Rain in NC, Dinner, ISIS.

Sunday evening a friend called me from North Carolina, I am very glad we didn’t go down there for a vacation this September, everywhere is drenched. She said it poured with rain every day and the ground was soggy. Not only that the mosquitoes are bad, they have plenty of places to breed in all that wet. She also told me about her brother who lives in Detroit – they had 14 ft. of water on the main street and her brother’s freezer was floating in the basement. Considering the terrible fires in Yosemite, it is such a pity you can’t ship the water from one place to another. It seems to me the States has really been badly socked by the weather this year. Of course Alberta has had snow already and here it’s pretty chilly. Fall not winter though.

My birthday dinner party went very well on Saturday. I served Vegetable Stuffed Mushrooms (see below) Iscas accompanied by Goat Cheese Potato Purée, pole beans and Mediterranean Snow Peas. For dessert I had chocolate cups filled with yoghurt cheese, honey, whipped cream and raspberries. Of course we had wine with all this. Being the bright person I am, I totally forgot to take any pictures. I know I have posted the Potato Purée at some point in the past, but it must be a long time ago because I can’t find it. Guess I will have to post it again one day. It is a Bobby Flay recipe (TV chef) which we are very fond of and which I shouldn’t eat but can’t resist a small spoonful of.

I have just come across an article which I think is frightening. It states that the ISIS war chest increases by an estimated $3 million a day. ISIS earns money from a variety of sources, including smuggling antiquities out of Iraq, selling women and children as sex slaves, extortion payments, ransom from kidnapped hostages, and stealing materials from the towns it has seized. In the article they are described as a financial juggernaut. This whole thing is terrifying and I feel more should be done to counteract them. The British PM has been quoted as saying, after the latest beheading,  “they are not Muslims but monsters”.

This is an old favourite of ours which we haven’t made in a long while, I don’t know why. It comes from a Reader’s Digest Cookbook called Great Recipes.


Vegetable Stuffed Mushrooms

12 large mushrooms
1 Tbs unsalted butter
5 green onions, chopped fine
1 med size stalk celery, chopped
1 small ripe tomato, cored and chopped
1/2 tsp dried marjoram, crumbled
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup soft white breadcrumbs

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Wash the mushrooms and twist off the stems; set the caps aside and mince the stems.
2. In a heavy 10 inch skillet, melt the butter over moderate heat; add the green onions, celery and mushroom stems and cook, uncovered, stirring often, until the vegetables are soft - about 5 mins. Add the tomato, marjoram and pepper and cook covered, 5 mins longer. Stir in the breadcrumbs and remove the skillet from the heat.
3. Spoon the mixture into the caps, mounding it up slightly. In a lightly greased 13"x9"x2" baking pan, arrange the mushrooms in one layer. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until lightly browned

Servings: 4

Have a great day