Chinese, Easter, Bananas,

That Chinese food went a long way, I had some for lunch, we finished it for supper tonight and there is still a small amount of rice for me tomorrow.  Because the Chinese restaurant is open for delivery, I checked on the Vietnamese restaurant just up the road, but I am not sure if they deliver or not. Their stuff is pretty good. Will have to phone them.

I discovered that I had forgotten to give the pharmacy the Visa number I am using as mine is now cancelled. Not that the new one has turned up yet. Lucky I have Matt's card and can use it. I phoned them this afternoon and they took the number but could only use it for today's delivery. They gave me a number to call but said they wouldn't be open til Monday. Couldn't understand why. Then at some point it hit me, tomorrow is Good Friday. I had completely forgotten although I knew Sunday was Easter. Duuh. I should l have got some yeast to make Hot Cross Buns. Guess this year we will be going without. I am cooking a roast of lamb for our Easter meal though. I have got that LOL.

Been another of those busy days today. Lots of this and that. Phone going constantly. One thing, one of the women from CareMongers called this afternoon and brought me a bunch of bananas. I am so very grateful. She is the one who will be picking up our shopping this week. Seemed very nice. Got 4 kids yet has time to help me. My faith in people is being restored.

Being an idiot (no you don't have to agree) I forgot today I like to watch a cop show which doesn't end til almost 11 which means I haven't much time to write this and do my Spanish. Oh well, I did get in a nap this afternoon which helps.

This is a recipe I published a couple of years ago but thought it was worth seeing the light of day again.

Mushroom, Apple and Walnut Stuffed Acorn Squash

4 small-medium sized acorn squash, seeded, cut in half lengthwise
Salt and pepper
2 Tbs (30 mL) olive oil
8 oz (227 g) fresh mixed mushrooms (portabella, shiitake, oyster), coarsely chopped
2 celery stalks, thinly diced
2 Ontario apples*, peeled and finely diced
3 Tbs (45 mL) butter
1 Tbs (15 mL) fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
1 cup (250 mL) vegetable stock
½ cup (125 mL) walnuts, roughly chopped
1 small loaf of day-old sourdough or French bread, cut into ¼ inch cubes (approximately 5 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C.

2. Cut acorn squash in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds. Season the     inside with salt and pepper. Place cut side down on a baking sheet  lined with parchment. Bake about 30 minutes or until soft.

3. Meanwhile, in a large sauce pan heat olive oil. Add mushrooms and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add celery and continue to sauté for 5 minutes.   Lower heat and add apples. Continue to cook until apples become  tender, about 5 minutes. To the pan add butter, sage, and vegetable stock. Heat just until butter is melted. Remove from heat and allow to     cool.

4. Place chopped walnuts and diced bread in a large bowl. Pour warm vegetable stock mixture over bread. Using your hands toss the bread until it is well coated and most of stock is absorbed.

5. Remove squash from oven and turn it cut side up. Divide the stuffing among each squash half; spoon the stuffing into the cavity of each squash until filled. Return to 350°F/175°C oven and bake until stuffing is golden brown, approximately 15-20 minutes.

6. Serve hot alongside a festive ham or weeknight roast chicken.

7. Serve and Enjoy!

Servings: 8

Tip: Use Ontario Idared, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, or Empire  apples.

Source: Mushroom Canada and Ontario Apple Growers

Have a great day - stay well, stay safe, stay home (that last bit's for me as much as you).
 

Good Friday, Grilled Veggies, Instant Pot, Notre Dame Donations, Movie,

So our day was enlivened by the visit of my friend ladydog whom we haven't seen since January. It was nice to hear of her adventures in Florida. I am sorry we can't do that any more. We then went to the Red Lobster for lunch. I had Lobster in Paradise which is fairly new and delicious. The other two choices were Fish and Chips and Yucatan Tilapia and Shrimp - Matt's favourite. I also bought two Chocolate Wave Cakes to come home and have for our Easter Dinner.

A lot of the recipes I see in my emails show grilled vegetables. I find grilling green veg in particular doesn't do anything for them and they lose their green succulence. I would NEVER ruin asparagus by grilling it. I will pass on recipes that I find, but I myself will never commit such sacrilege. I have tried grilled broccoli and although it is OK, I much prefer it steamed or boiled. Cauliflower is another which is always being grilled these days. Not even tried that. I have seen several grilled asparagus recipes in the last day or two, sorry, not for me. I am too much of an asparagus aficionado to spoil it that way. A friend told me she served roasted asparagus for Easter Sunday. As she said, different tastes.

I have posted recipes for Kedgeree made with smoked haddock. Today I tried making it in my Instant Pot. It was OK, but I think I should have cooked the fish before, perhaps. The frozen fish I get is somewhat dried and in the recipe from my father it is cooked in milk, think that softens it somewhat. One thing I did do was hard boil my eggs in the Instant Pot. Boy is that ever easy. They don't peel like some videos I have seen, but that too is quite easy none-the-less. No more water boiling over, either for the eggs or for rice.  Who knew? I meant to research - and have now found out one can soft boil eggs in the IP as well. What a lot of messes can be avoided.

Just came across an article about foods you can cook in your coffee pot. Interesting selection. In an emergency it is worth knowing but, unfortunately, my coffee pot has always got coffee in it - at least I hope it has - and am unlikely to use it for anything else. I guess if this is all you have, it would be useful to know.

I hang my head in shame. I was so impressed with all the donations to help the restoration of Notre Dame, I didn't see the wood for the trees. As my friend, ladydog, pointed out, (others have said the same), the Catholic Church is not short of a buck or two, but all that donated money would have helped the poor and needy around the world. Can you imagine the relief that could be achieved if used in that way.

Just watched Easter Parade. Nothing much else on TV for us. I wasn't all that smitten with this film either, never really like Judy Garland, not sure why. It's not a bad movie though. Think I may have seen it many, many years ago, not sure.

We had our Easter Dinner on Saturday, and ate lamb chops which weren't bad, came from my grocery store instead of Costco where I normally buy them. I can no longer get to the meat department in Costco, it is too far for me to walk otherwise a leg of lamb would have been my choice. However, I then felt green peas were appropriate but just plain ol' peas sitting on the plate didn't seem right so, I Googled. This is what I ended up making. The original recipe was for Cod plus the peas so there was only a picture with the cod. However, it looked something like this. Tasted pretty good. Didn't have any shallots so used sweet onions. Of course, we finished off with our Chocolate Wave Cakes.

Herbed Pea Relish

1 cup thawed frozen green peas
1 1/2 Tbs chopped fresh oregano
2 Tbs chopped shallots
2 Tbs capers
2 Tbs lime juice
2 Tbs olive oil
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Allow peas to thaw at room temperature. Mix everything together and warm slightly in a saucepan.

Source: Cooking Light

Have a great day
 

Easter. Cramp, Bowling,

I do hope you have a Happy Easter. Most will eat ham in North America but for us, and many  others from different parts of the world, it will be roast lamb, although I am given to understand it is very expensive in England these days. Not that I can afford to eat locally grown lamb, that does get very pricey. Even Mandarin is doing roast lamb during the holiday. Of course we will be including Lindt gold chocolate bunnies during the weekend as well. We have Hot Cross Buns as well, mind you.

Although I am prone to cramp, it is generally under control. Not Wednesday night. I had a lousy time of it. I drink tonic water when I have cramps in my legs. Or anywhere else for that matter. Last night it was my inner thigh muscles and I was in agony and having trouble walking to the fridge to get the tonic. I ended up sleeping in the living room so I wouldn't have to go so far. I take all kinds of cramp medicines too. Whilst I was up, I Googled cramp to see what else I could do. I discovered a blood pressure pill I am taking is likely to cause cramp. I can't take statins for the same reason so I think I will be leaving this one out until I can get to the doctor after the holiday. Wednesday I did go to exercise class and then bowling, whether that was the problem I don't know. Done it before though, several times.

Went bowling again today - not sure if I was taking a risk, I hope not - and had to fair games, but not brilliant by any means. We are bowling on Monday as it is no longer a statutory holiday here. Not sure but I think they gave us Family Day in February and took away Easter Monday.

On the assumption that most people will have settled on an Easter menu by now I am not going to include a recipe today. I don't know, but I probably won't post another blog til Monday anyway. So, once again, a very Happy Easter to you all.

Have a great holiday weekend.
 

Wedding Watchers' Party, Bowling, Fracture Clinic, Easter,

Today, at the bowling alley, a friend asked me about English cookies etc. or things she could take to a wedding party (i.e. watching Prince Harry plight his troth) my first thought was Scotch Eggs, but she was thinking more of things like shortbread which is British if not English. Not being a maker of cookies I couldn't really think of totally English biscuits. She talked about blueberry scones and I said blueberries were not very English. I just googled and apparently they are fast becoming the number one berry on sale in Britain. The wedding isn't til mid May so I suppose I have time to think of something. I did some Googling and came across a few English things here. The Maids of Honour shown here are something I think of as typically English as are ginger biscuits or Brandy Snaps which I always loved as a kid.

I was very disappointed in myself, I had two very good games at bowling today and then messed up the last one. My average went up from 152.4 to 152.6 - not enough. However, the team did take all 7 points which was the best we have done in a while. I keep telling myself to stop bothering about my average, but I guess I'm not listening too well.

Tuesday we have to go to the Fracture Clinic. I suspect this will be the last time. In fact Matt was walking better today than he has been for a while.

Easter is nearly here and I used always to make my own Hot Cross Buns, a traditional food for Good Friday. I regret to say I haven't made them in a while. When we were in North Carolina I couldn't get candied peel which, to me, is an essential ingredient, so I didn't make them, and when we returned to Canada I guess I was too lazy to mess around with yeast. Today I bought some from the bakery where I buy regular buns, having tried a taste, they seemed very similar to me although the cross was made of icing which is not traditional by any means. However, I thought I would post the recipe I used to make.

Hot Cross Buns

12 oz plain (all purpose) flour
good pinch salt
1 oz butter
4 oz dried fruit
2 oz candied peel
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 oz yeast *
approx 7 fl. oz tepid water, milk and water or milk
1-2 oz sugar
1 oz sugar for glaze
1 Tbs water

1. * If using dried yeast mix with the sugar and a little tepid liquid. Allow to stand in warm place until soft - approximately 20 minutes, then cream. Continue after this as for fresh yeast.

2. The spice should be sieved with the flour. Cream the yeast with 1 tsp of sugar. Add tepid liquid and a sprinkling of flour. Put into a warm place until the 'sponge' breaks through. Meanwhile sieve flour and salt into a warm bowl, rub in butter and add sugar, fruit and peel. When ready, work in yeast liquid and knead thoroughly. Put into a warm place for approximately 1 hour or until the dough is double its original size. Form into round buns, 'prove' for 15 minutes on warm tray. Before doing this the buns should be marked. Do this with the back of a knife or by cutting thin strips of pastry and arranging on the top. Bake for 10 minutes near the middle of a very hot oven 425°F. If buns are to be eaten straightaway, mix 1 oz sugar and 1 tbs water and glaze with this. If, as so often happens, they are to be warmed again on Good Friday, make up glaze and brush after re-heating.

Source: Cookery in Colour

Have a great day
 

Crustaceans, Ants, Easter,

I just got a recipe for shrimp scampi in my email. It irritates me somewhat, a shrimp is not a scampi.

They are two different crustaceans.

Scampi

The scampi (nephrops norvegicus) has a flat body and claws and tastes much better than shrimp. No amount of garlic sauce will turn a shrimp into a scampi. I once ate something which was called rock shrimp when I was in NC. I think they tasted better than shrimp, but still NOT scampi.

Checking the few channels we watch, I see TCM has Them on this afternoon (Sunday). It was made in 1954 and I probably saw it close to that time. It is a film which really stuck in my memory about giant mutated ants which scientists or exterminators couldn't do anything about in time to stop them swarming so a colony ended up in NY City (I think). The queen ended up in some kind of huge pipe. Beyond that I don't remember except that they made a noise somewhat like ambulances and that sound scared me for years. British ambulances don't (or didn't) make the same noise. Sorry I missed it I would have been interested in seeing it again. At the time it was enough to scare the Bejasus out of you, dunno if it would today.

A pretty quiet weekend, but most of them are these days. I suddenly realised that if it is Shrove Tuesday tomorrow, Easter cannot be far. I checked both Google Calendar and another calendar I have on my desktop and neither of them gave me the date. I eventually googled it, April 16 is Easter Sunday. I have a couple of wall calendars which I didn't think to check, they, of course, had it marked. Duuh. Gotta get some lamb.

I also get to see the vascular surgeon on Thursday. At long last.

This recipe appealed to me.

Chicken Ramen

2 eggs
2 cartons (900 mL each) CAMPBELL’S® 30% Less Sodium Ready to Use Chicken Broth
2 chicken breast
1 Tbs (15 mL) minced fresh ginger root
6 oz (170 g) Ramen noodles
2 cups (500 mL) snow pea leaves or baby spinach
1/2 cup (125 mL) frozen corn niblets, thawed
2 green onion, sliced
1 sheet roasted seaweed (nori), thinly sliced
1 tsp (5 mL) chili oil (optional)

1. Bring a pot of water to a simmer (small bubbles, not a rapid boil). Add eggs, and cook for six minutes. Adjust heat to keep a consistent temperature going. Remove eggs from water and run under cold water until cool. Peel and slice in half. Set aside.

2. Pour broth into a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add chicken and ginger and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook until chicken is just cooked through, about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove chicken and transfer to a board to slice.

3. Add noodles and snow pea leaves to broth. Cook until noodles are al dente and snow pea leaves are tender, about 2 minutes.

4. Divide noodles among 4 bowls. Ladle in broth and top with sliced chicken, snow pea leaves, corn and egg halves. Sprinkle with green onions, nori and a drizzle of chili oil.

Servings: 4

Source: Campbells

Have a great day

Easter, A 2 Z, North Korea.

If you celebrate, I hope Easter is going well for you. Unfortunately, it turned out that we couldn’t bowl on Friday because no-one was prepared to work the time. Later, but not whilst we would have been there. Bummer. I was asked to call those that were going to be there and one woman was mightily ticked off. However, just ‘cos we are on vacation all the time, I suppose others need to have their breaks. It’s just disappointing for us. Had to show English Easter Eggs, haven’t seen one like this in years. I loved them, they were so pretty. Of course if half a Lindt Bunny is 270 calories, I dread to think what the calorie count of these eggs would be. I don't suppose it would stop me eating them.

This is my last post before the A to Z Blogfest Challenge. The work is not just writing the posts, but visiting other people’s blogs. We are asked to try and visit 5 other blogs a day, more if possible. Gonna take a lot of work for everyone. As a minion, or Spunky Soldier, I  have been assigned a bunch of blogs I have to keep an eye on. It just occurred to me that I will have a month’s rest from blogging because of the A to Z blogfest for which I have completed all my blogs. Of course I will have to do a lot of reading so it won’t be a complete break. I quite like doing a letter a day. Gives me a leg up on ideas. Sometimes I go to write and haven’t a clue what I want to write about. Giving me a letter is some kind of inspiration.
North Korea has got me in a tizz again. What with all the marching and shouting. I would love to know if the man in the street supports their president or whatever he is called. I can’t believe anyone wants to go to war or to risk being bombed out of existence by the US. I gather a load of dummy bombs were dropped on them which pissed them off even further. Not a good move. I suppose it’s possible that the government have not informed the populace about what is going on in the world just told them what they want them to know. Anyone in this day and age who is not scared of war is a fool.

Lamb is a traditional Easter food in Europe. I would love to do this recipe, but it would be a bit ridiculous for two of us. We actually had lamb chops last night and I am planning turkey for tonight.

Rice Stuffed Crown of Lamb

Tianna Robinson | March 28th, 2013

Create a royal feast for your family this holiday with a crown roast of lamb. Stuffed with an asparagus and shiitake mushroom rice pilaf and topped with an easy to make beurre blanc sauce, this roast contains two dishes in one. Serve with a green salad to complete your majestic table setting
.
Lamb:
1 tbsp butter, softened
1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp each, coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper
1 crown of lamb, made from two 8-rib racks (approx. 4 lbs [2 kg])
Rice:
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup minced shallots
1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
1/2 tsp each, coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper
1-1/2 cups long grain white rice
1 cup white wine
2 cups chicken broth
3 cups chopped asparagus
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
Sauce:
1 tbsp butter
2 large shallots, minced
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

In a small bowl, stir together butter, mustard, rosemary, salt and pepper to make a paste. Arrange roast in the centre of a roasting pan. Rub paste all over roast. Refrigerate for at least one hour and up to one day.

Meanwhile, in a large deep skillet, heat butter over medium-high heat. Add shallots, stirring often, until tender, but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook stirring often, until golden, about 7 minutes. Stir in rice until well coated with butter and starting to make a popping sound, about one minute. Pour in white wine and let it reduce until almost all absorbed, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, cover and reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer; cook until almost all the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is al dente, about 15 minutes.

In a small pot of boiling salted water, cook asparagus for 30 seconds. Rinse quickly under cold water until completely cooled. Gently stir asparagus, lemon zest and mint into the rice mixture. Set aside.

Roast lamb in a 350°F (180°C) oven for 20 minutes. Spoon rice mixture into the centre, and
return to oven until lamb reaches desired doneness, about 15 minutes for medium rare 160°F (70°C) (time will vary significantly, depending on the size of the lamb).

Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

While lamb is resting, in medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Cook shallots, until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in wine and cook until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add broth and chives and cook down until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Spoon sauce over servings of lamb alongside rice.

Makes 8 servings.

Have a great Easter weekend.