Books, Parking, Tim Card.

One of the problems with being sick, one doesn’t do very much or take a lot of interest in much, so there isn’t a lot to write about. Mind you there was only one illness I suffered from when I was a youngster, which stopped me from eating, that was Quinzies, if you don’t know what that is, I hope you never find out. I lost about 14 lbs. that week but it was an unpleasant way of dieting. I just couldn’t eat. I have just started the last in a series by N.K. Jemisin in her Inheritance Trilogy about the 100 Thousand Kingdoms. It’s called The Kingdom of Gods. I have been very much enjoying these books and expect to do so with this one. In fact, I haven’t felt very much like reading either and am sending two books back to the library unread, just couldn’t be bothered. Another I already sent back, most unlike me. I can always order them again of course.

An offbeat story just caught my eye, complaints about parking reserved for expectant mothers is being grabbed by people in a hurry, frequently men they say. I quote from their Facebook page “What society doesn't realize is that many of us are at high risk of premature labour, falling and injuring ourselves or our babies, suffering from blood loss after labour, risk of tearing stitches, risk of fainting during early pregnancy, let alone risking our other children's safety and the public's as our kids escape our hand while we carry the newborn infant and get caught up in traffic”. I do agree that such women need help and parking spaces is one way to assist them. I have disability parking and its amazing how often there are no available spaces because someone hasn’t any time so grabs the nearest vacant spot. I must admit its not something I really thought about until I had one myself. We once got in trouble parking in a disability spot without a license, we had done so because our friend was on crutches, but that doesn’t count if you don’t have the right paperwork.

One of my Avon customers dropped off a gift for us today, one is wrapped the other was a TimCard Quickpay card which allows me to go to Tim Horton’s, the most popular Canadian coffee shop, and get coffees and, presumably, donuts or sandwiches or something. Matt will eat the odd apple fritter, but he doesn’t drink coffee or tea. This customer has been buying chocolates for a few years but has now discovered I have diabetes. Oh well, I drink lots of decaf coffee.
That’s all from me for now, I have no idea how long this will be going on, but my apologies to my readers.

I know, I’m a chocaholic, Matt says I will eat anything if it has chocolate in it.

Crème de Mênthe Sprinkled Brownies

About 35 HERSHEY'S BLISS Creme de Menthe Milk Chocolates, divided
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
4 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Remove wrappers from chocolates. Cutting from corner to corner, cut each chocolate into 4 triangles; set aside.
Melt butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Add sugar and cocoa; stir to blend. Remove from heat. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Stir together flour, salt and baking soda; stir into chocolate mixture. Spread in prepared pan.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until brownie starts to pull from edges of pan and is set. Cool 25 minutes; sprinkle chopped candies over surface. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares or triangles. About 36 brownies.

Have a great day

Donuts and Tournaments, Snowzilla,

Friday afternoon we had our usual bowling so we decided to take a dozen donuts to be shared when we had our break - a birthday celebration. Bad girl, I had two. I do love good fresh Tim Horton Donuts. My favourite, a Walnut Crunch, is not shown in the picture. Tim Hortons are also famous for their coffee - I don't often buy coffee out but I do enjoy theirs on occasion. I really don't know if they go in for all the weird and wonderful coffee you can get at other places, such as Starbucks. An American company, Krispy Creme Donuts, opened locally a few years ago, but it seems to have disappeared, I never tried their donuts so have no idea whether they were good competition or not. In the States you are more likely to hear of Dunkin' Donuts than Tim Hortons although there are certainly Tim Hortons coffee shops in some of the areas around Buffalo.

Had a bit of a shock yesterday morning, sudden large charge on my Visa, then I realised it was for the 5 Pin Bowlers Association. The hotel and banquet fees for the tournament at the end of the month. I get one night's hotel fee paid by the local bowling association, but we decided to stay two nights. Looks like a big hotel. I know they have several dining rooms - Matt was concerned whether we would be able to get an early breakfast before registering to bowl at 8 a.m. but they appear to start serving at 6:30 a.m. in a couple of their dining areas.

I see in the news that our NDP leader, Jack Layton, has prostate cancer. I don't agree with his politics (National Democrating Party) but I sympathise with anyone who has cancer in any form although prostate does seem to be one of the easiest to cure if it is caught in time. There has been a lot of debate about the Premier of Newfoundland, Danny Williams, who went for cardiac surgery somewhere in the States, details undisclosed.There is an article here at Sympatico where his deputy is mad at the furore which had been caused. The picture is Danny Williams.

I heard two songs on the radio last night which were unbelievable, one was the artist, Blossom Dearie, singing the 8 times table and the other she was singing about adjectives!!! I ask you. I couldn't believe it.

I have discovered that the latest version of Firefox doesn't seem to work with WindowsXP although it does with Vista. So now I am writing my blog on the desktop and sorting out the spacing and other stuff on the laptop. Quicker typing on a regular keyboard.

The east coast of the States is being socked by a nor'easter right now and are expecting up to 3 ft. of snow in some places. I gather the capitol, Washington, is virtually shut down with the stores all empty because people have bought provisions. A snow storm is good business in those parts of the world. The trouble is, they are not used to such weather, up here it would be more or less taken in our strides, but not dahn sahth where they do not have the equipment to deal with it, nor are their powerlines underground with the result that many people are without power and goodness knows when their power will be repaired. Reminds me of the time we got 18 inches of snow on the coast of North Carolina, we didn't get mail for a week. The airports have virtually closed too and flights are cancelled. A friend in Philadelphia is making Blueberry Muffins to cope with their weather. I must say I am always staggered at the reaction in the warmer parts of the States when they get snow. Why do they empty the stores I wonder, we could certainly survived for a week on what we have in house. Are they not similarly provided for? This storm has received several names such as Snowpocalypse and Snowzilla. It is expected to dump more snow than previously recorded in Washington, DC.

Now, if I were going to be socked in, it wouldn't be Blueberry muffins, it would be soup. Not that I don't like muffins, but soup is a real comfort food to me. I watched Jamie Oliver make English Onion Soup the other day, so here is his recipe.

English Onion Soup with Sage and Cheddar

Jamie Oliver

Jamie: "There's something so incredibly humble about onion soup. It's absolutely one of my favourites but unfortunately I only ever get to make it in the restaurant or for myself as the missus thinks she's allergic to onions. (She's not, because I whiz them up into loads of dishes without her knowing!) If you have the opportunity, get hold of as many different types of onion for this soup as you can - you need about 1kg in total. Sweat them gently and you'll be amazed at all the flavours going on" Serves 8 Ingredients A good knob of butter Olive oil A good handful of fresh sage leaves, 8 leaves reserved for serving 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed 5 red onions, peeled and sliced 3 large white onions, peeled and sliced 3 banana shallots, peeled and sliced 300g of leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 litres of good-quality hot beef, chicken or vegetable stock 8 slices of good-quality stale bread, 2cm thick 200g freshly grated cheddar cheese Worcestershire sauce

Method: 1. Put the butter, 2 glugs of olive oil, the sage and garlic into a thick-bottomed, non-stick pan. Stir everything round and add the onions, shallots and leeks. Season with salt and pepper. Place a lid on the pan, leaving it slightly ajar, and cook slowly for 50 minutes, without colouring the vegetables too much. Remove the lid for the last 20 minutes - your onions will become soft and golden. Stir occasionally so that nothing catches on the bottom. Having the patience to cook the onions slowly, slowly, gives you an incredible sweetness and an awesome flavour, so don't be tempted to speed this bit up. 2. When your onions and leeks are lovely and silky, add the stock. Bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. You can skim any fat off the surface if you like, but I prefer to leave it because it adds good flavour. 3. Preheat the oven or grill to maximum. Toast your bread on both sides. Correct the seasoning of the soup. When it's perfect, ladle it into individual heatproof serving bowls and place them on a baking tray. Tear toasted bread over each bowl to fit it like a lid. Feel free to push and dunk the bread into the soup a bit. Sprinkle with some grated Cheddar and drizzle over a little Worcestershire sauce. 4. Dress your reserved sage leaves with some olive oil and place one on top of each slice of bread. Put the baking tray into the preheated oven or under the grill to melt the cheese until bubbling and golden. Keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't burn! When the cheese is bubbling, very carefully lift out the tray and carry it to the table. Enjoy. Have a great day

Tim Hortons, Medical Stuff.

The donuts were good (well I only had one) but the bowling wasn't the greatest for me. Matt had one very good game. However, the main thing, we had fun, with both lunch and the bowling. Lots of laughs and nice to be with good friends whom we haven't seen for a while. Weather was slightly foggy and very dull all day, but the maples in their golden glory brightened up everything as we passed. Talking of donuts (we don't even spell them the same way in North America) there is a well known and very successful chain of coffee shops here called Tim Hortons. There is practically one on every corner. They do excellent coffee and obviously, donuts, but they also have quite a variety of other foods available these days including things for lunch. Tim Horton was a hockey player once upon a time (that's ice hockey for Europeans) and started the chain in 1964. If you are interested click here for the full story. When I first came to Canada I was surprised to eat a Tim Hortons donut which is quite different from those I was used to in England. The texture is not the same at all, these are more cakey if you know what I mean. Of course I haven't had an English donut in over 30 years, so I have no idea what they are like today. I was actually not too keen on the Canadian version when I first tasted one. Unfortunately I changed, now when there is a box full available, I am one of the first in line. This morning I went to have my bloodwork done at a local clinic, very convenient, its just down the road. I couldn't believe it, I got there just before 7 and there were 18 people before me (they give us numbers). I guess I will have to start getting there earlier. There wasn't a seat to be had, but luckily one young man offered his to me - something which doesn't happen very often these days - I was very grateful as I am not good at standing any more. This afternoon is our regular Friday bowling leage and then we go for our H1N1 shots at the doctors. There is something of a row taking place at the moment, one of the stations, sorry I forget which, is showing a revealing description and video of how a woman should self examine for breast cancer. There are people saying a woman's breast should not have been used and a model should have been substituted. Particularly on TV. There are, in fact, several such instruction videos on the internet; many women do not know how to properly self examine for cancer and the feeling is that showing such a video on TV will help such women and maybe save lives. Personally I agree. As one woman pointed out, if you really want to see women's breasts sexually there are many other places you can do so, not least on the internet. If you are a dumb cluck like me, who never went for a mammogram until recently and certainly never knew how to properly examine myself, you will check out these videos. This recipe came from Joe Barkson's World Wide Recipes, however, the picture came from a different source so it shows the truffles covered in ground hazelnuts instead of chocolate. Obviously you can do this if you prefer. I will NOT be making these, I would have trouble keeping my hands off them. The box of Ferrero Rocher I can, kind of, forget, but having these sitting around would be way too much temptation for me. Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles 6 oz (180 g) unsweetened chocolate, chopped 8 Tbs (120 ml) unsalted butter 4 Tbs (60 ml) cream 2/3 cup (160 ml) sifted confectioner's (powdered) sugar 4 Tbs (60 ml) finely ground hazelnuts Cocoa, chocolate pastilles, or chocolate shot for covering Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler or in a heavy pot over very low heat. Stir in the cream. Add the sugar and hazelnuts gradually, stirring to eliminate lumps before adding more. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Form individual balls by rolling about a teaspoonful (5 ml) in between the palms of your hands. The warmth of your hands will melt the surface just enough for the covering to adhere. Roll in the covering and refrigerate. For best flavor, remove from refrigerator 2 hours before serving. Makes about 6 oz (175 g). Have a great day.