Diane, Cancer, Libya, Oscars.

Last night I discovered that Oprah Winfrey is starting a new network which will be launched on March 1. It will be called the Oprah Winfrey Network or OWN. We were given a sneak preview, an hour long documentary about Diane Sawyer. I have always liked Diane, she hosted Good Morning America for years and is now the anchor woman for World News, one of the top jobs in television in the US. Unfortunately we don’t see that programme as we are usually preparing and eating supper around the time it airs. The documentary made us both realise what an incredible woman she is and gave us a sense of appreciation and admiration of all she does because of her programmes and her life’s philosophy.

This morning, sadly, we heard of the death of yet another friend from cancer. She was only 59. What a pernicious disease that is. Its amazing that after all the money which is poured into cancer research, nothing has yet been found to eradicate this disease. Yes, I know a lot has been done and more people survive than once did, but……

Libya is still very much in the news of course, what is taking place there is horrifying, but I cannot see that sanctions will achieve anything. The people who are rebelling against the government of Muammar al-Gaddafi (according to Wikipedia that is the correct way to spell it) will suffer from sanctions whilst Gaddafi himself probably won’t notice them. There have been murmurs of military action, I don’t really see how the US can afford to send in their military – everyone is already so committed to wars in the Middle East anyway. Our gas prices came down 1 penny a litre yesterday, whoopee!!! Considering we have our own gas, I am not sure why we are being penalised at the pumps.

In common with millions, I will be watching the Oscars tomorrow night. Unusually I have actually seen two of the nominations, The King’s Speech, which I thought was a brilliant film and really well done. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing it again. The other is How to Train Your Dragon which I bought from Amazon a while back, I love it, Viking type characters with Scottish accents!!! I am not sure which category it is nominated for, but it has my vote.This is the trailer.

For Oscar night itself, Jamie Oliver is recommending a Nini Belline. I actually think I might prefer this with champagne. I am not too sure what “flat” peaches are, I have certainly never seen them round here, but as Jamie points out, canned peaches can be substituted. It would be wonderful to be able to obtain the canned whole peaches one could buy in Spain. Marvellous things.

Nini Bellini

I've named this beautiful cocktail after Leo Caplan’s wife, Janine (or 'Nini' as she’s known by her nearest and dearest). Leo made a really generous donation to a charity called Help a London Child, and in return I said I’d name a recipe in this book after his lovely wife!

Serves 6

• 2 ripe peaches, flat ones if you can get them • 1 x 750ml bottle of chilled prosecco

A peach Bellini is the classic Venetian cocktail, and my mate Arrigo serves loads of them in his world-famous establishment, Harry’s Bar. Arrigo’s grandad, Giuseppe Cipriani, opened Harry’s in 1931, and because he was a bit of a genius he ended up inventing not only this beautiful cocktail but also another thing I absolutely love — carpaccio. The story goes that when Giuseppe first made this cocktail the sun was setting and the colors in the drink were the same as the colors in his favorite Bellini painting…you can work out the rest! You can also get nice results using tinned peaches if you can't find beautifully ripe flat peaches. I think this is best made just before serving, in front of your friends. Halve your peaches, remove their stones, then pop them into a liquidizer and blitz until smooth. Add a splash of water if needed and put the purée into a jug. If you don't have a liquidizer just use your hands to squeeze, mash and really push the peaches through a sieve so you get as much as possible of their wonderful flavor and the color from their skins into the purée. You can get the purée as fine as you like, but I don't mind the thickness…it's quite rustic. discard (or eat!) whatever is left behind in the sieve, then pour your prosecco into the jug and gently mix together. Divide between six glasses right away, and top up with a little more prosecco if need be, and enjoy! P.S. The spirit of the Bellini isn't exclusive to peaches — nectarines or berries are also lovely used in the same way. There could easily be a Bellini for every month of the year.

Have a great weekend

Oprah, Handling Turkeys. Christmas.

Oprah Winfrey has announced her show will no longer air after 2011. Personally I don't care, but thousands, if not millions, do. But why announce it now, surely closer to the actual date would be more sensible? She says her audiences have enriched her life, cynically Matt and I both commented that rich was certain. Today she is one of the richest women in the world, some of it through excellent investments. The story goes that she was given a pair of Reeboks and liked them so much she bought shares in the company which started her fortune. She has done a lot of good with her money, particularly helping impoverished areas in Africa. I don't follow her so I am not sure of all the things she has done, but you can't live on this continent without hearing her name mentioned frequently. I don't know what kind of impact she has made on the rest of the world. Tonight we are going to friend's for dinner which will be fun. Also means no cooking and washing up for us. Not to mention the good company of friends. Yesterday on Good Morning America, Sarah Moulton, a regular contributor to the programme, had some very good tips on safe turkey handling. If you go to this site you can see the video and read the article. Food was never such a risk factor in my younger days, salmonella and ecoli weren't heard of. I remember hearing about that once, but I really don't know the details. I am pretty sure that ecoli is a totally modern problem, not sure about salmonella. But it sure pays to be careful these days or you can get very sick and even die from such contamination. I am emphasising this at the moment as, quite soon, many houses in the US will be cooking turkeys and its as well to be cautious and well informed about the risks. I wouldn't mind cooking some more turkey, but Matt thinks I am nuts as we had lots of it last month for our Thanksgiving and will soon be cooking Christmas turkey. I bought my Poinsettia yesterday by the way, I use a small plant as the centre of a table decoration for Christmas. Its still a bit early for us although all kinds of places already are fully decorated, the stores in particular, there is even a place for Santa in our local mall although I am not sure if he has arrived yet. The lobby of our building is decorated as are several of the apartments here. We probably won't do anything til the beginning of December, I think Christmas is coming earlier every year but Matt says not. Having said that, I mailed all my overseas cards the other day. The recipe today is particularly for Matt's youngest daughter. When she visited us in Canada many years ago, she was 15, and went nuts about chocolate pies. We were buying them for her all the time. Kept several in the freezer ready. I just figured this recipe would be right up her street. Classic Chocolate Cream Pie Hershey's Kitchens. Ingredients: * 9-inch baked pastry shell or crumb crust, cooled * 5 sections (1/2 oz. each) HERSHEY'S Unsweetened Chocolate Baking Bar, broken into pieces * 3 cups milk, divided * 1-1/3 cups sugar * 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour * 3 tablespoons cornstarch * 1/2 teaspoon salt * 3 egg yolks * 2 tablespoons butter or margarine * 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract * Sweetened whipped cream(optional) Directions: 1. Prepare pastry shell; cool. 2. Combine chocolate and 2 cups milk in medium saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until mixture boils. Remove from heat. 3. Stir together sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt in medium bowl. Blend remaining 1 cup milk into egg yolks; stir into sugar mixture. Gradually add to chocolate mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with wire whisk, until mixture boils; boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. 4. Pour into prepared pastry shell; press plastic wrap directly onto surface. Cool; refrigerate until well chilled. Top with whipped cream, if desired. 8 to 10 servings. Have a great weekend.

Fires, Books, Chocolate

I am so glad I don't live in California, they are having really bad problems right now with fires. Yesterday it was raging around Montecito and a lot of multi million dollar homes were destroyed. Oprah Winfrey has a palace home there, but that is no doubt one of several and it wasn't destroyed, but there were others who lost everything as it was their only home. The fires are spreading and people in Santa Barbara are being asked to evacuate. We get fires all over North America, it is in fact a natural thing, but when people build their homes in amongst the trees, these kinds of disasters are bound to happen. I remember many years ago visiting North Carolina, before we lived there, driving along a road with trees alight on both sides of us - the men in the car wanted to stop and take pictures, the women wouldn't let them!! On our return trip we saw someone barbecuing a steak in his yard with burning trees all around him. He didn't need to fire up his barbecue at all he could have walked to the nearest tree. Me, I would have been out of there. They are using fire planes in California, but although I am sure they carry a lot of liquid, it looks such a tiny drop when they release it over the fires. They need rain which, at the moment, we are having quite enough of. It has been dull, wet and miserable for a couple of days or so, enough to depress the happiest of natures. I have just finished reading the ebook of Dragon Champion by E.E. Knight. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a book written from the POV of the dragon and describes his adventures and his feelings. As you know, I love dragons. This is the first in a series (Age of Fire) apparently, so I will look forward to reading more. I picked up three books in the library yesterday as I was running out of reading materials and found a book II that looked good, so ordered book I and will get the second one once I have read it. Matt was watching Everyday Italian with Giada di Laurentis yesterday and I came in the room at the tail end when she was making what looked like a scrumptious dessert (well it was chocolate!). I immediately checked on the internet and got the recipe which I am passing on to you. Chocolate Sformato with Amaretto Whipped Cream 2 cups whole milk, divided 1 cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla 1 packet gelatin 4 eggs, lightly beaten 1 (12-ounce) bag bittersweet chocolate chips 1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds 1 cup whipping cream 1 Tbs powdered sugar 1 Tbs almond liqueur (recommended: Amaretto) 1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 2 In a small saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups of the milk, the sugar, and vanilla. Bring to a simmer and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat. Sprinkle the gelatin over the remaining 1/2 cup cold milk and let dissolve for 2 minutes. Combine the cold milk and gelatin with the hot milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve the gelatin, about 5 minutes. (Heat the milk gently if the gelatin is not dissolving easily.) When the gelatin is dissolved add a little of the hot milk to the eggs to temper them then pour the egg mixture back to combine the eggs with the warm milk, whisking constantly to avoid scrambling the eggs. Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a large measuring cup or small pitcher. 3 Meanwhile, melt the chocolate over a double boiler. When the chocolate is melted gradually combine the milk and egg mixture with the melted chocolate, stirring between each addition to create a smooth chocolate mixture. 4 Pour the mixture into a buttered 2-quart casserole dish. Sprinkle the top with the almonds. Place the casserole dish in a larger dish or roasting pan. Add hot water to the outer pan until the water comes halfway up the sides of the baking dish. Bake until the sides are firm and the center jiggles slightly, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes. 5 Just before serving, whip the cream to soft peaks in a medium bowl using a whisk or electric hand mixer. Add the sugar first and bwhip then add the almond liqueur and whip more to combine. Spoon the sformato into individual serving bowls and dollop the top with the almond liqueur whipped cream. Servings: 4 - 6 My Note: On the TV Giada put all the milk in the pan with the sugar and vanilla extract then sprinkled on the gelatin as it warmed in the pan. Have a great weekend.