Bowling History, Fake Interpreter.

Thursday bowling, one lousy game two very good games. Matt was the opposite, one good and two lousy. Funny how it goes. The first game I couldn’t get a mark at all (spare or strike if you are not too familiar) then the second game I started scoring marks all over the place. Needless to say I was pleased. Talking of bowling, a friend who was, with his wife, the proprietor of a 5 pin bowling alley for a number of years, has written a short book about the house, Playfair Bowl, and its history. I read it last night and found it very interesting, but the pictures, oy vey as a friend would say, whoever was in charge of overseeing the printing and publishing, made a right screw up. The pictures were enlarged incorrectly by stretching them from the top and bottom, also they were over enlarged making the picture fuzzy and giving all the people very long faces. Not only that, the couple of bowling pictures were of 10 pin balls and pins, not 5 pin. If I were my friend I would be very annoyed. That is an old picture of Playfair, in our day there was a small terrace with chairs and tables out front.

What about that guy “signing” for the delegation at Nelson Mandela’s Memorial service? He, Thamsanqa Jantjie, wasn’t signing at all according to the African association for the deaf. He ha since said he was hallucinating whilst he was signing; seems like the man is somewhat short of a pickle or two out of his jar. How very embarrassing for the officials too. Seems nobody knows where exactly the guy came from and who hired him. They are also now somewhat concerned about security issues. Bit late to be worried about security, anything could have happened. Look how close he is to Obama, the leader of one of the foremost nations, and there were other world leaders all around them.

I have, lately, been seeing a number of recipes for goose. I don't know what geese cost in the US, but round here they cost approximately $60 a bird which, mostly, will only feed 4 people. Way too expensive for my budget which is a pity, I used to cook goose on Christmas Eve in England, and once upon a time many people in England ate goose for their Christmas dinner rather than turkey. Matt's family used to raise their Christmas goose in the back yard and then kill it for Christmas, traditionally by wringing its neck. It is a wonderful meat. Only had it once in the last 38 years and that was a Canada Goose which you have to have a license to shoot. We knew someone who did have such a license.

There will be no blog on Saturday.

Another delightful sounding recipe for a party nibble. Right up my street anyway. Only problem I can see, I have never seen frozen artichoke hearts here. Mind you, I have never looked either. I will be now. People are being very inventive with the old artichoke and spinach dip which I always enjoy.

 

Spinach-and-Brie-Topped Artichoke Hearts

WebMD Recipe from EatingWell.com

In this deconstructed version of hot spinach-artichoke dip, we stuff artichoke hearts with lightly seasoned cooked spinach and melt brie on top.

Ingredients

• 1 9-ounce box artichoke hearts, frozen
• 2/3 cup spinach, cooked chopped
• 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 18 thin slices brie

Instructions

1. Preheat broiler. Prepare artichoke hearts according to package directions.
2. Combine spinach, lemon pepper and salt in a small bowl. Top each artichoke heart with the spinach mixture and brie. Broil until cheese melts, 1 to 2 minutes.

Have a great day