Surviving Grandmother, Last Night's Supper, OS and Fidgeting

A lovely story to come out of the Italian earthquake disaster, yesterday they found a 98 yr. old grandmother, calmly knitting while she waited to be rescued. What sang froid. A story on GMA this morning was about a woman suffering from OS, or objectum sexuals. She is in love with the Eiffel Tower, so much so that she had a commitment ceremony (a marriage in other words) with the tower and changed her last name to Eiffel. She was previously in love with a particular fighter plane and joined up to learn to fly. However, she was subsequently given a medical discharge. If you want to read the story click here where there is also a video. Apparently this is not totally unusual and there are others who literally fall in love with inanimate objects such as the Golden Gate Bridge. All the world's queer 'cept me and thee and I ain't so sure about thee. Another segment showed experiments with educating children and allowing them to fidget and bounce about; some are seated on exercise balls, others have trampolines in the classroom. Apparently such movement stimulates the brain cells and allows them to actually concentrate on their lessons much better. Again click here to read the article and see a short video. They showed pictures of the brain before and after exercise and there is not much doubt of the increased mental alertness. I had fun this morning talking to Marilyn (French Marilyn's Blog) on Skype, what a great programme I have spoken to Glenda (Tropic Temper) and Satima (Satima's Blogspot) plus friends and relations in other parts of the world. If you have a webcam you can see the person to whom you are talking although the picture tends to be a bit slow coming through - a few seconds delay. As you will remember, I was raving about David's Gourmet the other day. One thing we bought was a frozen packet of, what looked like, delicious scallops. Last night we decided to have some for supper and Matt made a dish he has been cooking off and on for maybe 40 years. He has no idea where he first found this recipe, but I can assure you its good. He also cooked a recipe he saw on TV the other day but doesn't remember which programme; we ate both so I am giving you both. As we had thought, the scallops were excellent. Having opened a bottle of Phillipe de Rothschild Sauvignon Blanc to make the sauce for the scallops, we drank the rest with the meal. Scallops Parisiennes 1 glass dry white wine 1/4 C water pinch of salt 1 sprig parsley Bayleaf 6 peppercorns few slices of carrot and celery 1 lb scallops (you can use shrimp although scallops are best) 1 1/2 oz butter 1 green onion 1/4 lb mushrooms 1 oz flour 1/4 C milk 1 Tbs browned breadcrumbs a little melted butter 1 Put first 7 ingredients (wine through carrot & celery) into a pan. Bring to a boil. Add scallops and poach for two mins. Remove scallops and reserve the liquor. 2 Melt butter in a pan and add the green onion, finely sliced and the mushrooms cut into quarters. Cover and cook for about 5 mins. Draw aside and add the flour and most of the strained liquor from the scallops. Stir until boiling, simmer a few mins. add the milk by degrees, then reduce to a creamy consistency. Stir in the scallops. 3 Fill 6 cocottes or 2 dishes. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and a little melted butter and brown quickly under the broiler. It is recommended that real butter be used. Serves 2 as a main course, 6 as hors d'oeuvres. Savoury Tomatoes TV - Unknown 1 slice Proscuitto per tomato 1 Tomato per person Seasoning flour egg Panko * 2 oz Butter Sauté the proscuitto and crumble it. Thick slice the tomato, season and dip the slices in flour. Then dip in beaten egg and finally dredge with Panko. Fry the slices in butter until the Panko is crisp. Serve the tomato slices sprinkled with the proscuitto. * Panko is known as Japanese breadcrumbs and can be widely obtained these days. Have a great day.

Vacation, Oscars,

How annoying, I booked up two weeks in a cottage on Emerald Isle, North Carolina yesterday, then went looking for 'out of country health insurance'. Not one company will sell it to me this far ahead, so now I have had to cancel our cottage reservation. Once upon a time the insurance coverage Matt had from his employment used to cover us when we travelled, but not any more. The current employees would rather have that money in their pockets, along with several other benefits which used to be available and aren't any longer. At our ages we daren't travel without such insurance. The only place we can go to is the UK where we are still covered by National Insurance, thankfully. Or, of course, we can travel in Canada. Its a big country. Its also not as inexpensive as travelling in the US. This morning the Oscar nominations were announced. One film, Milk, got a lot of nominations, I am not a big movie follower admittedly, but I had never heard of this one before. Wall-e got a nomination in the animated category - I still have to rent that one - as did Kung Fu Panda which I enjoyed. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button got a lot of nominations. Although The Dark Night was expected to be nominated in the Best Film Category, it wasn't. If you are interested in the details click here and see who was nominated for what. Here is another fish recipe, fish being so very good for you, particularly wild caught salmon which is the most healthy fish around due to its high content of Omega-3 fatty acids. This is a very simple dish from Best Ever Three and Four Ingredient Cookbook. The original recipe calls for a whole salmon which you then proceed to clean and dress. I wouldn't bother and I suspect most of my readers wouldn't. Baked Salmon with Caraway Seeds. This classic Czech way of cooking salmon is very easy and gives excellent results. The fish cooks in its own juices, taking on the lovely warm flavour of the caraway seeds. Serve sprinkled with flat leaf parsley and lemon wedges for squeezing over the fish. 4 salmon fillets or steaks 1/2 - 1 tsp caraway seeds 3 Tbs lemon juice From the store cupboard 1/2 cup melted butter Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Place the salmon, skin-side down, in a lightly greased roasting pan. Brush with the melted butter. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle over the caraway seeds and drizzle with lemon juice. Cover the salmon loosely with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove it from the oven, lift off the foil and test the fish. (The fish should be opaque and flake easily. Return to the oven if necessary). Remove the foil and lift the fish onto a serving plate. It may be served hot or cold. Serves 4. Have a great day.