Wednesday, February 22, 2012

to make asap

To Make ASAP,
and (A Few) Things I Learned...
from HEALTHY STARTS HERE
by Mairlyn Smith, Whitecap Books


TO MAKE ASAP:

Asparagus Salad (and all things asparagus)
Curried Lentils with Spinach
(Secret Ingredient) Chocolate Mousse
Fennel with Spanish Onion Slaw
Leek, Parsnip & Apple Soup
Sweet & Spicy Walnuts
Marinated Mushrooms
Winter Pea Salad
Summer Pea & Mint Salad
Crispy Kale (with parmessan)
Tuscan Supper (a soup)
Olive & Herb Topping (for salmon)
Four Sauces: citrus, teriyaki, wasabi, dijon
Coleslaw: master recipe
Chili Roasted Broccoli Stalks
Asian Style Chicken & Watercress Soup
Roasted Butternut Squash with Turmeric
Pan-Fried and Oven-Finished Fall Veggies

(A FEW) THINGS I LEARNED:

My addiction to salt can be overcome.

Serving sizes on labels vary. Marketers love this trick.

Cut dates with scissors.

How to choose asparagus, broccoli, fish. (The darker the broccoli the better.)

Don't over-stir mushrooms.

Mushroom stems are good for stock.

Mushrooms are the only vegetable that contains vitamin D.

A good temp for fridge is 4 degrees C. (40F)

I need a set of dry measuring cups. Glass is for liquids. Silly me.

How to measure liquids.

Yogurt is a dry ingredient.

Easy way to peel ginger. (with a spoon) (it works!!)

How to hard 'cook', as opposed to hard 'boil' eggs. Makes for fluffier yolks. (it works!!)

Monday, February 6, 2012

Rand McNally Deluxe

(Some) items found in convenience store
(in the order they're displayed)
at Fifth Wheel Truckstop, Bowmanville, ON


Rand McNally Deluxe Road ATlas
Chips
Maps
Scented Candles
Harley Chachkies
Harley Dog Chachkies
Greeting Cards
Angel Pins
Single Serving Cereal in a Bowl
Single Serving Microwavable Soup in a Bowl
Single Serving Chili in a Bowl
Single Serving Ravioli in a Bowl
Paper Napkins
Paper Plates
Plastic Cutlery
Can Openers
Corkscrews
Sardines
Miniature Jar Instant Coffee
Sweet & Low
Dads Oatmeal Cookies
Chips Ahoy
Ziploc Bags
Ketchup
Mirror Mounts
Wet/Dry Vac
Halogen Headlights
CB Antenna
Antenna Mount
Mini Jack Strap
Cables
12 Volt Power Socket
Dome Studs
Noise Cancelling Microphones
LED Marker lights
Rope (Nylon, Sisal)
"Wide Load" Flag
5" Convex Mirror
Metal Strapping
Hubcaps
Nut Covers
Canadian "D" Sign
Steering Wheel Covers
Cowboy Hats
"No Smoking" Decals
"Caution: Wide Right Turn" Decals
Steering Wheel Spinner (skull)
Licence Plate Bullet Studs
Soft Bottom Ashtray
Tarp Straps
3-Lock Grip Pliers
Air Freshener
Feather Dusters
Bottled Water
Pop
Chop and Grate Machine (as seen on TV)
Smart LiDZ (as seen on TV)
Boot & Sneaker Dryer (as seen on TV)
Toy Guitar
Back Rest
Postcards
Steam Mop
Toy Trucks
Leather Belts
Stuffed Toys
Toilet Paper
Sweatshirts, Toques and Socks
Ice Scrapers
Books: Dean Koontz, Louis Lamour
Baseball Caps
Fluorescent Orange Vinyl Jackets
Coffee Mugs
Box Set of 'Sex in the City' Body Lotion & Eau du Parfum
Piggy Banks
Charm (and other) Bracelets
Sunglasses
CDs: Roy Orbison, Dr. Hook, Shania, Elvis, Franki Valli, Lonestar
Audio Books: John Saul, Louis Lamour, Daniel Silva
DVDs: Silence of the Lambs, Missionary Man
Souvenir Key Chains
Work Gloves
Canary Yellow Vinyl Rain Gear
Canary Yellow Helmets
Pads of "Drivers Daily Log"
Pads of "Drivers Inspection Report"
Pads of "Drivers Trip & Cost Report"
ID Sealer
Mountable Map Light
Hole Punch, Stapler, Liquid Paper
Pens
Playing Cards
Calculator
Paper Clips, Rubber Bands
Animal Crackers
Miscellaneous Toys
Faerie Figurines
Nascar Decals
Candle Holders
"Remember When" Books
Wall Sized Framed Pictures of Horses, Blurry Landscapes
Miscellaneous Pharmacy
Gum, Candy, etc

Thursday, November 17, 2011

abernethy, wood, mackinnon

Brock Township, November 2011
Sunny hillside with a view
And not a Johnnie Walker among them


Abernethy
Wood
MacKinnon
MacLean
McInnis
McInnes
McGregor
MacDonald
Michael
Cameron
Clark
McCallum
Duncan
Campbell
McPhaden
McLean
McQueen
McDonald
Philp
McIntyre
McFadyen
Bailey
Sheldon
Brown
Wylie

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Babysitting a kid on Bermuda Avenue

Jobs I had
before I was eighteen,
starting with age twelve
.


Babysitting a Kid on Bermuda Avenue whose name I forget. Boy, maybe five or six, possibly annoying, not sure. Had a dog. TV in basement. Nice parents. Went out a lot. Paid well.

Selling Regal Cards and Novelty Items door to door. Best customers in the high rise apartments over by Food City.

Selling Sarah Coventry Jewellery through home parties. Only ever had one home party -- hosted by my mum. I let her friends look at my samples plus showed them a few nifty tricks with a scarf I learned from the training brochure. If I sold anything, I don't remember.

Selling Avon. This was so awful I've blanked it out. All I remember is thinking the plastic turquoise case was a kind of grown up version of Barbie, where you, yourself, have become the doll. I still have a mild reaction whenever I see a stray catalogue or, worse, a Tupperware full of assorted 'product line' at a garage sale. It ruined turquoise for me.

Strawberry picking one summer; had to get up before dawn, walk to the Towers intersection, wait for a flatbed truck that would deliver me and the other pickers to a farm forty minutes (by flatbed) away. Ate more than I picked. Got a tan and a rash and a very small cheque.

Slicing meat and cheese at Tothe's Delicatessan. Also slicing fingers. Visits to emerg aside, I quite liked this job. Make-your-own free lunch included, which meant shaved Black Forest ham and smoked cheese on a fresh kaiser slathered with sweet butter and grainy mustard, a large dill pickle... and custardy, creamy slice of Napoleon, washed down with Orange Crush.

Receptionist at a denture clinic. Mostly what I did was take messages, make appointments and when people arrived with their broken dentures, pulling them straight out of their mouths to leave for adjustment, I'd grab a kleenex and carry them into the back room. I also paid myself because the denturist, a madman from somewhere in Eastern Europe, named Dr. P., did not know the going rate. Yoost write out some kind chick! he'd yell, so I multiplied my hours each week by the minimum wage, wrote a cheque to myself and he signed it. Sometimes he'd yell for me to go to the liquor store and get him some brandy. Only taking teaspoon for medeecinal! One time he yelled my name from the back room in such a way I thought he'd yanked out his own teeth by accident. I ran in to see and he was there in his big black dentist chair, leaning back, holding a huge butcher knife in one hand and a peach in the other. You vant peach? he yelled. Is good! I did not have peach.



Monday, July 4, 2011

As I have been given

First sentences of culled books
enroute to Sally Ann
July, 2011


As I have been given a large and magnificent diary for Christmas--seven by ten and nearly two inches thick--I intend to fill it in as long as may ardour lasts.

It is difficult to know quite where to begin this story, but I have fixed my choice on a certain Wednesday at luncheon at the Vicarage.

I'd never felt so intimidated ringing a doorbell.

The espresso machine behind my shoulder hissed like an angry snake.

"Thanks be, I'm done with geometry, learning or teaching it," said Anne Shirley, a trifle vindictively, as she thumped a somewhat battered volume of Euclid into a big chest of books, banged the lid in triumph, and sat down upon it, looking at Diana Wright across the Green Gables garret, with grey eyes that were like a morning sky.

It was late May.

It was the opening day of the summer term at Meadowbank school.

The July storm moved down the valley, rumbling around either side of the hills and Pembina Lake.

Mrs. Ferrars died on the night of the 16th-17th September--a Thursday.

Miss Jane Marple was sitting by her window.

I was standing at the window of Poirot's rooms looking out idly on the street below.

"Anything of interest this morning, Miss Lemon?" he asked as he entered the room the following morning.

The memory of the public is short.

Both Frank and Nancy have been married before.

When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears, his eyes were reduced to chinks, and diverging wrinkles appeared round them, extending upon his countenance like the rays in a rudimentary sketch of the rising sun.

Every time he drove through Yorkville, Rosenbaum got angry, just on general principles.

Look at me now, Joshua thought.

I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus This-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles), who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates a 'Claudius the Idiot', or 'That Caludius', or 'Claudius the Stammerer', A.D. 41 or 'Clau-Clau-Claudius', or at best as 'Poor Uncle Claudius', am now about to write this strange history of my life; starting from my earliest childhood and continuing year by year until I reach the fateful point of change where, some eight years ago, at the age of fifty-one, I suddenly found myself caught in what I may call the'golden predicament' from which I have never since become disentangled.

We called him Old Yeller.

About midway along the Atlantic seaboard of the North American continent lies a strip of land which is known today as the Sate of Old Catawba.

"That is New York."

The children were at the Theatre, acting to Three Cows as much as they could remember of Midsummer Night's Dream.

I was nothing but a pimply little question mark on the day my sister and I first walked into Ken Jones Music in Etobicoke.

Some twelve miles west of Istanbul, beyond the outskirts of the city in the flat farm country near the coast, is Yesilkoy International Airport.

The extent of territory occupied by the Ojibway nation, is the largest of any Indian possessions of which there is any definite knowledge.

We started dying before the snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall.

The ship that was carrying me away from England to Africa in the autumn of 1938 was called the SS Mantola.

After an hour the young policewoman brought Fielding a cup of coffee and left him alone in the room.

The Beast destroyed my brief peace.

I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead.

Monday, June 20, 2011

3 Km - Grass

Randomly Selected Kilometre Markers
Eastbound on Hwy 407
Sunday, June 19/11


3 Km - Grass
4 Km - Guelph Line
5 Km - Dundas Street
7 Km - Appleby Creek, new housing development
11 Km - Recently ploughed field
14 Km - fallow field
20 Km - Sixth Line
25 Km - Lower Baseline Road
39.5 Km - Financial Drive
49 Km - kids' soccer game
50 Km - Algonquin Power
53 Km - Airport Road
53.5 Km - Mimico Creek
57 Km - large pond/small lake
61.5 Km - Rainbow Creek
62 Km - train trestle over woodland
77 Km - Yonge Street
85 Km - Warden Avenue
90 Km - grass, trees, chain link fence
92 Km - Markham Road
92.5 Km - Rouge River
94 Km - Ninth Line
96 Km - Barn
98 Km - York/Durham Line
100.5 Km - "Aircraft Patrolled" sign
103 Km - field, trees
103.5 Km - Sideline Road
104 Km - thicket, pond
104.5 Km - woodland
105 Km - woodland, Urfe Creek
105.5 Km - barn, Brock Road

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Grey Whale: Surfing

From a book I'd intended to give to a young niece
but have since decided I love
far too much to part with.


Grey Whale: Surfing With Devilfish
Minke Whale: The Camera-Shy Little Rorqual
Sei Whale: The Sprinter
Fin Whale: Asymmetry in the Whale Worlds
Blue Whale: Old Sulphur-Bottom
Humpback Whale: Not-So-Gentle Giant
Bowhead Whale: Skirting the Arctic Ice
Northern Right Whale: Lonely Survivor
Sperm Whale: The Generic Whale
Cuvier's Beaked Whale: Elusive Warrior
Northern Bottlenose Whale: The Flathead
Beluga: Ghostly Screamer
Narwhal: Acoustic Jousting
Long-Finned Pilot Whale: Stranded High and Dry
Killer Whale: Ignoring the Rules
White-Beaked Dolphin: The Squidhound
Atlantic White-sided Dolphin: Water Ballet in the N. Atlantic
Pacific White-sided Dolphin: Playful Pest
Harbour Porpoise: The Puffing Pig
Dall's Porpoise: Hyperactive Speed Demon