Blogger, Penguins, Books

Weird, I tried to access my Blogger account yesterday and was told there had been unusual activity on my account and I had to verify who I was by phone, I had to give them my phone number and they phoned instantly with a verification code. Then I had to change my password, what a palaver. I find this password stuff to be a pain in the you know where. OK, banks and various financial transactions, yes you need a password, but really, it goes too far.

Dunno about where you are, but it has got pretty chilly this weekend. 9:00 a.m. on Sunday it was 4°C and that is not very warm at all. However, the forecast is calling for much higher temps during the week and next weekend, if you can believe what they say of course. Talking of chilly, I discovered on Saturday something I didn’t know, not all penguins live in sub zero climates, in fact most of them don’t. Maybe everyone knows that but me, but I was very surprised. There are penguins who couldn’t survive in 4°C apparently. Jack Hannah who is the Director Emeritus of Columbia Zoo, had a little blue penguin with him when he was on GMA on Saturday morning. He said in fact there are more species of warm weather penguins than there are cold weather varieties which are the ones most familiar to us.

Wonders will never cease. I am presently reading the latest and last Earth Children’s book by Jean M. Auel The Land of the Painted Caves and I am enjoying it more than the last couple even though it is composed of a lot of descriptions of painted caves in one region of current day France. What particularly fascinates me, her books are set in the Ice Age and yet many, if not all, of the cave paintings were done ages before the people of that time. I must admit I wasn’t sure if I would ever get to read this book or even if Jean M. Auel would get round to writing it. I am not sure how long it has been since The Shelters of Stone, but its years.

Mushroom Canada’s latest offering

Polpette di Fungi
by Mardi Michels of Eat. Live. Travel. Write.

2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
50 g freshly grated Parmesan
50 g Panko breadcrumbs, plus extra for rolling
1/4 cup  chopped plain parsley
1/2 cup finely diced fresh mushrooms (crimini, button, whatever you like!)
Pinch sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil for frying
A jar (about 700mL) of your favourite pasta sauce

1. Beat the eggs and the baking soda with a whisk.
2. Slowly add the cheese, the breadcrumbs, the parsley and mushrooms to the egg mix. Season with sea salt and pepper and fold gently until all ingredients are combined.
3. Using a teaspoon form small balls of the mixture, then roll them in the extra Panko crumbs.
4. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the egg balls 2-3 at a time and fry over medium heat until golden brown all round. You will need to turn them to make sure they brown evenly.
5. Drain on a paper towel and continue until all balls are fried up.
6. Heat your pasta sauce over medium heat and then add the balls when the sauce is bubbling. Turn the heat down to low and partially cover the saucepan. Continue to heat for about 7 minutes - the balls will be warm through and will have absorbed some of the sauce.
7. Serve topped with fresh basil.

Have a great day

Spam, Bear Problems, Books.

On Saturday I got two emails, Dearest in Christ, and Beloved in the Lord. Really!!! Whoever sends these, do they honestly think any intelligent person is going to respond to such stuff. Especially as the body of the emails is usually badly written with lots of mistakes. Most of such emails get filtered out, but occasionally some get through.

Bears seem to be having a hard time of it lately, there have been many reports of bears in peoples back yards, even a picture of one swimming in a pool and playing with a tennis ball. Funny to see, not funny if its your pool. There have been reports of mother bears attacking to protect their cubs and then the story in Norway of a polar bear attacking a bunch of kids and mauling several plus killing one. In the latter case the ice caps are melting and this is driving them elsewhere to seek food. Bears in North America are having problems because of the extreme heat not forgetting habitat destruction. Also if you are going to be hiking where bears live, you are risking attack. I feel very sorry for the bears, and am not sure what can be done to prevent these bear/human interactions.

Now I am reading A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin book 5 of his Song of Ice and Fire series. Considering the last book came out in 2006 its not surprising I am having a few problems with it. I haven’t read too many chapters yet, and there is a cast of characters at the end of the book so maybe I can sort it all out. I have decided there should be a law that all authors have to write a full book or series right through to the end before they are allowed to publish it. 5 years is way too long since the last book and there is yet another to come. Not only that, this book runs parallel to the last book, A Feast of Crows, it  isn’t exactly a sequel. Odd. I am awaiting another book which has been a long time coming, the sequel in the Jean M. Auel series which started with The Clan of the Cave Bear, a great book, her subsequent books have not been as good. Her last novel was 2002.

Having decided I like quinoa (kinwa) this recipe appeals to me.

Quinoa Taco Salad

By The Gluten Free Goddess
WebMD Recipe from Foodily.com

My vegan quinoa taco salad is sans tomatoes. And bean-free. No customary black beans here. But if you love black beans with a white hot passion, add 'em in. You can also add crumbled goat cheese on top, if you desire.

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa cooked in two cups water
Extra virgin olive oil, as needed
Juice from 2 juicy limes
Sea salt, to taste
2-3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro or parsley
1 half small red or purple onion, diced fine
1 small yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, diced fine
1 cup roasted corn kernels (I used frozen, roasted on a cookie sheet for 6-7 minutes, then cooled)
1 large head of crisp romaine lettuce, washed, dried, sliced crosswise
Gluten-free tortilla chips
1 large avocado, pitted, peeled, diced

Instructions

Cook the quinoa per package instructions. Fluff the cooked quinoa with a fork. Scoop the quinoa into a bowl.

Drizzle the cooked quinoa with extra virgin olive oil and toss to coat. Squeeze on fresh lime juice and toss again. Season the mixture with sea salt, to taste.

Add in the fresh chopped cilantro, diced red onion, diced yellow pepper, and roasted corn kernels. Stir lightly to distribute. Taste test for seasoning adjustments.

Line four salad bowls or plates with the fresh romaine. Spoon the quinoa salad on the center of the lettuce. Add the diced avocado to each plate. Tuck in a few tortilla chips around the edges.

Serve with an extra lime wedge.

More Options:

Add a cup of chilled, drained black beans, if you like your taco salad super hearty.

Add sliced red or yellow cherry or grape tomatoes, if you desire.

Sprinkle with the cheese of your choice.

Serve with your favourite salsa on the side.

Total Servings: 4

Nutritional Information Per Serving

Calories: 240
Carbohydrates: 41.2g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Fat: 4.4g
Saturated Fat: 0.6 g
Fibre: 5.4g
Sodium: 24 mg
Protein: 6.7 g

Have a great day

My Admiration Goes To:

Don’t forget to think healing thoughts for me this afternoon when I get my teeth extracted. I am not sure how likely I am to write a blog on Christmas Eve although I hope I will feel OK.

I have been having something of a discussion on Glenda’s website about trilogies or individual books. I generally don’t mind trilogies like those written by Glenda Larke or Karen Miller, but I do agree that a single book means you don’t have to remember events and characters from volume to volume. A good example of this is the book I am reading now, as I mentioned yesterday, I am reading Towers of Midnight which is No. 13 in the Wheel of Time series. This series was begun by Robert Jordan (who’s real name was James Oliver Rigney, Jr.) as I mentioned yesterday, the novels are being completed by Brandon Sanderson due to the unfortunate death of Robert Jordon. The first book was published in 1990 and there is still one more book to come. The current book is some 840 pages of novel with another 20 or so pages of glossary and maps and each one of the books has been of a similar size. How the hell one is expected to remember everything for 20 years, I do not know. Funnily enough, I do remember a lot, but every now and then something crops up and I have no idea who all the characters in a chapter really are, maybe I will be reminded later on.

The same situation applies to the James R.R. Martin A Song of Ice and Fire series, the last of which was published some 5 years ago. Another series, Earth’s Children by Jean M. Auel, is supposed to get another novel published in March next year (2004 was the last one). Meanwhile, we poor readers are supposed to keep all these characters in our heads. NOT easy.

At the same time, I have boundless admiration for Robert Jordan in the first place for conceiving and writing this vast series, but even further admiration for doing such a wonderful job of picking up the mantle and carrying on in such a way as to make it impossible to tell where one author left off and the other began. Having vaguely toyed with writing a book, ha ha, I have some concept of how difficult this is, and listening to published authors like Glenda Larke and Karen Miller, to name but two, discuss their anguish when they write and the problems of getting their work published in the first place, I don’t really know how anyone manages to achieve writing a novel in the first place.

For supper last night we had a dish I invented some 40 years ago and which was a favourite of both my hubbies although funnily enough we haven’t made it in many a long year. Basically you layer a casserole dish with slices of canned corned beef, cover it with cooked elbow macaroni and then make a cheese sauce with onions in it. Smother the pasta with the cheese sauce and bake it in the oven until everything is warmed through and the tomatoes are cooked. Around 30 minutes at 400 °F.

As an additional recipe, how about a holiday drink. This is certainly a new one on me, I just might give it a try although I do tend to drink Champagne for Christmas.

Lychee Martini

This sweet and sour drink is a great New Year’s cocktail.

Yield: 6

Ingredients

1 cup lychee juice (see note)

1/2 cup pink grapefruit juice, preferably fresh-squeezed

1/2 cup chilled vodka

Ice cubes

12 fresh lychees, peeled and pitted, or 1 can (398 ml/14 oz) lychees, drained

6 thin slices lime

Directions

1. Note: If you can’t find lychee juice, use canned lychee syrup.
2. In a cocktail shaker, combine the lychee juice, grapefruit juice, vodka and ice cubes. Shake or stir well. Strain into martini glasses. Garnish each drink with 2 lychees and 1 lime slice.
3. Idea: Freeze the lychees before putting them in the martinis.

Have a great day, not sure I will.

Snow Yet Again, My Reading, Tomato Curry

Would you believe we got another couple of inches of the white stuff yesterday, its supposed to be Spring for goodness sake, we have had enough. Spring here tends to happen almost overnight though, one minute there is not a bud in sight and the next the trees are in full leaf. Not a lot will happen til the snow has gone I don't suppose.

I am presently reading The Dark Materials Trilogy, from which the movie Golden Compass was adapted. Its good, but in some places, very slow going. The concept is certainly fascinating. I am beginning to understand the protests against the story from religious groups, but it is only a story after all. I got very irritated when people took The Da Vinci Code literally, can't readers differentiate between fact and fiction? I wasn't, personally, very impressed with that book, couldn't see what all the fuss was about. It takes all kinds, just as well we don't enjoy the same books or they would never get read.

Some authors seem to get an idea and then appear to strain to get that idea across which makes the story less appealing. A classic case in point is the Cave Bear series by Jean M. Auel. Her first book The Clan of the Cave Bear was absolutely brilliant and really worth reading. Her subsequent books have contained flashes of the original brilliance interspersed with boring repetitions of descriptions she wrote in her first book. She told us what the grasslands were like in book one, also about stone knapping tools and so on, but these things are repeated endlessly in subsequent novels, unnecessary. She is taking forever to produce the later books, whether she is suffering from the proverbial writer's block I don't know, but there are years between her recent books. I think writing a trilogy is great, then start something new, don't go on book after book with the same old story. Robert Jordan is another who is doing this in his Winds of Change series. Originally it was supposed to be seven books but I think we are up to nine now. He is not a well man these days so whether he will ever finish these stories, is anyone's guess.

From reading the blogs of several writers lately, I understand there is a lot of angst in writing a story - I couldn't do it myself I know, so maybe I am being super critical. I have a friend who has written an excellent book, I have read it, but hasn't managed to get it published. A pity.

On an uncritical note this curry is one of those I haven't made, but think sounds so good that I saved to do at some time in the future. I love tomatoes in any shape or form anyway, so I think this will be delicious. To get good tomatoes you may need to wait for the summer, depending where you live.

A Tomato Curry
Source: Nigel Slater

Servings: 4

onions - 2 medium
groundnut oil - 3 tablespoons
garlic - 4 juicy cloves
a hot red chilli
brown mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
ground turmeric - 2 teaspoons
cumin seeds - 2 teaspoons
a 'thumb' of fresh ginger
crushed tinned tomatoes - 400g
tomatoes - 8-12 (large, but not quite beefsteak)
thick yoghurt - 100g

Peel the onions and chop them roughly, then let them cook slowly in the groundnut oil over a low to moderate heat. Peel the garlic, slice it thinly and add it to the onions. Chop the chilli finely, then add it, with its seeds, to the onions. Stir in the mustard seeds, turmeric and cumin seeds and continue cooking. Peel the ginger and cut it into matchstick-sized shreds. Add it to the pan and let it cook briefly, then add the tinned tomatoes, 400ml of water and a grinding of black pepper and salt. Turn up the heat and bring to the boil, then add the whole tomatoes.

Turn the heat down to a gentle simmer and leave to cook, covered with a lid, for twenty-five to thirty-five minutes, turning the tomatoes once or twice during cooking. You want them to soften but not totally collapse. Add a little more water should the mixture thicken too quickly.

Push the tomatoes to one side, then stir in the yoghurt. Let the sauce heat through, stirring gently, but without letting it come to the boil. Serve with rice or warm naan.

Have a great day.

As a kind of PS, I don't know what it is about my blogs which attracts enema cleaning ads, very odd I think.