Reading, Rain, and Road Works. Bolt.

I have just finished reading Snake Skin by C.J. Lyons, a Lucy Guardino FBI thriller, and absolutely loved it. I have no idea who recommended it to me, but I cannot recommend it highly enough to those of you who like thrillers. I am just bought the second one, Blood Stained, for my Kindle. I’m not sure why I haven’t been writing about what I have been reading lately, some of the stuff has been a bit mediocre, but some have been excellent. Two that come to mind are Cassa Star and Cassa Fire by Alex J. Cavanaugh both of which are sci fi and set in a space world of the future, right up my street. I am now waiting for the third in the series with anticipation.

Hey, how about that, its been raining. We are supposed to get about a foot of rain before its all over, cannot but hope. Had my annual visit to the optometrist yesterday morning and we discussed the drought and then the Olympics. He ended up saying that if you poured enough money into your athletes you could virtually buy yourself gold medals. Guess Canada hasn’t been spending enough, we only have one. He said the UK had poured a lot of money into their athletes in the last 9 years since they won the bid to host the Games. They have certainly accumulated a few golds. 24 last time I looked.

Driving to the optometrists we got lost, yes really, there are road works on the street leading directly to them and the detour signs are not very good at all, then we tried to go ways we knew although obviously we didn’t know them as well as we thought. We got there about 1 minute to the appointment. There is a joke in Canada that we have 7 months winter and 5 months road works, certainly seems to be true at the moment. Yesterday morning was a right fiasco for us; not only that, we knew about the roads and could have started off a different way, but neither of us remembered. Don’t go that way very often.

Finally managed to see film of Usain Bolt winning the 200 metre. The Jamaicans must be very proud that all three medals were won by Jamaicans. Bolt doesn’t seem to worry about records, when he knows he is winning, he slows down.

These crêpes appealed to me when I saw them, I am trying to eat a bit more healthily at the moment.

Summer Vegetable Crêpes

From EatingWell: July/August 2008

Crêpes aren't just for dessert—they make a quick and savory weeknight dinner. Here they're filled with ricotta cheese, green beans, zucchini and corn and topped with a chive-cream sauce. Don't skip the step of placing a piece of parchment or wax paper under each crêpe as you fill it—without it, the crêpes are tricky to roll. Serve with: A tossed salad.

4 servings Ingredients

• 1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh chives, divided, plus more for garnish
• 3 tablespoons low-fat milk
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cups chopped zucchini
• 1 1/4 cups chopped green beans
• 1 cup fresh corn kernels, (from 1 large ear; see Tip)
• 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 4 9-inch “ready-to-use” crêpes, (see Tip)

Preparation

1. Stir sour cream, 1/4 cup chives, milk, lemon juice and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small bowl until combined. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini, green beans and corn and cook, stirring, until beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Reduce heat to low; stir in ricotta, Monterey Jack, the remaining 1/4 cup chives, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Cook, stirring gently, until the cheese is melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
3. To roll crêpes, place one on a piece of parchment or wax paper (or leave it on the piece of plastic separating the crêpes in the package). Spoon one-fourth of the vegetable-cheese mixture (about 3/4 cup) down the center of the crêpe. Use the paper (or plastic) to help you gently roll the crêpe around the filling. Place the crêpe seam-side down on a dinner plate. Repeat with the remaining crêpes and filling. Serve each crêpe topped with 2 tablespoons of the reserved sauce and more chives, if desired.

Nutrition

Per serving :302 Calories; 17 g Fat; 8 g Sat; 6 g Mono; 46 mg Cholesterol; 25 g Carbohydrates; 15 g Protein; 3 g Fiber; 687 mg Sodium; 485 mg Potassium

1 Carbohydrate Serving

Exchanges: 1 starch, 1 vegetable, 1 1/2 medium-fat meat, 1 fat

Tips & Notes

• Tips: To remove kernels, stand a cob on its stem end in a bowl and slice them off with a sharp, thin-bladed knife.
• “Ready-to-use” crêpes are fast and convenient. Look for them in the produce section of the market or near refrigerated tortillas.

Have a great day

Bolt and Tiger, Rusty Bucket, Dinner

What an astounding athlete Usain Bolt is. He has just shattered his own record in the 100 metre in Berlin yesterday. He really is a fantastic runner and we were majorly impressed with him at the Olympics. I'd love to have seen him yesterday. I did see Tiger Woods beaten by one stroke at the PGA championship yesterday by a South Korean, Y.E. Yang which was something of an upset for Tiger who actually didn't play very well all day. They say the Asians will be thrilled to bits to have their own golf hero. Tiger didn't look too happy at all but whether that was being beaten or because he didn't play well, I don't know. When Y.E. Yang got an eagle yesterday, he was so excited it was wonderful to see. I have commented previously on the taste in artwork exhibited by both Kitchener and Waterloo councils or whoever actually chose them. The latest one in Waterloo, which has been dubbed The Rusty Bucket, has now attracted the attention of vandals who have scrawled things all over it. I have never been able to take a picture of the Rusty Bucket myself so I scanned this one from the paper to show you what it looks like. This is art? One day I will get round to taking a picture of the one outside City Hall in Kitchener which has been dubbed The Dog Turd which, in my opinion, is exactly what it looks like. I cannot find a picture of it on the net, once again, I wonder why? Whilst double checking I came across a Lolcat picture which I enjoyed. I absolutely love Lolcats, Karen Miller often publishes them and some of them have me bent over double with laughter. There are lots more pictures on the Lolcats site of course. Some people have a wonderful sense of humour. Our dinner party went off well on Saturday, we did the London Broil and it was delicious. I made the Heirloom Tomato Tart for a starter, also collards in olive oil, garlic and wine vinegar to go with the meat. Matt roasted potatoes in the British way and somewhat overdid them. In my opinion they were delicious. Really crunchy. At least one of our guests had seconds so must have agreed. We finished off with frozen Vanilla yoghurt which had chocolate and caramel chips in it, served in chocolate cups with a garnish of kiwi fruit. I don't know if you saw the comment from our sinlaw on Saturday, he enjoyed London Broil when he visited us in the States and he is not normally a beef eater. I got the following recipe from an Eating Well newsletter promoting Dreamfields Pasta. I love pasta with a carbonara sauce so thought I would share this recipe with you. I don't remember if Dreamfields is available locally, probably not, I will just use my regular brand obviously. Linguine Carbonara By Chef Marilyn Harris Ingredients: 1 box Dreamfields Linguine (or Spaghetti) 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 6 strips good quality bacon, diced 4 large eggs, at room temperature 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste Directions: 1. Cook the linguine according to directions. 2. In a small skillet heat the olive oil and cook the bacon until crisp. 3. In a large metal bowl beat the eggs. Beat in the thyme and cheese. 4. When the pasta is done, drain and add immediately to the egg mixture. 5. Add the bacon-olive oil and toss well until the sauce thickens. 6. Season to taste with the salt and pepper. Serve immediately in warm bowls. Have a great day.

Bolt, Steel Magnolias

I am pleased to report, if you didn't hear, that Usain Bolt did it. He broke the world record in the 200 metre by 2/100 of a second. He is absolutely fantastic. Did what no-one has done before by winning the 100 and 200 metre races in record times in the same meet. He was 22 yesterday so the crowd sang Happy Birthday to him. Matt says he has to compete in a relay yet. I wonder if he will have "enough" for the same races in four years time? Picture taken from CBC's Olympics Page. Steel Magnolias was very well done. I saw the film years ago, but for some reason, I hadn't remembered what a powerful story it was. The Drayton Festival players did a wonderful job. The whole play takes place in a beauty salon although I recall in the movie they moved to other scenes. When the final moment came with the mother being so angry about her daughter's death, you could have heard a pin drop. Then the relief came with gales of laughter. It was most impressive. Beautifully acted. One criticism was the hairdresser, Truvy, was trying to do a Dolly Parton and Dolly Parton she ain't. Why she didn't just interpret the part her own way I don't know. Also, not her fault, there were a couple of lines which referred to Dolly's endowments, which were somewhat misplaced with this actress, in fact with most other actresses. I am surprised the producer didn't cut them out. Picture taken from IMDB I was somewhat surprised to read in an ezine I take that people were actually donating money to the writer to help him buy a new computer. I can't figure out in my mind if this is being generous or stupid. Admittedly he has been writing for a number of years and has become a great favourite with his readers, but..... Hey guys, I need a new computer, are you going to send me money to buy one? As usual I watched Nova Science Now, nearly didn't but it was chucking it down in Beijing so there wasn't a lot to watch. They are having a typhoon (hurricane) over there too and it is dropping lots of rain everywhere rather like Fay is over here. Theirs is called Nuri. They postponed several events, but I read today that the equestrian events in Hong Kong are going to go ahead. I appear to have missed the new stuff on the Nova programme and just watched some segments I had already seen. They were still interesting. There was one segment on retrieving tissue samples from T-Rex bones. If you want to check the segments out click here you can also see the segments I missed earlier. Shopping day today, I haven't been for a couple of weeks, so need to get cracking. I was just reminded of the following recipe so thought I would share it with you. This is for different kinds of crèpes which can be filled with different foods. Tomorrow I will post suggested fillings. I particularly love the wholewheat crèpes, they taste so different. Crèpes Serves: 12 Source: Cooking Light - May 1994 1-1/4 cups flour 1-1/2 cups skim milk 1 tbs margarine or butter melted 1 egg Herb Crepes - add 1 tbs each of minced fresh parsley, oregano and basil to the milk. Parmesan - add 1/4 cup grated Parmesan to the flour Cornmeal: - replace 1/4 cup flour with 1/4 cup cornmeal. Wholewheat - replace 1/2 cup flour with 1/2 cup wholewheat flour and use 2 tbs margarine. Dessert Crepes: add 1 tbs sugar to the flour grated lemon rind (optional) Instructions: Place flour in a medium bowl. Combine milk, margarine and egg and add mixture to flour, stirring with a wire whisk until almost smooth. Cover batter and chil for 1 hour. Coat a non stick pan with spray and when hot pour in a scant 1/4 cup of the mixture. Tilt pan to spread. When the underside is done turn over and cook the other side. Place on a towel to cool. Can be layered in wax paper and frozen til needed.