Why Didn't I Think of That?

"Brunch! 100 Fantastic Recipes for the Weekend's Best Meal" by Gale Gand Clarkson/Potter Publishers 208 pages $27.50 (lots of color photos)

Gand is, to say the least, a brunch advocate. Admittedly, I enjoy it, too. And if the words "champagne Sunday" are added, I'm heaven bound.

This is the recipe for her White Hot Chocolate:
3 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream (make mine 4 cups 2% milk, please)
8 oz. white chocolate, chopped
1 teas. almond extract
Optional: six strips of orange peel, 1 in. x 3 in.

Combine the milk, cream and orange peel and heat until boiling. Add the chocolate and stir until it's absorbed. Add the almond extract and fish out the orange peels. Stir again.

Take two of the saved orange peels, cut into thin strips and garnish the poured cup.

Why Didn't You Think of This?

Well-meaning people, friends of mine, are boiling over at the rules and regs of the new health care reform package. Petitions rain down on my computer on a near-daily basis. As I'm tired of typing and sending this response, you read it here:

Cyberspace petitions are worthless. For a true petition, you have to print your name, sign your name and include your full mailing address.

(Opinion: I doubt these things go any farther than the desk of the lowest on the food chain at the politician's office. If you want to get your opinion out, use the Letters to the Editor section of your local paper.)