aoili!

mmm...i know i have talked about lebanese food in ottawa...mmmm good
love anything with garlic
and this is a nice garlic sauce from fooddownunder that i have used and it is easy to make and garlickly-delicious (yep just call me dubya bush with my invention of words)
but this is what i made as part of my new years eve cuisine....



# Basic Lebanese aoili (garlic dressing) doesn't use egg for its base but will still achieve the "mayo" consistancy - needless to say, for lo-fat use less oil or substitute with one of the "better" oils - the original recipe given to me called for putting the raw garlic in a blender & pureeing it until you had a smooth paste, then a little lemon juice & pepper, then slowly add oil (while the blender's running) - this will result in a consistency
# so we can take your basic recipe :
1 head roasted garlic - add some fresh garlic cloves for more flavor
# blend till garlic is smooth paste
# then add 1 tsp Dijon mustard,
1/2 tsp salt,
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, fresh ground pepper to tste.
# turn blender on & add 2 TBS olive oil,
1/4 cup unsalted chicken broth, 1/4 cup wine vinegar - try balsamic vinegar instead for more flavor & zest.
# Let sit for and hour or so

mmmm cherries

i have been enjoying cherries...lots of them...this month
so thought i would dig up some notes about them

these are from hungrymonster.com

"Cherry Facts
The Romans are believed to have discovered sweet cherries in Asia Minor in about 70 BC and introduced them to Britain in the first century AD. Although the fruit has always been popular for dessert and culinary purposes, cherries were used during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for their medicinal properties. The German word Kirsch, the cherry liqueur, came from the word karshu, the name given to the first cultivated cherries in Mesopotamia in 8 BC. Hot cherry stones were once used in bed-warming pans and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream associates cherries with love and romance.

Nutrition

100 g cherries (about 10 cherries)
48 Kcals
0.1 g fat
2.1 g fiber
11 mg vitamin C (27% RDA)
Rich in bioflavonoids and ellagic acid. Studies show cherries to be a good source of antioxidants and darker cherries will have higher levels than red/yellow ones."

christmas in the capital

these are a few of the images out there that show the beautiful lights across canada displays in ottawa. every year, approximately 300 000 lights decorate 70 capital landmarks. it's really beautiful, colourful, yet not over the top.

it's holiday time...

and that is why it is so busy at work
busy at the airport
busy in massage as people use up their benefits
more later
maybe a few sweet photos to break up the chaos of december!

godmother-ing

so i have just become a godmother here
sinead and mike look fab
roisin is sprawled out
and the girl did not cry or fuss at all
even during the water dunking bit
mike's brother dennis, looking like a godfather is on the left
great day
do i look different...what with the godmother glow?!?

it's your birthday little sis

ma chere sinead, c'est a ton tour

clinical kind of mood - reflex sympathetic dystrophy

it's funny how often pain is ignored by certain parts of the medical community
and one of the things i often see is rsd - reflex sympathetic dystrophy
it sometimes comes diagnosed
and more often is something i clinically assessed based on signs and symptoms
it is pain that is out of proportion with an injury
and most often results from minor surgery to the wrist/hand/ankle/foot
but the pain can be disabling
with spontaneous burning pain in a limb past the area of a nerve
you'll often see dystrophic tissue and edema
just basically something doesn't look right
and those with rsd will often immobilize the affected area
it can result from other areas subjected to surgery
and i saw the pain from it again
and it is amazing that a nerve can go haywire when the body is tampered with in a surgical way

pub crawling

doing a pub crawl in ottawa can be a dangerous thing
so tonight at the airport there was the discussion of several of us in "sales" join the rampies or ramp rats or simply ramp on their annual pub crawl
sounds innocuous, no?
hmmm
not so much
the crawl is to take place in the market
and for anyone unfamiliar with the market
it contains nearly 200 bars and restaurants within a 5 block radius
and this is the thing
one drink
move to the next place
literally can turn into a crawl
i mean the irish village alone has several pubs with indoor links between them
a dangerous yet thoughtful layout
mulling it over
can hangovers be offset by the ottawa winter?
by brief 3 metre jaunts into the cold between pubs?
i may be checking into that in a few weeks

brrrrr

so i started a new function at work today
thought i would be doing a lot of gate control
but ended up meeting a lot of flights
outside
on the apron
brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
such a cold eve
wakes you up
and tires you out
tomorrow i will bring some long johns
just in case
but it will warm up
in march
until then
more news en francais
les nuits froides
les jours courts
and wrapping up
et je vais dire non seulement les cadeaux
mais moi-meme!

wrong!

i have seen depeche mode in concert every time they have been in canada since 1986
so this time no
wrong
wrong
wrong
but missing them in montreal to become a godmother
dave g would understand
but seeing them a 12th time will need to wait
touring the angel
maybe they will come to yow later
pls
pls
pls
let me get what i want this time

in toronto

and about to become a godmother
hmmm influence i guess
and at the same time
everything changes
it is funny
i moved to ottawa
and have become intolerant
of over-trafficked areas on a saturday early eve
how do people deal
and yet
when i say i live in ottawa
i hear the same response
dull boring conservative
well try to find a conservative mp in ottawa
there just aren't any
and if seeing deer on the way to the airport
and the simple beauty of bare birches with a touch of snow are boring
then stay where you are
i will take my place in the silence
and the perfection of places
where no one expects you to dress up to live your life
come as you are
brace for the cold
and expect a warmer welcome.