Mulled Wine and Mince Pies

One of the surprising pleasures of living abroad is that you discover that traditions you assumed were commonplace and internationalised turn out in fact to be unique to your country of origin. At this time of year in the UK the supermarkets have stacks and stacks of boxes of mince pies. These small mincemeat pies are sweet and contain no meat but a mixture of spices, spirits and candied fruits. They are traditionally eaten warm and are best eaten accompanied by a glass of mulled wine.

Mincemeat is fairly easy to make - but the ingredient list is long. Depending on the recipe you use it contains sugar, cider, apples, suet, spice, cinnamon, currants, raisins, cherries, almonds and brandy or rum. So it is probably cheaper and easier to buy ready made unless you are making industrial quantities... In Edmonton you can buy mincemeat at the Sunterra Market in Lendrum - this is a great speciality grocery store / cafe / deli on the Southside.

The pies are made using shortcrust pastry. In the UK you can buy this 'Ready to Roll - but in Canada you will have to make your own.... Nigella 'Domestic Goddess' Lawson makes the pastry using orange juice, which I have found works well. The pastry is best made with half butter, half Trex (but I wasn't able to find this in Edmonton - so I used just butter).

A variety of recipes are also available for mulled wine. Nigella uses red wine, dark rum, earl grey tea, an orange with cloves, cinnamon sticks, star anise, muscovado sugar and honey. I had to improvise a bit and used red wine (this is required!!), southern comfort, earl grey tea, an orange, ground cinnamon and demerera sugar and it seemed to work OK. If you are in the UK you can buy mulled wine syrup and just add to the wine, this can cut down on the shopping required in the Christmas rush.

Useful / Interesting Links:

Wikipedia Mince Pie Entry
Pie Club
Feast - Nigella Lawson
How to Be a Domestic Goddess - Nigella Lawson

Things to do in Downtown when it's cold

It is getting very cold here now (~-20 degC), luckily the downtown area is designed with a network of heated passages between the buildings so you don't have to venture outside between the main offices, shops, transit and cultural buildings.

Today I went to an excellent concert by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at the Winspear Centre - not stuffy or uptight, just great music in a beautiful modern building. Last night I went to see the Oil Kings beat the Saskatoon Blades at Rexall Place, which is right next to the LRT station.

All achieved with only the briefest exposure to the weather outside!!

To be fair though, I did spend most of Saturday attempting to learn to ski at Rabbit Hill - and you can't do this inside - yet.....

Culture Shock

I was walking back to my apartment thinking to myself that I was beginning to feel at home, when inside my mailbox I found...

The School Support Declaration

Edmonton has two education authorities (school districts): Public and Separate. The Separate school district is responsible for Roman Catholic schools, the Public school district for all other schools. In St. Albert this situation is reversed and Public schools are Catholic, Separate schools are Protestant. So far, so straightforward....

The school support declaration is a declaration of faith required from every home owner (not renter), including corporations:

Therefore I declare I am of the Roman Catholic Faith - Yes/No

The taxes of those answering Yes are then directed towards Separate schools and the taxes of those answering No towards Public schools. In the case where a property is owned by more than one person then the taxes are distributed in proportion to their level of ownership.

It is hard to understand how this system has come about in a country with strong privacy & human rights legislation. As far as I see it there are two serious flaws in the system and one marginal benefit... For the sake of an attempt at even handedness I'll start with the benefit..!

One of the often cited objections to state funding of religious schools is that taxpayers end up funding the teaching of a set of beliefs with which they do not personally concur, this system does away with this to an extent by ensuring that the proportion of school funding coming from property taxes is not directed to Roman Catholic education unless the owner declares themself to be of that faith.

Now for the disadvantages....

Somewhere in City Hall there is a list of all the Roman Catholic property owners in Edmonton, there shouldn't be. Period. My personal beliefs are personal, until I choose to declare them publicly, and even then the city has no business recording them. I do not for a moment believe that the City of Edmonton would use this information for nefarious purposes, but that is not the point. The fact that such a list exists, means that anybody now or in the future who wished to target Catholics or their property would have a complete checklist.

The other, and perhaps more immediate disadvantage is that education of Catholics is funded by their rate of property ownership & the value of the property they own rather than the number and needs of Catholic children within the community. I have no information on the relative economic strength of Roman Catholics in the city of Edmonton, but it would seem reasonable to suppose that over time this will vary due to changes in the origins of recent immigrants etc.

Apologies for the rather intemperate post, in particular to any Canadians reading who feel I should have kept my surprised shock to myself. All I can say is it was a bolt from the blue to receive a letter like this in a city whose enormous diversity and tolerance I appreciate greatly.

Jasper

For Canadian Thanksgiving I rented a car and headed out to Jasper - not as close as I thought... But it was a beautiful drive with the fall colours and the roads were empty

Little Loft on the Prairie

Photos of Downtown Edmonton - my new home

The McLeod building is a beautiful 1915 building that has avoided various misguided demolition attempts and has now been converted to studio apartments - a truly fabulous place to live - with great neighbours.

Now all the neighbourhood needs is a corner shop.... I never thought I'd be homesick for Spar...

Political Edmonton

This post by Idealistic Pragmatist sums up the political landscape of Edmonton. More on this to follow as part of the great catching up.

I've lived in urban progressive enclaves surrounded by blue seas of Toryness for most of my life - why stop just because I've moved to the other side of the world.

On line - at last...

The blog is back - lengthy shipping, technical difficulties etc. have meant I have been offline for most of my first six months in Canada. But no longer - some catching up to do I think!!

Arrival in Canada

Complete lack of posting due to arrival in Canada and other pressing tasks - more updates soon

Corb Lund & the Hurtin' Albertans

Saw Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans live at The Prom in Bristol - Very Cool

Tomorrow they are playing Glastonbury - hope they've packed their wellies!!

Bath

I currently live here in Bath - for a 2 1/2 weeks longer at any rate. Here is a YouTube video shot by a tourist - glad to see they enjoyed it despite the rain!!

Dispatches

I have just discovered a Canadian equivalent of From Our Own Correspondent - a programme called Dispatches. Worth a listen to get a Canadian perspective on world affairs.

Canadian Apology to America

Song about Trucks

Thanks to daveberta!

Leaving Do

A great leaving 'do' in London on Sunday - a slap up meal at the Queen's Head and Artichoke near Great Portland Street followed by a walk in Regent's Park.

From Our Own Correspondent

I've wanted to live abroad as long as I can remember, not because I dislike Britain - I don't - or because life here is difficult or dangerous - it isn't, but for the opportunity to experience something different. I've been trying to work out where this long held ambition came from and I think at least one of the factors is the BBC radio programme 'From Our Own Correspondent'. It has been on every Saturday morning for the last 50 years and has always been part of my life. Every week BBC journalists based around the world who usually report for the news and current affairs programmes give personal reflections on life in the country where they are based. From recounting a meeting with a notorious warlord to tales of the minutiae of everyday living, they manage to transport your imagination to the other side of the world. It is quite simply the best programme out there.

Also worth checking out are 'Crossing Continents' and 'Unreported World'

Whilst I was look for the link for 'From Our Own Correspondent' I found an article about Alan Johnston who has been abducted in Gaza - please add the button to your blog if you would like to show your support for him.

Blogging

I've decided to join the bandwagon and blog - a good way to keep up with friends at home and sound off about life in general.

Some thanks are due:

• Wild Rose Grit - for inspiring the name (sorry - but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so they say....), for the uninitiated the wild rose is the flower of the Canadian Province of Alberta

• Wild Rose Grit, daveberta, Alberta Spectator, Idealistic Pragmatist and the rest for introducing me to the world of Alberta Politics and providing some useful advice along the way

• We Move to Canada - the blog that led to all the others