Bored, tired, a little depressed, restless, irritable, kind of feel like smashing stuff.

So, a fairly typical evening for me.

Here is the most exciting thing happening in my life right now :

Finally bought some cornmeal last night at Sav-On Foods at Ironwood. Tried to find some at Safeway but no dice. I had been looking for the stuff because I wanted to check out some recipes for cornbread in my big book of bread machine recipes.

Well, it says it is a big book of bread machine recipes, but the majority of the 300 recipes are actually not bread machine recipes at all, but recipes from a totally normal cookbook that only use the bread machine as a mixer.

To me, this is a ripoff. If I have to preheat the oven and grease the pan and form the loaf and bake it myself, it is not a bread machine recipe any more and has no place in a book of bread machine recipes. The magic of the bread machine is : ingredients in, bread out.

Anything more than that, well, I might as well be using a normal cook book and leaving the bread machine out of the picture entirely while I am at it.

But anyhow. There are some cornbread type recipes in the book, and I am getting bored with the usual breads, so I looked around for some cornmeal so I could make cornbread.

And they had none at Safeway. I was not surprised. Cornbread is not exactly a staple of Canadian cuisine. I cannot imagine the demand for cornmeal is very high.

And I almost did not find it at all. I had just about given up, but then my bestie Felicity pointed out a bag of yellow powder, and lo and behold, cornmeal!

Glee! I bought it and brought it home.

Sadly, I forgot to buy eggs, so I could not make traditional cornbread. Instead, I checked out an intriguing recipe for something called Anadama Bread, a traditional New England type bread.

Looking at the article, I can’t help but notice my bread does not look like that. Mine is much darker in color. Much closer to the color of the molasses that went into it, in fact.

The molasses, oy. Lord I hate dealing with that stuff. It looks horrible, it smells bad, it is hard to work with, it’s messy and sticky and likes to get everywhere. It is just plain awful.

And considering the mess I made this time, next time I have to deal with the crap, I am going to take serious precautions, like paper towel everywhere and doing everything in a big bowl for ease of washing.

Anyhow, I made the stuff, and maybe I screwed up the molasses measuring, because that is what the bread looks like and what it tastes like. IT did seem like an awful lot of molasses. Perhaps I misread the recipe, I will have to go back and check.

That said, it is not inedible. Molasses might be nauseating in its raw form (think Skin of Evil, but sickeningly sweet smelling) but as a flavouring for other things, it is not bad. In fact, it can be quite lovely in some circumstances. I would not make, say, gingerbread or spice cookies without it.

In fact, has I known how much this stuff would taste like molasses, I would have put in some ginger and nutmeg too and maybe had gingerbread at last.

Anyhow, the stuff is edible. I would not make it again, assuming I made it right this time, as it is not all that great. The molasses flavour is too heavy for it to become a favorite.

But it has an interesting texture, and I have not tried it toasted yet, and so the jury is still out on the stuff. Maybe I will finish the loaf, maybe not.

And that is the most exciting thing to happen to me lately. Bread! Oooh!

In other news, the Pope has gone soft on condoms.

Or, to put it a less fun way, the Catholic Church has softened its stance on the use of condoms. They are now saying that the use of condoms is allowed, but only if the sole intention is to prevent the spread of AIDS.

This strikes me as mostly a PR move. They are basically just trying to get themselves out of that whole sticky “how can you forbid condoms when millions are dying of AIDS in Africa” thing. Seems fairly cynical and obvious to me.

But still, it is progress, and may well end up saving lives. After all, that is the only reason we fags use condoms at all. It is not like we are worried about getting pregnant.

Not that the Catholic Church approves of that either. Not between consenting male adults.

And while I think this highly unlikely, if this opens the door to them giving up even more ground and allowing condoms for whatever reason, that would remove my major objection to the Catholic Church as it is right now.

There is a clear relationship between birth control, women’s rights, rising standards of living due to economic growth, and modern civilization. Modernity cannot lift a people out of squalor and destitution until women can control how many children they have. Fewer children means greater investment in each child and a higher standard of living in which to raise said children. That means healthier, more educated children, and women who can get jobs because they are not barefoot and pregnant all the time and can work while the children are in school.

This doubles the available labour capital in a nation, and hence, economic growth. And, in my opinion, spiritual and moral growth as well. Said nation can outgrow the petty patriarchal boy;s club mentality and embrace modern values of liberty, equality, tolerance, and openness.

And it all starts with birth control.

So get the hell out of the way, Catholicism. If you truly care about the poor, as Jesus commanded you to do, then let them have the means of ending their poverty.

Unless, of course, you are just full of crap.