Pay, Snow, Nana. Stolen Toys Recovered.

Comment I heard on the radio. A person wearing a military uniform and fighting to protect one’s country should be making a lot more money than a person wearing a hockey helmet. Makes sense to me.

Winter is definitely here, we got a couple of inches of snow on Friday night a lot of which disappeared because there was so much sun on Saturday. Matt said the roads were clear when he went out in the afternoon then Sunday morning we had a light continuous snow which started covering everything up again. Of course from our window it looks very pretty. No fun if you absolutely have to go somewhere and in the first place you have to clear your driveway and secondly clean your car. Basically something we never have to do any more as we have underground parking. I hate it when we visit someone in the winter and come out to a frozen or snowed in car. I guess I have become spoilt. Of course I have just thought we have to go to Guelph twice this week once for my pre-op and once for my op itself. I do hope the roads will be clear for that trip particularly as the Friday one we have to be at the hospital at 6:15 a.m. and if its been snowing the roads won’t be clear. Have to keep our fingers crossed.

I have been reading a book by David Weber set in the Honorverse, or the world of Honor Harrington. I started reading the books in ebook form many years ago but missed a few which were written later, I am now catching up. Quite exciting space stories, the only trouble is he does get a bit carried away by the armaments and designs of space warships. I plough through the descriptions but I don’t pretend that I grasp all of it, guess I am insufficiently interested and I certainly can’t grasp the tremendous distances involved when he talks about how far the ships are apart in a battle and where the missiles are etc. etc. I was never any good at math. The stories themselves are great though and I am enjoying reading books set in that world once more. If you like space fiction and have never read any of these books, I highly recommend them. The first one is On Basilisk Station. Amazon doesn’t seem to have ebook versions, but that’s how I first bought them.

Just listening to a CD of Nana Mouskouri – not sure how many are familiar with her any more. She has sold between 200 and 300 million records worldwide (odd figure, with a gap of 100 million) and we have always liked her. I just Googled to see if she was still with us, she is, she is 78. I didn’t know til I Googled that her voice, which they describe as an angelic soprano, is attributed to the fact that she was born with only one vocal chord. She was born in Greece, but sang songs in all kinds of languages and had a long and distinguished career. She recently gave back her pension to Greece in order to assist their financial woes. Obviously hoping to inspire others to do the same. This is one of her very well know songs.

The police have found the toys stolen from the Salvation Army. They are being inventoried right now, the story doesn’t say if all the $2 million’s worth was recovered but it mentions 146 skids of toys, strollers and food. The story also mentions that the theft was discovered in August!!! August, how come we have only just heard about it? As yet there is no good news about the missing $240,000 missing from an Ottawa branch.

I love lentils although I don’t actually eat them very often, not sure why. I am very fond of the Indian dish dahl which is made with them. This is a lentil soup which sounds good and I will be trying this winter. If you are unfamiliar with Garam Masala, it can be obtained in a good grocery store with an international aisle, or in a store specialising in Indian foods, or you can Google it and make your own. It doesn't say how many this soup is for, but I guess it depends on when and how you are going to eat it. By the look of it, it should feed at least 6 for one sitting.

Curried Lentil Soup With Cilantro Yogurt

By A Nutritionist Eats
WebMD Recipe from Foodily.com
Ingredients
Prep: 15 minutes | Cook: 55 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

• 2 small yellow onions, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons hot curry powder
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 3 1/2 cups red lentils
• 8 cups broth (chicken or veggie)
• 1 head kale, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 2 cups Greek yogurt
• 1 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 4 carrots, cut on a diagonal

Instructions
To Prepare Soup:

1. Heat olive oil in large pot. Add onions, garlic and carrots, sautéing for about 10 minutes, until onions are translucent.
2. Add spices and sauté for about 2 minutes.
3. Add lentils and broth. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low for about 30 minutes.
4. Add kale to soup and season with salt and pepper. Let simmer for another 15-20 minutes.

To Prepare Cilantro Yogurt:

1. Combine yogurt, cilantro and coriander.
2. Set aside until serving.

Have a great day