Let's admit it, doesn't that sound good?
I'm trying to plan a menu for the week. I'm looking at things I have fixed, asking myself "What sounds good?"
Coq au vin and Cassoulet both sound too heavy for the heat of summer. Seafood-stuffed manicotti? Chicken fried steak? Both are possibilities, although the manicotti IS a lot of work.
What if, instead of buying the manicotti pasta, I make crepes? Haven't done THAT in a good many years. But if I make a full recipe of crepes, then I can put other things in them for another meal---chicken in a light sauce, maybe?
Mac & cheese (actually rigatoni in a fontina sauce with prosciutto and mushrooms)? That has the advantage of tasting even better a day or two later.
I'm making myself hungry. Microwave popcorn and pre-made margarita. I'm set!
So, I open my cook book of main dishes --I place recipes I cut out of magazines and newspapers in a loose-leaf binder-- and there is an estouffade bernaise. I've never made that. Reading through, it looks DELICIOUS!! and also a very WINTER dish. That one will wait.
An EASY chicken cacciatore -- haven't made that in YEARS!! Flag that for a meal!
Looking at fish dishes. Crab and asparagus bread pudding (agin, might be a winter dish) and one called "Pasta with Mushrooms and Scallops" A variation on scampi! Uses cream in the sauce....FLAG THAT!!
Well, I've got my menu started -- Chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and peas; Chicken cacciatore with pasta and a salad; Tuscan steak with creamed spinach (fairly easy, just sounds complicated)(add a tossed salad to this too); Pasta with mushrooms and scallops (and a salad); I may just add in Burritos for two reasons - 1. they're EASY.
2. George LOVES them.
And if I golf Tuesday, and George and I golf Friday, those two nights I don't have to fix dinner!
OK, who is coming over which nights for dinner??
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
A Silent Solution?
I came across an article that appeared in the New Your Times on July 9, 2010. It was written by Julia Preston, and reports on what she calls "Silent Raids" by immigration. Her article indicates that these raids are carried out against large employers who are in industries where hiring illegal workers is frequently a regular practice.
The raids are not carried out in the traditional manner. Rather than rounding up and removing employees, the immigration agent inspects the I-9's the employees fill out and the employers maintain. By auditing the records, the agents can determine which employees are not in this country legally. The employer then fires the illegal workers.
The illegal workers are not deported. HOWEVER, they are very unlikely to find work with any large employer in that particular industry.
Under the traditional scenario, a large group of agents would have rounded up all of the illegal workers and (eventually) returned them to Mexico. This new method uses only one agent to audit the employer's records. Under this new version, the illegal parties are not forcibly deported. The cost savings to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are large.
And the worker who is in this country illegally, who can no longer find work in the industry they have been working in, and possibly cannot find ANY job? He does not qualify for unemployment, or for welfare. He may very well choose to re-partiate himself back to his country of origen.
The article was picked up by various news services and portions of it were repeated in national news outlets during the next two or three days. However, no further "in-depth" coverage was done.
Simple searches show that there HAS been a major change in immigration law. Or rather, there has been a major change in penalties for hiring illegal immigrants.
It appears that perhaps the current administration has implemented a "silent solution" to the immigration crises. By examining the payrolls of the large employers, by fining the employers and forcing them to fire the illegal employees, it appears that a program is underway to make jobs less plentiful for the illegal immigrant -- whether he is from Mexico, Poland, or China.
The raids are not carried out in the traditional manner. Rather than rounding up and removing employees, the immigration agent inspects the I-9's the employees fill out and the employers maintain. By auditing the records, the agents can determine which employees are not in this country legally. The employer then fires the illegal workers.
The illegal workers are not deported. HOWEVER, they are very unlikely to find work with any large employer in that particular industry.
Under the traditional scenario, a large group of agents would have rounded up all of the illegal workers and (eventually) returned them to Mexico. This new method uses only one agent to audit the employer's records. Under this new version, the illegal parties are not forcibly deported. The cost savings to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are large.
And the worker who is in this country illegally, who can no longer find work in the industry they have been working in, and possibly cannot find ANY job? He does not qualify for unemployment, or for welfare. He may very well choose to re-partiate himself back to his country of origen.
The article was picked up by various news services and portions of it were repeated in national news outlets during the next two or three days. However, no further "in-depth" coverage was done.
Simple searches show that there HAS been a major change in immigration law. Or rather, there has been a major change in penalties for hiring illegal immigrants.
It appears that perhaps the current administration has implemented a "silent solution" to the immigration crises. By examining the payrolls of the large employers, by fining the employers and forcing them to fire the illegal employees, it appears that a program is underway to make jobs less plentiful for the illegal immigrant -- whether he is from Mexico, Poland, or China.
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