Hydro, Lakes and Falls and Hurricanes.

Woke up on Sunday morning and discovered we had no electricity (called hydro here) in the building, it was certainly off before 6:30 a.m. and didn't come back on til about 9:45. I hope there was no-one in the elevator when it went. At least we have water here when we have no power, in the States all our water was pumped from a well so that made it doubly difficult. Not only that, our portable radio's batteries were dead. As I said, it is referred to as hydro here and the first time I heard that some 34 years ago, our neighbours asked if we had hydro. I went into the house and turned on the taps, water came out, so I went back out and assured her that we did have hydro. I then started wondering where all our hydro comes from in Ontario, I know it is generated in Niagara Falls by the falls themselves, but this is a big province. Looking it up I find that Ontario Hydro have 56 hydro electric, 5 fossil and 3 nuclear power stations and is one of the biggest producers of electricity in North America. If you want to know more click here I found it interesting reading. Its amazing what we take for granted and how little we can manage without it. I never thought of it but I asked Matt to go get some batteries for the radio and he reminded me we couldn't open the garage door without power. (Actually when he did go out later, the door had been opened, probably manually by the Super). Once the power came back on an Avon customer came to collect her order and said she had been nervous about using the elevator in case the hydro went out again. At least one woman in this building moved to the first floor because she had been stuck in an elevator a couple of times, not sure if it was here or elsewhere. Reading more about Ontario Hydro, I discover they are building a new tunnel under the city of Niagara Falls which will carry enough water to generate enough power to service a town twice as big. You can find information about that at the same link as above. I like their header "Just Add Water and Serve Ontario". Apart from the Great Lakes, Ontario has 3,899 lakes which are greater than 3 square KM. That's a lot of water. Now I've just discovered there are lots of waterfalls in Ontario too. I knew of one other in the north west, but it turns out there are 100 waterfalls in Hamilton alone and that is quite close to us Wikipedia on waterfalls - I'm beginning to wonder what else I don't know about this area. Hamilton is right on Lake Ontario and in fact we pass by it when we go to Niagara or head for Buffalo on our way south. Its a pretty big town with an international airport - not as big as the one in Toronto, but.... Mind you, you could say we have an international airport here too, small planes fly to the States and the Caribbean. Newfoundland got lots of wind and rain from Hurricane Bill yesterday, but at least it wasn't the big storm it had been. A PGA tournament was swamped on Saturday in North Carolina, part of the effects of the hurricane on its way past. I got this recipe from Recipe du Jour on Saturday, one of my regular ezines, I thought it sounded really good so copied into my cook book programme to be saved, maybe for our next dinner party. Orange Brined Pork Loin 3 cups water, divided 1 1/2 Tbs grated orange rind 4 cups fresh orange juice (about 12 oranges) 1/2 cup kosher salt 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce 2 cups ice cubes 1 (3-pound) boneless pork loin, trimmed 1/4 cup orange marmalade 2 Tbs fresh orange juice 1 Tbs low-sodium soy sauce Cooking spray Orange slices (optional) Parsley sprigs (optional) 1 Combine 1 cup water and rind in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil; remove from heat. Pour into a large bowl; cool to room temperature. Add remaining 2 cups water, 4 cups juice, salt, sugar, and 1/4 cup soy 2 sauce, stirring until salt and sugar dissolve. Pour salt mixture into a 2-gallon zip-top plastic bag. Add ice and pork; seal. Refrigerate for 24 hours, turning bag occasionally. 3 Combine marmalade, 2 tablespoons juice, and 1 tablespoon soy sauce in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil; cook 10 seconds or until marmalade melts. Remove from heat. 4 Preheat oven to 450F. Remove pork from bag, and discard brine. Pat pork dry with paper towels. Place pork on a roasting pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450F for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325F (do not remove pork from oven); bake an additional 45 minutes. Brush glaze 5 evenly over pork; bake an additional 5 minutes or until thermometer inserted into thickest portion of pork registers 155F (slightly pink). Place pork on a platter. Cover with foil; let stand 15 minutes. Garnish 6 with orange slices and parsley sprigs, if desired. Servings: 10 Have a great day.