Give me strength

I couldn't believe this - why oh why?

Secret televisual pleasure

I am really enjoying Big Love on Movie Central - not saccharine sweet... stuff actually goes wrong and isn't solved by the end of the episode, bad decisions reap bad consequences - and no adverts!!!!!!!!!!

Blogging Challenge

So cheezy cheeky laid the challenge:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open it at page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence/ phrase.
4. Blog the next four sentences/ phrases together with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig your shelves for that very special or intellectual book.
6. Pass it forward to six friends.

So here goes:

She clucked to her team and started for the barn. I walked beside her, feeling vexed. Was she going to grow up boastful like her mother, I wondered? Before we reached the stable, I feel something tense in her silence, and glancing up I saw that she was crying. She turned her face from me and looked off at the red streak of dying light, over the dark prarie.

This reminded me of a great book on my bookshelf that I'd not picked up in a while - My Antonia by Willa Cather - a tale of immigration to the American west.

A Party Political Broadcast - but not as you know it...

They don't make them like this where I'm from...

If you subscribe to one podcast this year...

I really enjoyed Justin Webb on last week's From Our Own Correpondent,

Alberta Elections #1

Now it should be stated up front that I'm not eligible to vote in the forthcoming Alberta Provincial Elections - but given that everyone wherever they live seems qualified to give an opinion on the US presidential campaign I thought I'd join the fun.

Background:
The Tories have been in power since the dawn of time, Alberta has a lot of oil - got that?... now we begin.

I found this quite funny: Edspedia

And just to show you don't need a budget:

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