Polish Chocolates, Pola Negri, Dirty Dancing, Violets, Hospital.

Remember the box of Polish chocolates we were given? Well we opened them on Sunday night, what beautiful looking chocolates. My only complaint is the guide is on the bottom of the box, very thoughtless, you have to hold the lid tightly in an effort to see what is available. They seem to be all cream filled with a variety of flavours, so far I have eaten a plum and an advokaat. I tried to take a picture of them, I hope you can see how lovely they are. The three in the middle with the ladies head are advokaat, I should have taken a pic before I ate it LOL. If you remember, the outside of the box was lovely too. I love the painting, but don’t think I would bother to keep the box lid – now if I had the painting itself, that would be worth it. The picture is of Pola Negri who was a silent film star and made 63 films, many of them in Hollywood. I think she was quite lovely and was apparently irresistible to Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino. She didn’t die until 1987 at the age of 90. Sadly she appears to have faded into obscurity. I certainly had never heard of her.

Sunday night I watched Dirty Dancing on my laptop. Patrick Swayze was always a favourite of mine. I have seen the movie before of course, but not for a long time. It really is a great movie, in my opinion, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. It made me feel a little sad that he was such a gorgeous young man and now he is no longer with us. Jerry Orbach, who played the father, is no longer with us either. I don’t watch Dancing with the Stars, but didn’t Jennifer Grey (Baby) take part recently?  Just looking it up, 1987, incredible it was so long ago. Funny, I watched Patrick Swayze just the other evening in Point Break. I also loved him in Ghost too. Although Whoopi Goldberg kinda stole the show in that movie. Road House was another of his that I liked.

Whilst picture taking, I took a couple of my African Violets. They are doing great guns at the moment. I nearly threw them out a while ago as nothing seemed to be happening after the original flowers died off, but now its blooming beautifully.


Why are men so stubborn? Matt finally went in to hospital yesterday – he should have gone a week ago. He fell on the base of his spine trying to help some other guy who had fallen and has been in major pain ever since. He has reluctantly taken a few Tylenol 3 here and there, but he doesn’t like to take them because of the side effects. I am worried about him having spinal stenosis the same as 7 years ago which necessitated a major op which took place in Hamilton which is quite a distance away. However, there are no neurosurgeons in our area. Having spent 12 hours in the emergency we finally were told that there was some compression on the spine and a fracture on one vertebrae lower down. He is now being sent to a back surgeon at the fracture clinic. The reason we were there so long was because they had to do a lot of CT scans today and there was only one radiologist. By the end of the day I personally ached all over, Matt wasn’t doing too badly LOL. Free medical is great in many ways, but it can mean a lot of waiting.

I mentioned yesterday that we had tried a new recipe on Saturday night. It was Gordon Ramsay’s version of Bois Boudrin sauce.  I have since discovered there are a number of recipes for this, but below is the one we used and it was delicious. I couldn’t find out where the name came from, Bois means wood so presumably it is Boudrin Wood, the nearest I could find to that was Bois Boudran or Château de Bois Boudran (both with an a) near Paris, where one can hunt. Doesn’t seem to have any connection to the recipe. There were a number of comments and one person said she had heated the sauce and it was just as good. There are others who have served this sauce over salmon and gammon, to name a couple of items. We have some left and think we might use it with pork chops. With the steak, you cook it to your desired doneness and then slice it. Pour the marinade over top and enjoy. Sunday we had it with pork tenderloin, it was equally good but I preferred it with the fillet steak.


Bois Boudrin


This marinade sauce, from Gordon Ramsay, is best spooned over a steak after cooking – especially a fillet steak.

Serves 4

1 large shallot , chopped
150g small cherry tomatoes , halved, or 3 medium tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp grain mustard , optional
½ lemon , juice only
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
small handful tarragon leaves, finely chopped

Simply mix everything together. This can be done the day before, then kept covered in the fridge until required. Remove the sauce from the fridge at least 30 mins before serving.

Have a great day

Patrick Swayze, Parisian Tunnels

We saw the interview with Patrick Swayze last night. He sure doesn't look too well, but on the other hand he is mostly very bright, cheerful and determined. Quite dynamic in fact. He has pancreatic cancer which is, apparently, one of the worst forms of cancer (I wasn't aware of that). Patients are not expected to survive many months and Patrick has already survived a year during which time he has made a TV series called The Beast which no-one thought he could manage. I had seen ads for the programme but didn't realise he was in it. Barbara Walters asked him if he had any sense of when he was going to die which produced a somewhat emotional reaction, understandably. She also asked his wife whether she was prepared to live without him. They have been married 33 years. Seem to be an unusual couple for show business; very happy together. He is talking about making a sequel for The Beast. I was very impressed by his attitude and I wish more people could be so positive when threatened by this life altering disease, I firmly believe a positive attitude helps. I always remember a friend in the States who was told he had lung cancer, he died then and there although the doctors had told him two years minimum, but he just gave up and lived a miserable existence until it actually happened. The Swayzes also said how hard it was when the papparazzi have him at death's door or keeep announcing how soon he is going to die. It takes away hope for his loved ones. Way to go Patrick, long may you continue your fight. We also watched a fascinating programme about all the tunnels underneath Paris. The tunnels were started by the Romans quarrying for stone to build; a large amount of Paris is built of the stone from the tunnels, including Notre Dame cathedral. According to the programme, there are miles of tunnels which nobody knows about with the exception of a particular group of people who explore them illegally and who leave pretty good paintings and graffiti on the walls. They entered through a disused railway tunnel where a hole has been knocked into the tunnel wall. The presenter was underground for 8 hours. No thank you. Then there are the catacombs with literally millions of human bones stacked into huge piles which have to be attended to regularly as they are not stable. The bones came from graveyards when they ran out of room for them. The pagans used to cremate, but Christianity said no. Nobody knows who's bones they are any more. These catacombs are visited by tourists. Then there are aqueducts running under Paris, which were also started by the Romans. There are more tunnels where both the Germans moved in to use as bomb shelters and unbeknownst to them, where the French resistance fighters had a base. They recently uncovered the cellar of an old beer brewery too. There is a rumour the French taught the Germans how to make beer. I wonder how true that is? Over the centuries they have had problems with subsidence and had to send in workers to shore up the tunnels. Obviously it was a dangerous job and workers got injured or killed. Because the nearest hospital was too far, they built a hospital over the entrance. Notre Dame stands over the top of the tunnels too, on an island where once stood a Roman temple. We were assured that large areas of the tunnels are completely unknown to the average Parisian but are regularly visited by "urban spelunkers". We had more of that white stuff last night which means the roads are bad again. Matt had to take the car in to the garage this morning as it is still playing us up. Otherwise we will "hunker down" and keep warm today. Here is yet another Weight Watcher recipe from my old cookbook. Cooked lamb is not something we have hanging around very often, but if and when we do, this is a very tasty dish. Persian Spiced Lamb Weight Watchers - a way of life Serves 2 1/2 small onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic 4 oz. tomatoes, roughly chopped 12 oz cooked lamb 1/4 tsp each of the following: ground allspice, mace, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, salt 4 fl. oz. chicken or beef stock 1 dessert apple, cored and finely chopped 1/2 tsp powdered turmeric 6 oz. cooked rice 1 lemon. Place the onion in a non stick pan with the crushed garlic, roughly chopped tomatoes and the meat, cut into small cubes. Mix together the spices and stir into the meat mixture. Add the stock, heat gently and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the apple. Fork the turmeric powder into the cooked rice until evenly coloured and put the rice onto a serving dish. Heap the lamb in the centre and serve with lemon slices. Have a great day.

Twelfth Night, Patrick Swayze,

Apart from being the title of a Shakespeare Play, Twelfth Night or Epiphany in the church calendar, is the day when, traditionally, we take down our Christmas decorations. A job I hate. Some of its easy enough, but dismantling the tree and putting all the ornaments away is a pain in the you know where. However, January 6 and it has to be done. It looks so bare everywhere once everything is down. This is the one day I can sympathise with Scrooge. Of course, Tuesday is the day I volunteer at Canadian Diabetes, so with any luck, I will escape a lot of it. Evil laugh. Tonight on TV there is, apparently, an interview with Patrick Swayze by Barbara Walters (I've talked about her before) when he talks about his cancer which he has been battling for a year now. Patrick is/was one of my favourites, especially after Dirty Dancing and Ghost but he has certainly aged when you see his picture at the moment. He is also a member of the Church of Scientology - I don't know if that affects his medical history and treatment the way other religions do. So, as I have to go strip the tree, that's it for today. Here is another fish recipe from my original Weight Watchers cookbook Cod Steaks with Tomato and Pepper Sauce Serves 4 4 cod steaks (or any firm white fish) 4 Tbs lemon juice for the sauce 1 green pepper 1 red pepper 3 oz button mushrooms 1/2 UK (10 fl. oz)pint tomato juice 1/4 UK (5 fl. oz) pint water 1 chicken stock cube 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp pepper 1 tsp oregano Grill the cod steaks, sprinkled with lemon juice, on both sides until cooked through. Serve with the sauce poured over. To make the sauce, wash and remove the stalks and seeds from the peppers, slice them into strips. Wash and slice the mushrooms. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil and add the peppers and mushrooms. Simmer until tender. Have a great day.