Lyuba, Coffee Pots, Flying Mullet

Dunno where I have been lately, but last night on Jeopardy they had a whole category devoted to Lyuba, a baby woolly mammoth. How absolutely fascinating, she was discovered in the perma frost a couple of years ago in Russia in excellent preservation and scientists have now established she drowned in mud some 40,000 years ago. There is a National Geographic Special airing on Sunday all about Lyuba. Unfortunately we don't get that channel. I understand that because she still has some hair left on her, this is an excellent source of DNA. Some scientists are even talking of cloning her. Not sure about that. Wonderful science, but what for? The only one of her species - where would the clone live, in a lab, a zoo, how would they feed it? There would be numerous problems not least of which would it be fair to the cloned animal? Its one thing cloning a sheep - there are lots of sheep around, but a woolly mammoth??? Here is a link to the National Geographic page Waking the Baby Mammoth which refers to their upcoming programme. Major disaster in our home this morning, our brand new coffee pot has gone kaput. Matt never touches the stuff, but I drink it by the gallon, decaf of course. We have had this pot only just over a month so I am not very pleased. Matt is being a love and taking it back for me. Glenda Lark (Tropic Temper see link this page) was talking about flying fish, or accidents caused by them. It reminded me of when we lived in North Carolina and had a boat. We joined a bunch of friends with their boats and went to a local yacht club. The day hadn't been very successful due to rain so after supper we all launched again and went out in the dark heading for a beach where we liked to congregate with a beer or two. We had seen mullet earlier in the day, the waters appeared to be boiling, however, by now, it was dark and the mullet were jumping (no they were not jumping mullet, different fish) I suspect they were reacting to the running lights on the boats. We all ended up with several fish in our boats; having 'been attacked' by at least one fish, which hurt, I was cowering down behind the windshields. One friend was hit in the back and had quite a bruise to show for it. I guess this lasted for around an hour and we were all pretty staggered. When we told our tale later, I am not sure anyone believed us. Tonight, at long last, we are going to have the recipe I mentioned which Matt found in the local paper this week. This will use up the last of our North Carolina shrimp which is very sad, we find the shrimp we can get here tastes very washed out having been on ice for so long lets face it, the nearest ocean is at least 1,000 miles away. Still, with any luck we can pick up some more in September. Only thing, this means we cannot try the recipe I posted yesterday (Mafe Cuomo) until we have resh shrimp. Pasta with Leeks, Shrimp and Lemon 1 lb peeled, deveined shrimp 2 Tbs olive oil 3 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed 1/2 cup white wine - split into two parts 2 leeks 2 Tbs butter 1 tsp dried oregano Juice of one lemon Spaghetti or linguine for four people (smaller portions) or two people (large) 2 tsp lemon zest Chopped parsley for garnish 1 Boil salted water in a large pot for the pasta. While water is coming to a boil, heat olive oil in a large frying pan and fry shrimp just until they become white-pink in colour. Add garlic and stir a minute, until it turns pale gold. Add 1/4 cup of wine and let it sizzle. Stir, cook another moment until wine is a thick glaze. Turn off the heat. 2 Cut off the green part of the leeks and trim the root end. Slice leeks in half lengthwise and separate layers under cold, running water to remove every trace of grit. Chop leeks into bite-size pieces and fry in two tablespoons butter on medium heat. 3 After a few minutes, throw in the rest of the garlic, let it get pale gold, then stir in the remaining white wine and let it sizzle. Add lemon juice and oregano, stir, cover the pan and turn down the heat to a simmer. Add a little water if necessary. 4 Add pasta to boiling water and cook according to package directions. When it's almost ready, drain and add to the sauce with the leeks. Stir to coat pasta with the sauce (pasta will absorb flavour as it cooks). Gently stir in the shrimp mixture and lemon zest. Toss, season to taste and serve with green salad and white wine. Servings: 2 or 4 Author: Liz Monteiro & Luisa D'Amato Source: RECORD Can serve 4 people or 2 hungry ones Have a great weekend.