Hurricanes, Snow and Other Disasters

When I first heard about the earthquake in Italy, I read an article on line which told me that a scientist, Gioacchino Giuliani, had predicted the quake and had been 'muzzled' by the government for spreading panic. How nice to think that an ignorant bunch of officials could have prevented so many deaths by taking action and warning people. Of course, it is quite possible no-one would have taken any notice, but at least they would have been warned. If you would like to read the Reuters report click here. I guess people get used to living in earthquake areas, I have a cousin who lives in the San Francisco area of California which is prone to quakes. He told me he had been thrown out of bed by quakes before now. I personally spent a week in San Francisco some years ago and was nervous the whole time. Not that it stopped me enjoying myself, but it was continuously in the back of my mind. Of course there were people predicting the imminence of 'the big one', so maybe the Italian government could be excused on the score of people crying wolf, but this guy was a seismologist. I cannot imagine living in places like Japan where earthquakes are a part of life. It is no wonder the Japanese have such a fatalistic philosphy about death. You wouldn't catch me living on the side of a volcano either although there is usually more warning about an eruption. Some people will respond to me by pointing out that I did live in a hurricane area when I was in North Carolina. True, but you know those menaces are coming long before they arrive. I used to have a very good tracking programmon on my PC so I could see what they were up to. Matt watched the movie The Perfect Storm the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it. That apparently is about the confluence of three hurricanes out at sea. I didn't want to watch it, but Matt enjoyed it so much, I wish I had seen it. I have just finished a very good book by Mark Giminez, The Color of Law. It was recommended on Recipe du Jour, an ezine I receive, by one of the readers and I picked it up straight away. Giminez is a lawyer and that's basically what this book is about, lawyering. An excellent story and quite exciting. I ended up reading til 2 this morning in order to finish it. Not something I do that often these days. I am about to start another of his books which, hopefully, I will find just as good. I can't believe it, it snowed all day yesterday. I am not sure how much we have on the ground, but for a spring day, it sure looked like mid winter to me. I just received this link to a delightful blog about snow click here and had to share it. I received several food ezines and amongst them in one from Reader's Digest, I found this sinfully delicious recipe. Mocha Ricotta Pie Source: www.ReadersDigest.ca, This creamy mocha ricotta pie will please dessert lovers. Using a low-fat ricotta cheese lowers the calories without sacrificing any flavour. 500 ml (2 cups) Ricotta cheese 60 ml (1/4 cup) country-style 35% cream 250 ml (1 cup) sugar 60 ml (1/4 cup) strong espresso coffee or 1 heaping teaspoon of instant coffee (1/4 cup) dissolved in 65 ml boiling water, cooled 4 large eggs 1 23-cm (9-in) chocolate crumb pie shell 5 ml (1 tsp) flour 60 ml (1/4 cup) chocolate chips 30 ml (2 tbsp) cocoa powder Dark and white chocolate curls to taste 1 Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F. 2 In a food processor, pulse the Fiorella cheese, cream, sugar and coffee until just blended. 3 With the machine running, add eggs one at a time. Pour mixture into chocolate pie shell. 4 Coat chocolate chips with flour and sprinkle carefully over the pie so they don’t sink into the filling. 5 Place pie on middle rack of oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 160°C / 300°F and bake another 25 minutes. 6 Remove from oven and cool. 7 Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving. Sprinkle with cocoa and garnish with chocolate curls. Servings: 6 Have a great day.