Grano and Roberto Martella

While taking a break from baking and trying out new blueberry recipes- yes,( if the recipe is good I will include it on the blog), I am checking for ideas for the blog.

Roberto Martella is someone we had the pleasure of meeting at his restaurant Grano. This restaurant is special. It is not just a place to eat but Martella has created a place to learn Italian- language classes, learn about great wines especially Italian at wine tasting and opportunities to exchange ideas at the various forums he has instituted. What a wonderful place he has created.
http://www.ideasthatmatter.com/people/2006roberto.html

Martella was awarded the Jane Jacobs award several years ago. This was a worthy recognition of the contribution he is making in this city.


We need more people like this who make places a wonderful and exciting place to live. Hope that your city has people like this as well.

DIY jewellery

A friend of mine who lives in Florida makes her own jewellery which means that I am always looking out for places in Toronto that have diy jewellery. Toronto now has another place for creative people to make and create jewellery. As the article mentions, the store which is in the west end of the city has a variety of supplies like pearls, beans kukui nuts and tinted wood. The place store looks inviting and friendly enough that I would consider stopping by and giving it a try. http://www.laperlerie.ca/home.htm

Who knows, I might add jewellery making to my repertoire.

Places to get sick

Finally, after nearly a month of being very sick- three days in bed, sleeping and attending to personal needs at the beginning, I am feeling 100%. I had not realized how long I had been ill until I started counting days and thinking about it. Wow, nearly a month!
Today's papers lists 6 place that you are most likely to get sick. I was in #2. #1 was on my list while I was looking after my friend who was terminally ill.
Wow, some of these places are places that you would consider safe and places that many of us consider havens. Be safe and careful!

1. Hospitals
It's where you go to get well. But at least 7% of people admitted to hospital will get an infection, including from the antibiotic superbug C. difficile.
2. Schools and daycares
Close quarters, lots of sticky hands and kids' immature immune systems mean viruses quickly make the rounds. In one study, a virus introduced on a toy into a day care in the morning was found on 80 per cent of kids by 5 p.m. and on 50 per cent of parents by the next morning.
3. The TTC
Or any closed-in, crowded place where people touch their mouths, pick their nose or cough into their hands. And then touch their surroundings
4. Public swimming pools
Gastrointestinal illness from public pools are on the rise in the States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The offender? Cryptosporidium, a microscopic parasite found in human feces that can live as long as 10 days in chlorinated water.
5. The Saturday night party scene
Or any place people are going to have casual sex. Stats from Toronto Public Health show some sexually transmitted infections, including Chlamydia and syphilis, are on the rise.
6. The Backyard BBQ (on a hot summer's day)
Every year, 1 in 6 Torontonians get food poisoning. According to Toronto Public Health, sporadic cases peak in July and August. Blame it on the summer heat, which causes micro-organisms to grow faster in food, and undercooked meat.

Blueberry Cornbread

It is that time of year again. I am baking and enjoying food. When I am on vacation, I have time for these activities. Love exploring recipes, new and old. This one is tried and true and always a hit. Enjoy.

Blueberry Cornbread
This excellent recipe is adapted from The Blueberry Connection by Beatrice Ross Buszek. Serve it slightly warm for brunch or wrap it up and take it on a picnic.

1 cup cornmeal
1 ½ cups sifted all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2 eggs beaten
1 ½ cups milk
¼ cup melted butter
1 cup blueberries, washed and drained

Place cornmeal in a bowl and sift in dry ingredients. Stir to combine. Mix together beaten eggs, milk and melted butter. Add to dry ingredients and stir to blend. Fold in blueberries. Bake in a greased bread pan at 375o F for 25 minutes. It can also be made in an electric frying pan. Grease frying pan and preheat to 250o F. Pour in batter, cover and cook with the vent open for 25 to 35 minutes.
Makes 1 loaf

This recipe was first made July 8, 1984 and included in the first cookbook that we prepared. Recently, Michael spoke to his optometrist about macular degeneration and what can be done to prevent it. His advice was to eat blueberries and green vegetables every day and eat fish regularly. I am including this to help everyone with their health.

Madoff

Hopefully, some people will remember that the saying that if it looks too good to be true it probably is. Certainly, the people who were duped by Bernie Madoff made several mistakes and one of them was that it was too good to be true. How could Bernie Madoff be making those returns when no one else was? Another rule, do not put all your eggs in one basket. Always diversify where you keep your holdings.
Bernie Madoff who received a 150 year term which he obviously never serve out is on his way to a much different life style. When he arrives at his detention facility he will be issued a tiny bar of soap, a tooth brush, a comb and a razor.
"This bar of soap is like the size of a matchbook," said Larry Levine, the founder of Wall Street Prison Consultants, who spent 10 years in federal prison. (No that's an interesting concept- Levine is catering to people from Wall Street who face prison. )What kind of consulting does he do for these people? There are obviously enough persons in this situation that Levine has clientele who will keep him employed.
Madoff's wife feels betrayed by her husband. Ruth stated:"From the moment I learned from my husband that he had committed an enormous fraud, I have had two thoughts,-first, that so many people who trusted him would be ruined financially and emotionally, and second, that my life with the man I have known for over 50 years was over.
"My husband was the one we (and I include myself) respected and trusted with our lives and our livelihoods ... who was respected in the securities industry as well. Then there is the other man who stunned us all with his confession and is responsible for this terrible situation.
A touching statement but she worked in Madooff's office for many years. How could she not know what was going on? http://www.canada.com/business/fp/Questions+linger+about+Ruth+Madoff+role+scheme/1744655/story.html
My goodness, these are interesting times!

Winning Text Messages!

I have not fully embraced the electronic age: I refuse to use banking machines (I worked on the first banking machines-helped fix people's problems- it was you against the bank and it was hard to prove that you were a victim), I do not have call waiting on my phone- why interrupt a call while you are talking to someone else. If you have a very important call that you are waiting for do not take other calls- I have call display. I have a cell phone but it is very old and simple: yes Ma Bell has a credit for me because I did not get a new phone last time they were offered, mine does the job. I have the phone for emergencies not for general conversations. Must admit having a cell phone when we were trying to deal with important issues in another province after the death of my in-laws was very helpful but unfortunately expensive. Not sure how we would handled the problems as efficiently.

It seems that a generation of younger people is being encouraged to text on their phones and it has become a sport. You can win extraordinary amounts of money for being able to text rapidly. Yesterday, Kathy Spence of Scarborough won $25,000 after she won the LG Texting Championships. http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/06/29/scarborough-teen-wins-texting-competition.aspxWho would think that this would be a competitive sport! What have I missed! What is the point in being able to text rapidly?
Wonder what the next contest will be?

Charities and Analysis

Kate Bahen and her friends entered the non-profit services sector and discovered that donating wisely is not easy.
"The traditional method of giving is spray and pray; it's passive," says Ms. Bahen, a retired equity analyst. "You make your decision based on your social network and who is sitting on which board.
Ms. Bahen and her friends saw significant problems in that approach. "There was no way for us to find about organizations doing phenomenal work on the front lines. " So, they turned the table and made giving an active endeavour.
In 2006, they launched Charity Intelligence, which itself became a registered charity in 2008, and began applying their investment training into attacking Canada's most pressing social issues. Charity Intelligence researches and analyzes Canada's charities in order to provide givers with the information they need to give to charities with proven results. It provides its finding free of charge on its website: http://www.charityintelligence.ca/.
What a wonderful idea in theory but there are 82,000 registered charities according to one of the statistics. How is this group going to evaluate them and how does it choose which one to examine. A worthy objective but how will the group do it's job effectively? Will be interesting to examine again in a year's time.