My week - Grousing, Jeopardy,

Monday morning Matt decided he wanted to go into hospital so I called the ambulance. They examined him and said in fact his BP was low and his heart beat was too rapid so he should go in. So off we went. The place was crowded and very noisy of course. There was one woman, whom I suspect also had dementia, and she was constantly rocking and saying ow, ow, ow, the whole time. She was driving everyone crazy but I am sure she must have been hurting. Anyway, the upshot was Matt decided to come home He gets agitated waiting anyway. So, took a cab home and shelled out $25 - what a waste of money. In fact a friend happened to see us get out of the taxi and reminded me we can sign up with Grand River Transit and get cheap bus fares and discounted taxi fares. I have taken steps to do so. Actually we were members once before, or I was, but never had occasion to use the service. No, can't use Uber because I don't  have a cell phone on which I can download apps.

Wednesday evening Matt's legs were so bad he couldn't stand and his arms seemed to weak to lift him up. I eventually got him into bed and thought maybe I would get him in to hospital again although he does become very anxious when waiting. However, turned out to be unnecessary.  I phoned ladydog and told her what was happening. She was planning to visit with Zoey on Thursday and eventually did so bringing lunch and dog together with dog treats. It really does help Matt. He loves the dog and enjoys giving her treats.

A lot of Matt's problem is, he won't exercise. It seems to me, not being an expert, that because he won't his legs are getting worse and worse. The LHIN (health network) are sending a therapist but that is fine whilst he is present, but basically they say, do these exercises, here's a sheet with them on, and then disappear for a couple of weeks. Pretty useless in this case. We'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, yours truly has been doing very little except cook, learn Spanish and be a caregiver. Not much of a start to a New Year. You will gather I am feeling a bit sorry for myself. However, this being a kind of diary, it gets included. It was nice to see ladydog and we yakked for quite a while. - Matt and the dog had a nap. I asked her to pick up some bananas and forgot that I need to out tomorrow anyway. Probably after exercise class. It's two weeks since I last went to the class. There were none Christmas week.

I watched the interview with Alex Trebek this evening too. Mostly about how the programme is made more than Alex himself. I missed the interview with Lisa La Flamme. Maybe I can find it on You Tube. I am really looking forward to next week to see the Greatest of All Time Jeopardy with the three millionaires. I didn't realise until ladydog told me, it's at 8. Then tonight I discovered the programme with be an hour long anyway.

I had a piece of flank steak left over so decided to do a curry with it. This is the recipe I used. Tasted pretty good. I left out the sweet potato as I didn't have one. I found a Leftover Beef Stroganoff but didn't have all the ingredients. Ladydog has some lamb leftover and is planning to curry that too.

Leftover Roast Beef Curry

2 Tbs olive oil
2 onions (red or white), diced finely
4 cloves garlic
2 cm ginger
½ - 1 tsp chilli flakes or to taste
2 tsp cumin ground
2 tsp coriander ground
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp garam masala
2 Tbs tomato puree
1 small sweet potato (roughly 250g / 9oz), chopped into 1cm / ½ inch cubes (ish!)
1 red pepper chopped into 1cm / ½ inch chunks (ish!)
1 tin coconut milk
Salt and pepper to taste
21 oz leftover beef chopped into bitesize pieces (or 2 x 300g steaks – see notes)
Juice of half a lime plus extra for garnish
2 Tbs fresh coriander/cilantro plus extra for garnish
Rice and / or naans to serve

1. Place the onions and olive oil in a wide, deep saucepan or frying pan and cook gently over a low heat for 5 minutes or until soft, but not brown. Stir occasionally.

2. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli flakes and all the spices and cook for 1 minute – add a splash of water if it gets too dry.

3. Add the tomato puree and stir to combine, then add the sweet potato, red pepper, coconut milk, salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes until the sweet potato is soft.

4. Add the beef and cook for a further 3-5 minutes until the beef is piping hot all the way through (but don’t overcook!)

5. Add the juice of half a lime and the coriander leaves and stir.

6. Serve with rice and/or naans and use the extra limes and coriander as garnish.

7. Notes

8. To make this with steak, heat a griddle or frying pan until smoking hot. Meanwhile lightly coat the steak with oil. Place the steak on the hot pan and cook for 1 minute each side. Lower the heat and cook the steak for 1-2 minutes each side, depending on thickness.

9. Remove the steak from the pan and allow to rest for 5 minutes, then chop into bitesize pieces.

10. Make the curry as above and then add the steak pieces to the curry instead of the leftover roast beef.

Servings: 4

Author: Eb Gargano


Have a great day
 

Mason Jar Hunt, Song of Woes, Bowling,

Tuesday morning, as I said, I took the car for servicing and asked them to look at the tire which was losing air. Turned out it was losing it from the rim so they cleaned it and fixed it - then I went to Home Hardware. Yes they had Mason jars, no they did not sell them individually. I  tried everywhere I knew to get just one or two more and then someone told me to go to Dollarama. I phoned and checked and they did sell them singly.

I seem to be doing a lot of 'wearing myself out' lately. Wednesday we went bowling, of course. Pleased to say I bowled well and my average went up 3 points. Mind you, the high average ladies during the summer league are 189 to my 151. I think it is extremely unlikely I can catch them. However our team is currently lying in 2nd place, tied with another team, so you never know!!! Because they had a school crowd bowling, our start was delayed til 1:30. Next week we are bowling on the Thursday because Wednesday they have more school bowlers who will take over the whole alley.

After bowling I decided to go to the Dollarama to get my Mason jars. What a fiasco, I had never been there but knew which mall it was in. Went to the mall and in the front doors and could see nothing to tell me where it was. A man came up to me and asked if he could help then told me Dollarama was "way down there", so I started walking and was already hurting so went back to the car to drive around and see if there was an outside door. There was, but I couldn't park near it. I drove round again and managed to park close-ish. I then walked to the store and saw a Wheelchair parking spot but figured if I tried to go back and get the car, it would be filled again, so on I plodded. Once in

Dollarama, I was directed to where the Mason jars were with the proviso, if we have any, that took me back. What a huge store. They did have them, lots of them. I then plodded back to the car by which time I was hurting quite badly (legs). I was so tired when we got home that I ordered pizza. Never do that. Had a Pizza Pizza Artichoke and Chicken one. I liked it, don't think Matt did much.  Watched a bit of TV and then fell into bed and went out like a light. One hour later I was awake with screaming cramps right through my legs and also in my arms a bit and in my stomach. Got up, drank tonic water, swallowed a magnesium pill, drank pickle juice. Every cure I had ever heard of.  I ended up sleeping in my chair (read a bit first) and finally around 4 in the morning went back to bed. I was not a happy camper. I am assuming it was a combination of the bowling and then all the walking.

However, went bowling again today, was feeling better, actually, letting hot water pour onto my sore legs (in the shower) really seemed to help. Relaxing muscles I suppose.

Finished the pizza tonight, Wednesday. Found an excellent way of reheating it. Much better than shoving in the microwave or even in the oven. The pizza was like it had just been delivered.

Bowls seem to be very popular these days and as I like sushi I thought this would be right up my street. Give the asparagus haters a rest too LOL. Not that Matt and I claim to be sushi chefs, they do study a long time, but we have definitely rolled our own sushi in the past.

Sushi Bowl with Tofu and Brown Rice

Training to become a sushi chef can take up to 43,800 hours. Making this delicious Sushi Salad of brown rice, marinated tofu, avocado and edamame, all tossed in a ginger wasabi dressing will take

you less than 1 hour. We don’t know about you, but we aren’t going to roll our sushi…we’re going to bowl it.

Marinated Tofu
12 oz firm tofu, pressed dry between layers of paper towel and cut into ¾-inch thick strips
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs mirin
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
½ tsp sesame oil
Brown Rice
1 ½ cups short grain brown rice
2 ¾ cups water
2 Tbs rice vinegar
1 Tbs sugar
½ tsp soy sauce
Ginger Wasabi Dressing
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 Tbs peanut oil
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp wasabi paste
1 tsp honey
½ tsp grated fresh ginger
1 small English cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
1 large carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup shelled frozen edamame, thawed and drained well
1 ripe avocado, pitted, peeled and sliced
1 Tbs toasted sesame seeds
1 nori sheet, cut into thin strips

1. Place tofu in a medium bowl and toss with soy sauce, mirin, ginger and sesame oil. Set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.

2. For the rice, in a fine-mesh strainer, rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Combine rice and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook over low heat for 40 minutes. Remove from heat and let steam covered for 5 minutes. Spread rice on a baking sheet. In a small bowl whisk rice vinegar, sugar and soy sauce sprinkle vinegar mixture over the rice let cool.

3. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place tofu in a single layer. Bake for 10 minutes, turn tofu and continue to bake 5 minutes more until golden. Remove from oven and set aside.

4. For the Ginger Wasabi dressing, using a blender, combine rice vinegar, mayonnaise, peanut oil, soy sauce, wasabi paste, honey and ginger until well combined.

5. To assemble salad, using 6 individual serving bowls, place rice in the bottom of each. Add tofu, cucumber, carrots, edamame and avocado. Generously drizzle each bowl with dressing and sprinkle with sesame seeds and nori strips to garnish.

Servings: 6

Source: Zoomer



Have a great day