Headaches, Book, Bowling,

One learns things from the most surprising sources. Wednesday morning our cleaner came and later in the morning, when she turned on the vacuum cleaner, I realised I had a headache. I joshed her and said she made so much noise etc. then she said maybe it was the pressure (i.e. barometric pressure). That had never occurred to me before. Thursday morning I had another slight headache and decided to do some Googling. Apparently if you are prone to migraines (which I certainly was although not so much now) apparently barometric pressure changes are thought to cause you headaches and even migraines. I've only been having them since I was a kid and had never heard that before. My mother used to have them and she called them "sick headaches". I think she got them for longer than I because I remember once  they went to some friends for the weekend and she had a migraine all the time. If you have never had one, you are very lucky although it does seem that when you are older they get less frequent and, in my case, pretty rare. There are times I felt I could have cheerfully cut the top of my head off.  Now I find a lot of it could have been triggered by the pressure.

Just finished J.D. Robb's Dark in Death, I really love this series of books although I am not sure I haven't missed one or two. Thinking about going back to the beginning, maybe. There are actually about 46 of them and it would be a lot of re-reading. Not only are they excellent books about the future, great Homicide Stories and a marvellous love story all intertwined. The author, J.D. Robb is a nom de plume of Norah Lofts who's stories I have not followed much, read one or two, not a patch on the J.D. Robb books. I really think I will read them again, from the library of course, would cost a fortune to buy them all.

Bowling again today, none of it very good. I got a tad annoyed with Matt, there were a group of four with whom I had become friends whilst he was recuperating from his broken ankle. They are somewhat handicapped mentally, but not badly, but he was complaining because they made too much noise. It was actually just one of them. He is a whizz bowler mind you and was telling me how well he had done in competitive bowling lately. We used to compete, but not any more. For some reason our bowling alley doesn't hold any competitions other than for Junior Bowlers. The other local alley does so though. However, at our time in life, I don't suppose we would compete now anyway.

Being a nut about asparagus, I am always on the lookout for new recipes. This is one I came across the other day. Only problem is I just ran out of Orzo and couldn't find any in the store the other day.

Grilled Asparagus Pasta Salad

1 cup orzo
1 bunch asparagus
3 roma tomatoes sliced
1 inch sliced red onion
2 Tbs drained caper berries
2 Tbs lemon juce
2 tsp Dijon
1 Tbs maple syrup
1/4 cup olive oil plus more for grilling
1/2 tsp salt/pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 Tbs mint
1/4 cup goat cheese crumbles - optional

1. Heat grill pan or grill on medium heat

2. Cook orzo in large pot of boiling salted water. Drain and put in a bowl.

3. Grill asparagus spears, halved roma tomatoes and onions until tender with a few char/grill marks. Remove from heat and chop asparagus into 1 inch pieces, tomatoes into bite size and chop onion.

4. Add veg to bowl with orzo. Whisk together capers, lemon juice, Dijon, syrup. Gradually add olive oil. Toss veg and orzo in the dressing then add herbs and/or cheese and toss again before serving.

Source: The Everyday Chef

Have a great day
 

Migraine, Murder and Michael Bublé.

Having spent most of the last two days in bed with migraines, I phoned my pharmacist who recommended I quit using my new pill and see my doc. So didn't have a pill last night and missed the one this morning. I am seeing the doc this afternoon anyway so that worked out well. I actually woke up this morning without a sign of a headache. Whoopee. The pharmacist said was I functional, no flaming way, I couldn't see, couldn't think, just hid away from the light and any noise. I didn't do well with the latter, first the phone started ringing and Matt was in the shower so couldn't get it. Then they started mowing in the park. Normally they mow the park around twice a year, they already mowed a couple of weeks ago so what were they doing there yesterday other than bugging me? Terrible Canadian news story, three young women and a care giver were found drowned in a car in the Rideau Canal. The police couldn't figure how it happened because you would have had to really back and fill to get the car in the canal where it was found, you couldn't have just gone in accidentally. It now turns out they were murdered by the family. Read here, the family came from Afghanistan and police now think this was probably an honour killing i.e. the daughters wouldn't live by the strict standards of the parents and their brother. Along with many others, I am sick and tired of this kind of thing - Muslims come to our country and think they can still commit murder with impunity if it is for 'religious' reasons or part of their culture. This is by no means the first time young Muslim girls have been murdered by their families or just by the father or the brother. No, I am not being racist, I am merely pointing out that by Canadian law, murder is NOT permitted and anyone or everyone should suffer the full penalty allowed by the law no matter who they are. I forgot to mention, I wonder why, that the other day we watched a programme about Michael Bublé's last concert in his recent world wide tour, it took place in Madison Square Gardens which he figured was the pinnacle of his career. We have a couple of his CDs and I don't enjoy them although Matt does, however, I have seen him perform on two different occasions (TV) and I think he puts on an excellent show. He is rated as one of the top singers in the world at the moment. So I have no doubt he is crying all the way to the bank because I don't like his CDs. But then I'm a bit the same about Barbra Streisand, Matt loves her, I don't, but I enjoy her occasional concert and her movies. Nuts was one of the best movies I have ever seen. If you are wondering what I am reading lately, I am re-reading the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey, I mentioned a blog or two ago. I also have Eclipse to read in the Twilight series which I have been enjoying. I read Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey last week. I thoroughly enjoyed that too. Yet another vampire book. I wonder why two authors have suddenly started writing vampire love stories? Jessica's Guide did have more humour in it than Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. I basically do NOT enjoy canned tuna except for one recipe which Matt invented. I have shared this with you before. However, if you can get hold of some nice fresh tuna and you don't overcook it, there is nothing better. This recipe is from Eating Well. Grilled Tuna with Olive Relish Makes 6 servings Ingredients Olive Relish ½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley ⅓ cup chopped pitted imported black olives, such as kalamata ¼ cup finely chopped celery 1 small clove garlic, minced ½ teaspoon dried oregano 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil ⅛ teaspoon salt Freshly ground pepper to taste Grilled Tuna 1 ¾ pounds tuna steak, trimmed and cut into 6 portions 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil ¼ teaspoon salt ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground pepper Lemon wedges for garnish 1. To prepare olive relish: Combine parsley, olives, celery, garlic, oregano, lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl. 2. To grill tuna: Preheat grill to medium-high. 3. Rub tuna all over with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the tuna until seared on both sides and just cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Serve with Olive Relish and lemon wedges. The olive relish will (Step 1) will keep for up to 1 hour. Have a great day.