Christmas, Turrón, Cheese, Travel Insurance, Doctor Arrested.

Well, Thanksgiving is over in the States, Thursday I got my first Christmas card, Friday they started playing Christmas songs and carols on the radio. I guess its Christmas. The season starts so early nowadays, we used to put our decorations up about a week before although admittedly we had to mail cards early to make sure they didn’t get lost in the Christmas rush. I have mailed all my US and overseas cards but I am holding my Canadian ones for a while yet. Mind you we are still dithering about our own decorations, I expect we will be putting them up though. As I am writing this I can hear a carol being sung on the radio – I do wish people would remember this is supposed to a joyful occasion and not sing these carols like dirges. The singer is singing “Rejoice, rejoice” and sounds as miserable as sin.

Oooh, I hurt. Not bowling for a while and then bowling two days in a row. I guess I should start using my treadmill again, I think my legs will take it now. I will, of course, start small.

After bowling we stopped at Vincenzo’s which, in my opinion, is the best deli store I have ever been to. I would like to spend hours in there seeing just what they do have. I went because they now have Spanish Turrón and as they had phoned and let me know, I wanted to be sure to get some for Christmas (well that’s my intention anyway). My friend in Portugal had mentioned Chocolate Turrón and damned if they didn’t have some, so of course I bought some. The store had several varieties, but I brought the crunchy one as shown in the picture as well as the chocolate. They also had one with fruit in it which I didn’t like the look of. To me it would spoil it. Of course we couldn’t just stop there, we bought some Brie and some ‘real’ Mascarpone. By real I mean the genuine Italian Mascarpone which doesn’t have any ‘gums’ as a preservative which sweeten the cheese. I also bought one pomegranate. I haven’t tried one since I was a child, but the description written by Michelle of Smothered in Butter made me think I should try it again. Later: I did try the alias as they are called, the taste is great but I am not impressed with having to chew them, they are a tad gritty to say the least.

An item in the news last night, our doctor was interviewed on TV about a doctor who has been arrested for kiddie porn. She says he has been removed from their staff. Obviously. She must be pretty horrified about the whole business. She is trying to build up a clinic with lots of doctors for the community, this must be something of a blow.

I have to say I am very impressed with CSA Travel Insurance, we insure with them when we rent the cottage in North Carolina. Our friends who were unable to come with us on vacation got back practically the whole amount of their share of the rent and today we got back the cost of the blood test Matt had to have done. Great service. They took quite a hit this year too because of Hurricane Irene.

Here’s a simple little recipe which sounds pretty good. It is also a good recipe for those with diabetes.

Chocolate Spice Pudding

Source: dLife
Smooth and creamy chocolate treat flavored with ginger, allspice, and cinnamon.

Ingredients

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sweetener (sugar substitute) (granular)
1 tbsp cornstarch (or arrowroot powder)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cup evaporated skim milk
1 raw egg yolks , slightly beaten
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup Cream, light

Directions

1 In a saucepan, mix together the cocoa powder, sweetener cornstarch, ginger, allspice, and cinnamon.
2 Slowly stir in the milk, cream, and egg yolk.
3 Cook the mixture, stirring constantly until it thickens.
4 Remove the saucepan from the heat source and add vanilla.
5 Take the mixture and pour it into 8 custard dishes
6 Refrigerate, chill and then serve.

Have a great weekend.