Bananas, Snow, Shared Book, TV.

As you may recall, I lost 31 lbs. last year, I took it very slowly and counted everything I ate and wrote it down (I used FitDay.com) all the experts say that writing it down helps and it certainly did for me. However, in my travels through cyber space, I keep seeing an ad which says something to the effect that if you want to lose belly fat, don’t eat bananas. From my personal experience, that’s rubbish, I eat a banana every day without fail. I get cramps very easily particularly from all the medications I shove down my throat on a daily basis, a friend recommended a daily banana and it does help with the cramp. But, I have lost belly fat, I think a good deal of that 30 lbs. has been from that area of my body. My advice, if you like bananas, continue to eat them, not more than one a day if you are trying to lose weight. I seem to remember in the old days, Weight Watchers used to say half a banana, I never knew what you were supposed to do with the other half.

We have snow, lots of it although maybe not as much as some places, but when it comes to driving there is enough to make idiots out of some drivers. This is Canada for goodness sake, we get snow in the winter, what is the matter with you? Someone, not sure who the driver was, got stuck in our parking lot in such a way that people were having trouble getting out of the underground garage. By the look of it, they had, of course,  been spinning their wheels in order to try and get out of their mess which, naturally, made it worse. Admittedly nobody had plowed our driveways or parking lots, not sure why. The super started doing some around noon and there was also someone else doing it. Even so, we drove through thick snow without any trouble, we let the car do it. I thought we weren’t going to be able to go bowling and I was getting mightily teed off. When we did get to the bowling alley, having been overtaken by people who would have been hard pressed to stop in a hurry, the speed they were going, neither of us bowled particularly well. Not badly, but not well. A  heck of a lot of people didn’t show up anyway. Some people live in areas where the snow plows don’t get to them til late anyway. We are lucky, because we have schools nearby, our roads get plowed early even if the building grounds are not done.

I finally got round to doing my Blog2Print book today covering the 6 months from July 1 to December 31. I got a 15% discount, big deal on $7.95 which is all I pay because I download it electronically. I don’t bother to print them any more although I used to, getting so many files with blogs in, taking up too much room. I do have them well backed up though and they are still on Blog2Print, just in case.

I sat through the 2 hours of Downton Abbey on Sunday night. Loved it as usual. This is the beginning of Episode 4 if you happen to be a devotee.

I am not much into burgers, but this recipe sounded good to me. I love Portobello mushrooms.

Portobello Cheeseburgers

Satisfy your burger craving with a meatless mushroom stacker topped with Gorgonzola cheese.

Photo by: Oxmoor House

Cooking Light OCTOBER 2006

• Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 (4-inch) portobello caps
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon bottled minced garlic
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 3 tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise
• 4 (2-ounce) sandwich rolls
• 2 cups trimmed arugula
• 1/2 cup sliced bottled roasted red bell peppers

Preparation

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle mushrooms with salt and pepper. Add mushrooms to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until tender, turning once. Add garlic to pan; sauté 30 seconds. Remove from heat.
Combine cheese and mayonnaise, stirring well. Spread about 2 tablespoons mayonnaise mixture over bottom half of each roll; top each serving with 1/2 cup arugula and 2 tablespoons peppers. Place 1 mushroom on each serving, and top with top halves of rolls.
Note:
Portobello mushrooms are well-paired with pungent Gorgonzola cheese. Use crumbled blue cheese to save even more time.

Have a great day – oops don’t have my dragon fire name on this computer.

Shopping, Blog Book, Glenda Larke

Today we plan to go to Costco’s which, round here, is also known as the $300 store as it is difficult to get away from there under that amount. We buy a lot of our meat there and find the quality to be excellent. We seem to have run very low on everything right now so we may find our bill to be up in that mark. One must eat though, right? I always enjoy grocery shopping although I confess clothes shopping leaves me cold. The thought of going to a store and trying on all kinds of garments brings shudders, and picking something out to try on in the first place is worse. I always preferred one dress shop I used to go to in the UK where the owner knew me and would bring me things she figured I would like. I still had to try them on but I was usually the only one in the shop.

I finally got round to making my latest blog book. I use SharedBook or Blog2Print. They collect up my blogs for 6 months (or as specified although 6 months of my blogging is the most they can do), I then pay them $7.95 and download the book. I have a number of them printed, but the last few I haven’t bothered. I do have them well backed up plus SharedBook keep them on their site too. However, I am so verbose, the printed versions take up a lot of room. Who knew I would ever write so much, I certainly didn’t.

I was delighted to see, on her blog, that Glenda Larke now has her very first book, Havenstar, reprinted and it is available in a hardcover version as well as electronically. This is a very popular book and Glenda herself says she wishes she knew why this book is so popular, much more so than here 9 subsequent novels all of which were fabulous stories, but I too am a devoted reader of Havenstar and have read it several times. If you have never read any books by Glenda and are into spec fic, you will really enjoy her stories. She has three trilogies out as well as Havenstar and another trilogy in the works with a working title of The Lascar’s Dagger. Glenda is a fantastic world builder and makes her characters so sympathetic and believable. Even some of her villains attract one’s sympathies. Many of her readers want her to write more novels set in the Havenstar world. If you check out her blog, you will find Glenda doesn’t stop at writing and leads a very interesting life.

This recipe has me drooling, but I will never cook it because Matt doesn’t like spareribs in the first place, and it is somewhat loaded with sugars in the second place making a serving 829 calories. However, it looks too good not to share.

Pork Spareribs with Maple Barbecue Sauce

Source: Cooking.com

Serves 6


These luscious ribs are well worth the time it takes to make them. Perfect for a Sunday supper. Try with the Maple Baked Beans as well as coleslaw and biscuits or cornbread.

INGREDIENTS
6 pounds pork spareribs (about 3 whole racks)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups tomato purée
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup soy sauce
Crushed dried red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

DIRECTIONS
Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 400 degrees F. Sprinkle ribs with salt and pepper. Wrap each rib rack tightly in heavy-duty foil; set on rimmed baking sheet. Bake ribs 45 minutes. Cool slightly. Unwrap; drain juices. Cut into individual ribs.
Meanwhile, heat oil in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Add tomato purée and next 3 ingredients. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until sauce thickens slightly, about 20 minutes. Stir in vinegar. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

DO-AHEAD TIP: Ribs may be made 1 day ahead. Sauce may be made 1 week ahead. Cool ribs and sauce. Cover separately and refrigerate.
Line same baking sheet with foil. Dip ribs into sauce. Place ribs, meaty side up, on sheet. Roast 15 minutes. Dip into sauce again. Roast until meat is very tender, about 20 minutes.

Have a great day