Matt, being ever practical, thought the moose family in one's back yard, could, in fact, be quite dangerous. Presumably if you went near the babies, Mama would take exception, and that is one very big lump of animal. Once is cute, if they start paying regular visits, not so funny. I only ever saw a moose once, we were driving through Algonquin Park up north and saw cars parked all over the road, we stopped to see what people were looking at, and saw a female moose in the woods. Never seen a male although we used to hear a moose crashing past us when we were on a campsite up north years ago. Same campsite where Matt was fishing early one morning and an otter was teaching her family how to fish. She kept popping up with a fish in her mouth and looking at Matt seemingly to say "see that's how its done". He didn't catch anything.
We had one heck of a storm last night, we watched the black clouds approaching over the trees from the other
side of town, they really were incredibly black, in fact I would say frighteningly black, you could see the rain in the distance but for a while we were clear. Then lightening and thunder started, enough to knock your hearing out completely, great resonating cracks of massive thunder, then the rain started and it was lashing across so heavily it was like thick fog and I couldn't see into the park outside. One lightening strike caused the alarms to go off in the building, but surprisingly it didn't have any effect on the power. It didn't stay overhead that long but we could hear the thunder and see the lightening in the distance for an hour or so afterwards. I don't know if it did any damage anywhere, I haven't heard anything. The alarm was ringing for ages, its a very noisy sound too, well it has to be.
This morning I hear Hurricane Dolly is right off the shores of Texas and expected to make landfall any time. I hope people have moved from its path. At the moment it is a Category 1 which isn't very strong as hurricanes go, but it is still over warm water so it can strengthen, in fact they anticipate it to strengthen to Category 2. Hurricanes are something we have plenty of experience of, it is best to move out of their way. Although sometimes they can follow you inland.
On Good Morning America today, they had a segment on swimming pool drains and the extreme danger to young children. Apparently hundreds of children have been drowned because of the extreme pressure exerted (40 lbs) by the drains and there is a campaign to do something about it. A pool contractor has been arrested because of unsafe drain covers
see here and they said this danger can be averted by buying a particular $40 drain cover to put in place. One piece of advice, if a child does get caught, don't use a direct pull but roll the child from side to side in an effort to break the suction.
I have just joined iHype
as a way of earning a few bucks now my Google ads have been taken away from me. Anyone who writes a blog can join this group and depending upon your range of interest, you can earn a little or a lot of money.
This is a somewhat gloomy blog today isn't it? Sorry about that. The air outside our window is fresh and clean after the storm and Matt is out golfing which is what he loves to do. The following recipe is a Diabetic recipe, but not, of course, limited to people with diabetes.
BAVARIAN POT ROAST
Source: A-Z Recipes
Servings: 8
Ingredients:
4 pounds beef arm pot roast
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 whole cloves
4 medium apples, cored and quartered
1 small onion, sliced
1/2 cup apple juice
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons water
Instructions:
Wipe roast well and trim off excess fat. Lightly rub top of meat with oil. Dust with salt, ginger and pepper. Insert cloves in roast. Place onions and apples in crockpot and top with roast (cut roast in half, if necessary, to fit easily). Pour in apple juice. Cover and cook on LOW for 10 to 12 hours or on HIGH for 5 to 6 hours. Remove roast and apples to warm platter. Turn crockpot to HIGH. Make a smooth paste with flour and water; stir into crockpot. Cover and cook until thickened. Pour over roast.
Have a great day.
Watched an interesting Canadian Geographic programme last night. Apparently Newfoundland is overrun with moose. Early last century 4 moose were imported onto the island and now they are having big problems with the animals. They are eating the island out of house and home plus they are a big danger on the roads. The indigenous black bear does kill off some of the babies and the hunting season accounts for a great deal more, but the moose produce something like 4,000 young a season.
The moose has now become Canada's most dangerous animal because of the road
accidents it causes. Not really the fault of the moose is it? The programme had some stunning shots of both moose and bears. Considering I have only ever, in over 30 years, seen one female moose, it has inspired me with a new desire to go to Newfoundland for a visit. The scenery shown on the programme was also stunning, although I suppose you need to choose the right time of the year.
The car has to go back in again today, they just did the service yesterday. Today its having a new battery. The knocking noise can be ignored for the while as it is in the a/c and will cost us quite a bit to get fixed apparently.
Lunch with Matt's cousin went very well. It was wonderful to see her again, not that any of us 
would have recognised anyone else. We caught up on everything that had been happening in our lives, all family stuff of course. She ate every scrap of her lunch which was great. I love it when people eat what we prepare. I tried some Crème Brulées from M & M Meat Shops and they were very good, we enjoyed them. They were individual servings and came in a cookie Tulip cup. In the picture from cooking101.abccook.com they are served in ramekins, but the basic idea is the same. Later I found out how many Weight Watcher points they are. Wish I hadn't, especially as we still have one left!
We have an invitation to a barbecue on Saturday which will be fun. I have mentioned before that we can't barbecue because we are in an apartment building. Propane tanks are dangerous in a building like this. I'm not actually sure electric ones are that safe in a big building like this either.
I have mentioned before, I love mousse. It is one of the few things I don't mind what the flavour is, raspberry, strawberry, chocolate, lemon, you name it, I'll eat it. We once ate our way through a whole bunch of mousse desserts at a restaurant in Beachy Head, England, and loved them. This one is from my cookery group.
Baked Chocolate-and-Hazelnut Mousse
Serves: 8
Source: RUK
8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (Baker's sweet chocolate will do)
1 tablespoon Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur), brandy, or white rum
1 tablespoon heavy or light cream
3 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts,
coarse or fine powdered sugar
Melt chocolate with liqueur and cream over low heat (use a double boiler or microwave on low to be safe). Remove from heat when melted.
With electric mixer, beat egg yolks about 3 minutes until thick and lemon-colored.
Add sugar, flour, salt, butter, and hazelnuts. Mix well.
Add chocolate mixture to batter. Mix thoroughly.
Beat egg whites until stiff.
Stir 1/4 of whites into batter to lighten mixture. Carefully fold in rest of whites.
Spoon mixture into 8 to 10 small, fluted, foil, baking liners (paper cupcake liners in a muffin tin, a well-buttered muffin tin, individual ramekins, or individual soufflè dishes may also be used).
Bake 20 minutes at 400F. Let cool slightly, then dust tops with powdered sugar from a small sieve.
Serve in foil liners on dessert plates with small dessert spoons. Good warm or cool. Freezes well. Makes 8 Individual Baked Mousses.
Have a great day.
