Broadcast, Restore Family Nutrition, Easy Corn. Animals Shot.

Well, my broadcast worked pretty well although I was somewhat nervous. Randi asked for a different pic and I sent him one from Christmas a couple of years ago which was taken by a friend. Matt listened to it and a friend phoned and said could she have my autograph, funny. Randi, the DJ, is going to send me an MP3 so I can email it to anyone who wants to hear it. He also asked me if I wanted to do this again, I said sure, it was fun.

I have talked before about the efforts of some of us locals to promote healthy cooking and eating in the area, particularly the local schools. Restore Family Nutrition is our banner and this is a link to the blog which goes with this promotion – there is also a link on my blog list on the right hand side. We are looking for people to participate in the conversation to Restore Family Nutrition.

I have just watched a video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnBF6bv4Oe4 which shows how to clean corn without fighting the silks, the cobs come out clean as a whistle. Mind you I don’t know how well cooked they are, probably fine, I often microwave corn in grease proof paper (waxed paper) and it comes out fine, probably even better in the husks.

An incredible story from Ohio  about a man who had a preserve with lots of dangerous wild animals, opened all the cages and then shot himself. There were some 58 animals on the loose including 18 rare Bengal tigers all of which had to be shot as explained in the article here. Some of the animals did end up at the Columbus Zoo, but not many of them. What a tragedy, Jack Hanna who is the Director Emeritus of the Zoo was particularly distressed about the rare tigers which he considers to be such beautiful animal. There were also lions, bears, wolves and so on. No-one really knows why the owner did this and shot himself, a neighbour said she thought it was an f*you situation.

I promised the recipe which I spoke about on the radio yesterday. Some years ago we ran a small catering company, we cooked for people in their own homes, and this was always a favourite. We didn’t last long as it was pointed out to us that we needed hefty insurance for such a business.

Roast Pork with Apple and Nut Stuffing

Reader’s Digest The Cookery Year

3.5 Loin of Pork
1 Sml onion
2 oz pecans
2 oz white crustless bread
1 cooking apple
1 stick celery
1 Spoonful chopped parsley
1 oz butter
Salt & pepper
1/2 tsp dried summer savory
Lemon Juice
3 Tbs veg oil
1/4 pint dry cider

1. Peel and finely chop the onion and roughly chop the nuts. Dice the bread; peel, core and dice the apple. Wash and finely chop celery and parsley.

2. Melt the butter in a small pan over moderate heat and fry the onion and nuts until they are just turning color. Add the bread, apple, celery and parsley and continue cooking until the apple is softened. Season to taste with salt, pepper, summer savory and lemon juice.

3. Open up the pocket of the roast and spread stuffing evenly. Roll up and tie with kitchen string. Roast in a 400° Fahrenheit oven for 20-30 mins then reduce to 350°Fahrenheit and cook for a further 1 1/2 hrs or until juice comes out amber coloured when the meat is pricked.

4. Remove roast and keep warm. Skim off fat in roasting dish. Add the cider and deglaze the pan. Season to taste and put in a sauce boat to serve.

Servings: 6

Have a great day

Disasters and Bad News, Food Revolution, Dinner.

And still the disasters go on; the plane crash in Russia killing a bunch of high ranking Polish officials, including their President, which happened last night, sending shock waves throughout Poland. There are questions about the safety standards of this particular plane and also the pilot landed when he was told to divert. The mining disaster which took place last week in West Virginia - the governor has now declared that there were no survivors at all. The news is really not good to listen to these days. One of the major headlines in the last 24 hours has been about the American woman who returned her adopted Russian son to Russia stating she no longer wished to be his mother and had not been informed of his emotional problems when she adopted him. What puzzles me is why so many Russian children are being put up for adoption and come to that, why are Americans adopting Russians instead of American kids, I am sure there are hundreds to be adopted. Maybe the requirements are not so stringent - this case being a perfect example of why they should be so.

Mentioning West Virginia's governor, we saw him last night on Jamie Oliver's programme where Jamie is working hard to promote a food revolution in West Virginia. Last night the programme showed Jamie having a bet with a local radio host who was very down on the whole programme and figured WV did not need an irritating, jumped up English cook telling them what to eat. The bet was that Jamie could get 1,000 to pass through his cooking store in 5 days. As part of the effort, Jamie took the radio host to a local funeral home to show him a casket which is frequently used these days. It was huge. I worked in a funeral home and we had to order extra sized caskets periodicially, but I have never seen one this big. The directors said they were ordering more and more of them. Jamie also introduced them to his cookery group from West Virginia who talked about overweight and bad health. One morbidly obese young woman having been told she could die in about 5 years if she didn't do something about it. Finally the radio announcer was converted and helped Jamie get his last few hundred potential cooks through the door. The announcer himself was the 1,000th cook. I have just discovered that if you go to http://www.jamieoliver.com/ you can sign a petition supporting his efforts. If you are not from the US you can change the petition to support him world wide. You can also make a donation to the effort. The picture shows supersized caskets in Batesville's production plant, but not one of them is as big as the one on Jamie's show last night which looked square because it was virtually as wide as it was long. It shook both Jamie and the radio host.

Tonight we have friends coming to dinner, daughter and son in law of some close friends of ours. So we will be cooking up our usual storm today. Our main dish is a pork loin stuffed with apples, nuts and celery which came from a Reader's Digest book I bought in the UK some 40 years ago and still use a lot. It is called Cookery Year and is an excellent source of many good recipes. I just scanned the picture and it came out a tad yellow in places.

Roast Pork with Apple and Nut Stuffing

Source: RD Cookery Year

Servings 6

3.5 lb. Loin of Pork original recipe called for Blade of Pork.

1 Sml onion

2 oz pecans

2 oz white crustless bread

1 cooking apple

1 stick celery

1 Desertspoon chopped parsley

1 oz butter

Salt & pepper

1/2 tsp dried summer savory

Lemon Juice

3 Tbs veg oil

1/4 UK pint dry cider (about 5 fl. oz.)

1. Peel and finely chop the onion and roughly chop the nuts. Dice the bread; peel, core and dice the apple. Wash and finely chop celery and parsley. 2. Melt the butter in a small pan over moderate heat and fry the onion and nuts until they are just turning color. Add the bread, apple, celery and parsley and continue cooking until apple softened. Season to taste with salt, pepper, summer savory and lemon juice. 3. Open up the pocket of the roast and spread stuffing evenly. Roll up and tie with string. Roast in a 400 F oven for 20-30 mins then reduce to 350 and cook for a further 1 1/2 hrs or until juice comes out amber coloured when meat pricked. 4. Remove roast and keep warm. Skim off fat in roasting dish. Add the cider and deglaze pan. Season to taste and put in sauce boat to serve.

Have a great day