Weekend, Radio, Fear of Flying, Family Day,

Basically a quiet weekend with a bit of cooking thrown in. Saturday night I cooked pork chops - hadn't had any for a while. I can buy two pork tenderloins for less than two pork chops. I wanted them broiled but Matt always says they are too tough so I baked them in a sauce. Good, but not the same taste as broiled.

We had to switch radio stations because the local one was playing horrid stuff - to me anyway - and had fired at least one DJ who played my kind of music. Found another but this morning, Sunday, they are playing all kinds of weird stuff. I hope it's only one programme. We shall see. The rest of the day turned out OK.

My ex husband was afraid of flying and the guy in the office at our garage is terrified of it. I see British Airways are running a one day course on how to overcome your fear of flying. My first husband used to get blotto when he had to fly, but in the end the doctor gave him, what he called "happy pills" which enabled him to fly with confidence. Don't know what they were.

Like an idiot I was all prepped up to go bowling tomorrow (Monday) when I heard somebody on the radio mention Family Day. It had slipped my mind that the bowling alley will be closed as they are every year on this day and that it is a holiday. It is a holiday which has been introduced since we first came to Canada, it was celebrated into Ontario in 2012. Funny, I thought it was earlier than that, whilst we were in the States. It was first observed in Alberta in 1990. I knew it was President's Day tomorrow and had it in the back of my mind that it was a holiday here too but completely forgot it.

Just watched Sanditon and I am in a fever of anticipation as to whether Sidney Parker is going to ask Miss Hayward to marry him or not. If so, I am rather sorry for the other young man who is in love with her.

I love French Onion Soup but haven't made it in years. This is a different take on the usual recipe and sounds rather good.

Gratinée des Halles

Andrew Zimmern’s take on French onion soup—bright with sherry vinegar and thick with onions—is

a perfect, buttery version of the classic.

2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
2 large onions, halved and thinly sliced (7 cups)
2 leeks, whites and light green parts only, thinly sliced
1 cup thinly sliced shallots (2 large)
Kosher salt
5 garlic cloves, minced
3 Tbs tomato paste
1 Tbs herbes de Provence
1 bay leaf
1 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
8 cups beef stock or low-sodium broth
Freshly ground pepper
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into chunks
12 baguette slices, cut 1/2 inch thick
4 oz Gruyère cheese, shredded (1 cup)
Finely chopped thyme, for garnish

1. In a large enameled cast-iron casserole, heat the olive oil. Add the onions, leeks, shallots and a generous pinch of salt and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until very tender and caramelized, 40 to 45 minutes; stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of water if the onions look very dry.

2. Add the garlic, tomato paste, herbes de Provence and bay leaf to the casserole and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until fragrant and the mixture is glossy, about 3 minutes. Add the wine and vinegar and simmer over moderate heat, stirring, until reduced by half, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the stock and bring to a boil. Simmer over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the soup is well flavored and reduced to 8 cups, about 45 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Season the soup with salt and pepper and keep warm over very low heat.

3. Meanwhile, in a very large skillet, melt the butter. Add the baguette slices and cook over moderate heat, turning once, until golden and just crisp, about 2 minutes. Transfer the croutons to a plate.

4. Preheat the broiler and position the rack 8 inches from the heat. Arrange 6 heatproof bowls on a large rimmed baking sheet. Ladle the soup into the bowls and top with the croutons and cheese. Broil until the cheese is melted and browned in spots, 1 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle with thyme and serve.

Author: Andrew Zimmern
Source: Food and Wine

Author Notes
The onion soup can be refrigerated for up to 2 days. Reheat gently before topping with croutons and cheese.

Have a great holiday.
 

Radio, Shakespeare Mas.

Recipe Corner this is  a link to the MP3s I have of me on the radio at various times talking about recipes. I think it will work OK. When you download any one of the “Me on Radio” links the first time it will ask you to link it to a player. Mine went to Windows Media Player. Once you have done it one time, it will automatically link to it each time you play one. I have actually done 7 radio spots now, # 6 was too big apparently, but there are 5 links here. Yesterday’s I don’t yet have of course. When I did my recipe spot yesterday the DJ asked if I enjoyed Hallowe’en – never thought about it before, but I guess I do although we don’t see much of it any more living in an apartment block. Years ago a friend used to have parties and they were great fun. Somewhere we have a picture of Matt in drag. Two other friends came in diapers (husband and wife) dressed as babies with soothers and rattles, Matt kept offering to change the female's diapers!! I’ll have to look for it, I think it’s probably on a slide.

Watching Jeopardy I learnt about the Shakespeare Mas in which brightly dressed Peirrots engage in a battle of wits using only lines from Shakespearean plays. The competitor
without a quick reply earns a playful stroke from his opponent's stick. I assume that should be Pierrots. This takes place in Carriacou in the Caribbean and is part of their festival. which takes place before Lent. That would be absolutely fascinating and I would love to be there. I couldn’t do it any more but I was pretty good at Shakespeare once upon a time.

I posted these cookies for Hallowe’en last year but thought I would do so again, they are such fun.

Broken Finger Cookies

Food Network

“Fingernails” made from almonds or banana chips add a realistic touch. But avoid the nuts if allergy is an issue.
Courtesy of Jennifer Low

Yield: 20

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch salt
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons red cake-decorating sugar
• 20 whole blanched almonds OR 20 pieces banana chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In bowl, using electric mixer, beat butter until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat until mixture is no longer “scratchy” sounding against bowl. Beat in egg, vanilla and salt.
4. In separate bowl, mix together flour and baking powder (tip for measuring flour: stir flour, spoon into measuring cup, then level).
5. Gradually beat flour mixture into butter mixture.
6. Switch to working in flour mixture with hands when dough gets too stiff to beat.
7. Knead into smooth dough. Roll into 3/4-inch thick “ropes”. Break ropes into 3-inch sections. Pat one end smooth. Dip tip of other end of each piece into milk then red sugar.
8. Place on lined baking sheet. Pressing in sides of rope to prevent flattening, insert almond or piece of banana chip into rounded end. Repeat process to make 20 fingers.
9. Bake on middle rack of oven 17 minutes, or until dough is lightly golden.

Have a great day

Pern, Sandy, Radio, Spider.

This weekend I got hold of a wallpaper for my PC which is from the Anne McCaffery book The White Dragon. Those of you who follow The Dragonriders of Pern will recognise the picture. I must admit it is one of my favourite covers from the series. In fact it was reading this book which first started me off on the Dragonrider series. I own all of them these days, even the ones written by her son although I am not as impressed with those as I was with the original Pern stories. Anne McCaffery could write no wrong in my opinion. Ruth, the white dragon, was one of my favourites of course. As many of you will know I am a dragon aficianado and if anything has a dragon in the story or the picture, I am right there. I am not so into stories of ‘bad’ dragons though, superior dragons maybe, but not ones that do willful damage, or eat maidens, etc.

Everybody is concerned about the storm roaring up the east coast, calling it Frankenstorm. I understand Hurricane Sandy is scheduled to meet up with a cold front which will make the storm spread even further, it is already 800 miles wide (update 2000). Of course when we see the meteorologists on the coasts, in the background you can see idiots surfing!! A friend posted a picture from NC at the Bogue pier on Saturday and that was well before the storm is due to hit. As you can see the waves are beginning to pound into the shore. I do hope the pier itself will be OK, it has sustained so much hurricane damage over the years. Not sure how much longer they will continue to repair it. All the other piers have gone now. Here in Ontario they are talking about us getting snow as a result of this storm and saying some of the Lakes will feel effects from the wind. I find very often these storms are magnified beyond proportion and I hope this is the case this time. Nevertheless, I hope all my friends in its path will hunker down and keep out of its way. CBC has, what appears to be, a continuous video cam of the waves at http://www.cbc.ca/news/.

You will remember I posted a recipe and picture last Thursday for Broken Fingers, I am going to be giving out this recipe on the local radio on Wednesday the 31st,  bit late in the day as will already be Hallowe’en. However… if you wanted to hear me you can go to CKWR.com at 11:30 a.m. and click on the Listen Live Button. It is real time, if you don’t hear it at that time, you can’t pick it up later although I will end up with an MP3.

Visiting some friends the other day I spotted a lovely/horrid Hallowe’en spider but didn’t have a camera with me so asked them to take the pic for me. Here it is.


Enough to give one the willies isn’t it? Especially if you aren’t too keen on spiders in the first place.

I thought this was an interesting side to serve for dinner although I am not sure I would use the maple syrup, I think that would make it too sweet.

Roasted Mini Pumpkins

Source: Food & Wine

Yield: 12 Servings

RECIPE INGREDIENTS
12 mini pumpkins
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
Salt and freshly ground pepper

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Using a grapefruit knife or a sharp paring knife, cut a ring around each pumpkin stem to form a lid; remove the lids and set aside. With a small spoon, scrape out the seeds and any membranes.
In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice and sprinkle the spices inside the pumpkins. Add 1/2 tablespoon of the butter and 1 teaspoon of the maple syrup to each pumpkin and season with salt and pepper.
Set the pumpkins in a baking dish and add 1/2 inch of water. Replace the lids and roast the pumpkins for about 30 minutes, or until tender. Serve hot.

Have a great day

Y is for Yucatan Roast Pork (Cochinta Pibil), Chocolates, Radio, Matt’s Fall.

So now our winter season bowling is over. The bowling on Monday doesn’t really count for anything, then we stuff ourselves with food, are given small cash prizes and that’s it. I actually bowled a bit better yesterday, but Matt bowled really well again which is a surprise to do that two days running.

This is also the penultimate recipe in the A to Z challenge. Pity, I have enjoyed the challenge. My thanks to all those who have visited, I have enjoyed reading your blogs as well.

I received a huge box of Polish chocolates from one of my Avon customers today. I kind of did her a favour and she was appreciative. I am looking forward to opening the box, but we are still eating our Reid’s roses from Tuesday. This is some box isn’t it? The painting is one hanging in a Warsaw art gallery and I think is rather lovely. The chocolates are described as pralines with cream centres, some of the centres are vodka, rum, coffee and so on, they sound like they will be pretty good. I will, of course, be letting you know at a later date.

My radio ‘appearance’ went well on Friday, I managed to make my Chinese sound reasonably authentic but the DJ was a bit ‘took aback’ because it was a recipe I had never prepared. I certainly will be doing so in the near future, I thought it sounded pretty good.

Matt dropped me off after bowling and went down to the grocery store for something, when he got back to the garage, a woman asked for his help because her husband had fallen on the floor. Matt (who doesn’t believe he is 77 not 27) tried to pick the guy up, his hands slipped on the material of the guy’s coat so he (Matt) fell on his back and eventually staggered back up to the apartment in considerable pain. We spent the evening icing it and hoping it would be OK. Keeping our fingers crossed at the moment. He sees his cardiologist at noon today so hopefully he will feel up to it. I was not very pleased when I heard this. I am also somewhat concerned because he fell a few years ago, on ice, and ended up having a spinal stenosis and a fairly serious operation. So please keep your fingers crossed for him.

Here is another interesting recipe from a cookbook we acquired by attrition. a friend in NC lent it to us and we never did return it. I asked her about doing so once or twice and she assured me she knew where it was. She still does, albeit it is now 1,000 miles away. We have used this book a lot.

Yucatan Roast Pork (Cochinta Pibil)

Betty Crocker’s New International Cookbook (thanks Dottie).

Originally this dish was prepared by the Mayans in ovens dug into the earth and lined with stones. The meat was wrapped in either seaweed or banana leaves and left to roast slowly in its own juices. Eat this succulent meat wrapped up in flower tortillas with Sweet Pickled Onions

2 tbs annatto seed (as this is basically a colouring agent, don’t worry if you don’t have it)

18 whole black peppercorns

4 large cloves garlic, cut into fourths

1/2 cup orange juice

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp dried oregano leaves

4 lb. pork shoulder roast

Sweet Pickled Onions (recipe to follow)

Sixteen 8 inch flour tortillas, warmed.

Cover annatto seed with boiling water. Cover and let stand at least 12 hours; drain.

Place annatto seed, peppercorns, garlic, orange juice, cumin, salt and oregano in blender. Blend with on/off motions, scraping sides occasionally until annatto seeds are chopped, about 1 minute. Make several deep cuts in the pork roast. Place pork in a shallow glass or plastic dish. Pour marinade over pork; rub into cuts. Cover and refrigerate at least 12 hours. Prepared Sweet Pickled Onions. Place pork and marinade in Dutch oven. Cover and cook in 325°F oven, turning pork and spooning marinade over it occasionally, until very tender, about 3 hours. Remove pork; let stand 30 mins.

Remove bones and fat from pork; pull pork into shreds. Skim fat from marinade. Return port to marinade. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until it is hot, about 10 minutes. Spoon about 1/3 cup of the pork mixture onto each warm tortilla; top with Sweet Pickled Onions. Fold in sides of tortillas.

8 servings

Sweet Pickled Onions

2 large onions, sliced

1/4 cup vinegar

1 tbs sugar

Cover onions with water in skillet. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 5 mins; drain. Mix onions, vinegar and sugar. Cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours.

Have a great weekend