Pain, Solar Panels,

Pain in Canada. This article was given to me,  by my doctor, when she was telling me how and why I was being treated like an addict - she told me it made interesting reading. She was right, it does. My Year on Death Row This is from a woman who has worse pain trouble than I do. Suicide has been on her horizon because of such extreme pain. I am not really surprised. The situation in Canada is ridiculous. Basically if you are in pain and take pain pills, you are an addict!!! I have been given Lyrica which, at the moment is doing nothing for pain but it sends me to sleep all the  time. I am being weaned off my Tylenol 3 and if at the end,  I am still in pain, surprise, surprise, they will send  me to a Methadone clinic!!!!!!! Sorry, but I object to being treated like an addict. There are doctors who have lost their licenses because they are not obeying the new laws properly and have actually given their patients sufficient medication for  their pain. I have posted a lot of this on Facebook and am requesting those who can, to share.

Can't remember if I have mentioned this before, but I was re-reading a blog - A View from The Bench - about their installation of solar panels. My comment was surprise it has taken so long for North America to catch on to solar. I was in Greece 60 years ago and they were installing solar panels all over. The farmer at the asparagus farm I go to, has installed solar panels on his home and some farm buildings. A few years ago, he had a field which was going to lie fallow for 20 years so he applied to the local council to be allowed to install solar panels. In the end, they wouldn't let him do so. How stupid he could have provided a lot of power to the local grid.

Bon Appétit have a few Bean recipes I thought I might try. This is one of them.

Sausage, Greens and Beans Pasta

1/3 cup olive oil
2 sprigs rosemary
8 oz spicy Italian sausage, casings removed
1 15.5-ounce can chickpeas or cannellini (white kidney) beans, rinsed, patted dry
¼ cup dry white wine
12 oz paccheri, rigatoni, or other large tubular pasta
Kosher salt
8 cups (lightly packed) torn escarole, kale, or Swiss chard leaves
¾ cup finely grated Parmesan, divided
Freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbs unsalted butter

1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium-high. Fry rosemary, turning, until crisp, about 2 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

2. Add sausage to same pot and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon and stirring occasionally, until browned and cooked through, 8–10 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a plate.

3. Add chickpeas to pot and cook, tossing occasionally and mashing some chickpeas with spoon, until browned in spots, about 5 minutes. Transfer about half of chickpeas to plate with sausage. Add wine to pot, bring to a boil, and cook until liquid is almost completely evaporated, about 2 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until very al dente, about 3 minutes less than package directions.

5. Using a spider or a slotted spoon, transfer pasta to pot with chickpeas and add escarole and 1 cup pasta cooking liquid. Cook, tossing often, until escarole is wilted, pasta is al dente, and sauce is thickened, about 4 minutes. Add another ¼ cup pasta cooking liquid, then gradually add ½ cup cheese, tossing until melted and dissolved into a luxurious, glossy sauce. Thin with more pasta cooking liquid if needed. Season with pepper, and more salt if needed. Add butter and toss to combine, then mix in reserved sausage and chickpeas.

6. Divide pasta among bowls. Crumble rosemary over top and sprinkle with remaining ¼ cup cheese.

Servings: 4

Author: Claire Saffitz
Source: Bon Appétit

Have a great day
 

Acai Berries, Volcano Erupts, 5 Pin Bowling

I was so pleased when I checked my bank online on Saturday, some money I was gypped out of was refunded to me. I ordered a sample of acai berries from an American source. They never arrived. A couple of weeks later I was charged some $90 odd for them. When I complained they said I had had several weeks to decide if I wanted them. When I said I hadn’t even received them they said it wasn’t their faults that the mail hadn’t arrived. Eventually they agreed if I did get them I could return them for a 50% restocking fee. I was not happy. I ended up calling Visa and telling them all about it and they said they would do something but that it would take a few weeks. It appears they were successful and I now have a credit in my Visa account. Whoopee, thanks Visa. However, be warned, don’t order a sample of acai berries, you will be stung.

Sunday morning we heard about the Indonesian volcano which erupted in Sumatra for the first time in 400 years. Just shows you, those damned things are never dead whatever people say. Lots of people have had to flee their homes. Of course I never could understand people building close to a volcano anyway, no matter how long apparently extinct.

There was an article in Saturday’s paper, The Record, about my favourite asparagus farmer, Tim Barrie, and his wish to rent one of his fields (which has to lie fallow for 20 years) to Arise Technology for the installation of solar energy panels to provide power for the local area. http://tinyurl.com/2fess6p Tim has been working on this for a couple of years and it is taking all this time for the local authorities to make up their minds. I can’t see what their problem is personally.

On Saturday night I watched the movie Lawrence with Peter O'Toole playing the part of Lawrence of Arabia. It is one of my favourite movies although it does go back a long way. I don't know how many times I have seen this movie, but I had never noticed before, there is an Intermission which then says "Enter'r act" errr, its "entr'acte". I had a bit of a giggle about it, I wonder why I didn't see it years ago. Pretty dumb of me.
Guess what, bowling season starts today. I have really missed it. Only trouble is we will miss three weeks as next week is Labour Day, and then we are in North Carolina for a couple of weeks. We will likely do some 10-pin bowling down there, but we are not very good at that. 5-pin is our scene. Because we are away at the beginning of the season, we will probably miss out on the hi-lo doubles tournaments again, pity because I won a couple of rounds a couple of years ago.

I made this soup on Saturday morning and we had some for lunch. It was very good. I’ve never heard of a Turkish or California bay leaf. I used the bay leaves I have. I didn’t have any chorizo either so I used a garlic sausage that we buy all the time. I also used 2 cups of broth and a little less water.

Kale and Chickpea Soup

1 medium onion, chopped (1 cup)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 large boiling potato(3/4 lb), peeled and cut into
1/2-inch pieces
3/4 lb kale, stems and center ribs cut out and discarded, then leaves very finely chopped in a food processor (4 cups)
 3 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (28 fl oz)
2 cups water
1 (14-oz) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 lb Spanish chorizo (cured spiced pork sausage), casing discarded and sausage cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 cup)

1. Cook onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt, and pepper in oil in a wide 4- to 6-quart heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until onion and garlic are softened and beginning to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Add potato, kale, broth, and water and cook, partially covered, until potatoes are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Reduce heat to low, then add chickpeas and chorizo and gently simmer, uncovered, 3 minutes. Discard bay leaf and season with salt and pepper.

Servings: 6

Source: Gourmet November 2004

Have a great day

Yesteryear Stars, Power Sources, Diamond Cars

Marilyn of French Marilyn's Blog (see link) was talking about Brigitte Bardot a well known (at one time) an actress and a 'sex kitten', although I am not sure she is so well known in North America. Today she is best known for her racial remarks about France and its immigrants, plus her fights for animal rights. However, talking of her made me think of other artists of yesteryear such as Sacha Distel who was a singer and very popular in the 50's, Mireille Mathieu, another singer in the 70's although apparently she is still around and performing well. The reason I get a bit depressed, when I mention some of these people to younger friends and acquaintances, they have no idea who I'm talking about. I am not just referring to French artists either, but those who were once the great icons of Hollywood, or songs and shows of yesteryear. I couldn't believe it when I mentioned Porgy and Bess at work and with one exception, the younger people didn't know what I was talking about. Whilst looking for some information, I came a cross a YouTube video of Sacha Distel and Brigitte Bardot singing You are my Sunshine in French. I believe they were an "item" at one time.

Yesterday we did our weekly trip to Barrie's Asparagus farm and I was chatting to Tim Barrie about his proposed field of solar panels (see Monday June 2) and he tells me he also has a blog about solar power and asparagus. I was telling him about some of my recipes, he has read this blog and two other customers said the recipes sounded interesting - I gave them a card with my blog address on, so hope they will come and find me and look at my recipes. Meanwhile I am waiting for Tim to let me know what his blog address is. There are lots of references on Google to the proposed solar field at his farm. He already has, as I mentioned, solar panels on the roof of his "store" and Tim is very committed to solar power as a clean way of living and generating power. Maybe this apartment block, where I live, should put some solar panels on the roof and then our rent would stay static.

I am very pro wind farms too, I have heard them described as a blot on the landscape. I totally disagree, I think it is fascinating to see them especially when they are turning in the wind. In fact I think they are quite attractive.

The price of gasoline is soaring, maybe this is why, this morning someone sent me an email with pictures of a new Mercedes which is totally covered in diamonds. It was built for Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia and cost $4.8 million. It costs $1,000 if you just want to touch it. If you enlarge the picture you will see that it is totally covered in diamonds, in the pictures I have, even the exhaust pipes which protrude from the rear, are diamond encrusted. I don't object to people spending their money how they wish, but when we are paying for it because of the price of oil, it does rankle somewhat. Can you imagine parking it on the street, someone would want to prise off a few of 'them sparklers', I'd be right there with my screwdriver.

Decisions, decisions, asparagus or rhubarb. Asparagus has won out today:

Asparagus with Hazelnut Sauce
Source: WW Recipes

Note: Hazelnuts are also called Filberts.
Servings: 4

Ingredients:
6 Tbs (90 ml) butter
1/4 cup (60 ml) finely chopped hazelnuts (filberts)
1 tsp (5 ml) tarragon or red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 lbs (900 g) asparagus, trimmed and steamed until tender

Instructions:
Heat the butter in a small saucepan over moderate heat and saute
the chopped hazelnuts until lightly browned and aromatic, about
5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vinegar, salt, and
pepper. Serve over cooked asparagus. Serves 4 to 6.

Have a great day.