Medical, Drought, Eat Local and Well.

At long last, today I get to go see the surgeon who recently did the angioplasty on my femoral artery. Seems like years ago, but I guess its something like 6 weeks. I have to have an ultrasound first. I am pleased to say that the enormous bruise I had has finally just about faded away, but I am still having trouble with oedema. We will see what he has to say about it, I am sick of keeping my feet up.

We have had a couple of thunderstorms and a little drizzle, but what most of North America needs is a good, long, soaking rain. Ontario is as dry as can be and from all the reports coming from the States, it is the same in many places there. This will not do the crops any good, there is a motto “Good Things Grow in Ontario” (sounds better if its sung) but at this rate, those good things won’t be growing any too well. I am not sure how long we need to be without rain to call it a real drought, but we are sure heading that way. Its all very well to plan eating “within 100 miles” but if there is a shortage of crops, this cannot always be done, apart from the fact that I don’t know of anywhere round here where they can grow coffee or chocolate!!!!

Actually our very first vacation in Ontario was in a drought summer, 1976 or 77 we rented a tent trailer and went up north. The lakes were so low we were able to catch whitefish which you can normally only catch in the winter months. We didn’t know what we’d got and the locals couldn’t believe we had managed to catch it. We gave a couple away, we had 7, and thoroughly enjoyed the rest, barbecued.

Spearheaded by Michelle of Smothered in Butter (see link this page) we are trying to figure out ways of persuading Ontarians to eat better or I should perhaps say healthier, especially in schools. We are kind of trying to do a Food Revolution without the power and influence of Jamie Oliver. We both publish recipes although mine have different levels of difficulty – I haven’t been reading Smothered in Butter long enough to know what range her recipes cover. I know she recently published a couple of picnic recipes – I haven’t been on a picnic as such in years – made me think of one recipe I picked up from a colleague of Matt’s some years ago. The last time I ate this though, I found it a bit sweet so I think I would hesitate before adding the sugar to the dressing.  Feel free to add more shrimp – I do.

Neptune Salad

1 sm bunch of broccoli
1 sml romaine lettuce
1 C cooked shrimp
2 hard boiled eggs

dressing:

1/2 C mayonnaise
1/2 C sour cream
6 green onions cut up finely
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Break up broccoli and romaine into bite sized pieces. Cut up shrimp and chop up eggs. Mix dressing ingredients, chill and pour over salad about 10 mins before eating.

Have a great day