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…or does everyone in these photos look demented or weird with the exception of Layton? Honestly, I don’t know mow Martin, Harper and Duceppe can make those faces so many times on film! (top image from here).

I haven’t quite worked out a vegetarian version of this yet, but I expect it would have zucchini and eggplant in it to thicken the sauce. Just leaving the meat out makes it a bit bland.

Spaghetti sauce
2 pounds hamburger
2 cups chopped onion
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 cups water
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons dried oregano, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1 teaspoon dried marjoram, crushed
optional: 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
2 bay leaves
16 oz tomato sauce
12 oz tomato paste
Cook and stir hamburger, onion, and garlic in skillet until hamburger is light brown; drain and transfer to a large pot at this point. Stir in remaining ingredients and heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer covered with occasional stirring for 1 hour. Serve with hot cooked pasta.

Its time for another un-muffin recipe. Sorry there is no image, I lost it!

Banana Apricot oat bran muffins
1 cup oat bran
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
3 small ripe bananas (~1 cup when mashed)
1/3 cup dried apricots, diced
Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C)
Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Stir well to blend. Beat egg whites, vanilla extract, brown sugar, vegetable oil, yoghurt and bananas together in a separate bowl. Add to dry ingredients, then add diced apricots, stirring until just blended. Spoon into greased muffin tins. Bake for 23-25 minutes or until toothpick in centre comes out clean.

Wednesday morning I had a fine jaunt outside in the slush and ice.

I had planned to go to the hospital to give a blood sample for a diagnostic test and as I had already postponed an experiment at work to do it Wednesday morning, I decided a little bit of ice would not put me off. We had freezing rain the night before and it was still raining in the morning. I had phoned the General and their blood collection place opened at 7 AM so I wanted to be there right away to prevent it from taking too long. So I woke up at 5, had breakfast with Dan at 5:50 and then was out the door by 6:10. I had my purse and a bag with my lunch and a few books in it and was holding an umbrella up to try and keep somewhat dry despite the freezing rain carried on the wind. Our neighbourhood is very windy and today was no exception. The result of all this was what I can only refer to as the “Mary Poppins Effect”, as the wind literally blew me across the frictionless sidewalk. I managed to stop myself by grabbing onto a parked car, then slid across the street and down to the bus stop. For those who have read “The Restaurant at the End of hte Universe” you will know what I mean when I saw “Danger Area’s” ship could have taken some lessons from our sidewalk.

Upon succeeding to arrive at the bus stop, I discovered there was no room in the shelter but my unbrella was still doing a decent job of keeping me dry, despite the fact that two of the ends had already broken from being inverted about 5 times between our door and the bus stop. Then the lights went out. All the streetlights along the main road turned off and it looked like the lights inside the fire station went out too. I was really worried that the power was out in our apartment and how long it would take to get it back on. Dan was planning to go to school and practice singing later in the day and I wondered how he was going to handle the lack of electricity.

A bus came in a few minutes and I got on without checking the sign as I was just relieved to get out of the wind and rain. The bus wasn’t the one going to the metro, as I was expecting, but was the downtown express bus. This was fine as I was going to the General anyway, but I knew we had to take the expressway to get there and had some very disturbing visions of the bus sliding on some black ice, going over the railing and crashing in a horrible and firey way. I listened to my music (ELO) and tried to stay calm about it as we approached the exit. Thankfully, for once a Montreal Bus Driver allowed his better judgement to reign over the Need For Speed and we very gently exited onto the expressway and nothing happened. I had to take the metro a few stops and then when I got to Guy I realised I didn’t know where and when to catch the bus that goes up the hill to the hopstial and it was already 6:55 so I decided just to walk and take my chances. I saw fire trucks and a police car outside of the metro and wondered what that was all about. Later I found out that this area of town is the first to get salted because of the hill and they had even put up a rope at the intersection of Dr. Penfield and Peel so people could get across the street safely!

So up the hill I went. The rain was running over the ice, but surprisingly, it was grippy enough and I hardly slipped at all. There were a few other people trudging up the hill so I king of just followed them and I ended up in the basement of the hospital but was able to get directions to the blood clinic. Mass chaos would be an overstatement, but it was definately disorganizsed. After being stuck in a leaky airport full of angry screaming Italians with less than 24 hours until another connecting flight, this seemed like a walk in Hyde Park on a sunny summer day. Anway, my theory that everyone else would stay home today because of the weather was seriously flawed, as there were about 40 people waiting already. What really surprised me was that some of these people were rather frail looking senior citizens and I had to wonder just how they managed to get to the hosptial. Must have called taxis. Anyway, the nurse who was supposed to take our blood wasn’t in (I wonder why?) but eventually some extra people did come and after an hour it was all done.

As I had never visited the General before, it took me a while to figure out how to get out of the hopsital and down to the bus stop. I slid down Cedres (using the traffic light post to stop myself at the intersection of Cote des Neiges), and walked up to the 165 bus stop. The traffic going from CDN to Downtown was nose-to-nose and not moving at all. There were a number of absolutely packed busses stuck in the traffic and although I was extremely glad I wasn’t on one of them, I knew there would be very few bussees coming back out of downtown. Eventually a bus that was out of service stopped (thank you mr. kind bus driver) and picked up people along the street on the way into CDN. I got off at the metro, switched at Snowdon, and took it to De La Savanne (once again, I missed the last bus by 10 minutes). I stopped at the dep and picked up a bag of chips partly to get something to eat and partly to get some change to call Dan. It turned out the power wasn’t out in our apartment (miracle of miracles) and everything was fine back home. I called work and told them I would be there by 10 (estimating a good 40 minutes rather than the usual 25, which was right on the nose) and then started the trudge to work.

If it hand’t been raining, it would have been not too bad. But unfortunately the rain was very heavy and I had to hold up the umbrella the whole way. After the blood sample they had taped a cotton thing to my arm and I hadn’t taken it off and it actually started to bruise my arm because it was being compressed when I held the umbrella. Anway, in my bag I had several books as well as layers of clothing I had removed (I dressed for -20 weather and it was 0 and 100% humidity) and everything got very wet by the time I had made it to work. The sidewalks were extremely slippery and there were massive slushy puddles everywhere so my shoes and socks were soaked. Fortunately I had another pair of shoes in my bag and after they dried out I was able to take off my socks and wear those (yes sockless!) at work all day.

We went out later in the evening and I couldn’t even believe it was the same city. It had warmed up and liberal amounts of salt and rocks had been spread everywhere and it was so easy to walk!

I haven’t bought an album - lp, tape, cd or other - since about 1998. Not sure why really, maybe just no time to get into new music out there or the cost of the albums and the lack of funds. One of my Chrismtas presents this year from Dan was an iTunes gift certificate. My how things have changed since 1998! Its so great to be able to buy 20 different songs from any genre and artist for the price of one album and not have to fret over whether HMV has the album I want in stock! It took me a while to think “hmm, what do I like listening to and what’s new out there worth trying?” but soon I had a list too long for the credit. I was able to find almost everything I looked for with the exception of the Flying Pickets and Deep Forest songs I was searching for. iTunes, you really need to improve the selection of those groups. And what’s with not being able to find “Where Would I Be Without IBM”??

Much of my musical preferences derive from childhood, when my Dad would copy the latest LPs from the public library of an unnamed city onto tape. Thus, some songs have burned into my memory and they were top on the list.

So, here is what I ended up with:
ELO (Electric Light Orchestra)
Very cool group … fascinating musical style and highly enjoyable. If you don’t know them, check them out! I already have Out of the Blue and Thie Light Years (but for some strange reason mine is a compliation of the two discs on one, so I’m missing some of them) featuring classics like “Livin’ Thing”, “Evil Woman” and “Telephone line”.
From the album Time, I bought “Yours Truly, 2095” which has some of the funniest lyrics I’ve heard from them, “Ticket to the Moon”, and from the album Discovery “The Diary of Horace Wimp”.
From their Balance of Power album, which most critics find a bit dull, I highly enjoyed (and bought) “So Serious” and “Sorrow About to Fall“.

Supertramp: apparently, they’re still producing! I can’t say I have heard the new ones, but I enjoy the older songs very much. I have Crisis? What Crisis? which is fabulous but lacking “Dreamer” and “The Logical Song“, both of which I now own.

Bob Dylan: We were listening to CBC two sundays ago and there was a very interesting program featuring an interview with a well known English prof who said that Dylan was the best poet of the 20th century. Well that’s quite an interesting statement. I don’t know his work very well but I thought I would start with one of the most popular: “Like a Rolling Stone“.

Chris de Burgh: Sorry for the hideous webiste in the link. I think my Dad had all of his albums when I was a kid and my parents even saw him in concert! So I know the lyrics to songs like “Spanish Train”, “Don’t Pay the Ferryman”, “Lady in Red” and “Borderline” by heart. He’s very good at telling stories in his songs, and the Crusader album is excellent, as is the multi-song story about a soldier going to and returning from war. I only have one album (Spark to Flame) and there were a few I wanted to get, namely “For Rosanna” and “The Revolution” although I think I should have bought “High on Emotion” as well, which was recently re-mixed as a club hit!

David Bowie: I have wanted to buy the Best of Bowie album for a long time and finally was able to get the songs I really liked from it, including “China Girl“, “Golden Years“, “Heros” and of course “I’m Afraid of Americans“.

ABBA: after hearing their “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” song re-mixed on Madonna’s new album, I remembered how much I liked their version (although kudos to whoever re-mixed it for her, it sounds incredible), so I picked that up with the classic “Mama Mia“.

“What’s on Your Mind” by Information Society; alas only one album of theirs is available through iTunes Canada!

And now for the music released within the last 5 years … (drum roll …)
16 Military Wives by The Decemberists. Dan downloaded the video and we both enjoyed it. Even without the visuals, its great fun. La de dah de da de dah de dah…
Arcade Fire’s “Tunnels” and “Rebellion” (Tyler, be proud!). The latter has been playing on the radio constantly over the past year but I still enjoy it very much, although my un-hip co-workers were unimpressed when I told them they were listening to an excellent Montreal band who are friends of my friend. Oh well.

What I also would have loved is the soundtrack to Brazil (shameless gift hint for X-mas 06).

This past week I made a very nice meal from my cookbook Japanese cooking: traditions, techniques, ingredients and recipes by Emi Kazuko and Yasuko Fukuoka. The only problems I had were 1) finding a daikon (instead I used a different type of radish that I found in Chinatown that was fairly close) and 2) I fried the tofu with a cornstarch coating - very bad idea! But other than that, it was very nice. I wouldn’t recommend this for someone new to Japanese food unless you have tried something with dashi in it before (e.g. in agedashi tofu) since it is a bit fishy for the uninitiated. Once you try it, however, you will come to love the taste. It goes very well with tofu and this smelled so good while it was cooking. As for the mushrooms, the book describes them as the “vegetarian equivalent of steak” and that’s not too far off! I found they were nice warm and cold. Anyway, on with the recipes:

Simmered tofu with vegetables
4 medium or 6 small dried shitake mushrooms
450 g daikon (its a big radish!)
2 atsu-age (deep fried tofu), about 200 g each (note: you can easily fry your own tofu at home rather than buying them, just cook in a thick layer of oil and turn until the tofu is cooked through)
100-150 g green beans, trimmed and cut in half
1 teaspoon uncooked sushi rice
100-150 g carrot, sliced
300g baby potatoes, washed but not peeled
3 cups second dashi (see this website for a good tutorial, alas I used the instant)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons sake (rice wine - unfortunately I can’t afford sake so I omitted this and it turned out fine)
1 tablespoon mirin (cooking rice wine)
Soak the shitake mushrooms overnight in the fridge (as I do, being paranoid of food poisoning) or at room temperature for 2 hours. Discard the liquid and remove and discard the stalks. Peel the daikon and slice into 1/2 inch discs. Shave the edge to make rounded edges - this helps them cook evenly and looks ever so cute). Put them into cold water to keep from discolouration. Cook the atsu-age (or open the package you bought) and wash away the excess oil with hot water and drain. Cut into pieces of 1 x 2 inches. Boil the green beans for 2-5 minutes, drain, and cool. Set aside until later.

Put the daikon in the pan with the water and the rice (it takes away the bitter taste during cooking). Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 15 minutes, then drain. Discard the rice. Put the atsu-age, mushrooms, carrot and potato in the pan with the daikon. Add the dashi stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and add the sugar, soy sauce and sake, gently staking (not stirring) to mix. Cut wax paper to be about 1/2 an inch smaller than the pan and place over the stew. Put the lid on the pan and gently simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the paper, add the green beans and cook for 2 minutes more. Add the mirin and then taste the sauce - add more soy sauce if desired. Arrange the ingredients on a plate and pour some of the sauce over. Serve warm.

Fukumé-ni (slow cooked shitake)
20 dried shitake mushrooms
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (I tried using 1 tablespoon to reduce the oiliness the second time I made it and it didn’t taste as good, maybe 2 is better?)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
Soak the mushrooms overnight. Save half a cup of the liquid and discard the rest. Cut off the stalks and discard. Heat the oil in a large pan or wok and sir-fry for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to lowest setting, add the liquid saved earlier, the soy sauce and sugar. Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add sesame oil and remove from the heat.

Hey-diddle-de-ho there neighbour-inos! What’s new in Karen-land, you ask?

I finished reading my two Unix books and am now a guru superuser somewhat competent user and know how to get around, telnet, ftp, search/grep, copy, remove and move things and such. I learned two neat tricks this week: in OSX, typing “ls -G” gives a colourized list for files, directories and symbolic links (according to one of my Unix books, “ls –color” does the same thing in other Unix-ish versions. And from Dan: “open -a application.app” opens an application in Finder from the terminal. neat-o.

So I’m now into the Perl book and doing ok, but its a bit of a crash course since I have never programmed before and I still don’t quite understand the whole strings, operators and scalar valuables thing yet, but I’m sure I will with time.

I’m still not feeling well. Some days I am fine and other days I can’t stand the thought of food and have to force myself to eat. Not much fun. I went to the clinic and begged for some antibiotics, but (probably sensibly) they turned me down since we really don’t know what’s wrong yet. BTW Quebec definately has a two-tier health care system and although I’m too tired and fed up to blog on it now, I might later just to show how messed up it is here. It’s bad enough that I am seriously considering moving elsewherre in a few years. I hate to think that it has come to that, but I can’t seem to get competent health care in Montreal (or I haven’t learned how to use the system yet) and frankly, I need it given my immune system appears to be made up of tape, string, and a hamster running in a wheel.

Speaking of rodents, the mice are dong well, although Keiko had a sore on her head last week. I put some cream on it and it’s mostly healed now. They are struggling over who is the dominant mouse, and Keiko seems too tired or lazy to stand up for herself so I think Miette is now in charge. Also today there was a pathetic (but very chubby, as you can see) squirrel sitting on the tree outside our apartment making this lamentful barking sound. He was just kind of sitting there on our tree looking extremely depressed/confused and occasionally barking. I think he must have woken up from his hibernation early (just for the record, its Jan 14th and 0C) and didn’t know what to do since there was no food. I put some bread on the balcony, but he didn’t take it. Well its supposed to get down to -14 tonight so hopefully he will go back to bed and wake up in April.

Dan is re-installing the OS & software on his computer, as per his demiannual tradition.

Grapefruit was on sale at the grocery store so we bought a bag. They are so nice to have with breakfast!

I have definately learned that some types of cooking are best done by following a cookbook and not intenet recipes. Ever since we first went to Pushap for curry I have wanted to try and cook some basic East Indian food at home. I tried a variety of recipes from different websites and they all sucked. For Christmas I asked for something that would help me cook Indian food. Dan found one reliable website and took out two books from the library on vegetarian Indian cooking. I can’t believe how much I have learned and how wrong I was doing things before! So far we have tried three things: moong dal (mung lentil) soup, bhindi masala (okra curry), and aloo ghobi (potatoes and cauliflower). They were all really good. I finally got some of the right spices (cumin seed and black mustard seeds) and I think that made a serious improvement in the taste of the aloo globi. Dan and I even made chaptis tonight. It was fun. Its inexpensive too.

Yesterday we noticed we had problems with the kitchen sink not draining. It takes forever for a full sink to empty. Worse, the pipe underneath is leaking! I’m catching all the water in a yogurt container and putting it down the bathroom sink. I tried putting Drano down the kitchen sink and that didn’t seem to help at all. I called the caretaker and she will come on Monday but that means we have to deal with this the whole weekend and possibly even longer if the plumber can’t look at it right away. Thus really sucks because it makes it impossible to cook or wash anything in the kitchen!

Update: Dan had a brilliant idea and we bought a plastic container to use in the sink. That way we can still wash dishes and toss the water down the toilet and not have to worry about the drain. Its leaking worse than before (how can a drain be leaking and clogged at the same time??) and when we try to drain water from the sink all sorts of icky stuff comes up into the sink so it’s nice to know the dishes are going into something clean. Euh.

Up-update: The drain got fixed on Monday. Hooray! I’ll never take plumbing for granted again!!