Breast Cancer Race, Washington Mall, GPS

A friend of mine who is a survivor of breast cancer, is taking part, once again, in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Mother's Day. Hopefully you will be able to make a donation to help the cause this is her website. I know she would be very appreciative as would, obviously, the Susan G. Komen organisation.

This morning started GMA's Seven Wonders of America with the Washington National Mall which includes the White House and the Lincoln Memorial, also the Viet Nam Wall and the Needle. It is described as America's front porch. They get thousands of visitors every year to see all the monuments in the area, some of which are not actually in the Mall. There is a Jefferson Memorial to comemorate when he tried to have the international time line moved to Washington instead of Greenwich, London.

Today is our last day of bowling for this season so we have our in house bowling banquet this afternoon plus the games I mentioned. Bowling is a game so I am not quite sure what will take place. We haven't signed up for the summer league, in a way I wish we had, I think we can still do so if we wish, of course.

Last night, for supper, we had a wine we are very fond of, Magnotta's Toro Nero Limited Edition. We ate one of our Chateaubriands from M & M with it. Saturday night we were at a friend's house for dinner and we had smoked pork chops with a wine from the Douro Valley in Portugal which is very good. I forgot to make a note of the name. My friend in Portugal lives by the Douro Valley and introduced us to the wines of the region. It is also the region where Port is made. We did a bit of port tasting when we were there. Unfortunately I wasn't walking too well and so we didn't get to as many port "caves" as we would have liked to, almost impossible to park near any of them as they are in the older part of Oporto. Not to mention all the road works taking place in the town when we visited. If only we had had GPS in the rental car. I wonder car rental companies don't install them, it would be very useful for tourists. I suppose it would cost a lot more for the renters. I have seen one in use lately and wouldn't mind having one in our car. Going back to port, are you aware how it came to be created? Two Scottish wine exporters living in Portugal were horrified with the wine production one year as it was so bad. They came up with the idea of blending the wine with brandy and calling it port. The rest is history. You will find most of the good Ports have Scottish rather than Portuguese names.

Lots of us have made Zucchini Bread, but have you ever made it with chocolate?

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Serves: 8

Source: Recitopia

3 eggs
1 Cup vegetable oil
2 Cups Sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
3 heaping Tablespoons of cocoa
2 Cups grated zucchini
1 cup chocolate chips
1 Cup chopped nuts(optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F Beat together eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder cinnamon, salt and cocoa; and add to egg mixture. Stir in zucchini, chocolate chips and nuts. Bake in greased and floured pan till toothpick comes out clean from center, (I line the bottom of the pan with paper for easy removal) Makes 2 loaves: 350 for one hour OR makes one large loaf baked in a glass pan at 350 for one and a half hours

Have a great day.