Crucial Countdown

  

Time flies when you're having fun.

But time can drag when you're not.

We're in the final countdown. It is one year until what will probably be the most consequential election in the history of this country. We're there, at our good vs evil, democracy vs autocracy decision. 

The lead up has been a time drag. Little by little autocracy has taken foothold. Not only were there seditionists who attacked our capitol, but there are traitors throughout our system. Some have taken over election offices, some have used their power to remove duly elected officials, others have redistricted the other party out of districts in which they had been the majority. Others have purged voters from the rolls, closed polling places in areas where residents of a specific party reside. 

And, of course, even the supreme court is compromised. 

This next year is crucial. It will both fly by and drag. And when it ends, we will either be able to maintain some semblance of the way of life we'd come to appreciate, or we will be totally and completely inconsequential. 

And if autocracy wins, everything will affect us, nothing will include us, and very little will benefit us.

We may be headed into an environment where enemies are incarcerated, voting is no longer protected, peaceful protest is met with violence, guns are available and affordable, and social welfare programs are decimated. Forcing gas, housing, medicine, higher education, and nutrition beyond the grasp of many of our friends and neighbors.

Chicken Rotini Casserole

 

Chaos, domination, lawlessness, and bigotry would reign. 

Think this is an excessively dark and ugly prediction? 

Underestimating the scope of what's at stake here 

could have dire consequences.

After all, consider what the administration of one con man and the resulting fallout has already been taken from us. Even after he was voted out, enough of his sycophants remain ensconced, continuing to do his bidding. And you can see the signs right out in the open, the writing is all over the social media wall. Through the invasion of subterfuge and manipulation now prominent in all branches of our government, the guardrails put in place to preserve our way of life are already deeply eroding. Rights, privacy, protection, already, maybe mortally, compromised.

We are in danger. Because our government is rotting from within.

We are down to just one year. Will the onslaught towards a dictatorship continue unchecked? Will those who still believe in our constitution finally coalesce on a strategy of defense?

Squandering this next year is to light the ticking time bomb.

365 days, 364, 363 . . .

And then it will be November 5th, 2024, our collective day of reckoning. 

Chicken Rotini Casserole         

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

NOTE: this recipe can be made ahead, refrigerated in the baking dish, and cooked the next day. You will need to cook it about 15 minutes longer if you choose this option.

Ingredients:
10 oz vegetable rotini

3 cups clean, uncooked spinach

2 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chopped OR 1 - 1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, chopped

1 TBSP olive oil

3 cloves minced garlic

1/4 orange (or red) pepper, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning blend

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

2 TBSP grated parmesan/romano cheese

Directions:
*Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (if not preparing ahead to cook the next day). Grease an 8 X 11 baking dish.

*Cook the rotini per package directions to el dente. Drain, add the spinach, mix, and set aside.

*While the pasta is cooking, Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once it's hot, add the uncooked chicken (if you're using cooked chicken, it will be added later), garlic, chopped pepper, and chopped onion. Cook and stir until the chicken is completely cooked. 
*Add the chicken broth, white wine, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and red pepper to the pan. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

*Add the chicken (if using precooked chicken, if not, it's already in the sauce) and the sauce to the pot with the pasta and spinach. Mix well. Pour into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the parmesan/romano cheese. Cover with tin foil.

*Either refrigerate for cooking the next day, or bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Mix before serving.

Operation Yellow Ribbon: Remembering Poetry Monday

 

Poetry Monday's once a week.

I bet you know which day.

I don't participate every time,

But today I've come out to play.

My friends assign each week a theme,

Remembering is what they chose.

Now it's up to all of us,

to put our thoughts into prose.

 

 

Operation Yellow Ribbon

Twenty-two years ago, our country, 

suffered a devastating loss.

Hate was on our doorstep,

bigotry showing us who was boss.

Almost 3000 friends and family,

died the day of that attack.

Although we'll always remember them, 

nothing can bring them back.

Seven from a company,

doing a job I used to do,

flying out on a business trip,

as I'd done when I worked there too.

Our airspace was shut down that day, 

diverted to Canada and ensconced.

People shocked, scared, and uncertain, 

Operation Yellow Ribbon, the response.

For days our neighbors to the north,

their humanity publicly viewed,

cared for our stranded citizens,

providing shelter and food.

 

Sauteed Ranch Spinach

 

The threat to our democracy,

right now, comes from within.

To honor those who died that day,

democracy must resoundingly win. 

 

 

 

Wait!

Read more poetry, 

you're not through.

Some talented writers

are in this crew:

 

On the Border

Messymimi's Meanderings 

 

Sauteed Ranch Spinach        
                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 TBSP butter

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 onion, sliced

1/4 cup ranch dressing

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

dash of dried red pepper flakes 

10 oz spinach, cleaned

1 TBSP grated parmesan

6 grape tomatoes, halved

Directions:

*In a large sautee pan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the garlic and onion, and cook, stirring, until the onion softens.

*Mix in the ranch dressing, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, for one minute.

*Add the spinach to the pan and cook, stirring so all of the spinach is coated with the sauce, until the spinach has wilted.

*Add the tomatoes to the pan, stir, and sprinkle with the parmesan to serve. 

Raking the Forest

  

 

 

It started with a laugh. But by the end of the day, it had turned into insight. Surprisingly, the inspiration was Hubs who was, at the time, minding his own business, raking the front lawn. So yeah, insight from raking. 

 

Watching him, the laugh came first because what popped into my mind was trump's comment that the devastation from forest fires is the result of mismanagement. You remember, don't you? Mr. inject-yourself-with-disinfectant announced that the government should be raking our forests. 

 

I know, forest fires are dangerous, devastating, and deadly, not really something to be laughing at, but it wasn't the fires themselves, it was the absurdity of the ignorance, you had to either laugh or cry (and sometimes both).

 

That night, after a broiling hot day and a refreshingly cold dinner, I would sit down to once again watch the latest of the January 6th hearings. 

 

 

 

  Summer Shrimp Salad

 

 

When they started televising the hearings, I had an overwhelming sense of futility. At this point, I fully believed that there were two groups of Americans, those of us who understand the jeopardy our democracy is in, the seriousness of a bloody coup under the direction of a maniac, and those who are so ill informed or brainwashed that they either don't understand the ramifications of an autocracy, or just don't care. Two impeachment trials and dead capitol police didn't change any minds, why would these hearings?

 

But as I watched the hearings, and even later, as I witnessed the republican politicians push back with lies and repeated disinformation, I started to have a little hope. The people testifying were those who had actually been there, part of the administration. They were coming forward with truth, context, timeline, and insight.

 

The hearings, of course, are going on right as Bannon is going to trial for ignoring his subpoena.

 

Before these hearings, there were no ramifications, no repercussions, and therefore no downside to continuing the lies, deception, and misdirection.

But now we're witnessing testimony from administration loyalists. And, part simultaneously (and part as a result) we're seeing the start of accountability. There have been not just subpoenas, but raids, confiscation of electronics, demands for records, arrests, and even trials.

 

I realized, as more former members of the administration seem to be coming to terms with what they had been complicit in, understanding their patriotic responsibility to come forward and swear to the truth (or, of course, some less patriotic and more self preservation/jump from the sinking ship, I don't want to end up in jail motivation), that these hearings have done something meaningful for all of us.

 

 

We, those of us who have understood from the beginning just what was happening, are now bearing witness to exactly who have been able to find their inner strength, recalculate their moral compass, and come forward. And we understand exactly who's left, still determined to keep digging that hole, and ignoring subpoenas. 

 

The result of these hearings is simple. They're raking the forest.

Wheat from the chaff my friends, wheat from the chaff.

 

Summer Shrimp Salad        
                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

 

Printable Recipe

Ingredients: 

4 oz wide egg noodles

1/3 cup Everything Bagel Vinaigrette

2 green onions

1/2 red pepper

1 cup grape tomatoes

8 oz broccoli slaw

4 oz fresh snap peas

12 oz medium cooked shrimp

OPT: serve with Giant Blueberry White Chocolate Chip Muffins

Directions:
*Cook the noodles to al dente. Immediately rinse a few times with cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain well. Place in a large bowl and refrigerate.

*Make the Everything Bagel Vinaigrette. Refrigerate.

*Slice the green onions and chop the red pepper.

*Add the cooked shrimp, green onions, red pepper, grape tomatoes, broccoli slaw, and snap peas to the cooked pasta. Mix gently. Add the Everything Bagel Vinaigrette. Mix gently.

*Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, mixing now and then. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.

 

It is Here. And I Am Afraid

 

 

It is here. And I am afraid.

I'm not just traumatized by the last consequential November 3rd, and every chaotic day since then as the dems sat on their hands and shook their heads and clicked their tongues as the trump party publicly dismantled the heart and soul of this country piece by piece.

I'm not just afraid as an American. I'm not just afraid as an inhabitant of a planet under environmental attack. I'm not just afraid as a liberal in a conservative state. I'm not just afraid as someone who believes in the democratic practices of a constitutional republic. I'm not just afraid as someone who believes in human rights and expects compassion and humanity from those entrusted with molding the future of this country. I'm not just afraid that there's no stopping the power hungry insane man currently put in the White House (by nefarious outside forces), and all of those who usurped all semblance of morals and values at the first taste of power in order to keep him there.

Although I am certainly afraid of all of those things. 

 

Independence Cake 

 

I'm afraid as a Jew. I grew up both revulsed and indignant at the seemingly never ending stories and clips and pictures of the Nazi atrocities we saw year after year in religious school. I felt attacked, emotionally assaulted. The response to my aversion was always the same "we must never forget." 

 

Listen, I've been to Yad Vashem. It is humanizing, humbling, overwhelming, mortifying. Forget? Of course we will never forget. 

 

And then, a few years ago, I heard the "president" of this country say that those men in Charlottesville, carrying torches and chanting "Jews will not replace us" were very good people. I guess we've forgotten.

And I'm afraid as a woman. Where do we, where can we, possibly maintain any standing in a country where credibly accused rapists and molesters not only walk free, but are elevated to the highest stations of power? We are on the precipice of losing the right to make our own reproductive decisions. But even more than that, I'm afraid it's going to be open season on our sexual safety.

And I'm afraid as a mother. How can I expect young adults, not just mine but all of them, to thrive in a country where bullying and persecution have replaced common decency? Where, if you are viewed in any way "different," not just your rights but your very safety is in jeopardy? Where dissent is not fodder for discourse but justification for retribution?

I'm afraid that evil brought a bazooka to a fist fight with good, and all that is righteous is bleeding out on the floor. Along with the last vestiges of hope.

 

Overly dramatic? Read Mein Kampf. Then replay the past 4 years of trump quotes. He's not even innovative, he's just following the play book. And don't forget what Barr (Hermann Goring) and McConnell (Heinrich Himmler) have done to advance that agenda. And how far they've gone to not only suppress our constitutional right to vote but to lay the groundwork for delegitimizing this election in order to turn a potential loss into an authoritarian power grab.

November 3rd. It is here. And I am afraid.

 

Independence Cake         

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:   

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups canola oil

2 eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vinegar

1 tsp vanilla 

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1 tsp red food coloring

1 tsp blue food coloring

1/4 cup red colored sugar

1/4 cup blue colored sugar

1/3 cup raspberries, if large, cut in half (if you're using frozen, drain the excess liquid)

1/3 cup blueberries

1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow creme

2 TBSP white chocolate liqueur (can substitute milk)

 

OPT: additional raspberries and blueberries to garnish

 

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.

*Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

*In a large bowl, beat the oil, eggs, vinegar and vanilla.

*Beat half of the dry ingredients into the large bowl, followed by half of the buttermilk. Repeat with the rest of the dry ingredients, then the rest of the buttermilk.

*Divide the batter in half (about 2 1/3 cups in each half). To half of the better, add the red food coloring and red colored sugar, to the other half add the blue food coloring and blue colored sugar.

*Pour the red cake batter into one of the prepared pans. Sprinkle with raspberries. Pour the blue batter into the other prepared pan and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of the blueberries.

*Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the center springs back to the touch. Remove from oven and cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges, remove from the pans and allow to cool completely.

*Using a grease spatula, mix together the marshmallow creme and the liqueur (or milk). Place the blue cake onto a serving dish. Spread with about 1/2 of the marshmallow creme mixture. Top with the red cake. Drizzle the remaining marshmallow creme mixture over the top and down the sides. Decorate with additional berries. Refrigerate to set.

Which Truths Do We Hold?: Use Your Words

Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. All of the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the recipient will take them. Until now.

At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.
I'm using: envision ~ stray ~ protect ~ ground ~ sentence ~ infringe
They were submitted by Tamara of Part-time Working Hockey Mom.

                          
This is going to be a serious one today. That's partly because of where these words naturally take me, and in part because the thoughts, no longer stray considerations but permanent nagging, brooding ruminations that have become pervasive, depressing, even terrifying. Fears that have, in a very real way, infringed on my peace of mind, even wavering my innate ability to maintain something as visceral as hope.


I've spoken before about the difference between my world view and College Boy's. A conspiracy theorist, he thinks I'm unrealistic, I think I try to be optimistic. I think he's a pessimist, he believes he's just a realist. But what do we have in common? We both envision a world, and certainly a country, where people matter, where freedom is for all, where it is possible for anyone to succeed if they have the will, where humanity and compassion, are standards met with ease. Where safety, equality, basic human needs and dignity are a given.

I know that hope is improbable on a global level, in the near future anyway. There are just too many moving parts. But it can be, it needs to be, a goal. 

On a more local level, in this country, there's no question that there is a long way to go. I honestly don't have a problem with that. As long as we remain on the road, put one foot in front of the other, no matter how quickly or slowly we stay the course, build the groundwork to a more compassionate society. But we're not. We were, but we're not on that road any more. Quite the opposite, we're in reverse. And gaining speed.

I cannot put into a sentence, I cannot adequately put into all the sentences in the world how dismayed I am to know how far we've fallen. I sit in my warm comfortable home, where I am safe and healthy, where there is clothing in the closet, clean water coming out of the tap, an abundance of food on the table.

Chicken and Vegetables Skillet Dinner

I sit here in my home and I'm assaulted, ASSAULTED, by the knowledge that there are terrified children separated from their mamas and put in cages, and it's my country put them there. That the destruction of our planet is being deliberately and maliciously executed in the name of capitalism. That there are lies, constant and continuous, many times completely nonsensical lies coming out of the White House. That we have lost our place as a leader on the global stage, are in fact a laughing stock, barely tolerated, held in contempt as human rights violators, seen as inconsequential, falling behind in trade, in relationships, in innovation. That we have no rational policies, foreign or domestic, based in fact or even rational thought, and that are applied with consistency. That assault rifles are trained on innocent people with an increasing regularity and they are NOT being used by the mentally ill (STOP blaming mental illness. Just STOP), but by the angry, by the misled, by the hopeless. That we put people to death for walking while wearing a hoodie or selling cigarettes on the street. That our access to information, the press, is under constant attack. That we abuse, intentionally target, minorities, all of them: the needy, the ill including the mentally ill, those who pray or love or speak or look a way we're now condoning demonizing, both within and at our borders.

That we are doing nothing about it. Any of it. And so, as it will do, the malignancy metastasizes, unchecked.


Because so many of, in fact the majority of, the not-so-duly elected (gerrymandering, voter suppression, party super delegate systems and the electoral college negating the popular vote) people who are charged with representing us are so blinded by greed and personal power as to have brought our system of government to a jarring and complete halt. Those still possessing a moral compass have either left or are leaving, exacerbating the decline. This is the thing that nightmares are made of. Our form of government is not working. Checks and balances have fallen off the scale.

Will we protect this American experiment in freedom and democracy? We, as a society, need to start by considering one basic question. Have we devolved past or are we actually still collectively capable of holding the same truths?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed, by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." 

That's the part that we always remember of Thomas Jefferson's quote, but there's more:

"That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government laying its foundation on such principals and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."


I don't believe it serves us to throw the baby out with the bath water, to do away with the form of government with its inherent checks and balances laid out in the constitution. I'm not saying anything quite that drastic. But without a doubt it is time, past time, not to abolish, but to alter. 

On the road to humanity, to justice, to freedom, we have taken a wrong turn. But the majority of us still possess a moral compass. 

Recalculating . . .

Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:

Wandering Web Designer 
Spatulas on Parade
On the Border
Follow Me Home
Part-time Working Hockey Mom 
Climaxed 

Chicken and Vegetables Skillet Dinner

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe


Ingredients:

1 1/4 # boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced
salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
2 TBSP olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried basil
4 oz mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed, sliced
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup broccoli florets
1/2 small zucchini, ends removed, halved and sliced
1/4 cup grated parmesan

OPT: cooked pasta or rice

Directions:
*Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
*Heat the olive oil in a large skillet at medium to medium high heat. Add the chicken and minced garlic, cook and stir until the chicken is cooked through.
*Add the chicken broth, wine, salt, pepper, basil, mushrooms, tomatoes, broccoli and zucchini to the skillet. Cook and stir, bringing the broth to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil, stirring now and then, until the vegetables are crisp/tender, about 5 minutes. 
*Sprinkle with the grated parmesan. OPT: serve over cooked pasta or rice.

By the People, For the People?

We've been hearing a lot about socialism. And oh honey, it's just begun. The truth is that there is a lot about socialism that makes sense. We have adopted social security, medicaid, subsidized housing and food stamps, for instance. What is the option? Letting our elderly, disabled and poor just die?

Does this mean, however, that we are moving towards a socialist form of government?

You can pick and choose policies that are in the best interest of a country as a whole, no matter the assigned philosophical designation, and reject the others. This is, in fact, the foundation of a democracy. Many (most) countries consider health care a right, not a privilege, or make education available cost-free through college. These are not socialist countries, just societies that prioritize human rights, those who understand that a healthy and educated society pays them all back in the long run.

Should we adopt these policies? Maybe. Certainly only if we can find a way to fund them. Should we be discussing them? Absolutely. Discourse is the hallmark of a free society.

And if believing that the basic human right of having a roof over your head and food on the table is wrong, I don't want to be right. No matter what label you place on it.

Ham and Asparagus Fettuccine

Many of us who embrace capitalism run in fear of the word "socialism", a term now being weaponized in our country. We do cherish democracy, I get that. But does "by the people, for the people" actually exist at this moment in history? Shouldn't true democracy be a hybrid? Aren't we most able to be our best as a free society by curating individual policies from every option? And I have to ask those who are concerned about discussion of certain specific socialist values, what I am lately asking myself for other reasons, do we really live in a democracy? Because more and more I'm just not at all sure, and the evidence is building.

You do not live in a democracy if . . .

The election process:

Gerrymandering exists as a way to manipulate representation.

The ability to register to vote, access polling places, and the ability to vote on election day are deliberately hampered for a targeted segment of the population

The Super Delegate system manipulates (negates)  the democratic process (in both parties) of one  vote per person in the naming of party presidential nominations.

An inquiry is started into non-existent grand scale voter fraud but not into a foreign entity usurping and manipulating our election process.

The dissolution of norms:

Norms (like a president not publicly lying and not bullying individual citizens) and laws (like the emollients clause) are ignored with impunity.

Unilateral national policy decisions are made based on one person's "gut" or on the express purpose of negating the legacy of previous administrations.

The constant call to lock up political (or even previous) adversaries.

Lying to the American people has become commonplace.

Top Secret clearance is given to candidates unable to secure it, out of nepotism. 

The National Enquirer is held up as the standard and both the legitimate press and reporters personally are publicly called out as "fake".

The justice system is under assault, constantly being undermined and labeled partisan.

The word of murderous dictators is taken as truth.

Official government websites are taking down factual information that does not fit the current narrative.

Legal official special investigations are labeled a "witch hunt" and the head investigator vilified.

The White House tries to ban reporters or new outlets whose stories do not compliment the president.

Bigotry is clearly stated and exhibited.

Propaganda usurps fact.

Nominees to positions in the government are asked to pledge allegiance not to the country or the democracy but to the president himself.

On the global stage:


We have lost our leadership as a moral authority by removing babies from their parents and putting them into cages.

We distance ourselves from our allies and global alliances and these relationships are replaced with public adoration of autocrats.

Mention of our president in a vice presidential speech abroad is not applauded, as in the past, but met with uncomfortable silence. 

The president himself is often laughed at in his speeches abroad as they devolve into narcissistic monologues.

Our president actually gives away an ally's classified information to Russians in a White House meeting where only Russian and not American press are invited.

Meetings with dictators are held with either no American translators or, when an American translator is there, the notes are confiscated.

The system of checks and balances:

Congress does not hold the purse strings as per their constitutional mandate, they can be taken in the name of an "emergency", whether it actually exists or is just a political ploy.

The senate majority leader refuses to bring a popular bill to the floor for a vote, even if the result could be a prolonged shutdown of the government.

Transparency does not exist (for instance in the mandate given to the FBI concerning the parameters of their background check of a Supreme Court nominee).

Congressional hearings are suddenly dropped, unfinished, apparently in collusion with the White House, and the reports are not released in full but "synopsized" along party lines. 


I have to admit that none of these are a surprise to me, I've watched it all happen in real time. What does shock and sadden me, however, is the breadth of the evidence, how quickly and easily they all came to me.

And even more alarming personally is my own gullibility, I find myself wondering just how much of this is not new, is just my having believed in a process I did not spend enough time really understanding. Gerrymandering, Super Delegates, targeted voter suppression, this is not specific to our current political situation.

Are you as disheartened as I am? Exercising your right to vote is not enough. Contact your party of choice and start by making clear your dissatisfaction with the voting process itself. Fight for our democracy. We can do it, but the time to be proactive is now.

Ham and Asparagus Fettuccine

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 # asparagus
1# cooked ham steak
12 oz fettuccine
1 TBSP butter
2/3 cup chicken broth
2 oz diced pimentos, drained
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 tsp coarse black pepper

Directions:
*Microwave the asparagus for 2 minutes. Cut into bite-sized pieces, set aside.
*Chop the ham steak into bite sized pieces.
*Cook the fettuccine to al dente and drain.
*While the fettuccine is cooking, melt the butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Once hot, add the ham steak, heat and stir for 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth and pimentos and bring to a boil, stirring now and then.
*Whisk in the heavy cream and black pepper. Bring back to a low boil. Reduce heat slightly and boil for 5 minutes. Add the asparagus and cook for one more minute. Add the fettuccine. Cook, stirring gently, until the sauce thickens and coats the pasta, about 2 more minutes.