Olympics, Bowling, Toronto Mayor, Kiev, Reindeer.

Thursday, we heard that the Canadian women had won the gold for curling. In the afternoon we went bowling as usual, and the hockey match between Canada and the USA women’s teams was taking place so we spent a lot of time watching it on the TVs in the bowling alley. It was a tense game, for a lot of the time the USA had two goals and Canada didn’t have any. Eventually, almost at the end, Canada scored two goals which made it a draw and necessitated overtime. Finally Canada scored the final goal with only 3 minutes of overtime left. The whole bowling alley erupted in cheers. I know nothing about hockey (although I did play field hockey many years ago) but I was thrilled when we won the gold. Sorry Josh Elliot (Good Morning America) but our team did it.  Everyone is thrilled. Congratulations team Canada.

All that going on, I actually bowled quite well, maybe I need the distraction.

I can’t believe it, all over the news on Thursday night, Rob Ford, Toronto’s infamous mayor, is planning to run again at the end of the year. His brother is even putting aside his own political ambitions for a while to help him by being campaign manager. If people vote him in again, they deserve everything they get. A lying, drunken, drug taking mayor is not my idea of a desirable candidate for re-election.

Also in the news is the situation in Kiev with the government actually shooting the protesters. The death tolls are pretty horrendous by now although I gather the government numbers are somewhat minimised compared with the actual death count. Poor Ukraine, I feel so sorry for a country in such a situation.

In Finland, an experiment is being tried to prevent thousands of road accidents involving reindeer which roam all over the place. They have painted the antlers of 20 deer with fluorescent dyes to see how the animals react and whether the dyes will survive the harsh Arctic climate. If successful the animals will be free to roam Lapland where herders have some 200,000 reindeer. Won’t be just Rudolph who guides the Christmas sleigh.

I eat a very simple breakfast of cereal, as a kid we had a lot more, my father loved a large variety of different foods for breakfast, things like herrings rolled in oatmeal and fried, or salt beef and so on, bacon and eggs too, but nothing different about that. Cooking.com have come up with some breakfast suggestions and this one appealed to me. Breakfast anyone?

Individual Ricotta and Egg Casseroles with Spinach and Tomato

Source: America's Test Kitchen
Makes 6


Removing the excess moisture from the spinach is important here. We found that 7-ounce ramekins worked perfectly here, but 6-ounce or 8-ounce ramekins will also work. Be sure to fill the ramekins evenly so that they will all cook at the same rate.

INGREDIENTS
1 onion, chopped fine
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) whole-milk ricotta cheese
10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
4 ounces fontina cheese, shredded (1 cup)
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 plum tomatoes, cored, sliced 1/8 inch thick, and patted dry

DIRECTIONS
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease six 7-ounce ramekins with baking spray with flour and arrange on rimmed baking sheet.
Cook onion, oil, and salt in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Transfer mixture to large bowl and stir in ricotta, spinach, fontina, eggs, and pepper until uniformly combined.
Divide mixture evenly among prepared ramekins and shingle tomatoes over top. Bake until filling is set, about 25 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

Have a great day