Blog Book, Looking Glass Wars,

I printed my Blog book on Saturday afternoon. Well the first one of 428 pages that is. What a job. I wanted to do reverse printing, but when I tried it out, the printer kept dragging two pages through at once so the pages were all out of sequence; I ended up printing the whole book on one side of the paper only. Then I realised I didn't have a spare colour cartridge so I had to nip out and get one, I did need it before I finished. I printed on hole punched paper figuring that would help me to bind it in some way. Right now it has twist ties in each half; I separated it into two books printing a back and front cover for each. The covers I printed on photo paper. Looks pretty good. Only trouble is I should have done some editing first, there are a couple of examples (at least) which is just computer gobbledygook or I guess maybe its turned itself into HTML code. It occurred to me, I have always wanted to write a book, I guess I have done so without realising it, even if I only write a bit at a time. The other two unprinted books amount to some 300 odd pages each. I don't feel like another marathon printing session right now, so will postpone it.

I figured out how to deal with the pages which were somewhat distorted. I just copied them from my blog, printed them and replaced the weird pages.

I just finished reading The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor - if you look on the net it says its a trilogy, if that's true, I haven't been able to find any more books although there appear to be games available. Its an interesting book, based on Alice in Wonderland. The premise is that Wonderland really exists but Alyss' mother Queen Genevieve is killed by Queen Redd her sister who then takes over the country, Alyss is, meanwhile, transported to England where she tells people she is a princess and of course no-one believes her. One day she thinks Charles Dodgson does believe her and eventually reads his book to become furious and hurt because he has made a nonsense tale of her history. I have always been a fan of Lewis Carroll books, there are other good stories which didn't become famous, he was a brilliant logician and mathmetician as well. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and had fun trying to figure out who exactly some of the Wonderland characters were.

Today we have our Christmas Party at the Bowling alley. Basically sandwiches and desserts plus a Christmas draw followed by two fun games of bowling, one of which is bingo. We nearly won that last time, will have to try harder today. After bowling I have to call at Sobeys, a grocery store, who are ordering me some leg of pork which I want to cook on Boxing Day.

Here is another recipe from Crisco which I liked the look of, we don't have any scallops in our freezer at the moment, but that will be remedied in the New Year.

Seared Scallops on a Bed of Lentils Makes: 4 servings 1 ½ cups (375mL) lentils 6 cups (1.5L) water 2 tbsp (30mL) Crisco® Canola or Vegetable Oil 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 ½ cup (398mL) 1 can diced tomatoes ¼ cup (50mL) chopped fresh parsley 2 tbsp (30mL) chopped fresh dill SCALLOPS 1 lb (500g) scallops (approx. 16-20) ¼ cup (50mL) Crisco Canola or Vegetable Oil 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tsp (5mL) salt ¼ tsp (1mL) pepper 1. Place lentils and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Drain lentils well. Heat oil on medium heat in a large skillet. Add onion and garlic, cook for 3-5 minutes until tender and fragrant. Add tomatoes, bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add cooked lentils and continue cooking until heated. Remove from heat. Stir in parsley and dill. This can be done 2 hours ahead. Rewarm over medium heat. 2. Pat scallops dry and place in a bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Stir to coat well. Heat a large skillet. Cook scallops 2-3 minutes per side. 3. Arrange lentils on each plate. Divide scallops on top of lentil mixture. TIPS: • Try this elegant main course for your holiday entertaining! • When cleaning scallops remove the muscle that is on the side of the scallop. Don’t worry if it is not there, sometimes they are already removed. • The fresher the scallop, the more translucent it will be. Ask for scallops with a firm moist texture, avoiding those that are slippery or spongy or have an unpleasant smell. • Storage: Store scallops refrigerated up to 2 days. • Scallops freeze well.

Have a great day