Color Your Life Happy

During presidential campaigns there is no shortage of entertainment.  A recent story made me chuckle for a moment, but soon turned into a sour taste.

The New York Sun published an article on Jan. 16, 2008 called  Recipes by Cindy McCain, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton

The recipes probably would have had very little political impact if it weren’t for one thing.

Cindy McCain’s recipe, CINDY McCAIN’S PASSION FRUIT MOUSSE, was lifted from the Food Network Web site, according to the Huffington Post. Even though John McCain’s campaign pulled the recipe from its Web site, it was too late. It had been cached and archived all over the world.  In case you want to try it, I’ve included it below with the other candidate recipes.

According to the Political Ticker, Cindy’s mousse recipe was just one of three reported to be lifted or amazingly close to Food Network recipes.

This issue is revealing and appalling on a number of levels:

• McCain’s official website was the only one that devoted space to the Family Recipes.
  With boys being killed in an unpopular war, families losing homes to foreclosure, too many of our nation’s streets being littered with bodies by gang violence, and schools failing at their central mission, posting recipes was in bad taste to say the least.

• Cindy’s choice of recipes was condescending and insulting.
  While the McCains may enjoy Ahi Tuna with Napa Cabbage Slaw, Passion Fruit Mousse, and Farfalle Pasta with Turkey Sausage, Peas and Mushrooms, those recipes just don’t come to mind when I think of the average American dinner table. Nor can I visualize Cindy in the kitchen.

• Cindy’s deep hunger for sleeping in the White House is so strong that it made her think we (or some keen person) wouldn’t notice her deception. 

• Even more despicable, the debacle was blamed on an intern. Now, if the recipe was supposed to be an old family recipe, how did the intern get involved. Oh, I know. The intern must have been a cousin.

• Could it get worse? Yes. When one recipe was attributed to Rachel Ray, here is McCain’s insensitive response
  from the Political Ticker

The McCain campaign quickly moved to quell the controversy over cabbage slaw. “Apparently a web intern added Rachael Ray to our policy team without her knowing it,” McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds told CNN Tuesday morning. “He was swiftly dealt with and the page is down for revision. Our apologies to Food Network …but according to our press assistant the passion fruit mousse is really worth trying.”

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Before you scroll down to try these recipes I have one more observation.

If these recipes were from the spouses of the candidates why didn’t Bill, instead of Hillary, submit a recipe.

Oh, I know why.

We already know his favorite dish.

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CINDY McCAIN’S PASSION FRUIT MOUSSE

1 1/4 cups passion fruit purée
1 1/4 cups orange juice
3/4 cup sugar
Scant 1 tablespoon gelatin, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
3 cups heavy cream, whipped
2 finger (baby) bananas
Coarse sugar
1 kiwi, peeled, cut in half, and sliced

1. In a saucepan, heat the passion fruit purée, orange juice, and sugar until dissolved.

2. Add the dissolved gelatin to the hot juice and stir to melt and combine. Strain the liquid into a bowl and place it over an ice bath. Stir it constantly with a rubber spatula and when it just starts to set, fold in the whipped cream. Pour this into soup plates or dessert bowls and chill. If storing them overnight, cover them with plastic wrap.

3. To serve the mousse, remove the bowls from the refrigerator. Peel and slice the bananas in half lengthwise and dip the flat side in coarse sugar and caramelize them under a broiler or with a blowtorch. Place them on the mousse, fanning them, and then tuck in a few half slices of kiwi.

MICHELLE OBAMA’S APPLE COBBLER

For the filling:

8 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced (or a bag of frozen peeled apples)
1 1/2 to 2 cups of brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup white flour

1. Mix these ingredients together in a bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight so the spice goes all the way through the apples.

For the crust:

3 sheets refrigerated piecrust
1 stick of butter

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour the bottom of a large baking dish. Roll out three pie crusts real thin — as thin as possible. Layer the bottom of the pan with 1-1/2 of the pie crusts and prick a few holes in it. Pour the apples with the liquid into the pie pan. Dot 3/4 of a stick of butter around the apples. Use the final 1 1/2 piecrusts to cover the apple mixture entirely (let the pie crust overlap the pan).

2. Pinch the edges of the dough around the sides of the pan so the mixture is completely covered.

4. Melt final 1/4 stick of butter and brush all over top of crust.

5. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees. Bake at 300 for up to 3 hours. Start looking at the cobbler after two and a half hours so it doesn’t burn.

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HILLARY CLINTON’S OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 1/2 cup unsifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 (12-ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets.

2. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Beat together shortening, sugars, and vanilla in a large bowl until creamy. Add eggs, beating until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in flour mixture and rolled oats. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Drop batter by well-rounded teaspoonsful on to greased baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden. Cool cookies on sheets on wire rack for 2 minutes. Remove cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

 Some argue that we are co-conspirators with advertisers since we allow ourselves to be deceived.

I agree. We so much want to believe that we allow ourselves to be deceived.

Just as we suspend our belief to enjoy a movie, many of us suspend our belief for sustained periods of time.

Advertisers are the most clever liars of all because they find out what we want most and promise to give it to us. Even when their lies are discovered, we forgive them and buy their products again and again.

We all seem to want things that are fast, cheap, and good.  The truth is that we can only have two of these at a time. If something is fast and cheap, it’s not likely be good. If it’s cheap and good, it won’t be fast. And, if it’s fast and good, it definitely won’t be cheap.  And yet, we keep hoping for all three.

Politicians are not as clever as advertisers at lying.  Like advertisers, they try to tell us what we want to hear, but they don’t have as much money and time to craft their deceptions. So, they take the short cuts of evasion and distraction.

There is no law forbidding politicians from lying. It’s up to us to determine to believe, confirm or discover the truth of what they say.

Before we look down on advertisers or politicians for lying, you must know that lying is a common part of our everyday life. We are socialized to lie from an early age, and sometimes punished for telling the truth and rewarded for lying. 

As a child, for example,  it was in my best interest to tell my mother what she wanted to hear, such as when she inquired “Are you calling me a liar?” rather than to tell her the truth that she was lying. Because I lied to her, I lived to tell you this story.

To learn about the psychology of lying, check out the DVD above, ABC News Primetime Lying. Click on the image to get more information.