Gas Prices, Losing It

Hooray, gas prices have been dropping all over the continent lately. This surprises me as the summer season of travel is about to get under way, but I heard one report say that people just aren’t buying as much gas any more. Not surprising, particularly in view of the gas guzzlers so many people drive. SUVs seem to be the most popular vehicle around these days. I’m glad we only have a small, if somewhat old, car. Mind you, I don’t see how we could get a newer car, Matt would never cope with all this computerised stuff. He is definitely not into computers and electronics generally. I don’t actually know what kind of computerised dashboards are out there, I have never even sat in such an up to date vehicle. Going back to gas prices, I just saw a report that in the States they could drop by $3 a gallon by the fall. Usually Canadian prices follow. Alberta has its own gas, but it doesn’t make it any cheaper for the rest of us probably because they sell it all to the States anyway.

OK where were you Alex, I was expecting you for dinner. The fondue went down very well, our friends thoroughly enjoyed as did Matt and I. The meatballs were delicious as was the fillet and the shrimp, not everything was consumed by any manner of means. Soup maybe?

So, sorry, now I am tired and will be posting this. Talk to you on Monday.

A friend has been posting pictures of her mom on Facebook as she has recently lost 120 lbs. through Losing It for Canada, which weight loss has also cured her diabetes. Needless to say I am looking into it.

For those of you who don’t live on this continent and get to see our TV chefs, Mario Batali is of Italian descent (father was Italian) and many of his recipes have an Italian background. He is an expert on Italian cuisine. His signature is always wearing shorts and orange crocs. Being the asparagus freak that I am, when I saw this one yesterday, my eyes popped open. Very unusual sauce. This will have me rushing to the kitchen as soon as I can. I saw a heading ‘more asparagus recipes’ too so I will be hunting them up.

Grilled Asparagus with Pepper Zabaglione

Contributed by Mario Batali
SERVINGS:6

Mario Batali chars his asparagus on the grill, then serves it with a superrich zabaglione sauce spiked with black pepper.

1. 3 large egg yolks
2. 1 large egg
3. 3 tablespoons vin santo or other lightly sweet dessert wine
4. 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
5. 1 tablespoon heavy cream
6. 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
7. Kosher salt
8. 2 pounds large asparagus
9. 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
10. 3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1. Light a grill or heat a grill pan. In a heatproof medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the egg and vin santo. Set the bowl over a medium saucepan of simmering water and vigorously whisk the eggs over moderate heat until the sauce holds firm peaks, about 5 minutes. Remove the bowl of sauce from the heat.
2. In a small bowl, mix the butter with the heavy cream and pepper. Whisk the cream mixture into the sauce, 1 tablespoon at a time, until incorporated. Season the zabaglione with salt and keep warm.
3. In a large bowl, toss the asparagus with the olive oil and season with salt. Grill the asparagus over moderately high heat, turning occasionally, until charred all over and crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer the asparagus to plates.
4. Set the bowl of sauce over the saucepan of simmering water and whisk over low heat until thick and just heated through, about 1 minute. Spoon the sauce over the asparagus, sprinkle with the Parmigiano-Reggiano and serve.

Have a great weekend.

The Queen, Missing, $15 Challenge

Matt just came to me and said "The Queen is 83 today if you want to put it into your blog" so here you are. Today is her real birthday although her official birthday is in June. Probably too damned cold to troop the colours in April. It is also my cousin's birthday today. I can remember staying with them in 1952 on the morning of April 21 and hearing the anthem being played for the queen's birthday, for the first time and my cousins trying to convince me that it was being played for them. I wasn't that dumb a 14 yr. old although I am sure my cousins thought I was. To me they were muuuuch older. Missing children are very much in the news at the moment, although the body of the little girl, Sandra Cantu, in California was found. Linda Huckaby, a Sunday School Teacher, has been charged with the crime. It now appears that something similar happened to another little girl in the same vicinity a couple of months ago although no-one was ever charged with anything, they think it was Huckaby. That child came home safely. There is another little girl missing closer to home and so far there are no clues whatsoever as to what has happened to her. This time it is 8 yr old Victoria "Tori" Stafford who is missing from the Woodstock vicinity after having been seen on a video accompanying an unknown woman. There have been flyers and emails distributed about her, but so far absolutely nothing apart from thousands of leads which have all been useless to date. What the parents are going through I cannot imagine. I mentioned last week that top chefs were going to be challenged to produce a dinner for four from $15 worth of groceries. Yesterday it was Mario Batali and today it was Emeril Lagasse. The recipes they produced can all be found on the GMA website - this is the list of ingredients Sam Champion bought for Emeril

Fresh spinach

Red tomatoes on the vine

Yellow onions

Empire apples

Dry black beans

Dry pinto beans

Creme fraiche

Someone twittered to say how could you cook dry beans without soaking, which was my question too, but Emeril explains how to quick cook beans. As the chefs are working, they have someone there writing down the recipes as they go along. Each chef is also provided with a pantry and it seems a lot of use is being made of said pantry. This morning we got black bean soup, what looked like a south western bean salad and an apple bread pudding. There was lots of joking because Emeril had been given no meat of any kind. Jack Hanna, the Director Emeritus from the Columbia Zoo had rabbits with him today and someone joked that Emeril was after them for his meal. The recipes are not actually up for today yet. In fact I can't find the recipes for yesterday either. I know Mario made his white grape juice into a sangria and made a risotto with the chicken and rice which Diane bought. Maybe they will have all the recipes at the end of the challenge. I know there are people who don't enjoy cold soups, I happen to love them, even if its only opening a can of beef Consommé which has been in the fridge and got jellied. I always keep 4 cans as I love it. Once upon a time the only soup around seemed to be Vichysoisse, but these days you see more and more recipes for cold soup. When we were in David's the other day I picked up a booklet from them which included a recipe for Cool Cucumber Soup which came from the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers web site. Cool Cucumber Soup Serves 6 This soup is simple to prepare and the ingredients are very easy to find year-round. Recommended with a glass of white wine. 4 Ontario Greenhouse seedless cucumbers 1 medium onion 1 small clove of garlic 1/2 Cup fresh parsley, stems removed 2 drops Worcestershire sauce Dash of lemon juice 1 Tbs each, thyme and oregano 2 Cups sour cream salt and pepper to taste In a blender or food processor, combine the cucumbers, onion, garlic and parsley in small batches. (Hint: pre-chopping makes the first 3 ingredients blend better). Add Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, herbs and sour cream. Purée and add salt and pepper to taste. Chill before serving. Garnish with a few chopped chives, parsley and/or a slice of lemon or cucumber. Have a great day.