Elections and Dog Sleds

This morning as I was preparing to go out, a very funny segment followed the News, which, of course, featured the US elections even though it was a Canadian station. Naturally, everybody up here pays attention or should pay attention to what happens down there because, when the elephant sneezes, we all feel strangely compelled to blow our frigid and runny woolly mammoth trunks. Anyway, while I was yet rejoicing over the Dem's gains (so sue me – cause ya won't get much), I was soon moved to mirth.

Aside: once upon a time, a funny Canadian, Rick Mercer, took a film crew down there and caught various American reactions to absurd Canadian situations on tape. He managed to get one governor (from Georgia maybe) to believe that our parliament buildings were a big igloo. Other things: he induced many to congratulate us for getting our first university; others to condemn our practice of putting seniors on ice floes; and, there was something about a petition to have Canada switch to a 24 hour day from our present 20 hours … and so on. My memories are dim and vague now and, probably iffy, but you get the idea. Later, it is reported that an American crew tried to do a similar thing here, but, of course, it didn't work because, as I said, we more or less have to pay attention.

Regardless, the excerpt which I heard this morning was done by Americans to Americans. The question was something like, "Do you believe that Barack Obama is a threat to the US?" Of course, every interview that they played was affirmative. Apparently, Mr Obama is perceived to be a most dangerous threat, indeed! Naturally, the respondents thought the question referred to O_amasomethingorother, and the answers were hilarious. I was busy getting ready to go out, so my attention wasn't the keenest, but I do recall one follow-up question: "Do you consider yourself to be an intelligent person?" Of course, the interviewee did because she had her doctorate, doncha know?

Mind you, we're not as superior as I'd like to think up here in the frozen tundra. Personally, although I did stay up to catch some election results last night and was keen to receive an update this morning, I contritely confess that I only know of Barack because I saw him on Oprah not very long ago. And … we had a furnace repairman here this morning. Would you believe that he had no clue about American elections going on or what they meant? No clue at all. So, when I said that we pay more attention up here in the great white north, I guess you can take it with a grain canoe-load of … well, would you believe beaver pelts?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to hitch the dog team up to the sled for our 20 mile trek into the fur trading post for milk, bread and the newspaper, which is written in cuneiform … on birch bark. But you knew that, didn't you?

Whatcha Got Cookin?

I don't mind cooking, but I don't know what I'm doing, so I need to follow recipes carefully. I have some written in a cheap spiral notebook and some photocopied (scanned on the computer, actually) and taped into the same notebook. It's all rather haphazard, and some pages are getting stained and beaten down. It's time to re-think my dubious methodology.

You'd think that, by now, I would have typed them up on my trusty word processor, but the task seems to be so monumental that I have demurred. However, there's really no reason why I shouldn't start entering recipes, one at a time, when the mood strikes, for as Cuppa has been known to say, "You can empty the ocean one teaspoon-full at a time." Of course, that's only if it never rains and no new water is permitted to flow in, but the sentiment holds.

You'd think the internet might help. You'd think there'd be nifty recipe sites. Well, I don't know how nifty they are, but I have found two recipe sites. The first I tried was, Recipe Thing, but I entered the Chicken and Corn Chowder recipe (see below) at Allrecipes. They both have their advantages and disadvantages.

In both sites, you enter your ingredients and directions in dialog boxes, and both sites take care of formatting your recipe – you just have to hit Enter to begin a new line. Both sites allow you to email the recipes to yourself and to others, and both allow you to print them.

There are differences, however. Recipe Thing has bigger input boxes, and everybody can access everybody else's recipes – usually by keywords. If you note the address, you can direct others to your recipe as I have done with this Fake'n Bake Chicken recipe. You can also have all of your recipes mailed to you in a text file.

Unlike Recipe Thing, Allrecipes does not allow others to see your recipes unless they have been submitted and deemed worthy. Otherwise your recipes are private. The upside is that the many public recipes that you can find have all passed muster. Allrecipes also allows you to email recipes to yourself and others (that's how I got the one below without re-typing), and they give the user several printing options: full pages, 4x6, or 3x5. It is also a fuller and richer site. They have several email newsletters that you can subscribe to if you so desire.

So, both sites are useful, and neither is perfect. Although I am leaning toward Allrecipes, I haven't completely made up my mind, and I could still just opt to type them into my trusty word processor after all.

All of that being said, I do recommend the very tasty Chicken and Corn Chowder recipe, below. Although I have only tried the version listed below, I don't see why you couldn't use the whole rotisserie chicken and double the rest of the ingredients. I got both Chicken and Corn Chowder and the Fake'n Bake Chicken recipes from that fine cookbook, Eat, Shrink & Be Merry, which is not listed on the American version of Amazon. Pity.

Chicken and Corn Chowder

Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Ready In: 60 min
Yields: 6 servings

INGREDIENTS:
4 slices bacon chopped
1 cup diced onions
1/2 cup each diced celery and diced red pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1 1/2 tbsp minced fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 can (12 oz/385 ml) evaporated milk
1 can (19 oz/540 ml) diced tomatoes (squeezed in sieve to remove as much liquid as possible)
1 can (14 oz/398 ml) cream-style corn
2 cups roasted chicken breast (store rotisserie chicken preferred)
1 tbsp hickory-flavoured barbeque sauce
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Cook chopped bacon in a large non-stick soup pot over medium-high heat until lightly browned but not crisp. Stir in onions, celery, red pepper and garlic. Cook and stir until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. Add thyme and flour. Mix well. Stir in broth and evaporated milk. Bring mixture to a genlte boil and stir continuously until soup thickens slightly.
3. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve hot.

A Malaprop

Okay, I admit it, I was reading about the Ted Haggard brouhaha here on CBS News. I decided to peruse the comments beneath the article. Below, I have pasted a snippet from one of the comments. I'm not trying to poke fun at anyone; it just struck me as a very funny malapropism in a very unfunny, very sad situation. I don't know how long these pages and comments stay accessible on pages such as these, but it exists at this link on the CBS site as I write this.

"We have no right to judge him. The same stick we judge with will be judged against us. No sin is greater.
This is why we shouldn't put people on pedal stools."

Yup, those pedal stools are dangerous contraptions.

Feeling Better

You may recall that I was feeling like a dog a week or two ago? Yesterday's blog aside, I feel quite a lot better now — like the cat's proverbial you know what. But I can't make up my mind which version I prefer.

A Close Call

It's funny (no not funny – odd) the way that The Wheel turns. Suddenly, both in blogworld and realworld, there seems to be a plethora of problems. In blogworld, one person has a problem with her vision while another has an operation; advance to the next blogs and someone's father must endure very difficult procedures while someone else experiences significant family problems. Not only that, but in realworld, three people that I know are experiencing health-related difficulties.

We had our own trauma the other day. Butterfly emailed to inform us that Sumdge might have serious defects. She concluded this from a call to get right in to see the doctor regarding results from those tests that they do now. She writes about it in A Day I'd Rather Forget.

She emailed us because she was unable to speak at the time. We were gob-smacked because, based on our information at the time, the prognostication seemed very serious indeed. She has since visited the doctor, two doctors in fact, and it seems that the test results were pretty well in the normal range. Yes, because she is in her mid-thirties, the chances for genetic flaws do increase, but the odds are still very much with Smudge.

But we didn't know that at the time, and it was very difficult to bear – so very difficult. Butterfly has waited for a long time to become a mother. What if difficulties could lead to a still birth or any number of dire problems? How would she cope? How would Smudge cope? How would we cope? Of course, we would cope; we'd find a way, but for a while there, I faced the plausible reality of a huge loss. You see, the truth is that I love little Smudge already. I've seen his/her pictures and heard his/her heart beat, and I am smitten. Smudge is real and precious.

When Butterfly first announced the blessed event back in August and cautioned us that these were early days and not to get too excited, I decided that I would get excited. I would enjoy the anticipation and be happy. If things went wrong later, I would deal with that then. On Tuesday, although I was still hopeful, I also realized that we were quite possibly facing our worst fears. It was hard – very hard. Nevertheless, even then, I was thankful for the joy that I had allowed myself to experience.

Despite the recent cautionary note, I will continue to do that as best as I am able.

For Bonita

I had Bonita of Flitzy Phoebie in mind when I took these photos. She is forever sharing pictures and narratives of her many wilderness adventures with us. For you, I looked, Bonita.

We're having a bit of an up and down week. Monday was gorgeous; we ran into some potential trouble on Tuesday; and, Wednesday's weather was just about as fantastic as Monday's. What better thing to do than go walk about in nature? There's a conservation are about a half hour from here called Mill of Kintail. I've mentioned it before.

When we first found it late last Spring, we meant to get back there and walk the trails. We did get back there with company but never walked the trails. The desire to do something positive with yesterday's weather brought it back to mind so, out we headed.

The first thing that visitors see once they get through the gates and park is The Cloister. That's it in the first picture, above. It's a little open-air chapel where they have weddings in the summer. People would sit facing the cloister, and the ceremony would most take place just under the shade of the roof. Acquaintances of ours had their ceremony there on a very blustery and rainy late spring day. That's the problem with outdoor weddings, eh? You never can be certain.

Behind and down the hill from The Cloister is the old house, now a museum of sorts. Despite its name, there is no longer a mill at Kintail, but this fine house still stands. Off to the left (above), you can see a glimmer of water from Indian River, and that's about where the mill used to stand as I understand it. Below, is a photo of the river along the back of the house. There is a little covered lookout from where I took the photo. I thought it would be arty to get the roof of the lookout in the frame, but I was wrong!

But we'd seen all of that before; this time we walked one of the trails. It was less than two miles long, but we sauntered along and took the best part of an hour to finish our stroll. Most of the woods were somewhat scrubby, for as the photo below of Cuppa strolling shows, the forest plainly needs more time to grow from whenever it was cut down. Nevertheless, we had solitude; after meeting a couple at the beginning of our walk, we didn't encounter anyone else for the rest of the hour.

As we neared the end of our walk, the woods cleared onto a farmer's field. You can see barns and horses, below. And if you haven't been there yet, there are more photos and commentary on Cuppa's blog.

Redneck Country?

Is this redneck country or what? I'll let you be the judge.

A few weeks ago our Canadian Tire store had a sign declaring that it would be open on Saturday at 5:00 a.m. for ducks hunters. It begs the question: "Why?" I mean, can't hunters of the duck purchase their necessities before the morning of the shoot? The mind boggles. I wanted to get a picture for y'all, but they took it down before I could. Today, I happened to have my camera in the car when I saw this sign. I couldn't resist.

Folks from other countries may be curious about Canadian Tire. It is a department store somewhat like all of the others. However, it caters more to automotive and home repair than Wal-Mart or Target or whatever, and you wouldn't find very much in the way of clothes or fabrics.