Twice Cooked Tater Cakes

These were an experiment today. We'll see if they're a hit tonight.

Twice cooked tater cakes

• 5 baking size potatoes
• 10 slices of deli sliced ham
• 1/2 large onion
• 1 stick of butter
• 3 tablespoons of ranch dressing
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup of seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2 sleeve of Ritz crackers
• handful of Garden tomato and basil potato chips

Peel and cut potatoes into small pieces. Boil in slightly salted water until tender. Drain, put into mixing bowl, adding the butter, ranch and salt. Mash like you would normally make mashed potatoes.

While the potatoes are cooking, coat a skillet with a little olive oil, heating with medium high heat. Dice onions. Roll the ham slices up and slice small slices crosswise, separating them into tiny bits. Carmelize the onions and ham together in the hot skillet. Cook until the ham is browned. Add the ham and onion to your mashed potatoes mixing it all thoroughly. Add the shredded cheese and stir again just enough to have bits of cheese throughout. Place the bowl in the refrigerator.

In a zippered bag, place the crackers, bread crumbs and chips inside and seal it shut. Roll the ingredients with a rolling pin until you have a coarse meal. Unzip and pour onto a platter for your dredge.

Once the potatoes have cooled scoop out and make small patties. (wet your hands before making patties) Dredge the patties until they are coated with the meal and stack them on a platter until you've made all your patties. Place the platter into the freezer for 15 minutes.

Heat a skillet coated with a 1/4" of olive oil until it's nearly smoking hot. Brown off your patties on both sides. (approximately 1 minute each side) Sprinkle with salt right out of the pan. Serve!

Educate The Masses

Colleges and universities are archaic, unneeded, broken systems. It's time that we embraced technology and dumped our costly education system. We need a new approach.

What's the biggest hurdle in acquiring higher education? Funding! The price of a formal education has skyrocketed yet the courses are still the same. Why are students required to attend classes on campus? Tuition! It's all about draining every penny they can get from you. Why are books so expensive? Greed! Lots of professors require books to be purchased for their classes that they wrote!

So let's think about some solutions, shall we?

• Tuition: Online classes are the most cost effective way to teach. All professors are not up to speed with today's technology but they should adapt or be consumed. No building and maintenance costs would reduce the price of education significantly. Online classes do have some hurdles with student and professor communication lacking. It can certainly be improved.

• Books: This one is pretty simple. Rather than gouging students, even with used books, textbooks should be digitized. Anyone should be able to download their required reading material, for free, with their student credentials. Textbooks could be read on Android, iDevices, Kindle, Nook, etc. There is no reason for hard copies unless the students want to print them out.

• Funding: Student loans are ridiculously expensive. The amount of money that most are required to finance is unforgivable. If costs were reduced this problem would fix itself.

We should look at Khan Academy as a shining example of how we can improve our education process. We have better tools available and if we expect to be innovators and leaders, we must change. There is no room for greed if we are to have an educated population.

My Big Day

In 3 days it will be 6 months since my Dad passed away. Although I still think of him everyday, at least I don't start crying all the time anymore. The void that left with him will never be filled and I'm learning to deal with it, one day at a time.

I turned 49 years old today. That's old to some of you, young for others. Over the years I've found a lot of good friends and I've been lucky enough to reconnect with many of them using Facebook. Today I was bombarded with great birthday wishes and I tried to respond to each and every one personally. I genuinely care and appreciate the time others put into extending best wishes.

So...I've had a great day cutting up with some of my friends. I even caught a bunch of crap from some who try to drag you down. As weird as it sounds, I'm thankful for them too! They keep me motivated so that I don't let my appearance go to hell. I'm not as handsome as I was at 30, but who the hell is at 49? I'm very comfortable in my own skin.

I've had a great lazy day, just goofing around and not accomplishing any tasks. I even took a nap. Now I'm having a few adult beverages, preparing for the next year of my life. I hope that I can live up to the expectations of everyone who surrounds me. I cherish friendships as well as family. I'm thankful to have so many people who love me, know me...and tolerate me.

Thanks for being there for me. Even the people who barely remember me, you've all affected me in my life. I'm grateful for that! Peace and love, TJ