Boiled Dinner

It's been a while since I've made a proper (my British friend's word) grocery store run. Sunday the stores were closed, and yesterday was so windy I'm not sure how many witches were successfully ignited (yesterday was Sankt Hans Day. Incidentally, we are burning our witch this Saturday).

So with what I had, I made something that reminded my of my grandma Lorraine's boiled dinner - which was a cabbage-y broth-y sort of soup. Ingredients were: onion, carrot, celery, yellow pepper, garlic, cabbage, and vegetable bullion. I made up some herbed meatballs/frikadellers, and served it all over knodel.


Each time I cook these things, I wonder...is this really safe or healthy? Is boiling plastic and then eating what was cooked inside them ok?. We don't eat them enough to really worry about it, but I still wonder. If was to go back to school, I would seriously consider food science.


This morning I paid the bill for my TV license (its the bill from that guy that showed up at our door few weeks ago). After asking around, we found out that its basically a public TV payment. There are one or two DK channels that provide news and *quality* programming (our Danish teacher said they have been running the same quality programs for years now).

The bill turned out to be roughly $250 dollars. And I think we get two bills like this per year. So that's $500 per year. I'm happy to give $$$ to public programming. I am a member of MN public TV, and MN public radio. But I pick the amount I give to these groups; they don't pick it for me. That's where the irritation comes in here.

I guess I'm not the only one that feels a little bitter about this. In retaliation, some people don't pay their bill. And in retaliation to that, the DK channels have run commercials implying that if you are not paying your bill, you are essentially stealing.

But if you think about it too much it gets complicated. I remember years ago when Jesse Ventura wanted to end state funding for public radio and TV. Which I totally disagreed with.

So I agree with state funding - For MN its a portion of the taxes that I have already paid, and I can contribute more $$ if I think the programs are valuable to me.

And I don't agree with state funding - I'm irritated by getting a bill, that has a 25% mom's tax tacked on to it, in a country where wages have already been heavily taxed.