available at www.audible.com.

If you’ve never experienced the pleasure of an audiobook and enjoy hardboiled detective stories, take advantage of the free trial they offer and listen to Black Echo and Black Ice.

The narrator is perfect – which is not always the case. Be sure to use the sample feature to listen to the reader’s voice before buying – some are better than others, and some are just awful.

There’s nothing worse than listening to a sweet voiced Sunday school teacher type reading a passionate love scene….

The news shows were all agog at Black Friday shopping this morning. Hundreds of people fist-fighting over big screen television sets.The mall parking lot was full at five o’clock this morning.

Give your time and talent – it’s almost free and greatly appreciated.

You don’t have to be crafty to make a gift your friends and family will appreciate.  Here are some ideas:

• Search out the lyrics to Christmas carols on the web. Use your word processor to pretty them up with a fancy font and then either save them as a PDF file and email them to you friends, or print them out on Dollar Store Christmas paper.
• Make a cookbook of your favorite recipes. It doesn’t have to be a hundred pages long – ten will do. They don’t have to be anything you’ve actually MADE – you can find hundreds of thousands of recipes online. Copy the ones you’ve eaten at someone else’s house, or wish you had the patience to make.
• Make a list of websites you think other people might like. Just because YOU visit http://www.cuteoverload.com doesn’t mean your friends and family even know it exists.

If you’re in MY address book, expect one or all of these gifts to hit your email server soon.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and there are those of you out there who will be reading a dozen recipes on how to make cornbread stuffing. Most of them will be generated by a company that has an interest in your buying their product.

Having said that, there are two ways to go with the base of your stuffing. You can go the easy way, which I do – and buy TWO bags of Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing mix, or you can use a recipe for plain cornbread. Do not use Jiffy mix, it’s too sweet. You want one made without sugar.

Ingredients:

• 2 bags of Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing mix.
• 4 chicken boullion cubes or equivalent crystals or 2 cans chicken boullion, or 3 cups homemade.
• 4-5 stalks celery, washed well, then sliced no bigger than 1/4 inch wide.
• 1/2 cup diced sweet onion – Vidalia or Texas sweet. If you aren’t sure, ask someone.
• 3 large UNPEELED Granny Smith apples, washed and diced. If you use any other kind, the dressing will suck.
• 1 cup raisins.
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning, whichever you have on hand. Poultry season contains sage, rosemary, and thyme.
• 1 stick REAL butter. Don’t insult your dressing with margarine or other substitutes. One day of indulgence isn’t going to kill your cholesterol levels.

Fill a LARGE pot (the one you use for spaghetti noodles and such) to the halfway point with water, the boullion cubes, or the canned boullion. If you’re using canned or homemade, add water until the pot is half full.

Toss in everything EXCEPT the cornbread, bring it to a boil, then drop the burner down to simmer. What you’re looking for is a temperature just below a boil. Let it simmer for until the raisins plump up fat, about twenty minutes.

What you need now is a BIG bowl, stainless or glass is best, but plastic will work if you must. If you don’t have a giant bowl, do you have a punch bowl? That will work.

Dump the cornbread mix into the big bowl, then, using a slotted spoon, pour half the ingredients of your pot into the stuffing. Use a big spoon to make sure all of the apples, raisins, celery, and onion go into the bowl, leaving only liquid in the pot.

This is where guess work comes in.

Does it look dry anywhere? Add more liquid from the pot. You don’t want it soupy, but you DO want it to be moist. If you have any liquid leftover, put it in a smaller pot, you can add it to the gravy later.

Stuff the Bird

Everyone has opinions on stuffing the bird, or not, depending on how freaked out you get about television shows warning you about salmonella.  If you pay attention to kitchen safety issues, you don’t need to worry. Follow these directions:

Wash your bird in a CLEAN sink, letting the water run into the cavity, both the big one at the front, and the one at the rear under the flap.  Take those plastic bags you’ll find in the cavities and toss them in the trash or boil them up for your dog – or the neighbor’s dog.

People will tell you that you need to put the “giblets” in your dressing. You don’t – for two reasons – it will ruin the taste and it increases the possibility of salmonella. Ditto with the eggs some people think are necessary. Don’t let eggs anywhere near your dressing.

Don’t use soap to wash your turkey, by the way. Lots of water will do the trick.

Once you’ve washed the bird, put it in your roasting pan. If you’re using a turkey that came with strings in a plastic pouch, this is the lifter and it needs to go in the pan under the turkey. You’ll figure it out.

Stuff the large cavity first. I pack mine in tight, although they say you shouldn’t. I don’t much care what “they” say. Lift the flap at the back and stuff that area, too. You should have leftover stuffing at this point. Put it in a GLASS pan, cover it, and put it in the refrigerator. If you’re having a large crowd, you’ll need to bake it when you do the yams or whatever else will fit in the oven at the same time. If not, you’ll want it when you eat leftovers.

The tricky part is juggling the legs so they fit back under that little flap on the turkey before you put your bird in the oven If you can’t manage it, you have a couple of options. Use turkey skewers (bought in the store with the rest of the useless cooking bits and bobs you’ll use once a year) – or you can try one of the shifts I’ve used in the past.

You can roll up some tin foil and use it as a sort of rope to lasso the legs. You can use cotton kitchen string – the same kind as on that turkey lifter that came with your bird. Or, you can pull the turkey lifter out from beneath the thing, cut off a length and use that.

Cover your bird tightly with tin foil. If you forgot to buy extra wide, use two sheets of the regular.  It’s going to take longer than anyone admits to cook that thing. I hope you have a meat thermometer. If you don’t you’ll need to do the leg test. More about that later.

Kitchen Safety – Avoiding Salmonella

As soon as your bird is in the oven, wash everything you’ve used with hot soapy water and a quarter cup of bleach. Rinse the sink and fill it again, with more hot soapy water and another quarter cup of bleach. Wash down the counters, the stove top, the other sink if you have you have a double, the refrigerator door, and don’t forget your cutting board.,  the paper towel holder, and the lid to the trash can. In other words, wash down anything you’ve touched.

Toss your dishrags, sponge, and dish towels into the laundry and get fresh ones. If you follow the cleaning method, you’ll be fine.

Is it Done yet?

If you remembered to buy a meat thermometer, you’re good to go. Don’t trust those buttons some of the turkeys have to tell you they’re done. Follow the meat thermometer. It will have a poultry setting – 180 degrees means it’s done.

About an hour before you THINK it’s done, take the bird out of the oven and remove the tin foil cover. Baste the bird with the juices that have gathered in the bottom of the pan. If you don’t have any juices, something is wrong. Don’t panic, just use some of that leftover boullion or make more and use that.

Basting means pouring liquid over every inch of the bird, paying special attention to the dressing popping out of the cavity at this point. If you have a basting bulb, that works best. If you don’t use a big spoon.

Stick the meat thermometer in the fat part of the bird – push it deep – but don’t hit bone. If it’s reading at least 160, you’re good. Stick the UNCOVERED bird back in the oven and let it cook another until it’s browned and the meat thermometer reads 180. Baste it every 15 minutes until that happens – usually about forty minutes to an hour.

If you don’t have a meat thermometer, you’ll need to do the leg test. Pull one leg free and give it a yank when you think the bird looks done. It should pull loose from the main body of the bird. If it doesn’t, or you aren’t sure, there’s the knife test.

Using a sharp knife, cut into the fattest part of the bird and LOOK. If it’s pink anywhere, it isn’t done.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

I’ve been writing a novel based in Texas the last few months, and one of the things I’ve found helpful, aside from plenty of time listening to the vernacular of the old timers around where I’m staying just now, is the Cowboy Code. There are more located at The Cowboy Code , but Gene Autry’s is my favorite.

Gene Autry’s Code of Honor

• A cowboy never takes unfair advantage – even of an enemy.
• A cowboy never betrays a trust. He never goes back on his word.
• A cowboy always tells the truth.
• A cowboy is kind and gentle to small children, old folks, and animals.
• A cowboy is free from racial and religious intolerance.
• A cowboy is always helpful when someone is in trouble.
• A cowboy is always a good worker.
• A cowboy respects womanhood, his parents and his nation’s laws.
• A cowboy is clean about his person in thought, word, and deed.
• A cowboy is a Patriot.