Books and Bowling, BP, New York, Asparagus.

Last night I finished The Infinity Gate by Sarah Douglass. This was the final book in a trilogy called Dark Glass Mountain and was part of a series of ongoing tales by Sarah Douglass featuring the Icarii a race of people with wings. Reading the final paragraphs, she has left herself lots of room for at least one more trilogy. I enjoyed this latest one and will look forward to her next series. I now have another Catherine Asaro romance to read – these are a series of magical stories about a lost continent and I have been enjoying those too. This one is called The Misted Cliffs.

I had a good three games bowling yesterday, and Matt managed to bowl too although on Sunday he had thought he might not be able to. However, he saw his physio therapist again on Monday morning and whatever she did this time seems to have improved matters. He has yet another appointment this morning and I am going with him so we can join a friend for lunch afterwards. I loaned her some of my books which she has now finished. We are going to a place called Cafe 13 in Cambridge, I think I may have been there many years ago, but certainly not recently.

The last I heard from BP was that they were hoping to trap more oil, but whether they have had any success I don’t know. They are now running ads about a department set up specifically to deal with people who have claims for loss of income or other pertinent injuries against BP. A lot of fisherman are employed in clean up duties as are a lot of people on shore. Whether they are paid enough to compensate, I don’t know. This disaster just goes on and on and will continue to do so until they finally manage to stop the gushing oil, if they ever do.

I just heard on the news that the government of New York has averted closure by cutting yet more funding this time to social services and addiction clinics. Good job, first they hit the seniors who have no way of replenishing their income, and now social services – of course they already reduced funding to schools. However, I haven’t heard anything about proposed salary cuts for the inefficient government of New York.

Barrie Bros. sell a pesto which contains asparagus. There is nothing wrong with the pesto, it is delicious, but the asparagus is totally lost. I have been inventing a pesto in my head which I have yet to try out. We shall see, I haven't got long because asparagus season will soon be over.

Here is another asparagus recipe from the Ontario Asparagus Marketing Board. The picture is from Barrie's Farm. Now I have decided to like potato salad (well the one I made the other day) I thought I would try this one.

Ontario Asparagus and Potato Salad

3 cups cut (1-inch/2.5 cm pieces) Ontario asparagus 3 lb new potatoes (unpeeled), scrubbed 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 tbsp coarse-grained Dijon mustard 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper 2 roasted red peppers, cut in 1/4-inch (5 mm) dice 1 bunch green onions (white and pale green parts only), cut in 1/4-inch thick slices 1/4 cup fresh dill, finely chopped

Steam asparagus until tender-crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Refresh under cold running water. Set aside. Cut potatoes into 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes; steam until just tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain well and place in large bowl. Whisk together oil, lemon juice, zest, garlic, mustard, salt and pepper; add about two-thirds to hot potatoes and toss gently to coat well. Let cool to room temperature. Add red peppers, green onions and dill along with remaining dressing; toss gently to mix well. Garnish with chives. Serve at room temperature.

Yield: 12 servings

Have a great day.

Teed Off, Top Kill, The Law!!

I hate cars and I hate computers. Yesterday Matt went to Canadian Tire to check on a clinking noise we have been experiencing lately. They charged us almost $30 to tell us we would need to spend $800 on a major repair. Heeeelp. Then they referred us to another garage where they said this same repair might only cost us $500. Matt promptly went there and they said they thought it was only an adjustment that needed doing and that would probably cost about $100. Phew, I hope they are right. Then this morning it suddenly occurred to me that my regular date reminder programme hadn't popped up lately, so I checked, it appears to have lost all of its information. I have relied on this programme for years, but suddenly it is totally empty of data. How the hell has that happened? I have a backup programme which runs constantly, Carbonite, so now I am trying to get it to restore what was lost. Otherwise, I am lost and have no details on family and friend's birthdays, anniversaries, or anything else. What is doubly aggravating, a lot of my most important programmes, I have copies running on my laptop, but not this one.

It seems the Top Kill programme instituted by BP has been partially successful and they are in a wait and see mode right now. Matt heard a report this morning about oil company violations and it appears that BP is notorious for all their infringements of codes with hundreds of violations in their records. Exxon has the best record with only one violation to its name. President Obama is visiting the Louisiana coast today to see what's going on. He is being blamed for a lot of what's happened. Er, why? Its not his fault. I was also pretty staggered that the locals have to obtain permits to do anything, like building berms to hold back the oil. How ridiculous, I realise some oversight is required, but just get on with it for goodness sake.

Another story that shook me somewhat this morning, a known criminal has confessed to the murder of a little girl and the DNA test confirms this. Six years ago the father was grilled for 14 hours until he confessed to the crime and was put in jail, luckily, the lawyer managed to get him released because of DNA testing. The man's son was also interrogated and asked the same question continuously until he was upset and crying. They have video of it. As though the child was not traumatised enough by the death of his sister without being grilled. I can't find the information on this story at GMA yet, it will presumably be published later, but it is incredible in this day and age that a person can be so battered by interrogation that he ends up confessing to the murder of his child which he didn't commit. Cops going gung ho just to clear their books and damn the consequences. For 6 years the father has been suspected even though the courts cleared him. The actual murderer lived close to the family, was a known burglar and a burglary was commited across the road the same night, yet he was never questioned. He is currently in jail for something else.

Before we came to Canada, I was under the impression cops did what they wanted in North America and I remember being stopped because I had a smoking oil leak in my car; I was so frightened. I have since discovered my ideas were wrong, but it is a fact, there are some cops out there who think they are above the law and do what they like. I feel so sorry for the father in the above case. A similar thing happened to an uncle of mine, he woke up one morning to discover his 23 yr. old wife lying dead beside hime, the kids were jumping on the bed to wake up Mummy and Daddy. For three weeks, they went through his home with a tooth comb looking for poisons or anything else incriminating. He was in major distress having lost his beloved wife and having to go through all this which of course, included interrogation. Finally they discovered she had died of a very rare heart disease, at the time there were only a few know cases, and only young women of her age group died from it. I think this episode destroyed him.

Last night, I had defrosted a couple of skinless, boneless chicken breasts and I covered them with onion flakes and a mixture of half a bottle of Catalina dressing and two large spoonsful of Barrie Bros. Salsa. Then I covered the dish and baked them for about 50 minutes in a 350°F oven. Delicious. I was quite pleased. I had the Catalina dressing left over from another recipe which I posted and wanted to use it up and I figured the Salsa would give a good taste, it did. Slightly spicy without burning one's tongue off. Its amazing what you can do with a little thought and ingenuity.

Have a great day

D-Day, The Odd Couple and Scallops Again.

Not sure why I remembered particularly this year, but today is the 65th anniversary of the Normandy landings during the Second World War. I just asked Matt if he remembered much about it, he said yes, he remembered all the planes flying overhead on their way to France and two American planes colliding and almost landing on his house. He doesn't know how they missed; they skimmed his house, the houses across the street and ploughed into the ones behind that who were on a slight hill. Oh, by the way, he didn't have, nor did he need, counselling. Poor Matt has had a blood pressure monitor on for the last 24 hours with the result that he didn't get much sleep last night. It inflated every hour. He returns it this morning. He had to pay $50 for the privilege of being kept awake and in a country of socialised medicine, having to pay anything is not good. Its his check up a year after last seeing this doctor. For lunch, I tried the salad I posted yesterday, it was very good. I had never thought of using raw asparagus in a salad and I really enjoyed it. This afternoon I am off to Drayton Festival Theatre to see The Odd Couple. Should be fun - this pic shows the original odd couple in the movie. This is the first of the four shows I have planned to go to this year. Because I can't find anyone else to go with me this year for various reasons, Matt has actually said he will go to a couple of the shows I am not yet booked for. Bit late now though for one of them. May not get tickets. Tonight Matt is making Scallops Parisiennes which is one of our favourite dishes. I see I have posted the recipe twice, most recently on April 8 which is when we had it last time. Unless you live right by the ocean, frozen scallops are a good buy because they retain all their juices. This is an interesting picture to me, from our years living in North America, I have never seen scallops with the roe left on (the orange part) in England we always ate that and it is delicious. I love Wolfgang Puck's recipes and this one is no exception. I am not sure I agree with him about the buns, but it is your choice. Honey Marinated Beef Skewers with Asian Cole Slaw Wolfgang Puck, For GMA Servings: 6 I like to serve these beef skewers on a hot dog bun, so that way, it makes it easy to serve them at parties without having to use a knife and fork. # 6 bamboo skewers, about 9 to 12 inches long # 2 pounds strip steak or filet or any other tender cut of beef, cut into 1/2-inch cubes # Marinade: # 1/2 cup soy sauce # 1 tablespoon honey # 1 teaspoon chile flakes # 1 tablespoon chopped ginger # 2 tablespoons scallions # Asian Cole Slaw: # 1 bunch green scallions # 1 head of green cabbage # 1 large organic carrot # 1/2 cup mayonnaise # 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar # 1/4 cup honey # 2 tablespoons sesame oil # Salt and freshly ground black pepper # 6 hot dog buns (optional) Soak the skewers in cold water for about an hour. Drain and pat dry. In a medium bowl, whisk together the marinade ingredients and set aside. Thread the beef cubes onto the skewers and place in the marinade for about 1/2 hour. Slice half of the scallions, cabbage and carrot into thin julienne and place in a salad bowl. Reserve the remaining scallions, which you have also julienned. In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, rice wine vinegar, honey and sesame oil until thoroughly mixed and pour over cabbage mixture. Check salt and pepper to taste and let marinate for 1/2 hour before serving. Preheat grill or broiler while skewers are marinating. Cook beef skewers for about ten minutes or until desired doneness. Divide cabbage slaw onto 6 plates. Place skewers on top and sprinkle with remaining scallions. If using hot dog buns, drizzle them with a little olive oil and grill until well toasted. Spread cole slaw on the bottom of the bun. Place meat on slaw, hold bun, and remove skewer. Top with remaining bun. Have a great weekend.