This is a recipe I'm including mostly for its cultural and family associations. Pork pie isn't the healthiest food in the world, and not something you'd want to eat every day, but Tourtiere is a traditional French Canadian dish which my maternal relatives usually made for New Year's Day and special occasions.
Tourtiere
1 lb minced pork ---- 1/4 tsp celery salt
1 small onion, chopped ---- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 garlic clove, minced ---- 1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt ---- 1/4 - 1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 tsp savory -- -- pie crust
Place all ingredients except bread crumbs in a saucepan. Bring to a boil & cook uncovered for 20 minutes over medium heat.
Remove from heat & add a few spoonsful of bread crumbs. Let stand 10 minutes. If the fat is not sufficiently absorbed by crumbs, don't add more; if not, continue in the same manner.
Cool & pour into a pastry-lined 10" pie pan. Cover with top crust. Bake at 400 F until golden brown, about 30 minutes.
Serve hot. Can be frozen, then reheated without thawing.
1 lb minced pork ---- 1/4 tsp celery salt
1 small onion, chopped ---- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 garlic clove, minced ---- 1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt ---- 1/4 - 1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 tsp savory -- -- pie crust
Place all ingredients except bread crumbs in a saucepan. Bring to a boil & cook uncovered for 20 minutes over medium heat.
Remove from heat & add a few spoonsful of bread crumbs. Let stand 10 minutes. If the fat is not sufficiently absorbed by crumbs, don't add more; if not, continue in the same manner.
Cool & pour into a pastry-lined 10" pie pan. Cover with top crust. Bake at 400 F until golden brown, about 30 minutes.
Serve hot. Can be frozen, then reheated without thawing.
Canada is the eighth least corrupt nation in the world, according to this report from Transparency International. We're tied with Australia & the Netherlands, and are well ahead in the running for next year's Most Annoyingly Self-Righteous Nation.
I'd feel better about it if I didn't suspect the PM had bribed the judges.
I'd feel better about it if I didn't suspect the PM had bribed the judges.
People who claim old books have a distinctive, and wonderful, odour are vindicated by this research, which is attempting to analyze the smell of aging books in order to find ways to better preserve them.
Scientists describe the old book bouquet as "grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness." The minute it comes out as a cologne, it's my signature scent.
Scientists describe the old book bouquet as "grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness." The minute it comes out as a cologne, it's my signature scent.
Someone threw a pair of women's underpants over the fence into the back yard during the night. They're purple, if that's significant.
I was sent this by someone who knows about my pet grammatical peeve. Feel free to pass it along.
How To Use An Apostrophe.
How To Use An Apostrophe.
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The subject is Scariest Movie Scenes.
Found a link to this on my LJ. Maybe I'm too optimistic about world affairs, but I'd been thinking slavery had started to slide down the to-do list.
U.S. citizens are being urged to encourage Sen. Clinton to use her influence to secure the release of the hostages.
From the Time magazine article:
U.S. citizens are being urged to encourage Sen. Clinton to use her influence to secure the release of the hostages.
From the Time magazine article:
As Hillary Clinton pays her first visit to Pakistan as Secretary of State, an unfolding hostage crisis will test the Obama Administration's rhetoric on human rights in the region. Officials at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad say at least three landlords have held as many as 170 bonded farmworkers at gunpoint on their estates in the country's southeast Sindh province since late September. With U.S. attention focused on getting Pakistan to deal with huge security issues to Washington's satisfaction, will Clinton be able to press Islamabad's rulers to address a controversy involving rural poverty and modern-day slavery?
The crisis began after the workers' advocates successfully petitioned three district courts to declare as illegal the debts that the landlords were using to compel the workers into indentured servitude. Those debts average around 1,000 Pakistani rupees — roughly $12. The hostages, a third of whom are children, some as young as 4 months old, are landless peasants, known as haari in Urdu. According to Ghulam Hyder, a spokesman for Pakistan's Green Rural Development Organization, the landlords have killed one hostage already and are threatening to kill the others unless they drop the cases and return to work. The landlords also abducted Amarchand Bheel, an advocate for the laborers, as he traveled to court to plead their cause.- Mood:
determined
Have a great day Robin!


- Mood: old
I've been home all day with a terrible cold. I think that's what it is. It's either a terrible cold, or a very mild case of the Black Death.
It got bad enough for me to try some of that multi-function cold medication everyone uses. Interesting stuff. It does reduce the symptoms, but it also produces an odd, dreamlike state which helps me better understand some of the behaviour at Woodstock. Inanimate objects become fascinating. The keyboard is, even now, doing a little dance for me. I just spent several minutes reading the label on a can of shaving gel, because something written on there seemed incredibly funny. I was going to come tell you about the funny thing on the can, but now I can't remember what it was. Maybe I should go lie down again.
It got bad enough for me to try some of that multi-function cold medication everyone uses. Interesting stuff. It does reduce the symptoms, but it also produces an odd, dreamlike state which helps me better understand some of the behaviour at Woodstock. Inanimate objects become fascinating. The keyboard is, even now, doing a little dance for me. I just spent several minutes reading the label on a can of shaving gel, because something written on there seemed incredibly funny. I was going to come tell you about the funny thing on the can, but now I can't remember what it was. Maybe I should go lie down again.
This all came up because I was trying to pick out a bottle of wine for Thanksgiving dinner.
I know very, very little about wine( It's a beverage of some kind, right? )
I know very, very little about wine( It's a beverage of some kind, right? )
No sooner had the Blue Jays played their final game of the season, than I received some consolation in the mail:
1. A copy of the big, hardcover 1992 World Series commemorative book. The best part: some of the text was written by W. P. Kinsella, and includes his digressions on subjects like politics and why baseball inspires more fiction than other sports.
2. Old VHS tapes of the Jays' 1992 and 1993 World Series games.
1. A copy of the big, hardcover 1992 World Series commemorative book. The best part: some of the text was written by W. P. Kinsella, and includes his digressions on subjects like politics and why baseball inspires more fiction than other sports.
2. Old VHS tapes of the Jays' 1992 and 1993 World Series games.
Something to while away the long winter nights.
I've never taken much interest in the Lambda Awards. I wasn't aware they'd recently changed their policy, electing, from this year on, to only consider books by LGBT authors. But the response to this policy change definitely caught my attention. It's the kind of thing I've always had a sneaking suspicion existed under the surface. But it's more than a little jarring to find I was right.
Here's a post on the subject, with many apt comments. Words fail me, frankly. But they didn't fail everyone.
Here's a post on the subject, with many apt comments. Words fail me, frankly. But they didn't fail everyone.
It's officially fall, the weather has started to cool down, and as is usual for September, it's purple and yellow everywhere you look. The fall combination of asters and goldenrod are covering the ground. As many of us were told as children, these autumn flowers are the two sisters who, in order to hide them from approaching enemies, were magically transformed into goldenrod and asters, respectively. It was an effective disguise, apart from the little problem of its being permanent. Being not only sisters but bosom friends, they arrive at the same time every year and enjoy a little time together, often until the first snow.

Photographs using an electron microscope.


