CT Scan, Birthday Present,

I sometimes wonder if I will ever get back to bowling again this season. Today I am having a CT scan at 11:30 and I had the ultrasound on Sunday, but none of this actually helps me. One good thing I found out though, I will not have to lift my arm above my head when I am in the CT scanner, I was a tad concerned about that. After the CT scan we are planning to go to the Mandarin restaurant (Chinese) so I can eat some of their New Year dumplings. Everyone was saying Gung hai fat choi yesterday, but in fact Chinese New Year lasts several days, not just one like ours.

Today I bought Matt’s birthday present. A wine cooler. It holds 35 bottles, we don’t carry that many but… What I did was I asked a friend if she wanted to sell the one her husband bought a couple of years ago (prior to his demise) and she said yes, so today we went and collected it. Matt was grinning so I figure he was pleased. I tried to find a picture of the actual cooler but couldn’t so I borrowed a pic which looks more or less the same.

Having left it 3 hours to cool, we loaded it with what wines we have in house. I wanted to put my small champagnes in too, but Matt said they wouldn’t fit. Pity. They are just the size of one glass full and I thought it would be good to keep them in the cooler. One small problem, we can’t easily read the thermometer nor even the controls at the bottom under the door. One of the joys of old age I’m afraid. We are hoping daylight will improve matters.

I forgot, today I called the specialist I was supposed to visit, turned out they hadn’t heard of me, called my family doctor they told me they had to change the referral. Called the new specialist and they had been waiting for a response from the family doctor’s office since December 30. I hate to mention how mad this made me. I have been suffering all this time and neither party bothered to check with the other, so nothing was being done. I don’t swear in my blog but I leave it to you to imagine all the epithets I am using in my mind. Not the doctors fault but the stupid girls in one or other of the offices. Grrrrrrr.

Boy is this recipe up my street, I love Gravlax, smoked salmon or anything like that. Matt once reckoned I ate all the smoked salmon on our cruise ship, there was a lot apparently!!!

New World Gravlax

Source: © EatingWell Magazine

Active Time: 30 Minutes

Total Time: 48 Hours
20 servings

This gravlax is a play on the traditional Scandinavian recipe. Thinly slice the finished salmon for canapés or layer it on warm grilled flatbread with a scattering of sliced sweet red onions, fresh salmon caviar and a dollop of good sour cream or crème fraîche. This salmon is also delicious used to make those wonderful old-fashioned tea sandwiches with fresh herb butter and thinly sliced cucumbers.

Make Ahead Tip: Cure for up to 3 days (Step 2). After curing and removing from the marinade, refrigerate the gravlax, wrapped in plastic, for up to 1 week. | Equipment: Cheesecloth

INGREDIENTS

1 3-pound wild salmon fillet, bones removed, skin on

1/4 cup kosher or sea salt

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest

2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper

2/3 cup chopped fresh herbs, including tarragon, parsley, chives, mint and cilantro

1/3 cup good-quality tequila

DIRECTIONS

Use cheesecloth to line a pan just large enough to hold salmon, making sure there is a 2-inch overhang. Lay salmon on the cheesecloth, skin-side down.

Combine salt, sugar, lemon zest and pepper in a small bowl. Sprinkle the salt mixture evenly over the salmon. Scatter herbs on top. Wrap the salmon tightly with the cheesecloth. Brush the top of the cheesecloth with tequila, making sure the cloth is evenly moist. Place another baking pan or large plate on top of the salmon (it should be big enough to cover the salmon but small enough to fit inside the larger pan). Place 2 heavy cans inside the smaller pan (or on the plate) to weight it down. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 days to cure.

To serve, gently wipe the salt mixture off the salmon. Slice the salmon very thinly at an angle, leaving the skin behind.

Have a great day

Fat Free? Snow,

New one on me, reduced fat tofu. I didn’t know there was such a thing. Tofu is a vegetable product, how can it have fat in it? I don’t basically believe in buying non-fat, reduced fat, low cal anything. If I am going to eat it, I will eat the real thing, in moderation and eat less of something else if necessary. Foods which are reduced frequently taste lousy and contain things I shouldn’t eat anyway. No thank you, I will stick to the real thing. It really isn’t necessary to stuff yourself with these tasteless foods, just moderation, moderation, moderation. If you can’t be moderate you might as well give up anyway. That’s not to say I won’t make things which are diet friendly, like the cookies the other day, I just don’t want to buy products labelled that way.

Well we certainly got some snow yesterday, first time we have had any which really counted this winter. I am told there were cars sliding all over the place, Canadians don’t remember how to drive from one winter to another, and that the roads were treacherous. We didn’t bother to go out anyway, so I can’t confirm although it certainly looks pretty white out there. I am not sure what they did about school buses, I didn’t hear anything.

There is a new movie coming out called Red Tails which is a fictional account of the Tuskegee Airmen who were the first African American fliers in the second world war. There was already a movie called Tuskegee Airmen which Matt watched last night. It turns out that Robyn Roberts’ dad was one of the first Tuskegee airmen or Red Tails and they honoured her the other day on GMA by presenting her with a red airmen’s jacket. The older guy in the picture was a Tuskegee airman in his younger days. There is a video at the link if you are interested.

Its New Year, OK Chinese New Year, which is a favourite time with me. I love dumplings and like to go and eat lots of them to celebrate, I wish you all gung ha fat choi which is the nearest we can get to their traditional NY greeting. 2012 is the year of the Dragon, my favourite critter.  I was born in the year of the Tiger – pity I would love to have been in the year of the dragon. Matt was born in the year of the pig or boar and we are not supposed to be compatible, now they tell me after almost 40 years, grin.

Afterwards there is “Rabbie” Burns Day. I would love to go to a Burns Day celebration but have never managed to do so. The ceremony of piping the haggis would be wonderful to see. They do hold a Burns Night in Fergus I believe which is not that far from here, but I wouldn’t want to go alone and I suspect Matt wouldn’t be interested.

Needless to say I have to give you a dumpling recipe. This looks fairly simple and is from Good Housekeeping. Not the greatest source for Chinese Food but helpful to Westerners. It includes using Wonton wrappers instead of having to make dumpling wrappers, not as good, but easier.

Chinese Dumplings

From Good Housekeeping

Serves: 12
Yields: 36 dumplings

Ingredients

2 cup(s) (packed) sliced Chinese cabbage (Napa)

1/2 pound(s) ground pork

2 tablespoon(s) soy sauce

1 tablespoon(s) dry sherry

2 teaspoon(s) cornstarch

1 1/2 teaspoon(s) minced, peeled gingerroot

1 green onion, minced

36 (3/4 12-ounce package) wonton-skin wrappers*, 3 1/2" by 3 1/4"

1 large egg white, beaten

Soy Dipping Sauce (below)

Green onions for garnish

---

Directions

1. Prepare filling: In 2-quart saucepan over high heat, in 1 inch boiling water, heat cabbage to boiling. Cook cabbage 1 minute; drain. Immediately run cold water over cabbage to cool. With hands, squeeze as much water out of cabbage as possible.
2. Finely chop cabbage. Squeeze liquid from chopped cabbage; place in medium bowl. Stir in pork, soy sauce, sherry, cornstarch, ginger, and green onion.
3. Arrange half of wonton-skin wrappers on large sheet of waxed paper. With pastry brush, brush each wrapper lightly with egg white. Spoon 1 rounded teaspoon filling onto center of each wonton wrapper. Bring opposite corners of wonton wrapper up over filling; pinch and pleat edges together to seal in filling. Repeat with remaining wonton wrappers, egg white, and filling
4. In deep 12-inch skillet over high heat, heat 1/2 inch water to boiling. Place all dumplings, pleated edges up, in one layer in skillet. Stir gently with spoon or heat-proof spatula to prevent dumplings from sticking to bottom of skillet. Heat dumplings to boiling. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 5 minutes or until dumplings are cooked through.
5. Meanwhile, prepare Soy Dipping Sauce: In small serving bowl, mix 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar or white wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons angel-hair-thin strips peeled gingerroot. Makes about 1/2 cup sauce. Each teaspoon sauce: About 7 calories, 0 g protein, 2 g carbohydrate, 0 g total fat (0 g saturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 240 mg sodium.
6. With slotted spoon, remove dumplings to platter; garnish with green onions. Serve with dipping sauce.

   Nutritional information is based on one serving without sauce.

7. *Available in Asian food stores or some supermarkets in the refrigerator case in the produce section.

Have a great day