Lawrence and Peter, Medical Prices, Rig Explosion.

Last night I started watching Lawrence of Arabia, after 3 hours or so I gave up and wrote my blog. I have seen it several times before and I even have it on VHS. I still think it’s a marvellous movie and Peter O’Toole was one of the best actors Britain ever produced. However, I was tired and knowing I had to blog, turned off the movie. One of the best things I saw him do was King Henry in Becket. He was brilliant in that too. Even better, IMHOP, than as Lawrence. From recent press releases though, he is tired of acting and has quit. This surprises me because as a general rule, actors go on as long as they can find employment. He is 80 but even so. He started his acting life at the Bristol Old Vic (as opposed to the Old Vic in London) as a Shakespearean actor. I recently picked up his memoirs but couldn’t get on with them. However, his acting is unsurpassed.

Having had an unremarkable session of bowling, one good game, one very mediocre and one lousy, we went to the mall to pick up some drugs and to buy some lobster tails. Our local grocery store are doing a special this weekend of small tails for $1.99 a piece. Of course, when I got there, they didn’t have any left. I couldn’t even get a rain check. Meanwhile Matt had been to the pharmacy and picked up some meds and his Pico Salax which he has to take before his colonoscopy. It was $22 something, I was horrified. Two little packets and neither the government nor our insurance assist with its purchase. Horrors. I’m glad this doesn’t happen very often. We left the mall with me grousing about the lobster tails, Matt suggested we went to the library and then returned to see if they had received the lobsters they had sent for. Nice of him as he won’t be eating any. When we got back they had received a smallish supply so I got 6 tails for myself. They are frozen and the sales person assured me they would keep for 6 months, Matt said they wouldn’t keep for 6 minutes once I got them thawed, LOL. They are not, of course, very big, but certainly worth eating. Did I ever mention “show me a lobster and I will follow you anywhere”.

Talking of expensive meds, I finally got to talk to a head honcho at the hearing aid place and she said she was authorised to reduce the price of the batteries. She took a hefty chunk off the price so now we are somewhat happier although Matt is not happy about the whole thing and has only agreed to the 90 day trial so as not to upset me. I just hope he will realise how much he has been missing by having bad hearing.

I have no doubt you have heard about the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, luckily it was not a drill platform so no underwater rig involved but nevertheless two people are missing and four are badly injured. Seems that area is fated as far as rig accidents are concerned. They have just about recovered from the BP spill and now there is another accident. Hopefully this one will not cause any major pollution. I still wouldn’t be that keen to eat the local seafood.

You can think of me this evening, chomping down on pigtails at the Legion in Hespeler. Yum.

It seems to me that anyone living on the North American continent is a sucker for potato salad. This one arrived in my inbox and I thought sounded interesting. The addition of caraway would give a good flavour, we used to call those bird’s toenails when we were kids.

Horseradish Spiked Red Potato Salad

By The Gluten Free Goddess
WebMD Recipe from Foodily.com
Ingredients

• 2 pounds red potato
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 tablespoons apple cider or rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons horseradish
• 2 tablespoons parsley
• 2 teaspoons dill
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds (optional)
• 1 red onion - diced
• sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Wash and cut up the red potatoes, toss them into a pot of salted fresh water. Bring the water to a boil and simmer the potatoes until they are fork tender. Drain well.
2. Pour the cooked potatoes into a large bowl. While the potatoes are still warm, sprinkle with sea salt and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar. Toss to coat and to soften the edges of the potatoes pieces a bit. Add the diced onion, horseradish and toss to distribute. Taste and season with more sea salt and plenty of fresh ground pepper. Add the chopped parsley, dill and caraway; mix.
3. Taste test. Add more olive oil or vinegar, sea salt or herbs.
4. Serve warm or cover and chill. Remember that chilling the potato salad will subdue its flavor considerably. I always season my potato salad more vigorously if I am going to serve it chilled. Taste test after chilling it and add more seasoning if it needs it.

Have a great weekend