More Snow, Medical freezing, Ostende.

Happy St. David’s Day.
Wednesday night it continued to snow although not all night, by the time we got up on Thursday everywhere looked quite beautiful. I took some pix but they really don’t do it justice.




As you can see from the shot above, the road had already started clearing so the driving wasn’t be bad. Sadly these pix don’t give you a true idea of just how lovely it was. The last is the best. The sun wasn’t out, but there was a beautiful light which I just haven’t managed to capture.

If you read sci fi, you might find the story of this frozen baby interesting. Immediately made me think of cryogenics. In fact the baby wasn’t frozen, but before he was born his mother found out he had excessively fast heartbeats and once he was born, (they performed an early caesarian) the doctors, having established he had supra ventricular tachycardia, tried to reduce the rate by giving all kinds of medications. Eventually they tried cooling the baby down and reducing the heartbeat that way. They then warmed up the baby but once he was back to a normal temp, the heart started racing again. They cooled him right down again and then warmed him much slower the second time. The heartbeat stayed normal and eventually he was allowed to go home. Quite a story. Seems like the parents had a pretty rough time of it too. This all took place in the UK by the way.

My bowling at the travel league was pathetic, but I had great fun with my friends. Matt had one really good game but then nothing good at all. I was with the wild bunch, noisy, but we had lots of laughs. Bowl again today, bit hard on the old legs. Saturday we are expecting friends to dinner but it turns out one of them isn’t too well so there is some doubt about this now. Hopefully we will know after bowling.

I haven’t made French Onion Soup in  years, I came across a recipe in a blog someone sent me, and decided to look for one. This soup takes me back many years. We used to sail to Ostende, Belgium, when I was in my 20s and we youngsters would go to the Kursaal which was both a concert hall, casino and dance hall. We used to quit there around 2 in the morning, not 100% sober, and call into a restaurant on the way back to the boat to have some French Onion Soup, yes at 2-3 in the morning. In the season, the Belgians would stay open as long as there were customers. It was great soup too.

French Onion Soup

4 servings
AllRecipes.com
"The best onion soup you will ever have!!!!!" — chefbuzz

• 1/4 cup butter
  
• 3 onions, thinly sliced
  
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  
• 2 1/2 cups water
  1/2 cup red wine

• 2 (10.5 ounce) cans condensed beef broth
  
• 1 French baguette
  
• 8 ounces sliced Swiss cheese
  

Directions

1. Melt butter or margarine in a 4 quart saucepan. Stir in sugar. Cook onions over medium heat for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
2. Stir in flour until well blended with the onions and pan juices. Add water, wine, and beef broth; heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low. Cover soup, and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Cut four 1 inch thick slices of bread from the loaf. Toast the bread slices at 325°F (165°C) just until browned, about 10 minutes. Reserve the remaining bread to serve with the soup.
4. Ladle soup into four 12 ounce, oven-safe bowls. Place 1 slice toasted bread on top of the soup in each bowl. Fold Swiss cheese slices, and fit onto toasted bread slices. Place soup bowls on a cookie sheet for easier handling.
5. Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 10 minutes, or just until cheese is melted

Have a great day

Quake and Tsunami, More of that White Stuff.

I am sitting here watching pictures and reports about the tsunami which is expected to hit Hawaii and the West Coast of the States at any moment. There was a massive earthquake 8.9 in Japan followed by 19 aftershocks some of which were 6.0 which is considered a major quake anyway. There are pictures of a Japanese airport with planes and cars strewn all over the place. Now they are saying one of the reactors may be causing problems because the shut down systems are failing. They are talking “cause for concern”. The waves are about to hit Hawaii as I type. What doesn’t help is that it is still dark. They just talked to a guest in a coastal hotel in Hawaii. The hotel has only cleared the first three or four floors, the people higher than that are still there watching and waiting. The water travelled a mile inland in Japan and swept up cars in parking lots as though they were toys. The Japanese are the most earthquake savvy nation which means a lot of buildings remain safe despite the devastation around them. There are buoys all around the Pacific which enable them to watch the progress of the waters as they cross the area from Japan to the States. The prediction is a 6 ft. wave in Hawaii – at the moment nothing much is happening although the wave is supposed to have arrived.

8.9 is the strongest quake in Japan’s history. Certainly the biggest in the world since the major tsunami in ‘04 which took place in the Indian Ocean. There have been pictures from inside buildings which were shaking like Jello, basically what they are designed to do is sway and sway they apparently did. They have lots of fires including those in refineries. Many caused by gas leaks. There are videos and pictures here http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/11/japan-quake-tsunami.html?ref=rss Good Morning America has been concentrating on the situation all morning. They probably have great pix too, what they have been showing are incredible and to us unbelievable.

All this devastation in Japan has cause major reactions in the stock markets already - if you had money in shares yesterday, you probably have quite a bit less today.

Meanwhile, back in Canada we have snow in our back yard. Once again it was almost clear yesterday, this morning everything is white with wet snow clinging to the trees. Pretty, but bad driving. Matt has to go to the hospital for a special test, then we have bowling this afternoon. I guess its true that Wiarton Willie (Groundhog’s Day) did not predict the end of winter correctly although I guess he has four more days to be right.

I feel like a comfort food today with all the bad news. This from Cooking.com

Chicken Noodle Soup with Parsnips and Dill

Source: Quick from Scratch - Soups and Salads

Serves 4

Lots of carrots and parsnips give old-favorite chicken noodle soup a sweet savor. To balance this effect, use the optional parsley, which is just slightly bitter.
INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 quarts canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock

1 onion, chopped

4 carrots, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces

4 parsnips, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 3)

1 cup wide egg noodles (about 2 ounces)

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (optional)

DIRECTIONS

In a large pot, combine the broth, onion, carrots, parsnips, salt, and pepper and bring to a simmer. Add the chicken breasts to the pot and simmer until just done, about 10 minutes. Remove the chicken; bring the soup back to a simmer. When the chicken breasts are cool enough to handle, cut them into bite-size pieces.

Meanwhile, stir the noodles into the soup. Simmer until the vegetables are tender and the noodles are done, about 5 minutes. Return the chicken pieces to the pot and then stir in the dill and the parsley.

Variations: *Skip the parsnips and raise the number of carrots to eight. *Add one diced turnip to the mix.
*Use bone-in chicken breasts and cook them for an additional ten minutes. The extra time in the pot will give the soup even more flavor.

Have a great day.