Happy Canada Day

I know that it is a day early but I want to wish everyone a Happy Canada Day. Some of you will have finished long slow drives to cottages. Hope that you have a wonderful time at the cottage. Others will be enjoying the city which has its delights as well. We will be having breakfast in the Beach area. Nice way to start the long weekend. I will have gone to the Music Banquet. Nice to have been invited.
Enjoy.

Mail strike is over!

Yeah! There is good news and bad news. The mail strike is over which means that bills will come. However, it also means that some cheques will start arriving. I am owed a couple cheques for performances. I can also start sending letters to friends. Missed sending off notes and cards. Just realized that I need to send a birthday card to a friend. Must get that off.
Wish that the strike could have been resolved without government intervention and suspect that it could have but we will never know. Enjoy the mail. Most of you will not care about the bills since you have prepaid them.
Bring on the mail.

Jeffry Leung and Fuzzy Bird

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of hearing one of my former students perform. He is now finished second year of the performance programme at U. of T. He is calling his performances the Fuzzy Bird project and I must say that I am impressed. The Fuzzy Bird comes from a Japanese composer who wrote the piece which is very modern.
I just googled him but at the moment, nothing. I do not think that will continue. Jeffrey Leung will be a name to note and you will hear more.
Must go and practise. However, I can only think about the standard he is reaching. Not enough hours in the day.

No Happy Feet!

A young Antarctic Emperor penguin has caught the attention of the media. This poor penguin took a wrong turn and ended up stranded on a beach in New Zealand. Conservation experts say the penguin, discovered Monday, is about 10 months old and stand about 80 centimetres high. Colin Miskelly of Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, said the bird was likely born during the last Antarctic winter. It may have been searching for squid and krill when it took a wrong turn and landed about 3,200 kilometres from the Antarctic coast. Now that is a wrong turn. I would have noticed after the first kilometre or so. This poor bird's homing instincts were not very strong.
Recent reports say that the conservationist will not get involved with the bird. They can not head to the Antarctic at this time of year and they are worried about bacteria that the bird might have picked up.
Sad to think that this poor bird might perish on the beach alone and lost.

Cost of bags

Today, I bought blueberries. They are 2 for $5 which is about as good as it gets. When I asked for a bag, what a surprise. Bags are supposed to be 5 cents. Well, they are 5 cents plus tax which makes them 6 cents at this particular store. The money is not collected by the government so the store in question collects the money and then what? I was not going to argue with the cashier because she is just doing a job but I will send a note to the parent company. Wonderful if I get an answer that makes sense? Will keep you informed.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to send the letter until the mail strike is over.
Oh yes, I was told by an American company that I contacted today about purchasing some bassoon reeds that the strike is supposed to be over by Wednesday. Will see what happens. Another company that I contacted for something else did not think that the Wednesday is realistic. Politicians will not go on vacation until this is resolved. Will be interesting.

The Shops at Don Mills

A year later and the mall is not filled and I think a disappointment. Sadly, the builders forgot that we live in Canada and this is not a discount shopping centre with Big Box stores. The restaurants might be busy but I am not sensing that this mall is a major success. Sadly, because the stores are so far apart, it will be impossible to cover them. Maybe this is just my opinion but I have not gone to this centre for over a year.
Perhaps, others have found it much more to their liking.

Giving from the Head

2006, Charity Intelligence was launched and it started to apply its investment strategy to giving. It researches and analyzes Canadian charities in order to provide givers with the information they need to give to charities with proven results. It provides its findings free of charge on its website: www.charityintelligence.ca.
"We come from an investment background and modelled how we would invest money to...giving." Ms. Bahen of Charity Intelligence says. "If you look at the traditional methods of giving, compared with the analysis methods of giving, it's like investing your money with a Bernie Madoff, someone who has approached you at your golf club, versus going out and doing the nuts and bolts fundamental analysis and investing in a Warren Buffett, who a proven track record."
This sounds wonderful but I have a couple questions: who pays the staff of Charity Intelligence? Why is their information better than others? The last crash suggests that even the best companies had trouble figuring out where to invest. Only large proven charities would receive money from this group.
Hope that this works. Will check into it.

Blueberry Muffins

It is now nearly blueberry season. They are appearing in the grocery store in great numbers. I tried a simple blueberry recipe yesterday and it was a success.

Versatile Muffins

Two charming English words, muffin and gem, refer to the same little cake. Serve these puffly little morsels piping hot form the oven with butter-and don't over look the quick change ideas.

Preheat oven to 400o F.

Grease thoroughly 12 medium-sized muffin cups.

Sift or blend together
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Beat together with a fork
1 egg
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup shortening, melted

Add liquids to dry ingredients and stir only until combined (batter will be lumpy).

Fill prepared muffins sups 2/3 full.

Bake in 400o over for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove from pans and serve warm.

Makes 12 muffins.

Blueberry Muffin:
Fold 3/4 cup fresh blueberries into batter.

Enjoy.

More Garbanzos

This will be a garbanzo and blueberry stretch of recipes. Going to enjoy these fruits and vegetables. The garbanzos are not a problem seasonally since they are canned. Tried the latest recipe last night and it was excellent.

Chickpeas with Spinach

"This vegetarian dish is easy and requires very little oil. Add ground red pepper if you'd like it spicier. I like to serve this dish with Indian flatbread and yogurt. "
Rajita Eihence, Middleburg Heights, Ohio.


1 teaspoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon bottled ground fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups chopped spinach
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can chick peas, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup hot cooked basmati rice
Lemon wedges (optional)
Grated Lemon rind (optional)

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add onion, ginger and garlic, saute 4 minutes or until mixture begins to brown. Add water and tomato paste, cook 2 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring constantly. Stir in spinach, chili powder, slat and chickpeas, cover. Reduce heat, cook 5 minutes or until spinach wilts and mixture is heated. Stir in juice. Serve over rice. Garnish with lemon wedges and rind, if desired. Yield: 2 servings (serving size: about 1 cup chickpea mixture and 1/2 cup rice).

Calories 403

Cooking light 2004.

Italian Garbanzo Salad

Yes, I am back to cooking. Have blueberry muffins in the oven, made blueberry cornmeal bread yesterday and for dinner Chickpeas with spinach.

The recipe for today is:

Italian Garbanzo Salad
"This can be served as a first course or antipasti with Italian food or as a side to grilled chicken. It's even better the next day over salad greens.

3 cups finely chopped fennel bulb
2 cups chopped tomato
1 3/4 cups finely chopped red onion
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 (15 1/2 ounce) cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese

1. Combine all ingredients except the cheese in a bowl, toss well. Let stand 30 minutes, sprinkle with cheese. Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 1 cup)

Calories 159
From Cooking Light May 2004 (Oh yes, I am also catching up on magazines. You can tell that I am really behind.)
June 10, 2011

Mail Strike

The mail strike is now fully engaged. The only means of communication are e-mail and I use that a great deal and the phone. In some cases, face to face works but only if the person is in easy travelling distance. Just spent an hour sending out contracts, checking dates for my trio and dectet as well as sending out friendly contact messages. The only thing that is crucial is contracts that I need to send for the McMichael Gallery and if the strike does not end this week, I will start to e-mail the contracts. Negotiations were done by e-mail.
I love mail and hopefully this strike will end soon. I also like to use mail to keep in touch with people who are ill, I have two friends who have cancer. What are the odds? And also some seniors who do not have e-mail, the cost is too much for them. They could avoid the cost by using the library but it would be a difficult trip for one of them.
Hope this strike will end soon. The solutions are not simple.

Gardening

Getting back into gardening. Worked on the front lawn today. Spent three hours weeding-clearing up all the maple keys that have sprouted and well as other real weeds. Amazing how things that you don't want have the unique ability to grow while those plants that you desperately want to grow sometimes seem very reluctant.
An example of that is clivia that I bought. I bought one for our aunt and they have not done anything for the past few weeks. The problem is that they are very slow growing and she wants to see something happen. It is harder when you are hoping that these will grow. Indoor plants need to be contained at least in my opinion. I have a few that need to be transplanted. Time to deal with them as well as the out door plants.
Will start taking pictures and letting you see how everything has come up and the plants that are starting to bloom. The peonies are starting to look lovely. I love them. Wish that they would last longer.
Happy gardening.

Back

I can not believe that so much time has passed since I last posted. It is a new month. I have been busy with supply teaching, booking performances at the McMichael Gallery. This is something that I have been doing for 13 years. Who would have believed that I would be at it so long. Not me, but it is nice to plan for performances that the audience enjoys.
I have finally done some serious cleaning and will keep that up.
Gardening is also grabbing my attention. This year, I am going to have a lovely garden. It will take some work but will be worth it. I love a beautiful garden. Have to think about some of bushes that have gotten out of hand.
Music is also part of what I do. Today, I have a performance with Zach at a Seniors' home in Mississauga. I am pleased that things are going so well in terms of performances.
Now that I am back, I promise to be more faithful about posting.
Time to get to some cleaning.