Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Spa Treatments, Last of the Summer League, Chi-Cheemaun

Today, Diane Sawyer of Good Morning America's team, sat with her feet in a bath of water whilst some tiny fish (carp) nibbled at her feet and ate all the dead skin. Apparently afterwards your feet feel wonderfully smooth like a baby's skin. I decided to look at this report on line and discovered a series of pictures of the most unlikely spa treatments around the world. click here and go to Unusual Spa Treatments to read the rest. It really is most interesting. Chocolate, Wine, Beer, Snakes, Gold, all feature in some of these treatments. Don't delay as I think they change some of these stories daily. I must admit if I was going to spend $250 I would rather spend it on a piece of jewellery than on a gold pack for my face. In the States the miniature fish treatment costs about $50 for 15 minutes apparently. My foot nurse absolutely loves my feet, so I don't need any expensive treatments luckily. Talk about coincidence, Matt was reading the paper and there is an article on fish spa treatment - the Japanese call them Dr. Fish. We had our lunch at the bowling alley yesterday, sandwiches, pickles and brownies. It was quite enjoyable and included lots of chat and laughter. We then bowled two games only, one in which I won $5 for the secret score. Matt got $5 for a high triple for the season, so now we are rich!! The other game was bowling bingo and we just couldn't get any strikes between us, last season we couldn't get spares - I hope you know what I'm talking about. My thumb held up OK, but now I will try and remember to ice it regularly and rest it until we start again in September. I have strained something just where the thumb joins the rest of the hand. Mostly it doesn't hurt until I pick up something heavy. We are hoping to spend some time away in September which will mean we will miss some of the new bowling season, but we like to go away when the kids are back in school. Less crowded. We are thinking of visiting Manitoulin Island which is north of here and which we have never visited. You can get there by taking the Chi Cheemaun ferry from Tobermory. Above this blog you will see a film from YouTube about the launching of the ferry. It fascinates me to see the bows lift up to disgorge the vehicles, like some kind of sea monster. It also interested me to see that the ferry was launched during the winter when there was snow all over her. I am surprised the water wasn't solid ice. This recipe comes from Giada di Laurentis at Everyday Italian. One of our favourite TV cookery shows. I have copied a lot of her recipes over the years. The picture is not the actual recipe, but it does have a Mascarpone Cream frosting. In fact you could use the frosting on any pre-made cake. Angel Food Cake with Espresso Mascarpone Cream Serves 8-10 Ingredients: 2 tablespoons boiling water 2 tablespoons instant espresso powder 3/4 cup mascarpone cheese, at room temperature 1 cup whipping cream 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar 1 (12-ounce) purchased angel food cake 1/2 cup coffee liqueur Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting Instructions: Stir the water and espresso powder in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the mascarpone. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream in another large bowl, while slowly adding powdered sugar, until soft peaks form. Using a large rubber spatula, fold 1/4 of the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture to lighten. Then fold the remaining whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture. Cut the angel food cake into 16 (1-inch thick) wedges. Reserve any remaining cake for another use. Brush 1 side of each wedge of cake with the liqueur. Arrange 2 wedges of cake on each plate. Dollop the espresso cream atop each wedge of cake. Dust with the cocoa powder and serve. Have a great day.

4 comments:

  1. cool ^^ we can do just like the sharks now, we need to get inspired by the nature as we are so old fashioned !

    i've heard from far to far about the others treatments , chocolate's massages is very much 'in' in France right at this moment.

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  2. I have a suspicion that a chocolate massage would be very fattening for me.

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  3. I can think of better places to put chocolate than on my feet, lol! :D

    My family prefer spring and autumn holidays too (April/May or September) ... fewer people around, and the weather is usually more pleasant. :)

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  4. Yes, we prefer it with less people around, the only time we vacationed during school holidays was when our kids and grandkids came to the States and we joined them in Florida. Did a lot of Disney stuff that way and the crowds were humungous.

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