Doug Wilson is interviewed on the latest episode of Covenant Radio. Also worth noting[1], a round table interview with Wilson and Rich Lusk is available until Feb 1.

[1]In truth, I’m much more interested in this discussion between Lusk and Wilson than I am in the Wilson alone interview.

Tuscan Soup

INGREDIENTS
* 6 cups chicken broth
* 1 onion, chopped
* 3 (3.5 ounce) links spicy Italian sausage
* 3 large potatoes, cubed
* 1 bunch fresh spinach, washed and chopped
* 1/4 cup evaporated milk
* salt to taste
* ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Remove skin from sausage and crumble into frying pan. Add chopped onion, and cook over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. If you are trying to cut fat, remove meat from pan, place in a colander, and rinse under cold water.
2. Place meat in a large pot; add stock and potatoes. Boil until potato is cooked.
3. Add spinach. Continue boiling until spinach is lightly cooked.
4. Remove soup from heat, stir in evaporated milk, and season to taste. Do not add any salt if using canned stock.

I chose this recipe because I was longing for a soup that used Italian sausage. I didn’t put a ton of spinach in the first time, because I knew that when we had it as leftovers it would be nice to add some fresh, so that it wouldn’t be soggy. It worked well. We served it with French bread (take and bake the first night and homemade last night).
The girls didn’t care for it, but they ate most of their mug-full when pushed. Richard liked it a lot. Next time I think I’ll put in more potatoes and cut them smaller. Also, I recommend taking out a cup or so of the potatoes and mashing them to thicken the soup.

Overall, a success. The Okimotos approve.

(I’m about to click Publish with fear and trembling….I wish I could preview…)

P.S. I doubled it and had two dinners, lunch for one, and a bowl still in the fridge left over.

Megan and I are on track with our Bible reading. Last night we got through chapter 25 of Exodus. We’ve missed a few days, but made it up the following day.

Yay for us.

So, around a month or so ago we had some friends over, and we ate a chicken. It was good. After the meal, we had a leftover chicken carcass. Megan searched for recipes that used a chicken carcass, and found one. It was a chowder of some sort.

While eating this meal, I suggested that we eat more soups this winter. Megan thought it was a good idea, and that was that. Somewhere along the way, it was officially declare that Monday nights are Soup Night in the Okimoto household. The idea further developed to have, not only soup every Monday night, but a different soup every Monday night.

We’ve been fighting various sicknesses in the house for the past three and a half weeks, and so our Monday Night Soup Night program has been somewhat halted. But this week it started up, and while eating that meal I decided (being partly inspired by Mystie and also having Kari’s post floating around the back of my head) to blog about it, and to have Megan post the recipes for each week’s soup. So, there you go.

Something to look forward to.

Last night I got Michael Shermer’s book Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design from the library. The following is from the prologue:

Why does evolution matter? The influence of the theory of evolution on the general culture is so pervasive it can be summed up in a single observation: We live in the age of Darwin. Arguably the most culturally jarring theory in history, the theory of natural selection gave rise to the Darwinian revolution that changed both science and culture in ways immeasurable. On the scientific level, the static creationist model of species as fixed types [note: that is not the creationist model] was replaced with a fluid evolutionary model of species as ever-changing entities. The repercussions of this finding were, and are, astounding. The theory of top-down intelligent design of all life by or through a supernatural power was replaced with the theory of bottom-up natural design through natural forces. The anthropocentric view of humans as special creations placed by a divine hand above all others was replaced with the view of humans as just another animal species. The view of life and the cosmos as having direction and purpose from above was replaced with the view of the world as the product of the necessitating laws of nature and the contingent events of history. The view that human nature is infinitely malleable and primarily good [!?] was replaced with a view of human nature in which we are finitely restricted by our genes and are both good and evil.

Darwin matters not only because his theory changed the world and reconfigured our position in nature, but because he launched a new and profound understanding of biology and science that has served future generations. Of the three intellectual giants of that epoch–Darwin, Marx, and Freud–only Darwin is still relevant for the simple reason that his theory was right, and the scientific evidence continues to support and refine it. In the memorable observation by geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution.”

It’s quite accurate in the repercussions of Darwin’s theory, and accurately answers the question at hand. Of course, many of the things he lists are errors and problems of Darwinism, but he at least points out why evolution matters.

At ~5 months

http://www.thompsonjazz.com/movies/waterbuffalo/

Somebody gets a gift for Christmas… a water buffalo donated to a family in China. But… there is no real water buffalo. And no real family. It’s just symbolic of what the money can do. The money actually goes in the general fund of a charity.

A different guy that lives in China hears about it, and offers his help to actually buy a real water buffalo for a real family.

Pretty amazing.

HT: kottke

I am very excited to share that, for the first time ever, Geneva and I read a story as she was getting all ready for bed. We’ve read many stories together, of course. But what makes tonight so exciting is that it’s the first time that Geneva has been the one reading. Yep. She read me a story tonight!

Earlier today I went tromping through the woods trying to find some liverwort specimens (I didn’t find any :(). On my way out, I tripped a bit, and put my hand out to catch myself. It did an excellent job, and I stayed on my feet. However, The few fingers that touched the ground happened to touch it in an already occupied space. When I brought my hand back up, I saw that a thorn had passed through my finger. As in, it went in one side, and came out the other. If only I had a cell phone that had a camera in it, you too could have witnessed the gore.

It’s pretty sore now, but can hardly be seen. Which is disappointing.

Being inspired by Chris, I have created a new page where I’ll keep track of and give mini-reviews of the books I read in 2007. The link is up above if you ever want to take a look.

I’ll leave the ‘Books Read’ links here on the main page also. So if you notice that list change, take a look at the page to see what I thought of the book.