Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Mike's Blog,

I am thrilled to tell you my son-in-law Mike, the artist, has started his own blog. The Scolopax Chronicles. No, don't know why the name, I will have to ask him. Gynie you will be particularly interested as he is including drawings and sketches of birds he has made whilst on holiday. The link to his blog is on this page, of course, so I do hope everyone will check him out on a regular basis. He is not planning to be as verbally prolific as his mother-in-law, but then he's got a life LOL. The owl in this picture is one he had for a number of years, unfortunately it died about 18 month's ago. Mike, I wish you all the best with this new venture and hope it will become really popular. They kept me pretty busy at Canadian Diabetes yesterday, I was late home and Matt asked if they paid me overtime? I am glad that I am able to help out. However, I was having a lot of trouble using MS Word on their computer today. I hope we can get that sorted out, it was doing all kinds of nasties to me. In a bit of a hurry this morning, have my appointment with my foot nurse, so I have to scoot. This afternoon I want to go to the farm we visited on the way back from my last two theatre trips, their tomatoes are absolutely delicious. Their corn was very good too. They have lots of other fresh veggies available but their cabbages were huge and so was their cauliflower. Unfortunately we would never get it all eaten before it became inedible. How about something with a South Western flavour today, I love mole sauce, but then its chocolate so why wouldn't I? Chicken Mole with Green Beans Serves: 4 Source: Cooking Light Jan/Feb 2001 4 chicken breasts, skin removed 1 lb green beans, trimmed, part cooked Cooking spray 2 tsp olive oil 1 c finely chopped onion 1 tbs chili powder 2 1/2 tsp bottled minced garlic 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa 2 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tsp dried thyme 1/2 tsp sugar 1/4 tsp salt 3/4 cup chicken broth Heat a large nonstick skillet over med high heat. Add chicken, cook 5 mins on each side. Place the chicken and beans in a baking dish coated with cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for15 minutes or until chicken is done, turn half way. While the chicken cooking, heat oil in skillet over med high heat. Add onion and the next 7 ingredients, onion through salt, cook for 3 mins or until onion is soft, stirring frequently. Add broth, and cook until thick (about 2 mins). Spoon sauce over chicken mixture. Have a great day.

14 comments:

  1. Owls are such beautiful creatures and I wish I had one. But I wouldn't know how to look after one...

    My family has always been averse to owls. They still cling on to the superstition that they bring bad luck. But that's Malaysia for you! If we didn't have superstitions I'm not sure what else we'd have left! :D

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  2. I didn't realise you were Malaysian Ted. The Brits were very superstitious about owls at one time, we had all kinds of legends, in particular to do with them being harbingers of death. I guess these things wear off over time. I don't think we are superstitious about much these days. In Canada the Indians still have their traditions of spirits, but I don't think "the White Man" does any more.

    What happened to your bear, he didn't appear?

    Thanks for dropping by.

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  3. Thanks for the plug Jo. Scolopax rusticola is the latin name of the European Woodcock so it seemed appropriate. The picture is actually me with a saker falcon called Noisy. She belonged to a friend and he kindly let me fly her on the day that pic was taken.

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  4. Oops, silly me, I just made an assumption about the bird on your hand. Now I look at it properly, I can see its not an owl.

    I think the origin of your blog name is very clever.

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  5. Lol - I came to the comments to tell you that a) that was a funny looking owl, and b) Scolopax minor was the American Woodcock...

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  6. Yes, just shows what assuming will do - you know what they say? I hadn't looked at the bird properly.

    Of course you would know what Scolopax would mean. I know birds a little, but I sure don't know their Latin names. I guess you do realise that's his last name?

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  7. I am bright today, I just noticed that his comment has his full name on it too. Wake up Josephine.

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  8. i am interrested !
    thanks !!

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  9. Mole, yum! I've had it a few times in USA, but only once here on the rock.

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  10. You should try making mole, its delicious. You can also buy the ingredients in a jar here.

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  11. You're right, I should try making it at home. Can one cut down on the garlic though? My mother would balk at the idea of that much garlic in anything.

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  12. Sure, you can decrease garlic in anything, it wouldn't taste as good perhaps, but..... Once it is cooked though, I wouldn't have thought your mother would notice the garlic so much.

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  13. It's a body chemistry thing, I think. Mum can't cope with very much garlic, even after cooking it'll still get to her and upset her stomach. I'm not so bad with garlic, but have to avoid raw onion (and restaurants here will keep using raw non-salad onions in salad garnish, which irritates me because I have to pick it all out and waste it).

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  14. Now I eat raw sweet onions in my salad all the time. It has to be the sweet onions though, the others are tooooo much. Dunno if you get sweet onions in the UK, like the Vidalias I was yammering about.

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