Monday, Bowling, Book.

Not really much to write about today. This morning, Monday, we zipped upstairs to get our hair cut, took half an hour for both of us. Very useful having a hairdresser in the building.

We then had lunch and skedaddled off to the bowling alley. Sadly our team only won 2 points although I personally had three very good games and my average went up 1.5 points. However, I think my rival probably did the same from the look of her scores. Guess I've had it as there aren't many weeks left. However, I am pretty pleased about my average anyway. Not been this high for a pretty long time.

We have some equipment which was brought in for Matt, bath stool, toilet extension, walker, which have not been collected although the therapist was supposed to have phoned them. I phoned them today and they are coming in on Wednesday. Matt went out today without a cane and seems to have been fine if a little tired.

A friend reminded me that I had attempted to write a book some years ago, biographical or memoirs etc. with recipes of course, and I hunted for it. Found a print out but couldn't find the computer version, finally did so. Read snippets of it and decided that although I have been proofing other people's writing, I need to proof mine. Just skimming through it I found quite a few errors. Guess I should go through it carefully. I am known by some of my cyber friends as Grandma Dragon so thought I would be silly and add this picture.

This was a recipe of my father's and one we loved. I have no idea where the name came from or even where he got the recipe from because I can find nothing on the internet except a completely different medical term. It is a delicious recipe even if I can't find anything to do with it or even a picture.

Chorio

1 tbs olive oil                                                                   dry red wine

1 2 lge onions, chopped                                                  Pinch of cayenne

3 demitasse of garlic, crushed                                        Pinch of mace

2 tsp Paprika                                                                   1 fillet of haddock or cod per person

1 tube of tomato purée (4 2 to 5 oz)                                 Little wine vinegar

1 can tomatoes                                                                   salt and pepper

cornstarch                                                                          1 slice of bread per fillet

Olive oil for frying bread.

Soft fry onions and garlic in olive oil, add paprika, purée, tomatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes, thicken with cornstarch and then reduce with red wine to a nice smooth consistency. Add cayenne to taste and the mace. Simmer the sauce for about an hour until all well blended to form a purée. Place fillets in a greased baking dish, sprinkle with vinegar and seasonings. Cover with greased wax paper. Poach for approximately 20 minutes at 425^NF. Meanwhile fry bread in the olive oil until crisp, serve fish on top of fried bread covered with the sauce.

Have a great day
 

More about Boats

I am sorry, I totally forgot about blogging so I decided to repost one of my earliest blogs from 2007.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Talking about Iota yesterday and Thames Barges in general, I recalled a funny story about how little water they needed to float. A skipper and a young boy were working the barge, it was the youngster's first trip. Because the wind was in the wrong direction, they had to tack the barge upriver (tacking is zig zagging to catch the wind). In the youngster's opinion they were getting awfully close to the shore and he mentioned it to the skipper. "Be them seagulls swimming or walking?" said the skipper, "swimming" was the reply. "OK we carry on". Few minutes later the same discussion took place and the answer was still the same. After this happening again, the boy was getting frantic, once more he nagged at the skipper who said "Be them seagulls swimming or walking?" they boy checked and replied "walking". "OK" said the skipper "come about". (turn round).

I was also remembering the first time we went to Holland. We went into a cafe for tea and as this was just after the war, I was staggered to see cream cakes and chocolate cakes and all kinds of rich foods, we were still on rationing in England. I remembered I ordered a chocolate cone which was filled with cream. I called it a chocolate marlin spike http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlinspike which was a tool I was very familiar with. I think we all stuffed ourselves stupid that day. Another occasion with Iota, we were returning to our berth in Oar Creek, Kent and had to turn the barge round. Unfortunately the tide was falling and we got the barge stuck across the creek. The bow was on one mud bank and the stern on the other with a big gap underneath the middle. All the local "old boys" saw this and prophesied Iota would break her back. I think my father took the opportunity to scrape off a few barnacles. I am sure he was worried sick though. However, several hours later, the tide came in again, we finished turning her round and moored her properly. No damage done. Talk about luck.The "old boys" included three who worked at a local ship yard (just a small place in those days) and they were so skilled they could use an adze to shave wood. There were two of them around 75-80 and the third, whom they called the Young'un was about 60.

Eventually, after living on Iota for about 8 years, and having moved back to Hoo, Kent, my father sold her and bought another boat. The Sunfish. She was a converted fishing boat or an MFV. I don't think she was ever used as a fishing vessel, but she was used as a mine sweeper during the war. She was mostly powered by engine although she did have small sails. That boat would go anywhere in anything. We rode out a force 8 gale in the North Sea once, bloody uncomfortable for the passengers, but the boat was quite happy. To "ride out" a gale, you put one sail one way and the other sail the other way and hope you don't move very far. When you are being tossed about in a gale like that, cooking is not too easy. We had a big 4 oven Aga Cooker in the galley (kitchen) and we used to put a pot of Storm Nosh on it. This was made by tossing in cans of beef stew, cans of veg, cans of soup and lots of curry powder. It was very satisfying and easy to eat and also, surprisingly enough, tasted pretty good.

One time we were in bad weather like that, someone who was crewing with us, had brought a huge catering sized can of corned beef. My father and a couple of the other men on board had opened the can and made sandwiches. They then brought the rest of the corned beef up to the deck house just below the wheel house (they were steering the ship from the wheel house) in case they got hungry again. I was lying down in the deck house feeling somewhat queasy, and remember that corned beef sliding from side to sideas the boat tossed around (there were fiddles which are small railings put round tables or other flat surfaces to stop things sliding off in a storm) and slapping up against one of the ship's radios. Must have been difficult to clean that up. Yes, I did get seasick, although eventually I learned to tell myself the trip was only so many hours long so it wasn't worth being ill. Originally I was one of the people who was afraid they were going to die and then afraid they weren't. A number of years later, my parents took in my three orphaned cousins who were pretty young at the time. Because they had no conception of controlling where and when they were ill, my mother conceived the great idea of tying sand buckets (small ones used at the beach) round their necks – it worked brilliantly.

I wasn't frantically keen on the sailing part, but loved it when we got where we were going. We used to go to France a lot, Belgium a lot, my dad was a member of the North Sea Yacht Club in Ostend as we went there so often. Holland, Germany, Denmark and Norway were all on our itinerary. I mentioned yesterday that my father was a good cook, this is one of his recipes. I don't know where it came from, too many years ago to find out. This was my father’s recipe.

Chorio


1 fillet of haddock or cod per person (haddock is best if you can get it)
1 tube tomato puree
1/4 coffee cup (demi tasse) garlic
pinch cayenne
red wine
tarragon vinegar
1 can tomatoes
1-1/2 lge onions
2 tsp paprika
pinch mace
cornstarch
1 slice bread per fillet

Soft fry onions and garlic in oil, add paprika, puree, tomatoes. Thicken with cornstarch and then reduce with red wine. Add cayenne to taste and mace. Simmer sauce for about an hour until all well blended to form a puree. Place fillets in greased baking dish.
Sprinkle with vinegar and seasoning. Cover with greased waxed paper. Poach for
approximately 20 mins at 425 F Fry bread crisp in olive oil, serve fish on top covered with sauce.

Have a great day

Michael Douglas, World Disasters.

It was announced this morning that Michael Douglas has a tumour in his throat which is malignant and is about to undergo 8 weeks of radiation therapy. http://tinyurl.com/38a6bg4. I have always enjoyed Michael Douglas’ performances and wish him the best of luck, the prognosis is, in fact, good. He has been struggling to quit smoking for years apparently and has never managed it – his doctors figure that is definitely a contributing factor as well as the fact that he is a self admitted alcohol abuser. He has had a bad year with his son being jailed for drug pushing – one wonders why, there must be enough money in the family surely, or is that being naïve? I just checked, his Dad, Kirk Douglas is, incredibly still alive, he is 94. I always loved his acting too. One of Kirk’s most famous films was Spartacus but I always remember him in The Vikings, quite a story that one, I had the book for many years, not sure if I still do, but it was pretty fantastic. One of my favourite Michael Douglas films is The American President with Annette Benning.

Still lots of terrible reports coming out of Pakistan, even now there are people who have had no kind of aid. I am sure distribution is a factor here. I don’t remember so many major disasters as we have been having in recent years – is this all to do with global warming I wonder? Countries are pouring out millions, but for some, tragically, help will come too late. There are lots of disasters taking place on this continent too with fires and flooding, in the broad picture of such major events as Pakistan’s problems these smaller news items tend to get lost. Not smaller for those who have lost their homes to fires or other natural phenomenon. I find I keep thinking lately, thank God we live in a high rise on a hill.

Today we have decided to defrost our freezer. A job I hate, but it has to be done. I don’t know why they can build fridge/freezers which defrost automatically, but freezers, even uprights, have to be defrosted. It was easy when we were in NC, the freezer was in the shed and we just left the door open on a warm day and didn’t have to worry about anything (yes we did move the food of course), but here we have to use bath towels all over the floor to catch all the water – maybe if we did it more often it wouldn’t cause so much problem. I notice too, that some of the shelves are looking a tad rusty, I wonder if they can be replaced.

The other day, sorting through what ‘stuff’ I can still open on my new computer, I came across part of the book I tried to write a number of years ago. I have it all on paper, but I was gradually trying to copy it back onto the computer. I am stuck now though, no scanner. Will check them out when we go on vacation. Anyway, I was talking about my father and some of his favourite recipes, one of which was Chorio. I have no idea where he got this recipe from, but it was always a family favourite. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture but think I will be making this again very soon.

Chorio

1 Tbs Olive Oil

1 1/2 lge onions, chopped

1/4 demitasse garlic, crushed

2 tsp paprika

1 tube tomato purée (4 1/2 to 5 oz.)

1 small can tomatoes

cornstarch

red wine

Pinch cayenne

Pinch Mace

1 fillet of haddock or cod per person

A little wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

Slice of bread per fillet

Oil for frying bread

Soft fry onions and garlic in olive oil, add paprika, purée, tomatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes, thicken with cornstarch and then reduce with red wine to a nice smooth consistency. Add cayenne to taste and the mace. Simmer the sauce for about an hour until all well blended to form a purée. Place fillets in a greased baking dish, sprinkle with vinegar and seasonings. Cover with greased wax paper. Poach for approximately 20 minutes at 425°F. Meanwhile fry bread in the olive oil until crisp, serve fish on top of fried bread covered with the sauce.

Have a great day