My week - Grousing, Jeopardy,

Monday morning Matt decided he wanted to go into hospital so I called the ambulance. They examined him and said in fact his BP was low and his heart beat was too rapid so he should go in. So off we went. The place was crowded and very noisy of course. There was one woman, whom I suspect also had dementia, and she was constantly rocking and saying ow, ow, ow, the whole time. She was driving everyone crazy but I am sure she must have been hurting. Anyway, the upshot was Matt decided to come home He gets agitated waiting anyway. So, took a cab home and shelled out $25 - what a waste of money. In fact a friend happened to see us get out of the taxi and reminded me we can sign up with Grand River Transit and get cheap bus fares and discounted taxi fares. I have taken steps to do so. Actually we were members once before, or I was, but never had occasion to use the service. No, can't use Uber because I don't  have a cell phone on which I can download apps.

Wednesday evening Matt's legs were so bad he couldn't stand and his arms seemed to weak to lift him up. I eventually got him into bed and thought maybe I would get him in to hospital again although he does become very anxious when waiting. However, turned out to be unnecessary.  I phoned ladydog and told her what was happening. She was planning to visit with Zoey on Thursday and eventually did so bringing lunch and dog together with dog treats. It really does help Matt. He loves the dog and enjoys giving her treats.

A lot of Matt's problem is, he won't exercise. It seems to me, not being an expert, that because he won't his legs are getting worse and worse. The LHIN (health network) are sending a therapist but that is fine whilst he is present, but basically they say, do these exercises, here's a sheet with them on, and then disappear for a couple of weeks. Pretty useless in this case. We'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, yours truly has been doing very little except cook, learn Spanish and be a caregiver. Not much of a start to a New Year. You will gather I am feeling a bit sorry for myself. However, this being a kind of diary, it gets included. It was nice to see ladydog and we yakked for quite a while. - Matt and the dog had a nap. I asked her to pick up some bananas and forgot that I need to out tomorrow anyway. Probably after exercise class. It's two weeks since I last went to the class. There were none Christmas week.

I watched the interview with Alex Trebek this evening too. Mostly about how the programme is made more than Alex himself. I missed the interview with Lisa La Flamme. Maybe I can find it on You Tube. I am really looking forward to next week to see the Greatest of All Time Jeopardy with the three millionaires. I didn't realise until ladydog told me, it's at 8. Then tonight I discovered the programme with be an hour long anyway.

I had a piece of flank steak left over so decided to do a curry with it. This is the recipe I used. Tasted pretty good. I left out the sweet potato as I didn't have one. I found a Leftover Beef Stroganoff but didn't have all the ingredients. Ladydog has some lamb leftover and is planning to curry that too.

Leftover Roast Beef Curry

2 Tbs olive oil
2 onions (red or white), diced finely
4 cloves garlic
2 cm ginger
½ - 1 tsp chilli flakes or to taste
2 tsp cumin ground
2 tsp coriander ground
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp garam masala
2 Tbs tomato puree
1 small sweet potato (roughly 250g / 9oz), chopped into 1cm / ½ inch cubes (ish!)
1 red pepper chopped into 1cm / ½ inch chunks (ish!)
1 tin coconut milk
Salt and pepper to taste
21 oz leftover beef chopped into bitesize pieces (or 2 x 300g steaks – see notes)
Juice of half a lime plus extra for garnish
2 Tbs fresh coriander/cilantro plus extra for garnish
Rice and / or naans to serve

1. Place the onions and olive oil in a wide, deep saucepan or frying pan and cook gently over a low heat for 5 minutes or until soft, but not brown. Stir occasionally.

2. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli flakes and all the spices and cook for 1 minute – add a splash of water if it gets too dry.

3. Add the tomato puree and stir to combine, then add the sweet potato, red pepper, coconut milk, salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes until the sweet potato is soft.

4. Add the beef and cook for a further 3-5 minutes until the beef is piping hot all the way through (but don’t overcook!)

5. Add the juice of half a lime and the coriander leaves and stir.

6. Serve with rice and/or naans and use the extra limes and coriander as garnish.

7. Notes

8. To make this with steak, heat a griddle or frying pan until smoking hot. Meanwhile lightly coat the steak with oil. Place the steak on the hot pan and cook for 1 minute each side. Lower the heat and cook the steak for 1-2 minutes each side, depending on thickness.

9. Remove the steak from the pan and allow to rest for 5 minutes, then chop into bitesize pieces.

10. Make the curry as above and then add the steak pieces to the curry instead of the leftover roast beef.

Servings: 4

Author: Eb Gargano


Have a great day