Bowling, Cramp, Boat Problems, Governments.

Not much happening today. Had a lousy night with cramps so was pretty tired. It was the day for  our cleaner, once she had done the bedroom, I went and lay down for an hour. I think it may have been the bowling which set off the problem especially as I have not been doing much exercise one way or another lately. Sadly I discovered that one of our competitors had a real whiz bang came at the end which ensured our team only got 2 points yesterday and we are now 5 points behind them. As there is only one more game that counts, next Wednesday, we have, sadly, lost out I think unless something really fluky happens. Basically it is the fault of my ending up in hospital the other day and having used up our bowl aheads. Oh well, I guess them's the breaks.

We went bowling today again of course and didn't bowl too badly unlike last Thursday when I couldn't bowl for love nor money. Talking to one of the owners who had just had his usual July off. He bought a new boat recently and sadly the engine blew up on him which really put the kibosh on their enjoyment - what a thing to happen. He has no idea, at the moment, what caused the problem but the engine was overheating badly. Glad I don't have to pay for the repair although it is possible the insurance will kick in, hope so for his sake.

At the end of last month I noticed a change in our pension amounts, today we got letters from the government informing us of this fact!!! Wonder why they don't notify us before the event.

Picked up another funny today - both the cleaner and I thought it was hilarious.

 I sat with my infant son in front of the TV, hostage to my husband's channel-surfing. He eventually settled on an R-rated movie in which the actress was soon topless.

"Honey, change the channel," I said, shielding my son's eyes. "He shouldn't see this."

"It's okay." my husband replied. "He probably thinks it's the Food Network."

This recipe sounds good, wish I had all the ingredients unless I can sub some things. Would have made a good Saturday night supper. Maybe next week.

Spicy Steak Lettuce Wraps

2 garlic cloves, finely grated

1 ¼ tsp sugar

3 Tbs adobo (from a can of chipotles in adobo), divided

3 Tbs fresh lime juice, divided

3 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 lb skirt steak, cut crosswise into 3 equal pieces

¾ tsp kosher salt, plus more

Freshly ground black pepper

¾ cup plain Greek yogurt

2 small or 1 large head of iceberg lettuce, leaves separated, covered, chilled

6 radishes, trimmed, thinly sliced, covered, chilled

Cilantro leaves with tender stems and lime wedges (for serving)

½ cup lightly crushed corn nuts

1. Whisk garlic, sugar, 2 Tbsp. adobo, 2 Tbsp. lime juice, and 2 Tbsp. oil in a small bowl to combine. Season steak with salt and pepper and place in a large resealable plastic bag; add marinade. Seal bag and massage steak to coat. Let sit at room temperature 15 minutes, or chill, turning bag occasionally, up to 4 hours.

2. Whisk yogurt, remaining 1 Tbsp. adobo, remaining 1 Tbsp. lime juice, and ¾ tsp. salt in a small bowl; set aside for serving.

3. Remove steak from marinade, allowing any excess to drip back into bag, and lightly pat dry with paper towels. Heat remaining 1 Tbsp. oil in a large cast-iron skillet over high until just beginning to smoke. Cook steak, turning occasionally, until deeply browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 130° for medium-rare, 4–8 minutes, depending on the thickness of the meat. Transfer steak to a cutting board and let rest 10 minutes before slicing against the grain.

4. Arrange steak, lettuce, radishes, cilantro, and lime wedges on a platter or a couple of plates so that each component is visible and easily accessible. Place corn nuts in a small bowl. Serve with reserved spicy yogurt for spooning into wraps

Servings: 4

Source: Bon Appétit

Have a great day
 

HST, Taxes, World Cup.

We are about to have a new tax in Canada called the Harmony Sales Tax. This combines Purchase Tax and Value Added Tax and is causing much aggravation to everyone. I personally cannot see why, but then I am not very 'up' in these things, but at the moment those two taxes amount to 13% and the HST will also be 13%. I believe there are more things which will carry this new tax however, but I don't know what. That being said, to compensate us all for the burden of this new tax, the government are being kind enough to give us all a benefit to tide us over this new tax!! We got our first installment today and are due for another in December and a third next June. Well and good, thank you, but what about our income taxes - I assume we have to declare it as income - and then pensions, it will be considered income so in our case at least, will mean a reduction in the supplements we receive. In fact, I think it is all a bit of a waste of time. Its rather like the system several years ago when everyone was laid off for one day each week and the government paid you for the extra day. This was supposed to help the economy. I am not sure how much it helped, but I know I gave every bit of that money back when I did my taxes at the end of the year. (I have now been told that in fact we do not have to declare this money. I think I had better check it out officially though). This makes me think of all the budget mess they have in New York State, so what are they doing? Reducing money given to schools and seniors, closing parks, several other things, but does anyone actually working in the State government suffer for the mess up they are making? No of course not. This is of no personal concern to me of course, being in Canada, but we get the news about it all the time and I find it pretty disgusting; but don't get me started on what I think about politicians or we will be here all night. I assume there must be some honest, straight arrow guys in politics, but if so they are well hidden in the background of any government I know about. We are having some friends in for dinner tomorrow night so I have been working on preparations and so has Matt. Lot more to do yet of course, and no, the menu is not being listed because at least one guest reads my blog. I don't know why I like to keep it secret, but I do. It will, of course, consist of foods we enjoy so we hope our guests will too. Something I heard on the radio made me smile, apparently the referees for the World Cup soccer games have had to learn the four letter words which could be used towards them along with the gestures. I don't know whether its true, but I understand that it is only in the English language that we have swear words, other languages have ways of expressing the same thing, but not in one word. This may not be so any more, but 40 years ago I was told that was so. But I guess if a player swears at you in his own language, as a ref you have to know what he is saying so you can send him off.

Last night I finally got round to watching Avatar on my laptop - I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can imagine what it would have looked like in 3D, sorry I missed it now. I can highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys such stories. You can click on this link to buy it from Amazon if you are interested in getting it. I am certainly planning on buying it. Which reminds me I received my copy of Stardust yesterday too. I only ordered it on Monday, I think that is great service.

Here is another strawberry recipe from Eagle Brand which sounds good to me. I wish I hadn't planned my dessert for tonight because either yesterday's recipe or this one would have been great. Strawberry Summer Delight

Eagle Brand A strawberry lover’s version of tiramisu, with orange juice instead of coffee (so perfect for the whole family, including kids). Serve with additional fresh succulent strawberries. Prep Time: 20 minutes Serving: 12-14 servings Freezing: not recommended Ingredients: 1 lb (500g) container mascarpone cheese, room temperature 1 can (300mL) Eagle Brand® Regular or Low Fat Sweetened Condensed Milk 1 cup (250mL) whipping cream 1 tbsp (15mL) orange zest (optional) 1 tsp (5mL) vanilla 2 cups (500mL) strawberries, sliced 2 cups (500mL) orange juice 36-40 Italian ladyfinger cookies

Preparation: 1. Beat mascarpone and sweetened condensed milk until well combined. Reserve. 2. Whip cream in a large bowl until it holds stiff peaks. Add orange zest and vanilla. Gently fold into reserved mascarpone mixture until combined. Fold in sliced strawberries. 3. Dip both sides of each ladyfinger cookie into orange juice. Line bottom of 9” x 13” (3L) baking dish with 18 ladyfinger cookies in 3 rows, trimming edges if necessary. Spread half the filling (3 cups (750mL) on top. Dip remaining ladyfinger cookies in orange juice and arrange over filling in pan. Spread with remaining filling. 4. Chill, covered with plastic wrap, at least 4 hours or overnight. Tips: Serve with additional sliced strawberries. Have a great day

Elections, Governments, Chocolate Kisses

It was fun, I really enjoyed my day at the elections and would do it again in a heartbeat. Mind you, I was very lucky because I was sitting next to the registration desk which was manned by someone who was a fun person to spend the day with (he said the same about me) so I guess that helped. There were also another couple from this apartment building doing poll clerk duty. Actually, as we left in the morning, there were two or three people also going to various poll booths to work, so Bluebird Apartments were pretty well represented. Also, the polling station where I was was the same one for the people of my building so I knew lots of the people coming in to vote. Some of them even discussed Avon orders with me (during an election??). Matt ended up at a different place. He was told a church, he ended up at a school and he said there were hundreds of voters, especially at the end of the day. He, silly bugger, stood up for every one so he is aching today, he really needs to remember he is not a youngster any more. He was even aching too much to go for his golf game today. I am tired, but not aching. I thought I would find the day way too long, but as we had a steady stream of voters all day, it made it more interesting. What was also fun was to see the pride on the faces of the young people who came in and registered to vote for the first time. I don't remember that day in my own life, it was such a looong time ago. Once it was all over, I decided not to wait for Matt to pick me up and walked back up the hill to home. I don't walk too well any more and it is a steep hill. I had to pause and sit on a wall for a few minutes, but I was actually quite impressed with myself for making it. Just as I turned into the drive, Matt did too. This morning I have to talk to the Pensions Office once again. I was promised a call back either today or tomorrow. I told them I would be unavailable all day yesterday, so, guess what, they called yesterday. I am so teed you can't imagine. What I am talking to them about has been going on for nearly a year now, if a public sector business operated as inefficiently they would be kaput in a very short space of time. It was a bit the same yesterday, people coming in with the voter cards where the husband had received his and the wife hadn't or vice versa. Others who had received nothing at all. People had tried to correct this situation but nothing had happened before the actual election. If you are interested and unaware of the results by the way, the Conservatives now have what they call a 'stronger minority'. So Stephen Harper is still our Prime Minister. I would say the Liberals need to change their leader, but that is my personal opinion of course. I know our local incumbent, who is Liberal, didn't make it this time around. I don't think she was defeated by a lot. Woodworth (C) got 16,480 and Redman (L) 16,141 so I would call that a close call. By the way, Gynie, I thoroughly enjoyed my sandwiches. However, I ended up eating chocolate and mini Hershey's Kisses provided by my neighbour at the other table. He wouldn't take no for an answer. I had never seen coloured Hershey's Kisses before, they are a bit like M & Ms or Smarties, but they have some navy blue ones which seems a very odd colour for a candy. They are chocolate in the middle so that was right up my street of course. Talking of chocolates, here is a really sinful Chocolate Cheesecake. The recipe is courtesy of my programme Living Cookbook - no I haven't made it and I am probably not likely to although I would love to try it. The picture shows a beautifully decorated cake, you could do this with the marzipan roses I talked about some weeks ago. (August 18, 2008). Belgian Chocolate And Baileys Cheesecake 100 g / 3-1/2 oz digestive biscuits (graham crackers) 50 g / 2 oz roasted and chopped hazelnuts 15 g / 1/2 oz dark brown soft sugar 60 g / 2-1/2 oz unsalted butter, melted 450 g / 1 lb Belgian chocolate 50 g / 2 oz caster sugar 350 g / 12 oz full-fat soft cheese 450 ml / 3/4 pt double cream, lightly whipped 40 ml / 1-1/2 fl oz Baileys Irish Cream liqueur 1 For the chocolate sauce: 2 g / 7 oz Belgian chocolate - 300 ml / 1/3 - 1/2 pt milk tbsp double cream g / 1 oz caster sugar g / 1 oz unsalted butter 3 Process the biscuits, hazelnuts, brown sugar and melted butter to make the biscuit base. Press onto the base of a 20.5cm (8") diameter spring-release tin. 4 Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Beat the sugar and cheese together until smooth then fold in the whipped cream. Fold this mixture into the melted chocolate then stir in the Baileys Irish Cream. Spoon into the tin and level the surface. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours until firm. 5 For the sauce, melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. In a separate pan, combine 200 ml (1/2 pt) milk, the cream and sugar and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Whisking all the time, pour this onto the chocolate. Return the sauce to the pan and boil over a high heat for 15 seconds. If wished, add extra milk to thin the sauce. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the butter bit by bit. 6 Serve the cheesecake with the sauce or with crème fraiche and fruit. Servings: 16 (depends who is being served of course!) Have a great day.