Spencer Tracy, Sandy and its Aftermath.

Monday night I watched two Spencer Tracy movies, Inherit the Wind and Judgement at Nuremberg. Both movies stuffed full of well known names, the second one included William Shatner and Judy Garland in small parts. Both excellent movies, I think I had seen them both before, but it was a long time ago. Spencer Tracy was so very good. I particularly liked Bert Lancaster in Judgement at Nuremberg and I am not really a fan of his. I sat up til about 1:30 watching these movies. Matt said there was still a Spencer Tracy movie on when he got up the next morning. I know Look Who’s Coming to Dinner was on after the two I watched, but a) it was late and b) saw it a few weeks ago. Both movies were based on true stories and I was particularly disgusted with the narrow minded bigotry displayed in Inherit the Wind . I wanted to hit the townspeople. Trouble is, this kind of behaviour continues in our current world too.

Sandy didn’t cause us much problem round here I am delighted to say. Had quite a lot of wind, but that was it. Although a friend said they lost power for a few hours and a woman in Toronto was killed by a flying street sign. One sad story, two boys were killed when a tree fell on their house. Made me think of a storm we lived through, not officially a hurricane, but a nor’easter (mentioned it yesterday) we were sitting in our living room when there was an almighty crash and a tree came down on our back deck. Completely missed the mobile home thank God. In fact we were very lucky with all the trees we lost over the years, not one of them ever fell on the house. Watched a lot of the damage and flooding on TV and what really surprised me was all the snow in some of the southern states, Virginia, for instance, got 18 inches. Very surprising. According to the reports, Southern Ontario and Quebec have had bad winds, and the remnants of the storm are lashing the Maritimes. Thousands are without power in Toronto. I am surprised at that too. I guess we basically just missed it where we are. Above is a Twitter picture from Toronto. There have been several spoof pictures spawned by the storm like sharks in the water, etc. but the one I liked best was this one of Lady Liberty which a friend posted on Facebook.

One thing, people have to be so careful if they have been flooded, there were all kinds of warnings issued by Dr. Richard Besser on GMA – if your basement is flood for instance, you shouldn’t go down there without rubber boots because the water could contain all kinds of contaminants from sewage and animal wastes etc. He said if you have stored food in canning jars, you should boil them – most other items should be thrown out. He also pointed out there could be electrical problems in a flooded basement too. Here are some tips to clean your drinking water. He  showed a jar of very filthy water from flooded areas. There are some pretty devastating pictures from the fires which sprang up in one area of New York on Monday night with people unable to escape by themselves as they were caught between chest high water on one hand and fires on the other.

Well, here is a final Hallowe’en recipe for this year. Matt thinks some of these recipes are most unsuitable for children!!

Rat Cheese Ball

Food.com: By Rita

Rita's Note:

The Cutest Halloween cheese ball! Cheese ball shaped into mouse/rat for your cheese platters. You can use your favorite cheese ball recipe and go ahead and use almonds for ears or whatever you have on hand. Bloody Guts is fun when you cut into the cheese you find a sweet spicy hot gooey center.

Ingredients:

Servings: 15

Cheese ball

• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup sour cream or 1/4 cup yogurt
• 1 serrano chili, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced

Mice Fur and Holes for cheese wedge

• 5 black olives, mashed
• 1 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 cup black beans, rinsed, drained well, mashed

Body parts

• 1 dried shiitake mushroom (broken into pieces two for ears)
• 2 red peppercorns (for eyes)
• 17 bacon bits (for toes & nose)
• 10 dried rosemary sprigs (for whisker)

Optional

• hot pepper jelly, Hot As Hell Habanero Zucchini Jelly

Directions:

1. Cheese ball: Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse to combine.

2. Divide in half then from one half take a 1/4 cup and add the mice fur ingredients mixes in well.

3. With the other 3/4`s mold into a mice shape.

4. With the 1/2 of cheese mold into a wedge. With your finger press to form hole as in a Swiss cheese. Fill holes with the dark cheese mix. Smooth it flush.

5. With the rest of the dark cheese, spread it over the mouse/rat body saving a little for the tail. You may need to dampen your hand slightly for the tail. Then using a fork create the fur starting at the tail end going up toward the head. Fur strokes are to be flowing back away from the head. Place the dried mushrooms on the head for ears, red peppercorns for the eyes, bacon bits for the toes and nose, and dried rosemary for the whiskers.

6. Serve with pepper crackers and or Veggie sticks.

7. Optional bloody center.

8. When molding the cheese add some cold jelly to the center and wrap the cheese around it to encase the jelly.

Have a great day