Gravity, Sushi, Travel League.

I watched Gravity on Wednesday night, quite a movie. There was one big disappointment for me though, George Clooney. If you have seen the movie you know what I mean, if you haven’t I don’t want to spoil it. Certainly lots of tension throughout the movie, very nail biting moments. We are so used to space these days we kind of assume nothing will go wrong and of course it can, so easily. The Apollo 13 near disaster was a case in point. Whenever I see that movie I am still on the edge of my seat although I remember the whole thing happening so I have known the ending way before they made the movie. I loved George Clooney’s comments on the views of the earth from space. All the astronauts I have heard speak about it say how wonderful it is. I wondered how they did the weightless scenes. Guess I could research it. Probably won’t though.

I was reading about Sushi from one of the blogs mentioned  by  M.J. Joachim on Thursday morning’s A to Z Challenge blog; the blog is called Service from Heart, you have to go back a few issues to where she is talking about Sushi Rice. Made me start thinking, well something has to, right? I first came across Sushi many years ago whilst attending a NAFA convention in Chicago and one of the big car companies had brought in a sushi bar. I was a tad hesitant, but found I thoroughly enjoyed everything I ate although, thanks to a colleague, my introduction to Wasabi was very painful. I have since eaten sushi in quite a few places such as Kissimmee, Florida and San Francisco, CA. In Florida we got to know the Itamae or Sushi Chef quite well and learned quite a bit from him. We have also made sushi at home to entertain our guests. When we moved to North Carolina, sushi was virtually unknown in our part of Canada, but when we returned 12 years later, every grocery store had/and still has, someone making sushi. Only problem is, here we are 1,000 miles from the ocean so it is unsafe to use raw fish. However, the chefs are inventive and other than smoked salmon and cooked shrimp, they use all kinds of other toppings and fillings. There is an art to making the rice too, the recipe we used included a particular seaweed which was supposed to be removed when cooking was finished. It was delicious and I ate it up with gusto.

Bowling you say? I had two absolutely lousy games and then retrieved my reputation with the third game, only because I almost got a turkey in the last frame. Enjoyed seeing friends we hadn’t seen in a long while, also enjoyed hearing people exclaim at my weight loss, made me feel really good. I had a BLT for lunch. We were given packets of Miracle Whip, sorry Kraft, I can’t stand the stuff. I thought about asking if they had anything else and then didn’t bother as it makes the sandwich lower calorie. Actually knocks about 100 off. Much to my surprise, three bowlers who have never lunched with us before, turned up today. It was great to see them there.

Yesterday I posted a recipe for Crêpes Suzettes, today I have a gluten free pancake recipe or what, in North America, you would call crêpes.

Gluten-free pancakes

BBC Good Food
By Caroline Hire

Makes 6 small pancakes

Beat the bloat by using specialist flour in these light crepes and safely cater for those with a gluten intolerance

Ingredients

• 125g gluten-free plain flour (we used Doves Farm)
• 1 egg
• 250ml milk
• butter, for frying

Method

1. Put the flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Crack the egg in the middle and pour in a quarter of the milk. Use an electric or balloon whisk to thoroughly combine the mixture. Once you have a paste, mix in another quarter and once lump free, mix in the remaining milk. Leave to rest for 20 mins. Stir again before using.
2. Heat a small non-stick frying pan with a knob of butter. When the butter starts to foam, pour a small amount of the mixture into the pan and swirl around to coat the base – you want a thin layer. Cook for a few mins until golden brown on the bottom, then turn over and cook until golden on the the other side. Repeat until you have used all the mixture, stirring the mixture between pancakes and adding more butter for frying as necessary.
3. Serve with agave syrup and a squeeze of orange juice or your pancake filling of choice.
4. 
   

Have a great day