"Thank You my fellow Americans". BEANS!! Breaking News UPDATE!

BREAKING NEWS: This just in. According to "MightyMom", a Texas mother, A "crop circle" has recently been discovered just outside Lubbock, Tx. This appears to be the works of intelligent aliens (of the extraterrestrial type). Even they have seen enough/


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Dear Fellow Americans:

For only the second time in my adult life, I am not ashamed of my country. I want to thank the hard working American people for paying $242 thousand dollars plus additional expenses for my vacation in Spain . My daughter Sasha, several long-time family friends, my personal staff and various guests had a wonderful time. Honestly, you just haven't lived until you have stayed in a $2,500.00 per night suite at a 5-Star luxury hotel. We only booked 70 rooms for our friends, staff and family. Thank you also for the use of Air Force 2 and the 70 Secret Service personnel who tagged along to be sure we were safe and cared for at all times.

Air Force 2 only used 47,500 gallons of jet fuel for this trip and carbon emissions were a mere 1,031 tons of CO2. It costs only $11,500 per hour to operate Air Force 2 and each additional plane for the other members of our party group. These are only rough estimates, but they are close (who's counting?). That's quite a carbon footprint as my good friend Al Gore would say, so we must ask the American citizens to drive smaller, more fuel efficient cars and drive less too, so we can lessen our combined carbon footprint.

I know times are hard and millions of you are struggling to put food on the table and trying to make ends meet. I do appreciate your sacrifice and do hope you find work soon. I was really exhausted after Barack took our family on a luxury vacation in Maine a few weeks ago. I just had to get away for a few days. Will write more from Martha's Vineyard where we will spend our sixth vacation this year with more of our family and friends.

Cordially,

Michelle Obama





I doubt there is anyone out there who would begrudge the President and his family the need for a vacation (or even two), after all. it is the most stressful job in the world, however, this vacation that Michelle Obama took with all her aids, friends, some family members and Secret Service agents was, IMHO way over the top.

The timing couldn't have been worse when one considers the unemployment figures (which BTW many experts feel are in fact much higher than the figures being released) and the number of hard working Americans that have lost their homes because of these very tough economic times. If fingers of blame need to be pointed as a cause for these "hard times" one has to begin with George Bush (and before), followed by Obama and company greatly exacerbating the situation with their out of control government spending and an overall failure to adequately address this particular issue.

What really irked Cookie about this vacation was the sense that many Americans got of an "In yur Face" and arrogant attitude displayed by the Obamas. I know her vacation is relatively old news but after just watching one of my hard working neighbors (worked hard all their lives) lose everything it still pisses me off. Now Sir, the above letter was a typical "joke" E-mail I received from a regular reader and I'm NOT sure whether or not the part about "six vacations" is accurate or not, so if this is in error, please feel free to correct it.
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Now Sir, with the economy such as it is, and no immediate relief in sight, we'd all better get ready to tighten our belts and decrease the amount of our food budgets. With this in mind, and summer now almost officially at an end, here be a great recipe fer real "Pork & Beans" that not only tastes great but, when done correctly will actually have more pulled pork than beans. Everyone who has ever followed Cookie's recipe correctly have simply raved about the flavor of this dish, so, here y'all go, "Civil War Pork & Beans".

COOKIE'S NOTE: Again, economy related, the cost of pork might just get a little prohibitive so y'all may have to substitute the pork with either Bear, Beaver, Opossum, Skunk, Ground Hog or Alaskan Musk Ox meat, or whatever meat is most widely available in yur area.



Civil War Camp Pork & Beans
Ingredients (adjust according to amount of meat):

• 2-5# cans Van deCamps (or whatever brand of beans y'all like) pork & beans.
• 5-10 pounds boneless country style pork ribs (enough to fill up a 9X13 baking pan)
• 3 small cans tomato sauce (or substitute catsup or BBQ sauce)
• 1/2 cup vinegar or to taste
• 1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 clove garlic freshly pressed
• 2 finely chopped onion
• Black pepper to taste
• Pinch red pepper
* I also added 2 cups of Maple Syrup to the Pork & Beans later in the recipe.

Trim the fat off the meat. Combine the tomato sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, onion, black & red pepper. Mix the meat in the sauce until it is well coated. Let it marinate in this sauce over night. Place the meat into a baking pan and bake in oven at 300° for approximately 3 hours or until the meat flakes apart. When done take meat out of pan and let cool. Pull (do not cut ) the meat apart into small chunks.
Pour one can a the Pork & Beans inta a very large aluminum bakin pan (or use 2 pans if'n ya needs to), pour 1 cup of the Maple Syrup into the Pork & Beans and mix in. Now Sir...put the pulled pork meat and any left over marinade onto this layer of beans. Now...pour the other can a Pork & Beans, and the other cup of Maple Syrup over this, mix in, and put it back inta the oven and bake fer 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Top with chopped onion and chopped crispy bacon. Serve with hot rolls or biscuits.
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Lets end with an uplifting OBG....