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.
Sadly we had a helicopter crash off the coast of Newfoundland this week and they haven't been able to find more than one survivor. Considering how cold the water must be, he was very lucky. The chopper was ferrying passengers to two oil platforms in the area. There were actually 18 people on board, a body was also recovered. Matt always says he wouldn't go up in a chopper if you paid him, makes you think doesn't it? They actually do helicopter rides at the local airport and I have often thought about going. There are also helicopter rides over Niagara Falls.
That was another thing that happened this last week. A man went over the 
falls. It appears, from the news reports, that he might have been trying to commit suicide. That isn't definite, but its what I read into the story. He didn't want to be rescued. Incredible that he survived the falls at all. Mind you, isn't that typical, if you want to die by doing that, you can't, if you go over the falls as a dare devil, you probably won't survive. There is an Imax Theatre in Niagara which shows a film all about the different types of attempts people have made to defeat the falls. A lot of people seem to have come through it alive by accident. In the theatre they also have some of the various barrels or other containers people have used. One of the original stories was of a school teacher who went over in a barrel and took her black cat with her: in the movie, they opened the barrel and a white cat came out *G*.
We are cooking again today with friends coming to dinner tonight. Thought we would do the Bobotie again as we enjoyed it so much the first time. Unfortunately one of our guests doesn't like lamb so we will be making it with beef. I know at least one reader who will be heartily concurring with this. There are a lot of North Americans who do not eat lamb. In my opinion they are missing a wonderful treat, but obviously they would never agree. I first gave you my recipe in January click here but I have since found the recipe my friend in South Africa uses. Its a much simpler one and sounds pretty good. I just read that it is pronounced 'ba boor tea' don't know if that is correct.
Mary's Bobotie
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 slice white bread soaked in milk
28 g stoned raisins, finely chopped
500 g lean minced beef
28 g chopped almonds
10 ml vinegar
15 mL brown sugar
15 ml curry powder
2 eggs - separated each well beaten
1 Fry onion gently. Add squeezed bread, raisins, meat, almonds, vinegar, sugar, curry and egg. Stir well, turn into an ovenproof dish.
2 Beat another egg with 140ml milk, season and pour over the meat mixture
3 Stand dish in a bain marie with hot water halfway up and cook in the oven at 180C for about 1 hour until nicely set.
4 Serve hot with rice and chutney or cold with salad. (I think a salad goes well with it when hot too otherwise it's all very dry with just the rice and chutney. Although I suppose green beans or some such would be good too)
