After the Challenge and the Month of April

Phew, it’s all over. For me, it’s not the writing of the posts so much (I write that many every month anyway) as all the visiting one does. Plus, being a minion on Tina’s Terrific Team I had 40 blogs to keep an eye on. I find it a lot of work, what the co-hosts achieve is unbelievable, they have even more work to do. My heartfelt congratulations to all of them. It becomes difficult to balance every day life with the needs of the Challenge.

During the month of course, we had the Heartbleed Virus. 900 Social Insurance numbers were stolen from the Canadian Government. The first I knew about it was the bank and one or two other places, sending me notices that things were safe. I think I saw, somewhere, that the person responsible for the virus had been arrested. However, everyone was recommending you changed your passwords particularly for sensitive areas like banking. I get really teed off with people who do this kind of thing, mostly because they can.

We caught two episodes of Your Inner Fish on Public Television. Absolutely fascinating information about the development of man. I hope I can catch them again and see all of them this time. Your Inner Fish is a 3-part science series that takes a fresh look at human evolution. Join Neil Shubin for a quirky examination of fossils and DNA. I hadn’t realised there was a book as well as the TV programme. I prefer to see it rather than read it though. When I was a kid they used to talk about the ‘missing link’, it would appear that that is no longer an issue and the connections between man and fish have since been found in fossils discovered over the years.

On Easter Saturday we had some friends over for dinner. They have a son, Kai, who has recently come back from a trip to Ecuador. It turns out he also visited the Galapagos Islands which had both Matt and I green with envy. A place we have always wanted to go. Apparently the famous tortoises are now confined and no longer wander all over because they were suffering from tourism and probably introduced animals as well. This is what Wikipedia has to say “Tortoise numbers declined from over 250,000 in the 16th century to a low of around 3,000 in the 1970s. This decline was caused by exploitation of the species for meat and oil, habitat clearance for agriculture, and introduction of non-native animals to the islands, such as rats, goats, and pigs. Ten subspecies of the original fifteen survive in the wild; an eleventh subspecies (C. n. abingdonii) had only a single known living individual, kept in captivity and nicknamed Lonesome George until his death in June 2012. Conservation efforts, beginning in the 20th century, have resulted in thousands of captive-bred juveniles being released onto their ancestral home islands, and it is estimated that the total number of the species exceeded 19,000 at the start of the 21st century. Despite this rebound, the species as a whole is classified as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature”.

Last Sunday I tried a new shrimp recipe which in fact turned out to be a Weight Watchers recipe. It was very good and will certainly be on our ‘make again’ list. I had never broiled shrimp before and was a bit nervous about doing so, but it was fine. I forgot to tell you we had a new stove delivered last week. It is a great stove compared with the piece of crap we had before; they soaked us for $200 about 11 years ago so we could get it. However, one small problem, it doesn’t fit the space properly. The back panel is too wide so it stands two or 3 inches away from the wall. It’s not a major problem, but it irritates me. Not only that, said back panel has a curving top so I can’t keep salt etc. on top, not that I could anyway, it would just disappear behind the stove. Also the drawer is smaller so I have had to find new homes for a few things.

Sweet and Sour Shrimp

WW 5 points including 1/2 Cup rice per serving

2 1/4 tsp Dijon mustard
2 1/4 tsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 Tbs vegetable oil
1/2 Tbs honey
1/8 tsp table salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
8-10 oz Shrimp

1. Combine mustard, vinegar, oil, honey, salt and pepper in a medium bowl; add shrimp and chill for 1 hour.
2. Preheat grill or broiler. Grill or broil shrimp until pink and tender, turning once, about 5 minutes. Serve over rice.

Servings: 2

Tips
Marinating the shrimp in our one-of-a-kind sauce makes this dish finger-lickin' good. But if you're short on time, simply baste the shrimp with the marinade a few times when grilling.

Have a great day

Poor Mouse, Dinner Party, Asparagus.

I am ashamed to say I totally forgot that I was being featured at Tina's blog Life is Good this morning, I am one of Tina's minions for the A to Z Challenge, a member of Tina's Terrific Team.

Because I have to keep my feet elevated, I keep my laptop by my easy chair and I have a Wireless Mouse. I might also say my Kindle, my Android tablet and my Glucose meter are all on this table. Bit crowded you might be pardoned for saying, hubby says it all the time. Saturday morning I had a glass of water on the table to take with my myriad pills and later, surprise, surprise, I caught it with my fingers and spilled water all over my poor little mouse. Luckily all the other electronic items were fine, but my mouse has given up the ghost. I have been reduced to using the built in mouse on my laptop, which I hate and usually have turned off. Whilst using it, it has a tendency to erase things I have typed. It does this at the speed of lightening so I am unable to stop it. Does lots of other unpredictable things too. It’s because I have a tendency to rest my fingers on the pad or brush it when I am typing. So I guess I have to go buy me a new mouse. Have you seen some of the prices they charge for these things? Luckily there are some inexpensive ones out there. I was going to order one on line but the shipping costs almost more than the mouse itself.

Saturday night we had a friend over for dinner and I decided to do a snow pea dish I found as a vegetable, not something I cook very often and these turned out pretty well, as a starter we had Asparagus Pesto Toasts, followed by Chicken Breasts with Lemon and Capers accompanied by Spanish Rice and the snow peas. For dessert I had bought some Cannelloni from Vincenzo’s. Our friend requested recipes for everything which is always a good sign. I only have a little Asparagus Pesto left so I will need to make some more once the season arrives. Another month at least if I am lucky.The earliest they ever opened was April 20 and the latest May 26. I hope it won’t be that late, I would have chewed my fingers to the bone. Matt already told Tim Barrie, the asparagus farmer, that I painted my fingers green and started chewing on them before the asparagus was ready. I am out of asparagus soup too and have one Asparagus/Almond soup left. Dire straits indeed. I could always go to the farm and get some pickled asparagus I guess.

As a prelude to the season and because I served it the other night, here is the recipe for Asparagus Pesto Toasts which came from the LCBO’s Food and Drink magazine. Hmm, it appears I posted this recipe last May, it is one I post every year however. If you haven’t tried it, when the fresh asparagus comes in, I highly recommend it.


Asparagus Pesto Toasts


1 lb trimmed green asparagus (farm fresh doesn’t need trimming)
1 cup toasted walnut halves (I used pecans)
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Freshly ground pepper

1. Cook asparagus until just tender. Refresh in cold water, then drain and dry well. Place asparagus, walnuts, garlic and salt in food  processor. Process until blended.
2. With motor running, gradually add olive oil, then add cheese and pepper. Blend together and check seasoning. Place in covered bowl.
3. It shows the recipe served on crunchy toasted French or Italian bread with a curl or two of parmesan on top and some asparagus at the side.
4. We freeze this in ice cube trays, then wrap the cubes in pairs (separated by Saran, and put in a bag in the freezer until we need them. Lasts forever.

Have a great day