ISP, Dragon of the Stars, A to Z.

For the last few days, I have been having a problem with my ISP. It seems to be partly cleared up as far as my laptop is concerned, but the desktop is still having some problems and sometimes I can post and sometimes I can’t. I was concerned whether I would be able to do my blogs this week or not.  I certainly had trouble with emails.  Luckily my A to Z posts are all finished and about half of them have been scheduled so they would publish no matter what, unless Blogger decided to have a hissy fit of course.

On my F blog, April 7, I am helping Alex J. Cavenaugh launch his latest book Dragon of the Stars. I do hope you visit me that day as there is a way of winning prizes, good ones, by locating Mini Alex over several blogs. Mine included of course. A scavenger hunt. As a regular reader you will know that I have been lucky enough to read this book already, I won it, so I know what the Kargrandes are. Alex has had to bribe to keep quiet though. Although I have to confess his offered bribes have not yet arrived on my doorstep so I might have to blow the gaff anyway. Actually, I can recommend it as a very good story with a very big surprise at the end.

Of course the A to Z Challenge starts on Wednesday, April 1, 2015. This is always a fun challenge to do. For those of you not in the know, you have to write a blog every day (except Sunday) beginning with the letter of the day, i.e. A on Wednesday, B on Thursday etc. It is also expected that you will visit 5 new blogs each day if possible. This is a great thing to do because you find lots of new blogs and make new friends doing so. This will be my fourth time of participating. The blog is run by several co hosts These are:

Arlee Bird @ Tossing it Out
Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh
Jeremy @ Hollywood Nuts
Nicole Ayers @ The Madlab Post
Author Stephen Tremp
Heather M. Gardner
AJ Lauer
Pam @ An Unconventional Librarian
Matthew MacNish @ The QQQE
Zalka Csenge Virág @ The Multicolored Diary
S. L. Hennessy @ Pensuasion
C. Lee McKenzie @ The Write Game
Joy Campbell @ The Character Depot
Susan Gourley @ Susan Says
John  Holton @The Sound of One Hand Typing
Lisa Buie-Collard, Author

There is such a lot to do being a host that they all have minions and I have been a minion twice. This year I declined. Even being a helper or minion is a lot of work so I don’t know how the hosts manage it. I should mention that this Challenge was the brain child of Arlee Bird – thanks Lee.

This is a good recipe for fish. I love sea Bass and it has lovely solid white flesh which is delicious.

Sea Bass with Dried Fruit Salsa

WebMD Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 5-6 ounce sea bass fillets, (1 inch thick)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup of each dried fruit, mango, papaya, cherry, and pineapple
• 1/3 cup apple juice, or cider
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons apricot jam
• 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

Instructions

Step 1

Rub fish with olive oil.

Step 2

Combine coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper; mix well. Set aside 1/2 teaspoon of the mixture for the fruit salsa. Add salt to remaining mixture.

Step 3

Rub seasonings over both sides of fish.

Step 4

Heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat until hot.

Step 5

Add fish. Reduce heat to medium, cook 3-5 minutes or until fish is browned and seared. Turn fish over; cook about 5 minutes or until fish is slightly firm and flaky.

Step 6

Combine dried fruit, juice, vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon reserved seasoning mixture in a small saucepan or microwave-safe dish. Bring to a boil. Stir in jam. Let stand 5 minutes.

Step 7

Transfer fish to serving plates. Top with fruit salsa and sprinkle with cilantro.

Have a great day

Mouse Tale, Bowling, Malaysian Plane, A to Z.

Got me a new mouse from Staples today. Simple one, simple price, but it does what I want it to do. I am not quite sure what the very expensive one’s do, but I don’t need to spend that kind of money anyway. I know, I got a girlie one, but when I saw the birds, which I thought were Cardinals, I couldn’t resist. However, when I had fought the packaging and finally unwrapped it, I realised the birds were just plain brown. Oh well, it works on my laptop which is I guess all that really matters.

Had a reasonably good afternoon bowling, my third game wasn’t anything to write home about, but the first two were good so I bowled quite a bit more than my average. According to the computer at the Lanes I am now 159.8 – we thought it would round it up, it didn’t. Damn, I wanted a 160 average. Maybe next week. Matt’s bowling was OK but not spectacular. Enough that he wasn’t depressed about it anyway. Our Thursday bowling will be Travel League this week so there will be quite a few of us. Lunch at the Red Lobster beforehand. I have a problem with Red Lobster since I found out that the shrimp dish which I have been eating with enjoyment contains more calories than I allow myself for a normal day. Will have to rethink it. Not sure if this is the right dish, but anyway.

It seems they have found the missing Malaysian plane. Or have they? How come it was over the Indian Ocean in the first place. It would, presumably, be easy enough to arrange to drop some debris to fool everyone.

It was so nice, yesterday, to be featured by Tina at Life is Good. Made me feel quite special. Thanks Tina. I will enjoy being a member of Tina’s Terrific Team. That means I am a) taking part in the A to Z Challenge starting on April 1 (click on the badge on the right to find out more and to join in) and b) I am responsible for keeping an eye on 20 of the entrants during the month.

I mentioned doing a Snow Pea dish on Saturday, here is the recipe:

Snow Peas and Peppers

1 Tbs (15 mL) butter, or vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
1/4 tsp (1 mL) pepper
1 sweet red pepper, sliced
3 cups (750 mL) snow peas
1 Tbs (15 mL) wine vinegar

1. In deep skillet, heat butter or vegetable oil over medium heat; cook garlic, salt and pepper until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add sweet red pepper and snow peas. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender-crisp, 5 minutes. Stir in wine vinegar.

Servings: 4

Tips
The final step adds vinegar. I suggest you don't add this until just before service otherwise it will discolour the peas. Prior to this, they remain a pretty green, but I added the vinegar a good while before service and they didn’t look nearly as good.

Have a great day

A to Z, Hockey Gold.

I spent a large part of the weekend writing my blogs for the April A to Z Challenge. It’s basically the only challenge I take part in but this will be my third and I enjoy doing it. It is particularly fun for me to try and find suitable recipes starting with the appropriate letter. Luckily there are lots of Chinese recipes starting with X. I seem to be developing a wildlife theme this year, previous years I haven’t had any kind of theme but it just seems to have fallen out this way. Not quite sure why it happened. I like to get as many (if not all) blogs done in advance as I am a minion again, one of Tina’s Terrific Team as you will see from the badge, and that necessitates visiting lots of participating blogs. Some people can do it with the use of clones, some of us can’t. Despite the fact that I now own a franchise on cloning machines. If you don’t know what the heck I am on about, don’t worry. I guess it’s a bloggers joke.

I don’t follow hockey (ice hockey of course over here) I have only ever been to one game, years ago when I missed every goal because someone started talking to me. However, Sunday I was glued to the TV, along with nearly every other Canadian, to watch the Canada/Sweden gold medal match. Way to go guys. 3-0. After the way the Canadian women came back at the end we couldn’t take it for granted that Canada had won until almost the last minute. I hope my Canadian friends wintering in the States were able to see the match too. Congratulations Canada, way to go. That gives us 10 gold, 10 silver and 5 bronze. Russia came first in the medal rankings with Norway second, we were third. Whoopee. The picture shows Sidney Crosby who’s name even I know.

Hey, d’you think that augers well for my bowling today?

This sounds like an interesting twist on Eggs Benedict from Food & Wine.

Avocado Hollandaise

Christina Holmes

Contributed by Kay Chun

• SERVINGS: 4

Luscious, rich and lemony Hollandaise gets completely re-imagined here in a light, supremely creamy puree of avocado, lemon juice and olive oil.

1. 1/2 very ripe medium Hass avocado, peeled and chopped
2. 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3. 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4. Kosher salt
5. Freshly ground pepper
6. Poached eggs, for serving

1. In a blender, combine the avocado and lemon juice with 1/3 cup of hot water. Puree until smooth and light in texture, about 2 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl occasionally. With the machine on, drizzle in the olive oil and puree until combined. Season with salt and pepper. Serve the hollandaise over poached eggs.

Have a great day

100 ft Wave, Snow Travel, Ultra Sound, A to Z.

Did you hear about the Hawaiian guy, Garrett McNamara, who surfed a record 100 ft. wave off Nazaré, Portugal? He was interviewed on Good Morning America. The height of the wave is not confirmed yet, but if it was actually 100 ft. he has beaten his own record. In my personal opinion, he’s nuts. We never went to Nazaré when we were in Portugal, I wish we had, not that I am a surfer but I would like to see some of the waves which occur there. Mind you with my kind of luck they would only be ripples the day I went. On TV he said he was glad he’d done it, but wouldn’t want to do it again. What, I wondered, happens to these waves when they hit land? In some of the pictures there are buildings in the foreground which look like they would be hit by the water from this huge wall. I just watched a video and it looks like there are cliffs on the coast.

Thursday morning we woke up to snow and its supposed to snow on and off for the next few days. I hope the conditions won’t be too bad on Saturday for our friends who are coming to dinner. They drove through terrible winter conditions to get to us for dinner once before and swore they would never do it again, don’t blame them. Hmm, extra Cannoli for us!!! There was travel league bowling but I had already decided not to go. I find it a bit too much, sometimes, to bowl two days running. Spent a while on the phone with some of the others wondering whether they should go or not, it's out of town, Matt said he wouldn’t have gone in the weather. It's blowing a howling gale as well which won’t help on the open highways.

This morning I have an early appointment at St. Mary’s hospital for an ultra sound on my kidneys. Then we have our regular Friday seniors league bowling.

I have written my A post for the A to Z challenge in April. I am going to try writing something for the letter of the day as well as posting a recipe for that letter. Now to think of something for B.

February 12 is Shrove Tuesday, or widely known in England as Pancake Day. We always had dessert pancakes (by the way to us pancakes were what are known as Crèpes in North America) but there is no reason why one shouldn’t enjoy savoury pancakes on that day as well. This recipe particularly appealed to me because it has asparagus in it. If you can’t get Parma ham, Prosciutto is a good substitute.

Pancakes with Parma Ham and Asparagus

bbc.co.uk/food 
By Simon Hopkinson
From The Good Cook

Asparagus and Parma ham is a great combination – only bettered with an additional dollop of homemade Hollandaise sauce.
 
Serves 4

Ingredients
 
For the pancake batter
100g/3½oz flour
2 free-range eggs
large pinch salt
250ml/9fl oz milk
50g/1¾oz melted butter
 
For the hollandaise sauce
3 free-range egg yolks
250g/9oz unsalted butter, melted
½ lemon, juice only
salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 Parma ham slices
16 asparagus spears

Preparation method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and preheat the grill to high.
2. For the pancake batter, place the eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk in the flour. Add the salt and half of the milk. Finally, whisk in the butter and remaining milk to achieve a thin, pouring cream consistency. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. Melt a small knob of butter in a 20cm/8in non-stick frying pan. Once it is hot and sizzling pour in enough batter to thinly cover the base of the pan. After 30 seconds you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it's tinged gold as it should be. Flip the pancake over, cook the other side for a few seconds, and then slide it out of the pan onto a plate.
4. Without greasing the pan again, repeat the process in stage three to make eight thin pancakes.
5. For the hollandaise sauce, whisk together the egg yolks with a tablespoon of water in a stainless steel saucepan set over a very low heat, until thick and smooth.
6. Remove the pan from the heat and continue to whisk while adding the melted butter in a thin stream, leaving behind the milky residue that has settled in the bottom of the butter pan. Season the sauce
with salt and freshly ground black pepper and sharpen with lemon juice, to taste. Keep warm.
7. Boil the asparagus in salted water until tender. Once cooked, refresh the asparagus in a bowl of iced water. Drain and pat dry.
8. To assemble the délices, place a slice of ham on top of a pancake, then arrange three asparagus spears upon it. Roll up and place into a lightly buttered baking dish. Repeat with the remaining pancakes,
Parma ham and asparagus. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until just beginning to crisp at the edges.
9. Serve the délices on a serving dish and coat each one carefully with a spoonful of hollandaise sauce, running it along their length. Very briefly flash the délices under the grill until only just gilded by the heat

Have a great day