Welcome to Dave and Vera’s 2021 Dinner Celebration of Serbian Christmas

Several years ago, I got to thinking about how we used to go to Nana’s house to celebrate Serbian Christmas. That tradition had more or less dwindled down to phone calls wishing family Merry Christmas. I decided that I didn’t want to let that tradition slip away completely. I want my grandsons to know about that part of where they come from, so we started having a dinner to get everyone together and keep the day special and remembered. I can’t say how many years we’ve been doing this now, but it has grown from just immediate family to an event attended by family and friends. I think one year, when Zach and Elise hosted the dinner at their house, there were around 20 people.

This year, due to COVID, we won’t be getting together for dinner. Instead, we have decided to copy our friends at the winery and are inviting all of you to join. We will be having our dinner on Sunday, January 10 due to work schedules. The menu has been scaled down to a dinner for two (except for the soup, there’ll be enough for a meal later in the week) but can easily be scaled up if needed.

The Menu

Roasted Butternut Squash and Red Bell Pepper Soup

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Herb Roasted Prime Rib for Two

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Crisp Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

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Creamy Peas with Bacon and Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs

For the Soup

Serves 4

Buy a 4-ounce hunk of pancetta from the deli counter, not the presliced variety.

4 oz. pancetta, cut into ½-inch pieces (*see notes at the end)

2 lbs. butternut squash, cut in half, lengthwise, and seeded

Olive oil

1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped

1 onion, chopped fine

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. dried rosemary

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

4 cups chicken broth

1 TBS sherry vinegar

2 TBS chopped fresh chives

For the Herb Roasted Prime Rib

1 (1 ½ lb.) bone-in rib-eye steak, 1 ½ inches thick,* trimmed

Salt

Herb Paste

1 Tbs. minced fresh thyme

1 Tbs. minced fresh rosemary

2 tsp. Dijon mustard

2 tsp. olive oil

1 tsp. all-purpose flour

¼ tsp. sugar

For the Crisp Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

1 pound fingerling potatoes, halved lengthwise

¼ cup salt

¼ tsp. baking soda

1 Tbs. olive oil

⅛ tsp. pepper

For the Creamy Peas with Bacon and Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs

2 slices bacon, chopped

⅓ cup heavy cream

½ pound frozen peas, not thawed

2 scallions, sliced thin

1 ¼ oz. Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs (about ¼ of the package)

Assembly

A day or two before, make the soup.

  • Preheat the oven to 425⁰. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Coat the inside of each half of the squash with olive oil (about ½ tsp. each half). Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Turn squash cut side down on the parchment paper and roast until tender, about 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside until cool enough to handle.
  • When squash has cooled, scoop from shell and cut into 1 inch cubes. Set aside.
  • *Cook pancetta in a Dutch oven over medium heat until browned and crispy, about 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer pancetta to paper towel lined plate. Once cooled, store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
  • Add bell pepper and onion to fat left in the pot and cook over medium-high heat until onion is softened, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper , and squash and cook until garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in broth and bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, covered, until squash is heated through, 5 – 10 minutes. Remove pot from heat.
  • Working with 2 cups at a time, process soup in a blender until smooth, about 1 minute.  Cool and place in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

The Day Of

  • Remove steak from refrigerator 1 -2 hours before cooking, pat dry with paper towels, season with salt, place on a wire rack to allow air circulation and allow to come to room temperature.
  • For the Herb Paste, combine the minced fresh thyme, minced fresh rosemary, Dijon mustard, olive oil, flour and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
  • Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in Potatoes, salt, and baking soda Cook until potatoes are tender but centers offer slight resistance when pierced with a paring knife, 8 – 10 minutes. Drain potatoes in a colander and shake vigorously to roughen the edges. Transfer to a large platter lined with a clean dishtowel and let sit until no longer steaming and surface is tacky, about 5 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, while potatoes are boiling, adjust oven rack to the lowest position and pre-heat oven to  500⁰. Heat 2 tsp. oil in a 12 inch, oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Pat steak dry again, if necessary, and brown all over, including the edges, about 10-12 minutes. Transfer steak to an oven proof wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet and set aside.
  • Transfer potatoes to a large bowl and toss with 1 tsp of oil and pepper. If necessary, pour off drippings or *add oil to the hot skillet the steak was browned in, to equal about 2 tsp and swirl around to coat the pan. Carefully place potatoes, cut side down, in the hot skillet, in an even layer, pressing on the potatoes to ensure the cut sides are flush with the bottom of the skillet. Place the skillet in the oven, on the lowest rack, and bake until the cut sides are crisp and the skins are spotty brown, 15 – 18 minutes. Flip the potatoes cut side up and let cool in the pan.
  • While the potatoes are cooking, spread the herb paste evenly over  the top of the steak.
  •  Once the potatoes are done, reduce the oven temperature to 200⁰. Place the rimmed baking sheet with the steak on the wire rack on the lowest rack in the oven. Roast  until the steak registers approx. 130⁰ for medium (120⁰ – 125⁰ for med-rare; 135⁰ for well) about 30 minutes. Place on a carving board, tent loosely with foil, and let rest 5 – 10 minutes. If need be, return skillet with potatoes to the oven to re-heat while steak is resting.
  • While the steak is roasting, heat the soup over medium-low heat and  cook the peas. In a large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, cook the bacon until crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and discard drippings.
  • Add cream to empty skillet and simmer until thickened, 3 -5 minutes. Stir in peas and scallions, cover, and cook until heated through, about 8 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs until smooth. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with bacon.
  • When soup is hot, just before serving, stir in vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  • Carve the bone from the steak and cut the steak on bias into ½ inch thick slices.  Sprinkle individual portions of soup with chives and pancetta. Serve and enjoy!

*Notes:

* Pre-sliced pancetta is generally too thin and will likely burn. If unable to find pancetta, substitute bacon.

* Render fat trimmed from the steak in a 250⁰ oven. Use the rendered fat in place of the oil when cooking the potatoes.

David’s Revelation

 

I recently had a dream. Actually, I had two dreams. In the first dream, I was painting a picture. It was a picture of a great, wooden wagon wheel floating in the universe. The center of the wheel, the hub, was an intense white light, with the wooden spokes radiating outward from it to the wooden rim bound by iron. Each spoke had a name burned into it, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc..

The wooden rim was the earth, the world we live in, with all of the people of the world. While the people could travel around the world, they could not move any farther away from the center. The iron tire symbolized the limits of our world. The only direction the people could go, other than going around in circles on earth, was to turn inward and go to the center, the hub which supports the entire world. The center from which the world originated. The center which we all came from.

The hub of this wheel, the intense white light, is God. The source of our existence. The spokes of the wheel, representing the multitude of religions which exist in our world, are our pathways to God. They all originated from the same source. They all originated from God. They are all pathways leading to the same destination.

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In the second dream, it was made known to me that the true revelation, in the sense of “an enlightening or astonishing disclosure” [Merriam-Webster], is yet to come. I dreamed that God gave to each of the founders of the world’s religions, a puzzle piece. When we finally realize that God placed compassion and love at the core of those religions and come to, as H.H. the Dalai Lama envisions, a “true kinship of faiths”, then we can bring the pieces of the puzzle together, and we will have the key to unlock the chains that prevent us from living in a world free from suffering caused by humankind. We will have the key to peace on earth.

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Those were the dreams I had. Perhaps it will take the apocalypse described in the Book of Revelations to bring about this realization. I recently read an article in Mother Jones that had to do with the support of evangelical Christians for President Trump. It seems as though they are hopeful he will get us into a war with Iran or hopefully, to their way of thinking, the apocalypse, and this will bring about the “End Times”. They are not worried about nuclear war or the end of the world – they are ready for it.

I personally do not have much faith in the idea that any war will bring about everlasting peace on earth. It suggests that the way to peace is by the extermination of those who do not think like US. But where does it end? No two of us are alike.  Once those with different ideas about religion are eliminated, what is the next difference to justify extermination? War simply programs us to fear and mistrust others. It has been my experience that war brings about division, hatred, ignorance and fear, to name a few things. We need to move beyond fear and hatred if we truly desire peace. What we need for eternal peace is compassion and love. Unity and acceptance. We need to celebrate our similarities and learn to see ourselves in others.

Land of the Free and Home of the Brave?

“…land of the free, and the home of the brave.”  I have come across many people who believe this line from our national anthem to be true. To them, it is true simply because this is the United States of America. It takes no effort on the part of any individual. If you were born here, you are free and you are brave. It is your birthright.

But it is not. The idea that the United States of America is the “land of the free and the home of the brave” is a myth. Undoubtedly, there are individuals in this country who could be said to be free as well as individuals who could be said to be brave. But overall, I think the majority of us are wage slaves who are deliberately kept in a state of fear so we are more easily controlled.

Free: not held as a slave; not physically held by something (Merriam-Webster)

Wage Slave: a person dependent on wages or a salary for a livelihood (Merriam-Webster)

Many of us, I would even say most of us, in this country live pay check to pay check, imprisoned by debt. We cannot truly claim we are free. We are told we are free, but what is the reality? I am not free to take off and go live in another part of the country just because I feel I want a change of scenery. Yes, in theory, I am free to do so. But the reality is I have to be sure that in a new location I will be able to find employment that will allow me to pay my current debts as well as the new debts incurred by such a move. I, and most people, don’t make enough money to be debt free or make such a move without going into debt.  I am not truly free.

The days of being able to save enough to make a purchase, a new car for example, and pay cash are long gone. People today do not earn enough, in relation to the cost of living, to be able to save that kind of money. A frightening number of people don’t earn enough to save for retirement, let alone to purchase things like cars without going into debt.

During the rise of the middle class, when the labor movement was strong and wages were keeping better pace with inflation, people could save money. They could save for that car, or to buy a home. They could save to send their children to college. They could save for retirement.

But that all ended. It is my belief that a strategy used in the fight against organized labor was to give the middle class the illusion of attaining the American dream, the illusion that people were doing at least as well as their parents, if not better. My parents were able to afford a higher standard of living than their parents because of increased wages. As wage growth stagnated, the “powers that be” were aware that the labor movement would rise again if workers felt they were not doing as well as their parents. Enter the age of easy credit.

Rather than rewarding hard work and increased productivity with an increase in wages, we, the working class, were loaned that money. It was loaned to us in the form of easy credit. I remember a time when credit was much more difficult to get than it is today.

With easy credit, workers can purchase enough “stuff” to feel like they are living the American dream. Basically, I feel they convinced us to let them keep our raises so we could borrow that money and pay it back to them with interest. They convinced us to concede the power that came with financial independence.

The combination of easy credit and the demand for instant gratification in our society ensures that the majority of us will be kept in debt. “He who controls the debt has the power” I think I heard that in a movie once. I would have to say I believe it to be true. When we are in debt, we do not have the freedom to leave a job that doesn’t suit us. We do not have the freedom to demand better treatment in the workplace. We are certainly NOT in a position of power. We know that what we have can be taken from us because we don’t own … we owe. Because so much of what we have could be taken from us, we live in fear.

Fear: to expect or worry about (something bad or unpleasant): to be afraid and worried (Merriam-Webster)

Brave: feeling or showing no fear: not afraid: having or showing courage (Merriam-Webster)

Fear of losing what we have keeps many of us in line. The sacrifice to speak out is too great. We have too much to lose. Have you ever wondered why so many activists belong to the younger generation? Or maybe why so many activists come from minority groups? Are they trouble makers? Are they too young and inexperienced to know what they are talking about? Or could it be they have nothing to lose?

I would say they have nothing to lose. Either they have not acquired as much debt or they have so much debt in relation to their income that they can’t possibly pay it off and feel they are destined to lose all they have anyway. They feel helpless in our economic system.

Fear is used constantly. I would be willing to bet the weather app on your smart phone sends you a storm warning every time a cloud appears on the horizon. Cable news channels barrage you with the threats to our democracy, and our security, and our economy, and … you get the picture. They don’t do this to keep you informed.  It keeps you checking the weather on a regular basis. It keeps you tuned so you can monitor the danger posed by Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mothers On Drugs (song by Dave Lippman ). It keeps you watching so that they can sell more advertising. The more viewers/ listeners etc., the more advertising they can sell and the more they can charge for it.

I think it is important to keep in mind that capitalism demands everything have a profit motive. Someone is profiting from nearly everything you are exposed to every day. Unless you are getting your news from a viewer/ listener supported source such as public television or radio, the news you are getting is designed generate a profit by the ability to attract advertisers. The number of viewers a particular news channel has is more important than the accuracy or truth of the content. A news show that can stir up emotions and entice more people to watch/ listen for a longer time is more profitable than a news program that investigates and reports factual information.

Citizens of this country would rather be entertained than informed. A look at the popularity of movies containing graphic violence in this country would suggest “entertainment” does not necessarily mean something which makes us laugh, we like to be scared. News programs that stir up our emotions satisfy our desire to be entertained more than programs which simply present us with information.

To stir up emotion, one doesn’t need to send a reporter to investigate and research and then report, all of which cost money, which cuts into profits. One simply needs to find a story, and then present the opinions of the various pundits.  This is also what I feel is one of the major reasons to disregard, or at least be skeptical of information presented as news if it consists of a headline, or story, which is not accompanied by a report of the facts surrounding the event, but by the opinions of the pundits instead.

By being entertained or kept in a state of fear, we are distracted. We don’t come together to find solutions to the problems faced by our society, solutions which would upset the status quo. In fact, we rarely come together enough to identify the problems. When we are fearful, we willingly allow our freedoms to be stripped away by those who claim to be protecting us.

When I was in the army, my fellow service members and I believed that “Freedom isn’t Free”. Back then that meant that a worst case scenario would involve paying for the freedoms enjoyed by the citizens of the United States of America with our lives. Best case scenario was we were paying for those freedoms by giving up the personal freedoms one gives up when serving in the military.

I have since come to realize that the true price of freedom is risk. You can’t have freedom without it. The Greek historian and general Thucydides said, “The secret to happiness is freedom… And the secret to freedom is courage.” If we truly wish to be the “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”, we must have courage. We must have the courage to acknowledge certain facts, such as democracy, whether representative democracy or direct democracy, requires each and every one of us to participate. We must put forth the effort to educate ourselves. We must make the effort to research the facts and not be seduced by the emotionally charged propaganda that makes up today’s political campaigns and for many, passes as “reliable information”.

I have heard many, myself included, say, “I don’t have the time to look up the information I need to make an informed decision.” We need to be brave enough to acknowledge the fact that when so many are facing the same problem, something is wrong with our system. We need to be brave enough to take the steps necessary to correct the problem and fix the system.  We must be brave enough to admit that one of those steps may be to compromise. We must be courageous enough to admit that compromise means our side must give up something. We must be brave enough to have uncomfortable conversations with those who don’t think as we do. We must be brave enough to listen to the other side and look at the issues from their point of view.

“The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.” – Jim Hightower

In order to be free, we have to be brave. We have to be brave enough to accept the risks that come with freedom.  We have to be brave enough to grow and change when required to do so.  When we get to that point, then we may rightfully claim the title “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”.

“Thank You for Your Service”

“Thank you for your service.” That is something I hear quite often. When I go to a school to talk to a welding class about the boilermaker trade, or when I am addressing a class of apprentices, I tell them how I got to where I am today. How I joined the U.S. Army after high school as a welder and became a Boilermaker when I got out. Sometimes people thank me for my service because they noticed the Veteran license plates on my truck.

I must say, I’m not entirely comfortable with it. I didn’t join the Army after high school to be anyone’s hero. There were multiple reasons I joined. I didn’t care much for school, so I had no desire to go to college. My Grandfather was a WWII veteran and I grew up believing that serving one’s country was a duty. Mostly, I had no clue what to do with my life and it was a job that promised adventure and the opportunity to learn a skill that would enable me to find a decent job should I decide I wanted to do something else after my enlistment was up.

“Thank you for your service.” I do appreciate the gratitude. But, I still find it uncomfortable. I think mostly because of the perceived lack of sincerity. It is as though the person saying it is saying it because they feel obligated to, not because it is something they’ve given any thought to and are saying because they mean it. It seems to have become the phrase of the times, similar to telling a stranger “Have a Merry Christmas!” during the holiday season.

If you truly want to thank me for my service, here is what you can do – Honor those things that I swore to defend when I enlisted. The things so many have given their lives for. Through your actions, show me that you appreciate the time I spent in the service. I am sure others who served, or are currently serving, will agree.

Educate yourself about the freedoms you enjoy by living in this country. Citizens of many countries around the world don’t enjoy a fraction of the freedoms we do. Don’t take the freedoms you have for granted.

Don’t condemn those who choose to exercise their rights, especially the right of free speech. Speaking out against something you believe to be wrong, whether it is an elected official, or a policy, or a law, or any number of things, is far more patriotic than blindly waving the flag and following the crowd. Don’t tolerate the suppression  of another’s rights, the service men and women you are inclined to thank, are serving to protect those rights.

VOTE! Don’t just go to the polls or send in an absentee ballot voted on party lines, educate yourself about the candidates and the issues and make informed, intelligent decisions.

Numerous people have thanked me for my service, then have gone on to explain how they had thought about joining the Armed Forces but, for whatever reason, they didn’t and now they wish they had. Now is the time for you to serve your country. You don’t have to enlist – just participate in our democracy. Democracy is not a spectator sport, get involved. Pledge to dedicate some time, maybe as little as thirty minutes to an hour a day to become an informed citizen by seeking out factual information.

Get a voter information pamphlet from the Secretary of State’s office and read the summaries and actual language of the issues which will be on the ballot. Read the arguments for and against the different issues then think about where you stand. Think about why you support or oppose an issue. Make an informed decision based on facts. Beware of making decisions based on the emotional reactions that are triggered by the information to be found on social media, TV, radio, etc.. That information is mostly paid for by special interests and is designed to stir up your emotions so you will disregard facts. Ask yourself what those paying for the ad have to gain from you voting the way they tell you to.

When it comes to candidates running for election, ignore the finger pointing. So many campaigns spend vast amounts of their time and money pointing out how their opponents have not solved the problems we face, but they never offer solutions to those problems. Pledge to write a letter to each candidate and insist they explain how they plan to make things better. Ask them to explain their positions on issues that are important to you.

After the election is over, regardless of who won, pledge to call, email, or write to your elected representatives on a regular basis. Remember they work for you, hold them accountable. Let them know your position on the issues they are dealing with. They can not represent your interests if you don’t let them know what your interests are.

Be honest with yourself and decide what issues are really the most important to you. Remember, the issues being promoted by the special interest groups are designed to stir up emotions. They are not necessarily going to be the issues which will have the most impact on your life. Is whomever the barista at Starbucks is in love with going to impact your life more than access to health care for you and your family?

If this is asking too much, then I think “Thank you for your service”  has more to do with making yourself feel good than it does with gratitude. You don’t need to waste your breath, or my time, by thanking me.

Right to Work: Does it benefit workers or employers?

I would have to say it benefits neither. Those in favor of it claim it benefits workers by allowing them to seek employment in a union shop without being forced to join the union, therefore providing more job opportunities. The truth is, union membership is the lowest it has been in decades. The majority of available jobs are non-union jobs.

So why would a worker who is opposed to unions seek employment in a union shop anyway? Because the jobs in union shops are typically better jobs. Better Pay. Better benefits. Better safety programs. Better conditions overall. And all because of strength in numbers. The negotiating power of employees who have come together as a union is greater than the negotiating power of  an individual.

But unions, like any other organization, whether it be the NRA, Ducks Unlimited, Greenpeace, or The Sierra Club, need finances to operate. Unions are financed through the dues paid by the membership, as are the other organizations mentioned above.

So, in the long-term, RTW could be seen as a strategy to destroy the unions by removing their funding. This is accomplished through the short-term effects of what is essentially an entitlement program. It entitles non-union workers to reap the benefits of the bargaining power of the union without paying any of the cost.

Many of the younger generation currently entering the work force are relatively naive about the history of labor in this country. Things such as the forty hour work week, minimum wage, and overtime pay are frequently taken for granted. It is hard to convince people it is in their best interest to join the union, pay dues, and attend meetings on their own time, to actively participate in their union, when they can enjoy the same wages and benefits as the union employees without the personal sacrifice.

As long as the union employees have a strong bargaining position, the employers will pay the non-union employees comparable wage and benefit packages. If they didn’t, the non-union employees would see the benefits of union membership and would be more compelled to join the union.

But what happens when the majority of the employees opt out of the union and that strong bargaining position no longer exists? My prediction is that the employers will cut  wages, or at least allow them to stagnate. Wages have not even come close to keeping up with inflation over the last thirty years. There is no reason to believe that will improve when the right to collective bargaining has been taken away.

Benefits will most likely cease. Workers will be told (in fact are already being told) that benefits are too costly and threatening to cause the collapse of the company . If they want to have a job to go to , they will have to fund their own health care insurance and retirement plans. I believe there is a line in the movie, Heist: Who Stole the American Dream, that goes something like “If the average person could successfully manage investments, why are the bankers on Wall Street paid such outrageous sums?” Even if things never got worse, at the rate inflation has out paced income for the last thirty years, workers in this country, both union and non-union, could forget about retirement as we’d never be able to afford to retire.

Some RTW supporters claim passing Right to Work in states that don’t have it will make those states more attractive to business and thereby create more jobs. I don’t believe it. I’ve seen too many people move out of Right to Work states because there was no work. I think in today’s global economy, the reality is that American workers, union and non-union, are more likely competing with workers in China or India than competing between states. As U.S. employers ship jobs overseas, we find ourselves competing with foreign workers for the lowest wages. This is happening now. Large corporations have demonstrated they place a higher priority on maximizing profits to executives and share holders than on ensuring fair compensation for the wellbeing of the employees who actually do the work that makes the business a success. There is no reason to believe this will improve with the passage of Right to Work. I do not see any benefit to workers in Right to Work.

I stated earlier that I don’t believe it benefits employers either. As workers’ income declines, whether through decreased wages, increased inflation, or a combination of the two, the effects reach beyond the individual workers and their families. Big business may not feel the effects of decreased spending by a falling middle class in this country because it is offset by the increased spending of a rising middle class in places like China or India. But those employers that can not ship their business overseas, those that depend on the American economy to succeed, will feel it. Many of these are the same employers that the RTW supporters claim to be helping. The Mom & Pop businesses. As workers are forced to compete for the lowest wages, business owners will be forced to lower their prices in order for anyone to be able to afford their goods or services. As we effectively slip back in time to the days when only the wealthy could afford an education, it will become more difficult to find an educated work force, an un-nerving thought in today’s reality of technological dependence. I do not see any long-term benefits to any but the largest employers. Those who have the luxury of viewing workers as commodities, subject to the laws of supply and demand. Those that can afford to move their operations around the globe as necessary to capitalize on the cheapest labor they can find.

I’ve heard many of the same people who support Right to Work oppose any type of regulation on business. They claim that regulation by the government is un-necessary because the “market” will regulate business. Many of these same people are opposed to any type of so-called entitlement programs. From where I’m sitting it appears that Right to Work is both. Government regulation of both the unions and business. I say both the unions and business because what is often overlooked is the fact that in a union shop, both parties, the employers and the employees, represented collectively by their union, negotiated and agreed to a contract. Right to Work is a government intrusion on an agreement between two parties. Right to Work is also an entitlement program. One could think of it as “employed welfare”.  By passing a Right to Work law the government allows certain individuals entitlement to wages and benefits which they in no way negotiated or otherwise shared in the cost of obtaining.

With the non-union workforce growing and the unions in decline, I say no to Right to Work. The “market” will regulate it.