Medical, Email, Asparagus, Weather, Shopping,

Thanks for the good wishes, ladydog phoned me and cheered me up somewhat and bullied me into making waves when I talk to the medical people tomorrow. I might end up with some help. I am not 100% sure who or what is calling tomorrow (Tuesday) something to do with the doctor I spoke to last week. Ve shall see. One thing I am learning, I made a big mistake years ago "passing by" a woman who's husband, I was told, had Alzheimer's. Just having someone to chat to is a big help. I have reached out to a few people since this all started, but wish I had done so more in the past. I am constantly on the edge of tears so ladydog says I should cry at them tomorrow!! She makes me laugh when she bullies me.

Got an email from the Post Office saying my parcel had been delivered, so having thought I decided to check the mail boxes downstairs, nothing. So then I checked the email again and did some tracking, came back to the original and realised it was dated May 15. Duuh. Why the devil are they sending it to me now?

Having done my tests on cooking asparagus this weekend, I cooked more in the Instant Pot today. I might do it occasionally in the air fryer, but having to wash the oily basket etc. is a nuisance, much easier to wash the IP.

I can't believe this month we had snow and frost and yesterday I started putting the air on. It was 30°C in the living room, same again today and I believe if is 31° outside. Hope the asparagus doesn't find that too hot. I need to start getting ready to can/pickle some for the rest of the year. Last year I did 5 large jars and it worked very well. Have to get out a large pan from the storage closet. There again, ladydog suggested I ask Cathy, who shops for me, to help. She is good and tall so she should be able to help me.

It appears that people have stopped using PC Express so much. I don't really know why, for most of this month it was difficult to get a spot for pick up without booking it over a week ahead. This morning I checked and I could have got a spot this afternoon had I wanted. I am so glad, it was making it difficult to say the least.

I have not tried this, I really should do so. It sounds delicious.

Asparagus with Indian Spices 

Long green spears of asparagus are not the usual Indian vegetable but with the right spices it really does work.
Hari says
Asparagus is a beautiful vegetable that only has a very short season, but when it is fresh, it’s perfect. Asparagus starts to appear in May until about July and I know it's a vegetable that needs very little to be done to it. The more simply it's cooked, the more tasty it is. That being said I like to experiment and try new things and although this was a tricky one to put with some spices, by using the lovely aromas of fennel seeds I found that it really worked. I decided that keeping it simple with a couple of flavours worked well…so here you have my Asparagus with Indian spices - make the most of it while it’s in season. If you can’t get hold of amchoor, just use a little squeeze of lemon instead.

2 garlic cloves
3 cm piece ginger
500 g Asparagus, chopped
3 tsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp fennel seeds
1 onion, sliced
1 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
½ tsp amchoor powder (dried mango powder) (or a squeeze of lemon juice)
3 tomatoes, chopped finely
Salt to taste

1. Crush the ginger and garlic in a pestle and mortar to a paste.

2. Heat the oil in pan and on a medium heat add the cumin and fennel seeds.

3. Once sizzling and fragrant add sliced onions with the chopped green chilies and crushed ginger and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes.

4. Add the chopped asparagus and sprinkle in the salt, red chili powder and amchoor.

5. Add chopped tomatoes and cook for about 2-3 minutes.

Servings: 4

Author: Hari Ghotra

Have a great day, stay well, stay safe.
 

Email, Urologist and Shopping, Spam,

I mentioned that my email programme had gone kaput on Monday so today, Tuesday, I phone my ISP in the morning and ended up with a difficult to understand technician who, in the end, assured me that they could do nothing with my Live Mail as it was a Microsoft programme. I ended up almost slamming my phone down on him. I have had assistance from them for similar problems many times.

My legs were still bothering me and Matt's appointment was immediately after lunch so I was in two minds whether to phone and cancel but in the end didn't. It's the walking across the garage which gets me. I'm pleased the urologist said all was well and we were there about 5 minutes. On the way back I stopped at a strange LCBO (liquor store) and found them to be extremely helpful. We also had a bit of a laugh about Scottish names on whiskies. The guy who carried it out to the car for me was saying he had had hip replacements (too young I thought) and that the last time he had gone in on Friday and was out on Saturday. If that is the case, it would be great for me and leaving Matt.

After we get home, I got a phone call from  my contact at the Alzheimer society asking if I had emailed her asking for a favour, I assured her I hadn't, then a friend in the building asking me if I had emailed her - no I hadn't - apparently the email asked if she could do me a favor too (I spell it favour which made ladydog realise it wasn't from me). I assured her I hadn't sent it. I then started getting emails from friends asking me the same thing. Plus friends on Facebook were discussing it too. One friend in NC asked what he could do for me. Of course I was having to read these emails on the ISP website. So I finally phoned the ISP again and this time got someone who helped me fix the problem except she riled me because she treated me like a newcomer to computers. I said "I'm not a 6 yr old" and then thought, if I was, I could probably run rings round her and everyone else on technical matters. Anyway, it got fixed and then when I went online after Jeopardy I found I was still having a couple of problems. Grrr.

When Kevin Lynch comes up with recipes, he comes up with some very good ones. This sounds absolutely mouth watering. Actually, today he came up with two that really pushed my buttons.

Bacon Wrapped, Mushroom and Spinach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin in a Creamy Dijon Goat Cheese Sauce

Juicy pork tenderloin wrapped in crispy bacon and stuffed with a tasty mixture of mushrooms and

spinach all smothered in a creamy goat cheese and French’s Dijon mustard sauce.

For the filling:
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs oil
1 small onion, diced
12 oz mushrooms, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp thyme, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
10 oz spinach, coarsely chopped

For the tenderloin:
1 (1 pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat
12 strips bacon

For the sauce:
3 Tbs butter
3 Tbs flour
1 1/2 cup milk
6 oz goat cheese, crumbled
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs French’s Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

1. For the filling:

2. Melt the butter and heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat, add the onion and mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms have released their liquids and the liquid has evaporated, about 10-15 minutes, before adding the garlic and thyme, cooking until fragrant, about a minute, and seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Add the spinach, let it wilt, use the water released from the spinach to deglaze the pan and continue cooking until the water has evaporated, about 3-5 minutes, before setting aside.

4. For the tenderloin:

5. Cut the tenderloin lengthwise almost all of the way through leaving about 1/2 an inch, before opening it and pounding it with a kitchen mallet until it is evenly thin, about 1/2 inch.

6. Spread the filling over the tenderloin leaving 1/2 inch around the edges and roll it up lengthwise before wrapping it with bacon. Tip: Spread the bacon out over parchment paper with the edges overlapping a bit, place the rolled up tenderloin on it and use the parchment paper to help easily roll the bacon around the tenderloin.

7. Place the tenderloin on a rack on a baking sheet with the seam down and bake in a preheated 400°F/200°C oven until it reaches 145°F-160°F depending on how well done you want it, about 40 minutes. If the bacon is not perfectly crispy, broil for a few minutes until it is.

8. Remove from oven, cover in foil and let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving topped with the sauce.

9. For the sauce:

10. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat until frothing, mix in the flour and cook until lightly golden brown before adding the milk and cooking until it thickens.

11. Add the goat cheese and cook until it melts before mixing in the lemon juice, mustard and seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

Servings: 6

Author: Kevin Lynch
Source: Closet Cooking

Have a great day
 

December, Rent, Recipe, Clock, Email, Bowling

So, it's December, just seems unbelievable, I am not alone in thinking the year has just flown by.

Talking to our neighbours who are moving at the end of the month, discussing rents both here and where they are going. As you know, I take no interest in politics, but I had to the other day. She said something about Doug Ford, current prime minister of Ontario, having repealed the rent control laws. What? They might shove our rent up sky high with no controls? So I had to start googling and find out what the heck this was about. Turns out it basically applies to new buildings and new occupancies. Phew. Gave me a nasty for a while. She said, also, that our apartments are fectching $1,700 a month for new tenants. We live in the 3 bedroom apartments, the biggest in the building. The landlords would probably like to get rid of us in that case. Tough bananas.

I had bought a sirloin steak at Victoria Market on Friday and wanted to make a sauce I had  made before, do you think I could find the recipe. Then it occurred to me that the blog "Jo on Food, Life and a Scent of Chocolate" had posted the recipe in the past, guess what, that's where I finally found it. I have dozens of printed recipes. I am thinking I should chuck them and start again. It's getting ridiculous. I keep the recipes in a computer programme after all. I also have printed recipes stewn all over my desk too.

Today(Sunday)  I received delivery of the digital clock I ordered. Ever since I saw them at the Alzheimer Society I had wanted one but the Alz. ones were somewhat expensive. Then I came across them at Amazon and ordered one, Friday, didn't expect delivery so soon. I am always being asked what day it is etc. etc. plus I have trouble seeing the clock we do already have. I  mainly bought it for Matt to know what day it is of course. You should have heard the protests. He was going to chuck it on the floor etc. etc. but I think he has got over that. I hope so anyway. It does quite a few other things if I want it to,  but at the moment I don't. You can use it for photos too apparently and set all kinds of alarms like "time to take your medication" etc.

Wanted to send a couple of emails to people this afternoon, I suddenly realised that I had four emails sitting in my outbox which wouldn't go anywhere. Called Rogers and after a lot of kerfuffle, including them taking over my PC, it was fixed. The only thing was because of a change, it downloaded something  like 7,000 emails from the server which I am now trying to delete. They seem to be going all over the place, everywhere but in the delete folder. I am not a happy camper.

Bowling tomorrow of course, fingers crossed please. I want my average to go up a bit, if even only 1 point.

So, got so much sorting to do in my email box I am giving you this recipe which I may have posted before, recently, if so, apologies. I plan to make it in my Instant Pot of course.

Asian Beef Stew

This brothy stew is succulent and soothing, but sisters Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley invigorate it

with fish sauce, Asian spices and lemon juice. “We both just love sour flavors,” says Jasmine Hemsley. “It’s our Filipino mum’s influence.”

2 Tbs coconut oil
5 lbs English-cut short ribs
Sea salt Pepper
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 Tbs finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
3 whole star anise pods
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 celery ribs, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 Tbs Asian fish sauce
1 14.5-ounce can crushed tomatoes in juice
2 cups beef stock or broth
4 cups stemmed curly spinach (4 ounces)
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
Chopped cilantro, for garnish

1. In a large enameled cast-iron casserole, heat the coconut oil. Season the ribs with salt and pepper. Working in 2 batches, brown the ribs over moderately high heat, turning, 4 to 5 minutes per batch. Transfer the ribs to a large plate. Add the onion, garlic and ginger to the casserole and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until golden, about 3 minutes. Stir in the five-spice powder, then add the star anise, carrots, celery and fish sauce and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, stock and short ribs to the casserole and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over moderately low

2. heat, turning the ribs every hour, until they are very tender, about 2 1/2 hours.

3. Discard the star anise. Stir the spinach and lemon juice into the casserole and season with salt and pepper. Divide

4. the stew among serving bowls and garnish with cilantro.

Servings: 4

Author: MELISSA HEMSLEY and JASMINE HEMSLEY
Source: Food & Wine

Author Notes
The stew can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Have a great day