Thursday, January 14, 2016

Coward Punch, Health, Lamb Stew,

People have queried coward punches. Apparently they are similar to sucker punches but likely to happen to people who are totally innocent of anything. The coward punch is just an unexpected attack and totally unprovoked. My Australian blogging friend, Pinky Poinker, who started me off on this tack has a petition running at the moment and his hoping to get enough signatures to make a difference. If you live in Australia, maybe you could go to her site and sign this petition. Wednesday saw the funeral of a young person, Cole Miller, 18, who had been coward punched. A very tragic waste of a young life. Pinky herself is the mother of 5 kids, 4 boys if I remember correctly, all of whom are in the age group where this could happen. Not only that she is a teacher so has seen the Soft Fall used in playgrounds and such. There is a radio broadcast too which she is hoping will draw attention to her petition. I found another petition in Australia and suggested she could link up.

I had a very quiet day on Wednesday not doing much of anything. Sometimes my hip was killing me
and other times I didn't know it was there. Anyway, this evening I go see the doc, I am just hoping the walk from the parking lot to the doctor's door will be clear as I am hobbling along with a cane. I could just do with a fall. They say they do have a wheel chair in the office, but Matt is not really up to going and getting it and then pushing me into the office and they certainly didn't offer to help. However, I am sure you are beginning to get bored with my ailments. So I will shut up for now.

According to the weather forecast we were supposed to have a lot of snow on Wednesday, we didn't, and more snow on Thursday, we shall see. We can't really complain it was so spring like up to the end of last year but we knew we would get it eventually.

When we were last at one of the stores here, Central Fresh Market, we bought some frozen lamb chops. We ate some and were extremely disappointed as they were as tough as old boots. However, I have taken a tip out of Ivy at Happy Whisk's book and am going to turn them into a spicy stew tomorrow. I will chuck them and some neck of lamb that I have, into the crockpot with some veg and a few spices and hope to come up with something tasty. Normally we buy our lamb chops in Costco and they are usually excellent.

These looked interesting so I thought I would share. Their main attribute of course is chocolate. They are, apparently, a Mexican sweet. Of course you could use real cream instead of the Cool Whip.

Chocolate Churros

Kraft
Churros with double the chocolate: in the batter and in the sauce. Make a batch for your next fiesta.

Servings 15 servings, 2 churros each

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, divided
2 Tbs powdered sugar
1 cup water
2 Tbs granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups oil
1 pkg (4 oz) semi sweet chocolate chips
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. tub) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping (Do not thaw.)

Mix 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder and powdered sugar in shallow bowl until blended.
Bring water, granulated sugar, salt and butter to boil in medium saucepan on medium-high heat. Add flour and remaining cocoa powder; cook and stir on low heat 1 min. or until mixture pulls away from side of pan. Remove from heat. Add eggs; beat until blended. Stir in vanilla. Spoon into pastry bag fitted with large star tip.
Heat oil in deep fryer to 350ºF. Pipe dough, in batches, into 4-inch strips into hot oil. Cook 3 min. or until each churro is golden brown on both sides, turning after 1 min. Remove from oil with slotted spoon; drain on paper towels. Add warm churros, 1 at a time, to powdered sugar mixture; toss to evenly coat.
Microwave semi-sweet chocolate and COOL WHIP in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after each minute. Serve with warm churros.

Variation For cinnamon-sugar coated churros, coat the warm churros with a mixture of 3/4 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 tsp. Mexican cinnamon instead of the cocoa powder mixture. How to Pipe the Churros Dough When piping the dough, use kitchen shears to cut the dough into the desired-length strips


Have a great day

14 comments:

  1. Hi Jo - good luck tonight .. I do love lamb, but don't often buy it ... love it as a roast ... it's snowing in the north here .. we probably won't get much and it'll come on Saturday ... cheers Hilary

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    1. Thanks Hilary. We usually buy chops or roasts from Costco; they are good. I remember really heavy snows in the UK, in Kent too. Hope it doesn't cause you any problems.

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  2. As if deep-fried regular churros weren't bad enough for you. They are good, but I will rarely buy one. I don't think I have ever seen frozen lamb in the store, but since so much is shipped in from New Zealand and Australia I am guessing it may be frozen before I ever see it. Hope all goes well with your hip.

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    1. You mean it's not diet food LOL. As you say, most of it has been shipped from NZ or Oz so I guess it was frozen somewhere. We can get locally bred lamb but it is price prohibitive. Thanks Denise, about 5 p.m. I will be there.

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  3. Good luck at the doctor's today! I don't even think I've noticed lamb in the meat dept much less frozen, but then I've never been a fan so I don't actively look for it.

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    1. Thanks JoJo. Answers will be good. Funny, there are not many North Americans who do like lamb.

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  4. You are not boring me with your woes. I am hoping things are better than what you fear but am so glad you are going to the dr. The dessert is different-have to mark this one down

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    1. Thanks Birgit. I will know soon. I was not familiar with churros but they sound good to me.

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  5. This punching thing happens here a lot as well people for some reason think it is funny. I myself will never understand the impulse.

    I hope that you get to feeling better.

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    1. It seems totally irrational to me and is causing lots of problems. I think the idea of having soft fall, or it's equivalent, outside night clubs, etc. is a good one. Looks like a replacement in my future.

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  6. Hi Jo. Yes, Cole Miller goes to the school where my tutoring students come from. The whole school is gutted, of course. Cole had just completed Yr 12, was a water polo state champion, and had his whole future ahead of him. He walked away when asked by some huge guys from New Zealand if he wanted to fight. Instead, he got a cut to the neck, fell on the pavement and died. We live in a society who believes getting high on alcohol and drugs is the only way to live. Unfortunately, it is all to often leading to coward punches and death to our young people. Queensland is scurrying to change the law and increase the severity of the penalties for this crime. But these young people aren't thinking straight when they choose to fight.

    I love churros. I thought they originated in Spain but soon spread throughout the world. I like mine plain with a dusting of cinnamon and a little milk chocolate of course!

    I hope you are feeling better. It really sounds like that hip is giving you curry as we say!

    Denise :-)

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    1. Can I persuade you to follow the link to Pinky's blog and sign her petition. The more the better. I think she is in Queensland too.

      Never had churros, probably did originate in Spain and migrated to Mexico. I like that, giving me curry. Hopefully the doctor will cure it.

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  7. And I do love a roast lamb...fresh and Australian of course. Plenty of tender lamb here...

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    1. Me too Denise, trouble is fresh is so very expensive here so we have lamb from the Antipodes which is much cheaper for us. My lamb stew was delicious by the way. Just finished it.

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