Pern, Sandy, Radio, Spider.

This weekend I got hold of a wallpaper for my PC which is from the Anne McCaffery book The White Dragon. Those of you who follow The Dragonriders of Pern will recognise the picture. I must admit it is one of my favourite covers from the series. In fact it was reading this book which first started me off on the Dragonrider series. I own all of them these days, even the ones written by her son although I am not as impressed with those as I was with the original Pern stories. Anne McCaffery could write no wrong in my opinion. Ruth, the white dragon, was one of my favourites of course. As many of you will know I am a dragon aficianado and if anything has a dragon in the story or the picture, I am right there. I am not so into stories of ‘bad’ dragons though, superior dragons maybe, but not ones that do willful damage, or eat maidens, etc.

Everybody is concerned about the storm roaring up the east coast, calling it Frankenstorm. I understand Hurricane Sandy is scheduled to meet up with a cold front which will make the storm spread even further, it is already 800 miles wide (update 2000). Of course when we see the meteorologists on the coasts, in the background you can see idiots surfing!! A friend posted a picture from NC at the Bogue pier on Saturday and that was well before the storm is due to hit. As you can see the waves are beginning to pound into the shore. I do hope the pier itself will be OK, it has sustained so much hurricane damage over the years. Not sure how much longer they will continue to repair it. All the other piers have gone now. Here in Ontario they are talking about us getting snow as a result of this storm and saying some of the Lakes will feel effects from the wind. I find very often these storms are magnified beyond proportion and I hope this is the case this time. Nevertheless, I hope all my friends in its path will hunker down and keep out of its way. CBC has, what appears to be, a continuous video cam of the waves at http://www.cbc.ca/news/.

You will remember I posted a recipe and picture last Thursday for Broken Fingers, I am going to be giving out this recipe on the local radio on Wednesday the 31st,  bit late in the day as will already be Hallowe’en. However… if you wanted to hear me you can go to CKWR.com at 11:30 a.m. and click on the Listen Live Button. It is real time, if you don’t hear it at that time, you can’t pick it up later although I will end up with an MP3.

Visiting some friends the other day I spotted a lovely/horrid Hallowe’en spider but didn’t have a camera with me so asked them to take the pic for me. Here it is.


Enough to give one the willies isn’t it? Especially if you aren’t too keen on spiders in the first place.

I thought this was an interesting side to serve for dinner although I am not sure I would use the maple syrup, I think that would make it too sweet.

Roasted Mini Pumpkins

Source: Food & Wine

Yield: 12 Servings

RECIPE INGREDIENTS
12 mini pumpkins
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
Salt and freshly ground pepper

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Using a grapefruit knife or a sharp paring knife, cut a ring around each pumpkin stem to form a lid; remove the lids and set aside. With a small spoon, scrape out the seeds and any membranes.
In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice and sprinkle the spices inside the pumpkins. Add 1/2 tablespoon of the butter and 1 teaspoon of the maple syrup to each pumpkin and season with salt and pepper.
Set the pumpkins in a baking dish and add 1/2 inch of water. Replace the lids and roast the pumpkins for about 30 minutes, or until tender. Serve hot.

Have a great day