Valentine’s Day, Saturday, Egypt, Oil,

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone.

I had a lovely card from Matt today with the message he keeps falling in love with me all over again. Aaaaah. My card to him wasn’t nearly as nice.

On Saturday I made my “chuck everything in and call it a Bolognese sauce” for spaghetti and invited a friend for supper. Of course a genuine Italian Bolognese sauce isn’t like anything most of us make in North America, it doesn’t contain garlic or herbs of any kind. I really got lazy and bought a loaf of garlic bread (not bad but a bit short on the garlic) and a frozen dessert (Cheesecake with dolce du leche) which wasn’t bad but I found the topping a tad too sweet which is surprising since I have such a sweet tooth. Both Matt and our friend enjoyed it and considering Matt doesn’t like his cheesecake with anything on it, that too was a surprise.

So Egypt finally got rid of Mubarek – let us hope they will form a new government soon and everything can settle down again. I must say, it was a pretty non-violent revolution, more power to both the people and the army. I hope the operators of the Suez Canal will resume work so that tankers can pass through although the super tankers have to go round the bottom of Africa anyway. It seems the revolution hasn’t spread to the other Arab countries in the area which was a big fear here, we envisioned it causing the price of gasoline to go sky high if that happened. Its high enough as it is, thank you very much. This morning I hear the army is well in control and have told foreign reporters they are no longer welcome. That scares me a bit. What is the army planning that they don’t want to world to know about?

We were talking about the oil sands in Alberta which are causing a big furore at the moment. Our friend told us that one of the Avon big wigs in the States criticised the oil sands and so now the people in Alberta are boycotting Avon. I understand their point, but for the ‘little’ people who are selling the product it is very hurtful for them as they are depending on the sales for their livelihood. I believe Avon Canada is very much a separate entity anyway. As for the oil sands, there has been a lot of publicity on TV about how they are handling the whole thing a lot better and more favourably from an ecological point of view. Hopefully this will improve things.

I can’t pass up one last chocolate recipe for this romantic day. Which reminds me, both of Matt’s daughters now have chocolate fountains. I think his oldest daughter is as big a chocoholic as I am as she was using the fountain all on her own when Matt spoke to her recently. Yummm!!!

Godiva Chocolate Fondue

Food.com

Ingredients:

Serves: 4,

4 godiva solid dark chocolate bars (3.5 oz each)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Fruit for dipping

Directions:

1. Heat heavy cream in a saucepan over low-medium heat until hot but not simmering.
2. Add chocolate and stir until melted.
3. Add vanilla and stir.
4. Transfer to fondue pot and serve with fresh fruit and pound cake.
5. Substitute vanilla with orange liqueur, kirsch or framboise for extra flare.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Pensions, Refugees, Gulf, Summer Games.

I meant to write about this yesterday and incredibly forgot. I just made a discovery that prisoners get pensions. A man who is in prison for murdering 6 little girls, gets a pension. He gets free room and board which includes 3 meals a day, clean clothes, and in some instance he may get paid for working, he gets the best medical treatment that money can buy, he has committed a heinous crime and he still gets a pension and, if you please, supplements in case he is not getting enough. That is just one instance, but as a pensioner who struggles to make ends meet, I am absolutely disgusted. They are talking about changing the law on this which is why I first discovered it. Matt was surprised I didn't know and assured me he had mentioned it in the past. Apparently if they cut out such pensions it will save us something like $10 million. Maybe they could use some of that to pay the rest of us a few bucks more.

Talking of pensions, there are emails floating around stating that refugees to this country get vast amounts of money and assistance. I believe this is true at the beginning, but it is not paid to them on a regular basis the same way as pensions are to seniors. I know I read a report about it some time ago. I decided to check this out on Snopes.com and found this article http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/refugees.asp which sheds light on the whole nonsensical story. The money they are given is a one time payment to assist in setting up in a new country. Mind you, as an immigrant I wouldn't have minded that kind of assistance but I guess they assume you have lots of money when you get here, ha!! I have heard stories of people who arrived here with just a few dollars in their pockets - come to that, we didn't have very much when we arrived either, although a bit more than a few dollars. Luckily Matt had a job already and he had been here a month before I arrived and found a place for us to rent. Just as well as when I did arrive I was loaded down with 6 suitcases and a German Shepherd. A friend had lent Matt some furniture as we had yet to buy any, but as I have mentioned before, we didn't have a bed. We actually had to take out a loan before we could go buy a bed together with a stove and fridge. My first night in Canada was spent trying to sleep on the floor. Despite being so tired, I didn't get much sleep I'll tell you.

Today on Good Morning America, both Sam Champion and George Stephanopoulos are down in the Gulf of Mexico area talking to people about the oil - George talked to a bunch of fisherman who are typical of the people in the area, all of whom are very angry with BP. In fact on the news last night there was talk of criminal proceedings against them as the consensus is that they took lots of short cuts with their rigs. Funnily enough the people in the area are not anti rigs per se, they bring in jobs for the area, they are just anti BP for its extreme negligence.

Tomorrow we have a senior's bowling tournament, we are bowling as part of a team of five. We have to start fairly early so I am not sure about a blog tomorrow or not. In the evening four of us will be attending the banquet which follows. This is not just about bowling, it is the Senior Summer Games and there are all kinds of events taking place in and around town starting on May 25. Last year we bowled in another town some distance away so didn't attend the banquet. They also have a cribbage tournament, I think we should go in for that next year, it might be fun. We may have found more people in our building to play cribbage with. We were going to a friend's with a cribbage board tucked under Matt's arm and a guy in the elevator commented about it, he and his wife play a lot.

Much as I like the month of June, it has the one disadvantage to me of signalling the end of asparagus season. Somewhere around Father's Day or not long after, they will stop cutting and allow the plants to grow into ferns and thereafter pollinate. There are male and female plants, did you know? I knew because I grew asparagus for a number of years in England. I had forgotten this recipe I got from Paula Dean last year and which we made several times, its really good.

Asparagus Phyllo Bundles

Souce: Paula Dean For one roll:

Phyllo - 1/2 sheet for 2 asparagus

2 stalks asparagus

Parmesan, grated

Brush phyllo with butter, sprinkle with Parmesan, place 2 asparagus in middle and roll. Place in baking dish, sprinkle more Parmesan and put in oven 375°F for 15 mins.

Yield: one roll

Have a great day

Making Yourself Sick, Pilots and Guns, Oil and Asparagus.

Amongst the many ezines I get to do with health, WebMD is one and this morning there is an article on 6 things we do every day which could be making us sick. One of those things is using pillows and mattresses. They explain why. Its enough to make one sick just reading about the amount of skin cells a human sheds every day and the dust mites which accumulate in our beds because of it. Pity you can't pick up your bed and shove it in a freezer for a while, that would kill off the little buggers. If you want to read this article on the things we do regularly, http://tinyurl.com/2c2s2us its here. Vacuuming is another - I think I have this licked by using a Hepa filter with a sold dust bag. Not that vacuuming gets done very often in our apartment. With only two of us, the place doesn't get very dirty anyway. Heres's a new one, 'gethomeitis'. Discussing the air crash in India they are considering that this is why the crash occurred. Apparently it is something pilots often get, they are so anxious to land their planes at their home airports, that they make mistakes, this is one of the advantages of co-pilots who can often stop this happening. I also learned, this morning, that some pilots now carry guns since 9/11 and that so far no pilot has had to use it although one pilot did shoot out his windshield during landing - er, what was he doing with his gun out during landing anyway?? This came out because of a row between a pilot and his flight attendant girlfriend and she reported him as possibly being suicidal. He was stopped when just about to board the plane with his gun which he was carrying quite legally, but... they are apparently given psych tests before being permitted to cary one. Not sure whether this is a good or bad thing. The oil spill continues pumping barrels and barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. BP are now talking of stopping it with mud?? Won't that dissolve and float away? I have only one serving of asparagus left, so guess where I will be going shortly? Although the weekend is probably not the best time to go any more as they are so busy these days. There is a video of Tim Barrie talking about the asparagus farm and their store here http://www.localharvest.ca/ on the Local Harvest Site. You have to scroll down the page a bit to see it. This recipe comes from the Asparagus Growers of Ontario. Asparagus Sukiyaki 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 lb round or sirloin steak 1 clove garlic 1 tsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 cup water 1 medium green pepper 1/4 cup celery 1 small onion 1 lb fresh Ontario asparagus Cut beef into diagonal strips with a sharp knife. Brown in hot oil with garlic for 10 minutes. Remove garlic. Add soy sauce, salt and water. Reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cut green pepper into strips, cut celery in diagonal slices about 1/4 inch thick, and chop onion. Add to meat and cook 10 minutes. Wash and break off woody ends of asparagus stalks. Cut asparagus in 2-inch diagonal pieces. Add, after the other vegetables have cooked 10 minutes, and continue cooking 5 to 8 minutes, or until asparagus pieces are just tender. If the liquid is too thin, thicken with a teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with water. Cook until clear. Serve with rice or Chinese noodles. Yield: 4 to 5 servings Have a great day