Gravity, Sushi, Travel League.

I watched Gravity on Wednesday night, quite a movie. There was one big disappointment for me though, George Clooney. If you have seen the movie you know what I mean, if you haven’t I don’t want to spoil it. Certainly lots of tension throughout the movie, very nail biting moments. We are so used to space these days we kind of assume nothing will go wrong and of course it can, so easily. The Apollo 13 near disaster was a case in point. Whenever I see that movie I am still on the edge of my seat although I remember the whole thing happening so I have known the ending way before they made the movie. I loved George Clooney’s comments on the views of the earth from space. All the astronauts I have heard speak about it say how wonderful it is. I wondered how they did the weightless scenes. Guess I could research it. Probably won’t though.

I was reading about Sushi from one of the blogs mentioned  by  M.J. Joachim on Thursday morning’s A to Z Challenge blog; the blog is called Service from Heart, you have to go back a few issues to where she is talking about Sushi Rice. Made me start thinking, well something has to, right? I first came across Sushi many years ago whilst attending a NAFA convention in Chicago and one of the big car companies had brought in a sushi bar. I was a tad hesitant, but found I thoroughly enjoyed everything I ate although, thanks to a colleague, my introduction to Wasabi was very painful. I have since eaten sushi in quite a few places such as Kissimmee, Florida and San Francisco, CA. In Florida we got to know the Itamae or Sushi Chef quite well and learned quite a bit from him. We have also made sushi at home to entertain our guests. When we moved to North Carolina, sushi was virtually unknown in our part of Canada, but when we returned 12 years later, every grocery store had/and still has, someone making sushi. Only problem is, here we are 1,000 miles from the ocean so it is unsafe to use raw fish. However, the chefs are inventive and other than smoked salmon and cooked shrimp, they use all kinds of other toppings and fillings. There is an art to making the rice too, the recipe we used included a particular seaweed which was supposed to be removed when cooking was finished. It was delicious and I ate it up with gusto.

Bowling you say? I had two absolutely lousy games and then retrieved my reputation with the third game, only because I almost got a turkey in the last frame. Enjoyed seeing friends we hadn’t seen in a long while, also enjoyed hearing people exclaim at my weight loss, made me feel really good. I had a BLT for lunch. We were given packets of Miracle Whip, sorry Kraft, I can’t stand the stuff. I thought about asking if they had anything else and then didn’t bother as it makes the sandwich lower calorie. Actually knocks about 100 off. Much to my surprise, three bowlers who have never lunched with us before, turned up today. It was great to see them there.

Yesterday I posted a recipe for Crêpes Suzettes, today I have a gluten free pancake recipe or what, in North America, you would call crêpes.

Gluten-free pancakes

BBC Good Food
By Caroline Hire

Makes 6 small pancakes

Beat the bloat by using specialist flour in these light crepes and safely cater for those with a gluten intolerance

Ingredients

• 125g gluten-free plain flour (we used Doves Farm)
• 1 egg
• 250ml milk
• butter, for frying

Method

1. Put the flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Crack the egg in the middle and pour in a quarter of the milk. Use an electric or balloon whisk to thoroughly combine the mixture. Once you have a paste, mix in another quarter and once lump free, mix in the remaining milk. Leave to rest for 20 mins. Stir again before using.
2. Heat a small non-stick frying pan with a knob of butter. When the butter starts to foam, pour a small amount of the mixture into the pan and swirl around to coat the base – you want a thin layer. Cook for a few mins until golden brown on the bottom, then turn over and cook until golden on the the other side. Repeat until you have used all the mixture, stirring the mixture between pancakes and adding more butter for frying as necessary.
3. Serve with agave syrup and a squeeze of orange juice or your pancake filling of choice.
4. 
   

Have a great day

Nephrologist, Movies, Cleaners.

I am not happy. The visit to the specialist was OK. It turns out that I have a bit of a dysfunction in my kidneys, at my age it should be at 75% and I am running at 60% which means I might have to have kidney dialysis when I am 120-130 years old, so I'm not worrying about it. He quoted some other stats which I honestly don`t quite remember but I am not worrying about that either. I also have a high uric acid reading which necessitates yet more pills for a couple of months. He took my blood pressure and decided I should be much lower and therefore I should have a 24 hour blood pressure monitor. Don’t like that, but.. what I am really pissed about, the monitor will cost me $60. Matt has had one twice and it cost $50 each time. I know it is not refundable on insurance and I don’t know why the government won’t pay for them. He kept saying “well it’s a $4,000 machine` like I give a damn! I guess to those of you who live in the States, this is nothing, but it is to me. So, as I said, I am not happy. Not that I want to wear one anyway. I think they go off every half hour and every hour at night.  I have to pick up the monitor at 9:30 am and return in 24 hours later. At least it`s not as bad as Matt, his are much earlier in the morning 7:30 I think and it`s also in another town. Oh, and just to add to my current displeasure, I seem to have a UTI again.

I have just rented Gravity and The Butler from iTunes.  I haven’t watched them yet of course. Gravity sounds like a pretty scary movie. The Butler is one I was going to see in a theatre and then didn’t get to go in the end. There are a lot of other movies now available, but I wasn’t sure which ones to rent. I know everyone has talked about Thor, but reading the blurb, I’m not too sure about it. After what I read about the Lego movie, I don’t think I will be renting that when it becomes available. Must check some more out later.

I was going to spend today making Tourtières but now I have to go have some bloodwork done this morning and I have the cleaners calling this afternoon. I felt pretty guilty about this, but Matt really wanted our previous cleaner back, she was very, very good, and now she seems so much better and back to normal that we agreed that she would start again on Friday. I apologised profusely to the other couple who have done cleaning for us lately and explained what had happened. They were very reasonable about it. I am getting my keys back. They too were very good at the job but… also a bit more expensive.

I found this on Food Network Canada and thought it sounded really good, the Chestnut sauce in particular appealed to me.

Pan-Roasted Tuscan Chicken with Chestnut Sauce  

serves 4

A terrific and impressive meal that's perfect for both a simple weeknight meal and more extravagant weekend dinner. Tips: For a more adventurous version of this recipe try slicing a lemon very thinly, almost see-through, and inserting a slice under the skin of each breast before cooking. You can find peeled roasted chestnuts in the frozen food section of most grocery stores. Courtesy of CookWithCampbells.ca

Ingredients

1 tablespoon (15 mL) olive oil
4 (16 oz/450 g) chicken breasts, boneless, skin on
1 ounce (30 g) prosciutto, coarsely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
6-8 peeled and roasted chestnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon (5 mL) fresh thyme, chopped
½ carton (240 mL) Chicken stock.

Directions

1. Warm oil in a large heavy bottom oven proof skillet, sear chicken skin side down only, until well browned, about 6-8 minutes. Do not turn chicken breasts over! Transfer to 375°F (190°C) oven and roast for about 20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and keep warm.
2. Pour off excess oil and add prosciutto and shallots to pan. Sauté over medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes. Add chestnuts and thyme and sauté 3-4 minutes more.
3. Add stock to deglaze pan, scraping any brown bits from bottom of pan, and simmer over medium-high heat until sauce is reduced by half, about 4-5 minutes.
4. Arrange chicken breasts on serving platter or plates and spoon sauce over chicken.

Have a great day