Bowling, Alleys, New Tricks, Supper.

Yesterday was our last bowling for the summer league, we then have our banquet next Tuesday (I do hope I will be eating normally by then) and then we don’t bowl again until the end of August. We start early because at the beginning of September there is Labour Day and the woman who runs the alley always takes that weekend off. All the other holiday weekends she is there, but never for that one. Personally, I have not bowled particularly well for the whole of the summer league. Matt hasn’t bowled until the last two and has done pretty well considering how long since he took part. Of course two of the September weeks we will be away in North Carolina.

In the area where we live there are three alleys, one I don’t know too much about, but the other two are sadly neglected. Nobody seems prepared to spend any money on refurbishing and repairing. If somebody came along and invested a bundle to bring one of the alleys up to scratch, they could make a killing. I am sure all the bowlers would want to go there instead of their own worn out alleys. I just wish I knew someone I could persuade to do such a thing. When I think of the place, MacDaddy’s in North Carolina where we 10 pin bowl during our holiday, I just wish they would come and invest in bowling up here.

I very much like an English TV programme called New Tricks which is about a group of ex coppers who work on unsolved crimes. I really like the show which appears, very often, on TVO or TV Ontario. Sometimes on the American PBS stations too. I discovered that I can see some of the older shows or ones I have missed on TVO’s website so that’s what I did last night. You should check it out if you like cop shows. I saw it described as a trio of grumpy ex cops, I wouldn’t really call them grumpy, but it can be funny.

Last night Matt cooked us up some stuffed portabella mushrooms which were pretty good so I will share the recipe tomorrow however, this recipe is from Becel margarine which, I believe, is only available here, in Canada. However, it can obviously made with any decent margarine or butter. I thought it sounded very simple and yet tasty, especially if you wilt the spinach a little as described at the bottom.

Shrimp and Avocado Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 tsp. (10 mL) sesame seeds
• 1 lb. (450 g) large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 tbsp. (15 mL) Becel® Original margarine
• 6 cups (1.4 L) baby spinach leaves
• ½ large avocado, peeled and sliced
• 1 large orange, peeled and sectioned
• 6 radishes, sliced (optional)
• 2½ tbsp. (40 mL) fat-free Italian dressing

Preparation

Step 1

Toast sesame seeds in a 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, 1 minute or until golden. Remove sesame seeds and set aside.

Step 2

Season shrimp, if desired, with salt and black pepper. Melt Becel® Original margarine in same skillet over medium-high heat and cook shrimp, stirring frequently, 3 minutes or until shrimp turn pink.

Step 3

Arrange spinach on serving platter. Top with avocado, orange, radishes and shrimp. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Just before serving, drizzle with fat-free Italian dressing.

Note

Recipe can be halved.

Tip

If desired, toss hot shrimp with spinach to wilt the spinach slightly.

Have a great day

Insurgents, Gunmen, Netflix, Books

Saturday afternoon I heard a somewhat scary report on the radio, although I didn’t catch all of it, it was about Muslim insurgents – not sure which country - having declared people could not touch nor walk with others who were not family. They are boarding public transport with guns to ensure that this is not happening and that women are not travelling alone. Women may no long work which is causing extreme hardship in many families and, of course, women have to wear the full hijab showing only their eyes. Matt’s comment was – no wonder so many come over here. But, even when they do, the men seem to enforce these kinds of rules anyway. In this day and age of liberation for women, this is quite frightening. I often wonder what it is about women that these insurgents are so scared of, their own inability to resist temptation perhaps?

Saturday also gave us the shooting of a congresswoman, Abby Giffords, who right now is still fighting for her life although she is very lucky not to have died on the spot with a bullet to the head. Both a 9 yr. old girl and a district judge did. Sadly the 9 yr. old was born on 9/11 and was amongst those kids who were labelled Children of Hope. I heard there were 13 shootings with 6 people dead. I know three of those shot were Giffords’ aides one of whom was killed outright and sadly, had just become engaged. Everyone spoke very highly of both Gifford and the judge. The little girl, Christina Green, was interested in politics and had gone with her uncle to meet the congresswoman. The picture shows Abby Giffords with her husband Captain Mark Kelly, an astronaut. His brother is currently up in the space station. And still, Americans fight for the right to bear arms.

Saturday again, I watched Lucky Number Slevin on Netflix. It starred Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and Bruce Willis. An excellent movie, not new, but good. I am beginning to be a fan of Netflix, the only trouble being that a lot of the things I am looking for are unavailable. There was an episode of one of my favourite TV shows on last night, I missed it in favour of the movie. It’s a British programme called New Tricks – I checked it out on Netflix and every season is unavailable.

I have just finished the second book in The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, it is called The Broken Kingdoms. Once again I enjoyed it very much and am looking forward to the third book which is due out this year.

One of my newsletters this morning was all about cakes, just what I need. However, I thought this one looked delicious. Matt wouldn’t like it, cheesecake is one of his favourite desserts, but he likes a really good, rich cheesecake with nothing on it or in it to change the flavour. I suspect this recipe would be extremely rich and one could only manage a small slice.

Amaretto Fudge Cheesecake

Source: Cooking.com

12 servings

A thin slice of this decadent dessert is all you need to satisfy your sweet tooth. INGREDIENTS

For Crust:

One 11-ounce box chocolate wafer cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For Filling:

10 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

20 ounces cream cheese

2/3 cup sugar

1 pint sour cream

1/4 cup amaretto

2 drops almond extract

5 large eggs

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

FOR THE CRUST: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides. Finely grind cookies in food processor. Mix in butter. Press mixture over bottom and 3/4 of the way up sides of prepared pan.

FOR THE FILLING: Stir chocolate in top of double boiler set over simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Cool 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Using electric stand mixer and paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl on medium speed until fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Add next 3 ingredients, beating until blended after each addition. Beat in melted chocolate. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in flour just until blended. Transfer filling to prepared crust.

Bake cheesecake until edges are firm and center is softly set, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Transfer pan to rack and cool. Cover and refrigerate until cheesecake is cold, at least 4 hours or overnight.

Using knife, cut around sides of pan to loosen cake. Remove pan sides. Cut cheesecake into wedges and serve.

Have a great day

TV I have watched lately

Well boo hoo, one of my few favourites on TV has just ended until the BBC make some more, or Public TV in Canada buy some more, whichever is appropriate. I am talking about New Tricks which I told you about a day or two ago. This time they left us with a cliff hanger. Not necessary, its a good enough show without that.

I seem to be watching a lot more TV lately, this morning on Good Morning America the weatherman Sam Champion, went to beekeeping school and learned how to handle bees. He did get stung, once. They are trying to encourage people to keep bees at home - you can learn from the school and they they will mail you all you need including several thousand bees, through the mail????? Yes its true. As a dare, though, we were disappointed, we thought we would see him covered in bees as in the picture on the left.

To quote Good Morning America:

""I'm not real comfortable around a swarm of bees for some obvious reasons … but there's a major world crisis that I want to address. Millions of bees are dying because of a mysterious malady called Colony Collapse Disorder, and without bees many of our crops won't get pollinated. We're talking about $6 billion worth of crops here in America alone! And without that pollination, you can bet that the world's food supply is going to take a major hit," explained Sam Champion.

Some beekeepers in states reporting Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) have lost 50 to 90 percent of their colonies, often within a matter of weeks. This translates into thousands of dead colonies and millions of dead bees."

I would love to buy bees and have my own apiary, but it wouldn't work in an apartment. There appears to be a lot of interest in people buying their own bee colony, how about you if you have the space. Apparently you can get honey in about a month, great to have your own supply. Nothing nicer than a chunk of honeycomb. Yum. Did you know honey is the only food which doesn't spoil?

Another interesting segment on GMA this morning was about the ingestion of corn. They now consider it may be making us obese. Apparently corn is in practically everything we eat, even farm bred salmon is fed on corn. One of the few things which doesn't have corn in it is bananas. Animals are fed on corn, apples are polished with a wax substance containing corn, you name it, it probably has some connection with corn. Fast food is a particular culprit they said. There is a documentary film going the rounds right now. The National Corngrowers are saying the facts are already outdated because the film was made in 2005. If you want to read more about it click here and see what GMA has to say.

As for a recipe today, how about Cornish Hens? One of my favourites, so here is a good recipe.

Cornish Hens with Lime Spice Marinade

Servings: 4

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 whole scallions, finely chopped
Grated peel (no white attached) of 1 lime
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
4 Cornish hens,

Instructions:
Combine the lime juice, olive oil, garlic, scallions, lime peel, black pepper, cayenne, chili powder, cumin, dry mustard, salt, and coriander into a paste.
Flatten the hens by pressing heavily on the breast, cracking the bone. Spread the paste evenly over the hens. Cover with plastic wrap and then weigh them down, using cans on a plate for instance. Marinate in the refrigerator 24 hours if possible. (This flattening allows the hens to cook evenly.)
Place skin side next to heat and cook on a hot grill about 20 to 25 minutes per side, turning occasionally to prevent overbrowning, although a little dark flecking is pretty and tasty.
If roasting, preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease or spray a shallow roasting pan with nonstick spray. Place the hens side by side, but not touching, in the prepared pan. Cook the hens, uncovered, until a meat thermometer measures 170°F. and the juices run clear, about 45 minutes. If you are using two pans, rotate them periodically to allow even browning.
The hens may be cooked up to a day ahead and refrigerated. Reheat under the broiler or in a hot oven.
Split the hens completely and place them on a serving platter, piled up in a circular pattern at 15-degree angles. Note: I just served them whole, they look better to me.

Have a great day.