Re-gifting, Weather and Books.

Do you re-gift? I suppose it is something everyone has done at some time or another. This morning on GMA, they had tips on re-gifting and the first item was don’t re-gift anything with engraved initials on it – no, really!!! Sometimes I wonder if they think everyone is stupid.

Eastern Canada is having terrible problems with flooding caused by rain and storm surges. What a lovely Christmas present! The weather seems to be playing up all over the place, last night I saw pictures out west showing houses collapsing into the flood waters. I am very glad I live where I do, of course there may be something I haven’t thought of but we live on a hill so flooding should certainly never be a problem. One good thing, it does seem that some of the airports are beginning to move their backlog of passengers although how long this will take is anybody’s guess. So long as Europe doesn’t get any more snow. Even Buffalo is going to have a meeting on why they couldn’t cope with their recent snow problems.

I have just finished The White Lioness by Henning Mankell, it is the third in his Wallander series. This one was set in 1992 and was about a proposed plot by the African boere to assassinate Nelson Mandela. Sweden became involved because they conspirators sent the assassin to Sweden to practise in private before he went to do his job. In some ways it was a pretty horrid story. I was interested to discover, whilst reading, that Sweden uses white as a mourning colour (as do the Chinese). I have the next of his books to read but I am now just about to read Towers of Midnight which is the penultimate book in the Wheel of Time series begun by Robert Jordan and being finished by Brandon Sanderson using Jordan’s notes. I am really looking forward to this although it is a very thick book and I only have a month to read it as I have no doubt there is a long waiting list at the library.

I love smoked salmon and when I saw these from Eating Well, I just had to share them.

Smoked Salmon Bites

From EatingWell: November/December 2007

Wasabi mayonnaise really sets off the smoked salmon in these rice-cracker treats. If desired, you can set out the spread, salmon, ginger and rice crackers separately and let your guests build their own (but have plenty of extra salmon on hand if you do).

2 dozen appetizers

Ingredients

1/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise

2 teaspoons wasabi paste, or 2 teaspoons wasabi powder mixed with 1 tablespoon water (see Tip)

24 mini rice crackers

4-6 ounces smoked salmon, cut into 24 1-inch pieces

24 small pieces pickled ginger, (see Tip)

1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

Preparation

1. Mix mayonnaise and wasabi paste (or reconstituted wasabi powder) in a small bowl.
2. Top each cracker with 1 piece salmon, 1/2 teaspoon wasabi mayonnaise, 1 piece pickled ginger and a sprinkling of lemon zest.

Nutrition

Per appetizer : 52 Calories; 1 g Fat; 0 g Sat; 0 g Mono; 2 mg Cholesterol; 8 g Carbohydrates; 1 g Protein; 0 g Fiber; 77 mg Sodium; 9 mg Potassium

1/2 Carbohydrate Serving

Exchanges: 1/2 starch

Tips & Notes

• Make Ahead Tip: Prepare the wasabi mayonnaise (Step 1), cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

• Tip: Wasabi paste, wasabi powder and pickled ginger can be found in the Asian-foods section of most supermarkets.

Have a great day