Menu Plan Update - Week 17

I am not including lunch unless we did something special as we have else been on our own and making do with whatever is in the house.

SUNDAY 
Dinner - with family at One Duke Pub in Hamilton. 1 - fish and chips 1 - ribs



MONDAY
Dinner - roast pork, roast and mashed potatoes with brocollni


TUESDAY
Dinner - leftover roast pork with mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts

WEDNESDAY
Lunch - friends at our place with cheeses and cold cuts from a new find for us in our new neighbourhood  The Cheese Boutique.



Dinner - twice cooked pork (from the remaining leftovers) with vegetables and rice

THURSDAY - shopping new Bed, Bath and Beyond for sheets, mattress cover and oven mitts.
Lunch - Acme Burger Company good burgers but service is slow and inconsistent. Our buns and toppings sat waiting forever for the meat.


Dinner - NEW RECIPE beef stew in the slow cooker. Now that we are settled I am excited to be using all my kitchen gadgets. Stew is stew but I wanted a recipe that I could just throw everything into the cooker with homemade beef stock.


FRIDAY
Dinner - leftover beef stew with garlic flat bread.


SATURDAY - Shopping at St. Lawrence Market

Dinner - NEW RECIPE lamb chops with broccolini and new potatoes

Menu Plan Recap - Week 18

SUNDAY - friends visiting and staying over from Calgary.
NEW RECIPE - Banana bread I will definitely add the Dulce de leche the next time!
Dinner - prime rib with mushy peas, mashed carrots and turnips, broccolini, mashed and roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding.


MONDAY 
Dinner - Sunday's leftovers with brussel sprouts


TUESDAY
Dinner - ???

WEDNESDAY
Dinner - chicken curry with rice using chicken thighs

THURSDAY 
Dinner - leftover chicken curry with rice 

FRIDAY- Costco $222.00
Dinner - fajitas using flank steak

SATURDAY -
Dinner - pork chops and colcannon with kale because we bought a HUGE bag at Costco.

Mosaic Monday

Posting at Mosaic Monday.

This is a mosaic I did following our fantastic trip to England and Scotland with some great friends in 2010.

Monday Mural

Posting at Monday Mural


Amsterdam October 2012, I googled this but couldn't find any information on it.

Dreaming of France

The rules for this meme are: Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
Maybe we can all satisfy our yearnings for France, until we get there again.

Crepes again!!  Paris August 2012

Sepia Saturday

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today.

As more and more people get their news from on-line sources, you could be forgiven for thinking that the days of the traditional newspaper are numbered. But go back just a few decades and those over-sized, finger-inking, arm-aching beasts were the way that we all found out what was happening in the world at large. My archive image this week dates from July 1969 and shows a group of avid newspaper readers. It comes from the Flickr Commons photostream of the Netherlands' Nationaal Archief. If you are theme-following this week you might care to go with newspapers or readers or benches; or you might want to focus on the specific event that was causing all that interest 44 years ago (is it really that long ago!). Wherever you choose to go, post your posts on or around Saturday 27 April 2013 and link them to the post.

We sold our house in Baie Comeau and my Mom, my sister, two aunts and a cousin went to England for six weeks. This left my Dad and two uncles in Montreal. We came back to Montreal and rented the ground floor of a duplex. However, Dad had to find a job and it took him to Manitoba with CAE as an electrician. He worked there for a couple of years in the early 1960s.

Dad's pay would be sent to a bank account in Montreal for Mom to manage. 

This newspaper article was among the photos and souvenirs that Mom kept. 

CAE OPENED ITS MONTREAL PLANT IN 1954. SINCE THEN, THE BUILDING HAS EXPANDED 16 TIMES, WITH THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES THERE MULTIPLYING FROM 500 TO MORE THAN 3,500.

CAE history and image source.

On Saint Patrick's Day, 1947, CAE, then known as Canadian Aviation Electronics Ltd., was founded by Mr. Ken Patrick, an ex-Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) officer. His goal was to "...create something Canadian and take advantage of a war-trained team that was extremely innovative and very technology-intensive." From the beginning, some of Canada's best known industrialists formed the company's board of directors. In 1951, Mr. R. Fraser Elliot joined the board and became its Chairman two years later.

A new direction
The 1960s began with the award of two milestone contracts. The first was a military contract from the Canadian government for six F-104 Starfighter simulators. The F-104 program was the company's first experience with radar land mass simulation and the incorporation of a visual system, a motion system and a compact mission recorder. Within a five year span 26 additional units had be purchased by five other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries.

For the first year CAE Industries Ltd. operated out of the St-Laurent plant. In 1964 it's offices were transferred to the Place Ville-Marie complex in Montreal's city core. In 1976, it moved once again to its present location in The Royal Bank Building in downtown Toronto.

This website has some fascinating information about the history of MCL.

Sandwiched between the DEW Line and the Pinetree Line, the Mid Canada Line (MCL), also known as the McGill Fence was a series of military sites designed to function as the second line of detection. Its purpose was to detect enemy aircraft that had penetrated south of the DEW Line into the heart of North America. This system operated on the "Doppler" principle. Conceived during the "Cold War" in 1951 it wasn't until January of 1958 that the line became fully operational. The MCL sites were strategically located along the 55th parallel from the Alaska border to the Atlantic Ocean. At its peak, it consisted of 8 Sector Control Stations and approximately 90 unmanned sites about 30 miles apart. With the 1960's came improvements in technology and jet aircraft design in particular which rendered the MCL no longer economically feasible or strategically required, so it was shut down. The western sites were decommissioned in January 1964 and the eastern sites in April 1965.


The following extract is taken from the book "A History of the Air Defence of Canada 1948 - 1997" by the NBC Group
RCAF Cranberry Portage (Sector Control Station 700) was located on Athapapuskow Lake, one quarter mile form the village of the same name and roughly 36 miles southeast of Flin Flon MB. By April 1957, it was up to full strength. As with other sites, it was limited in the service it could provide; in this case, detection only. Cranberry Portage was operational in the beginning of the following year and supported by RCAF Station Winnipeg. As with the other Sector control Stations on the line, it was responsible for the maintenance of a number of Doppler sites that branched out in each direction. RCAF Station Cranberry Portage closed in January 1964.


Source

Weekend Cooking

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend.You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

Grabbing a hot dog in the Borghese Gardens in Rome 2004

Sound of Music

In October 2012 we took a Rhine river cruise aboard the MS Amadeus Princess.

We had sailed earlier in 2012 aboard the MS Avalon Creativity along the Seine and also aboard the MS Sound of Music along the Danube. I would rate the Avalon by far as the superior cruise for comfort and service and quality. The Sound of Music was also great for comfort and service but less so on quality. Amadeus was our least favourite, comfort was great but service definitely lacked as the crew were not friendly at all.

Information provided by this site.

The MS Amadeus Princess has a total of 78 cabins and 2 suites. Each cabin is furnished with a bed, TV, toilet, wash basin, shower, cabinet, telephone, writing desk, chair, safe and French balcony. These rooms were much the same on the other ships.

The dessert tables were amazing aboard the Amadeus, however.

Saturday's Photo Hunting

I used to be a tea drinker but over the years of working I became a coffee drinker.

This was taken last spring in Austria as we were on our way to Salzburg, home of The Sound of Music!


We stopped for a break along the autobahn and how I wish our highway stops were as pretty as this. Landzeit own and operate the restaurants and hotels along the autobahns in Austria.
We ordered the Mozart Kaffee as was recommended by our guide and we were given the mugs to take with us!


Mozart Kaffee recipe
1 1/2 oz Mozart® Black chocolate liqueur
5 ozhot black coffee
1 1/2 oz whipped cream


Pour mozart and coffee into an irish coffee cup, and stir. Top with cream, and serve.

Friday Finds - Recipes

Black bean avocado brownies


Recipe and image source


English muffins


Recipe and image source


Foolproof potato salad from CBC Steven and Chris Show

Recipe and image source


Cabbage slaw also from Steven and Chris

Recipe and image source

Cinnamon pecan coffee cake

Recipe and image sourceTex-Mex bacon burger with chipolte ketchup  as seen on GMA.


Recipe and image source

Beer and cheddar soup

Recipe and image source

Pioneer Woman's favorite sandwich a fancy grilled cheese.


Recipe and image source


Marlboro Man's favorite sandwich


Recipe and image source 



No bake mini key lime cheesecakes

Recipe and image source

Whimsical Windows Delirious Doors!

I'm posting over here this week!



These colorful, blobby creatures, called Flossis, are climbing the Roggendorf House in Dusseldorf Germany! Designed by artist Rosalie, the installation of playful figures can be seen climbing the exterior walls of many buildings in Düsseldorf. Taken October 2012.

Thirsty Thursday

The Purple Giraffe is a new site I found for linking up our travels which include some imbibing of adult liquids.


We have visited many breweries in our travels, but I think that Heineken Experience is one of the most fun. 
They have a "ride" where you become a bottle being filled and shipped.

Travel Photo Thursday

I'm posting over at The Budget Travelers' Sandbox


The Royal Theatre Carré (Dutch: Koninklijk Theater Carré) is a Neo-Renaissance theatre in Amsterdam, located near the river Amstel. When the theatre was founded in 1887, it was originally meant as a permanent circus building. Currently, it is mainly used for musicals, cabaret performances and pop concerts.

Photos were taken in October 2012.

Dreaming of France

The rules for this meme are: Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
Maybe we can all satisfy our yearnings for France, until we get there again.

A lovely cottage snapped as we drove to the beaches of Normandy August 2012

Mosaic Monday

Monday Mural

Posting at Monday Mural

A. Schwab General Store, Memphis TN April 2013

A trip to A. Schwab is a step back in time to the great days of general stores, offering a great selection of everything you need, and many things you might not. We'd been in here on our previous trip to Memphis in 1992. 


Browse through 44 kinds of suspenders, a wall of voodoo love potions and powders and a full kiosk of Elvis souvenirs. Discover bongo drums and crystal balls, shoeshine kits and corncob pipes, long thermal underwear and cotton petticoats, praying hands and plastic back-scratchers. 

Menu Plan Update - Week 16

We're trying to use up what we have before we buy stuff. 

It has continued to be dreary and wet for most of the week.

Lunches continue to be each to his own, salads, cheese, salmon.

SUNDAY

 Lunch -

Dinner -  ground turkey meatloaf with baked potatoes.

MONDAY

Lunch -

Dinner - chicken with baked potatoes

TUESDAY

Lunch -

Dinner - homemade pizza

WEDNESDAY went photo shooting with a friend on the only sunny day this week.

Lunch - with BFF at the Duke of York

Dinner - leftover meatloaf and boiled potatoes with cauliflower

THURSDAY

Lunch -

Dinner – homemade pizza

FRIDAY

Lunch - 

Dinner -  Blue Jays game at Rogers Centre, yes, they lost. Dinner was ball park hot dogs with friends.

No, I didn't take this photo last night, it is from 2011. That's the Roger Centre nestled between the two condos with the CN Tower behind it.

SATURDAY

Lunch -

Dinner -  Steak, baked potato and broccoli

My Recipe Box - Shrimp Creole

We had many good meals with shrimp while we were travelling during the winter.

There were the shrimp ladies of Mazatlan, and the amazing shrimp broth we had at the Shrimp Bucket.  We had delicious shrimp at Torres Mazatlan.

Then we were in New Orleans and had shrimp.
I wanted to make shrimps loosely based on a shrimp Creole recipe in had. However, when I looked at this recipe it felt like it was too tomatoey for what I wanted.

so instead of using the can of stewed tomatoes as listed below I made my own shrimp broth using the shells from the shrimp we bought.

SHRIMP BROTH

I started with Emeril's recipe and then improvised based on what I had. I added Old Bay seasoning to the simmering stock.

Ingredients
2 1/2 pounds shrimp shells
2 1/2 quarts plus 1 cup cold water
1 cup coarsely chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 cup mushroom trimmings
Sachet consisting of the following: 1 bay leaf, 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, 1/4 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns and 4 parsley stems
Directions
Rinse the shrimp shells under cold running water and place them in a 1-gallon stockpot with the remaining ingredients. Bring the pot to a boil and then lower the temperature to a simmer. Skim the impurities that rise to the surface with a ladle, spoon or a skimmer. Simmer the stock for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

When the stock is completed, strain the stockpot and immediately cool the stock using an ice bath of water and ice. Use the amount of stock you need, and refrigerate or freeze the rest.


SHRIMP CREOLE
INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes I added the shrimp stock I made instead of the stewed tomatoes.
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce I used a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste instead 
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 dash hot pepper sauce
1 pound medium shrimp - peeled and
deveined

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a 2 quart saucepan, melt butter or margarine over medium heat. Add onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic; cook until tender.
2. Mix in cornstarch. Stir in stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, and red pepper sauce. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Stir in shrimp, and cook for 5 minutes.

New (to me) Blogs This Week

Olla-Podrida is a great recipe blog.
olla-podrida (äl′ə pō drē′də) noun 1.an olla (stew) 2.any assortment, medley, or miscellany; olio


Spinach Tiger another great recipe blog.

Dublin Duchess - about books and Dublin

On a Flesh and a Bone Foundation