5 Things that Make Me Happy, Passing It On

I got tagged today by Tina at Life is Good so I now have to think of 5 things that make me happy to tell you about. Obviously this is over and above family and friends. Tina showed her Vibram shoes which sound wonderful, but are somewhat expensive.

These are 5 things that make me happy, not necessarily in order of importance, in fact they are all very important to me.

1. Spring

I love all the fresh green colours which appear on the trees every spring, the gorgeous blossoms which are so delicate and don’t last very long, the promise of summer to come. One of these days I would like to see the cherry blossoms in Washington – I will never manage to get to the cherry blossom festival in Japan sadly. I used to love the azalea festival in Wilmington, NC.  I have mentioned before how I love to see the glorious green of spring grass mixed in with the warm golden of dandelions. Such rich colours.

2. Sunsets

We are lucky where we live right now because we see lots of sunsets from our balcony. I would also include sunrises, but I don’t see too many of them any more. I just love the colours a really good sunset can produce. This is one of the many pictures Matt has taken from our balcony. He is a much better cameraman than I am but he uses an old fashioned camera so we have to wait to see what the results are. We get very good sunsets in Canada, I have no doubt there is a scientific reason for this, but to me, I just love the beauty they produce and the fantastic colours. You gather I get pleasure from visual things.

3. Good Food

Not something that will surprise anyone reading my blog. I love going to a top class restaurant and being served something absolutely delectable to look at and delicious to eat. I love cooking such foods although these days I am unable to stand for very long in the kitchen so can’t do the things I used to do which gave me such pleasure to share with friends and family. Of course, good food needs to be complemented with good wines

4. Wildlife

Matt and I used to sit for hours watching birds in our back yard in North Carolina, unfortunately we are not allowed birdfeeders  on our balcony so don’t really get to see a lot of birds close up any more although we can enjoy their songs. Mainly because we live in an apartment we don’t have any pets any more either. I do enjoy watching black squirrels in the park outside our window. I also love to watch wildlife programmes and am never happier than when I hear of successful preservation attempts whether by the World Wildlife Fund or someone else. Picture is of Cardinals on our feeder in North Carolina.

5. Classical Music

My love of classical music came mostly from my father although my mother did enjoy Rachmaninoff. It was further developed by both my husbands, Matt in particular who has been involved with music all his life. I am not fond of some of the more obscure and/or heavier classics but Beethoven, Bach, operas and so on, I love to hear. Matt always ends up crying from a well rendered version of Nessun Dorma, Luciano Pavarotti was the best in our opinion.


Now I have to tag five more bloggers  who are encouraged, but not forced, to list their own Five Things that Make Them Happy. I would actually like to tag lots more, but I will stick at five.

Jeff Hargett at Strands of Pattern
Yolanda Renee at Defending the Pen
Jenn at Scribbles from Jenn
Al Diaz at Father Dragon Writes
Bob Scotney at Bob’s Home for Writing

As it was a lovely afternoon, we headed for Barrie’s Asparagus Farm and bought some asparagus. When I got home, I chopped up 2 lbs of it as the basis for more soup.

Talking of good food, this is what we had for supper last night. We saved half in the freezer. It was very enjoyable, only one problem, the marinade caught slightly whilst it was grilling which rather ruined the picture. You can only just see the dish of sauce, but it’s there and it was good. Told you, I am no photographer.


Thai Marinated Grilled Chicken Skewers


3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into
1 inch cubes

Marinade:
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tbs firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 tbs fresh lime juice
2 tbs oil
1 tbs curry powder
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp finely minced fresh ginger 
1/2 tsp ground cardamom 

Peanut Coconut Sauce:
 
1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk (not fat free or lite)
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbs soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp red curry paste

If using bamboo skewers soak them in ice-cold water for 15 minutes to prevent them from burning; set aside. I use metal kebab skewers.

Whisk all ingredients for marinade together and pour into large plastic bag; add chicken and marinate for minimum 1 hour or overnight.
 
Combine sauce ingredients in saucepan and cook over medium  heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside
.
Spray a grill pan with nonstick cooking spray. Thread chicken cubes onto skewers. Over high heat, cook the chicken for 8 to 10 minutes, turning the skewers over halfway through. Remove skewers and allow chicken to rest a few minutes before serving.

Serves 4 to 6.

Have a great day

Music, South Africa,

Having just read Satima's Blogspot (see link this page) all about music she loves, made me think of the music I love. We have hundreds of CDs these days, we went through a time when we could order 12 of them and only pay for 1 - you could then stop being a member and a month or two later, you could do it again. Eventually it got too difficult to choose 12 of them, so we stopped. I thought the companies were nuts to let us keep doing this, but they did so we did. With the result that we have all kinds of music available to us including cassette tapes which we have had forever. Not long ago, I went through all our vinyl records, of which we had quite a number and copied them all onto CDs. I didn't do a great job as I didn't learn til the end how to divide tracks, etc. however, its all there. We used to have a lot of 8 tracks some 30 years ago, but ended up throwing them out when they became obsolete. Pity, I always loved 8 tracks as there was a lot of material on them plus they would continue to play forever. Rather like our CD player in the car does. We have 8 CDs at a time and hit random play. It will then play until we decide to change the cartridge of CDs. I wish the player in the apartment would do that. Like Satima, one of my favourite tunes has always been Greensleeves. Reputedly it was written by Henry VIII for Anne Bolyn. He was supposed to be a very keen musician. Here is a rendition from You Tube click here. I fell in love with that song before a lot of you were born. As a young woman I loved Frankie Lane and once I saw the movie, I went nuts on Bennie Goodman music. These days my tastes mostly run to either opera or musicals. Not much music I don't like in Les Mis for instance and I think we have most of the songs sung by Luciano Pavarotti. I mentioned Celtic Thunder some months ago and love everything they sing, my newest favourites are The Priests and El Diva, I have a CD of the first, nothing of the second group yet. I do enjoy some modern music, but not a lot. Its an age thing I suppose, what member of an older generation likes the music of the younger set. I have mentioned my Yahoo cookery group, in passing, if not in detail. I have become very good friends with a number of people in different parts of the world. We swap recipes and talk about anything that is of importance to us at the time. Periodically, we have Dinner Around the World. We decide when, where and what to eat and we all do more or less the same menu at the same time. Eventually this devolved into eating the foods of a different country. We have one of these coming up this weekend and the theme is South African. We actually have a South African member so it won't be a big change for her of course, she has, in fact, produced a lot of the recipes. One member cooked her meal yesterday as originally that was the planned date. She posted pictures and her food looked really good although their daughter's guest was amused at her hostess taking pictures of all the food. We will be using avocados as a starter and the main course is Bobotie with Yellow Rice. The dessert was either Melk Tert or Malva. I have chosen Melk Tert. We have a couple of friends joining us and they are bringing a South African wine although I asked them not to bring a Pinotage. For some reason, Matt and I did not enjoy that grape. Maybe we should try it again one of these days, but not this weekend. Back to my Three and Four Ingredient cookbook. Baked Leek and Potato Gratin Potatoes baked in a creamy cheese sauce make the ultimate comfort dish, whether served as an accompaniment to pork or fish dishes or, as here, with plenty of leeks and melted cheese, as a main course. When preparing leeks, separate the leaves and rinse them thoroughly under cold running water, as soil and grit often get caught between the layers. Serves 4-6 2 lbs medium potatoes, thinly sliced 2 large leeks, trimmed 7 oz ripe Brie or Camembert cheese, sliced scant 2 cups single (light) cream From the store cupboard salt and ground black pepper. Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F. Cook the potatoes in plenty of lightly salted, boiling water for 3 minutes, until slightly softened, then drain. Cut the leeks into 1/2 inch lengths and blanch them in boiling water for 1 minute until softened. Then drain. Turn half the potatoes into a shallow, ovenproof dish and spread them out to the edge. Cover with two-thirds of the leeks, then add the remaining potatoes. Tuck the slices of cheese and the remaining leeks in among the top layer of potatoes. Season and pour the cream over. Bake for 1 hour, until tender and golden. Cover with foil if the top starts to overbrown before the potatoes are tender. Have a great day.