Chewy-Os and Handling the Truth

Tonight was Glee night, and I made treats. I highly recommend following this recipe, and then maybe signing up for a marathon.

Ingredients
a fresh box of Cheerios (the regular kind...none of that honey-nut horseshit)
2 sticks of butter - 1 cup
1 cup dark brown sugar
a fresh bag of chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Make an even layer of Cheerios on a rimmed baking sheet. (Maybe 1/4" or 1/2" thick-- use your best judgement.) Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the sugar, and stir constantly. The original recipe called for the butter-sugar mixture to be brought to a boil, but I am honestly scared of the idea of "boiling sugar", so just heat it through until it looks good and hot, and the sugar is fully incorporated into the butter.

Pour this mixture over the Cheerios, and use a spatula to distribute evenly. It will smell sweet and a little bit like popcorn at this point. Mmm. Word.

Bake this for 5-8 minutes. Take it out and top with chocolate chips. Use your discretion. Put it back in the oven for another 1-2 minutes to melt the chocolate. Take it out once again, and use a spatula to spread the melted chocolate in an even layer over the sugared Cheerios. This may get messy, but you're not Martha Stewart so get the f' over it. Your final result should be an even layer of chocolate over the entire pan.

Set the pan in a cool place for a few hours. (I put today's batch inside my dad's grill and closed the lid. It worked wonderfully.) Once the pan is completely cool, break the toffee into pieces. Enjoy. And sorry about your impending diabetes.

In other news, today is Veteran's Day-- I read a funny e-card on Someecards.com that said "Let's thank WWII vets for defeating Hitler and making America safe for lunatics who compare our leaders to Hitler". I can't imagine what it must feel like to be a veteran. My friend Tony is a vet, and I'm not entirely familiar with his experiences in Iraq, but if he woke up one day and went completely apeshit with PTSD, I wouldn't blame him. My late grandfather was a vet, but his stories seemed so far removed from what I read about WWII. I feel like his war saga was always summarized by "I was on a boat, we got to China, and then turned out around to come home". (I should probably talk to my relatives and get the actual story.) Two of my uncles are Navy guys, and again, their stories are usually about push-ups, the blueberry cobbler at the Naval Academy, or the difficulties memorizing all of the military minutaie-- I haven't heard any horror stories. I'll just sit back and give thanks for people like them.

At several points today, I've had flashes of the climactic trial scene from A Few Good Men. Jack Nicholson was a fantastic villain in the movie, and yeah, you're goddamn right he ordered the code red so he was culpable for the death of Willy Santiago. Sorry. But, maybe Aaron Sorkin should have let his audience have a bit more sympathy to Colonel Jessup-- he was doing a job that no one else could do, and was making decisions that no one else would want to make, and he was penalized for it. Right now, we're all following the news as the White House deliberates over the next steps in our conflict in Afghanistan, and a lot of people are disagreeing with General McChrystal's recommendation for more troops to be sent over. Those people should take a seat. I am sure that the JCS will help the President make the best decision possible, and I really feel like the rest of us should stifle ourselves, and admit that there's a good reason we're not in the Situation Room or on the ground in Afghanistan.