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  • Superlative Slow Sausage Subs

    One day I’d like to do some real food blogs, with photos and everything. But in the meantime . . .

    I have a new slow cooker, and I want to make great use of it. An acquaintance who knows of my quest suggested this concoction to me. Even though it contains no exotic ingredients whatsoever, I had a feeling it might be tasty. I vowed to myself that if it turned out well today, I’d be sure to share it here.

    I’ve just eaten a memorable supper. It was so successful, in fact, that I leapt up to compose this entry right after clearing up the kitchen. No one should be without such a delicious sausage recipe.

    Whatever size slow cooker you have, don’t worry. Just open it up and sprinkle therein, in order:

    1 onion, chopped
    1 green pepper, chopped
    3 cloves garlic, minced

    Now for the sausage. You need 3 lbs.  I used hot Italian sausage, but I’m sure that any kind you like will work, although I’d opt for a robust variety, to stand up to the sauce. I was advised to chop them into 8 pieces, but since I had 5 sausages, I just cut them in half so they’d fit better in the bottom of the cooker. No precooking! Just lay the pieces out on top of the veggies as evenly as you can. Then cover with:

    ½ tsp. thyme
    ½ tsp. oregano
    1 bay leaf
    1 jar tomato sauce (I used Prego Original Recipe, but use your fave)

    That’s it. Set it on low for 8 hours. Meanwhile, either nip out and buy a bunch of hoagie buns or submarine rolls, or get out your bread machine and make up some dough, because you will want something special to put these sausages in. I’m glad I made homemade rolls.

    I know, it doesn’t seem like much is going on here. Eight hours later, though, not only will you have a delicious thick tomato sauce (much of which I’ll be using on pasta tomorrow, I think), but the sausages will have simmered into heavenly savory tenderness. I don’t think I’ve had better, even on the barbecue.

    If you want to be able to pick up your sandwiches, go easy on the tomato sauce, but you can also eat these drowned in sauce, with knife and fork. We opted to pick them up, and we added some hot mustard, too.

    How many will this serve? Depends, how hungry are they? Often the number of servings stated in a recipe is just funny. My husband and I ate two sandwiches each, and I think that was about half the recipe. So yes, technically I’d say this “serves eight.” But depending on the size of your slow cooker, this recipe would be easy to double or triple if those “eight” are great burly fellows with improbable appetites.

    Thank goodness for acquaintances with wonderful ideas! This recipe is so easy, it’s going straight onto my list of the greatest. Not to mention that my house smelled divine all afternoon.

  • 10 Small Reasons to Live

    1.    Tea.
    2.    Daily newspaper.
    3.    Pine siskins.
    4.    African violets.
    5.    Mangos.
    6.    Piggy bank.
    7.    Chocolate.
    8.    Films.
    9.    Reading out loud.
    10.    Comfie bed.

  • Latest kitchen gadget

    I got a slow cooker for Christmas. We looked it up on Consumer Reports and I think it's a pretty good one.  I know they're kinda old-fashioned and everything, but I'm excited to use mine a bit.
    scookr
    It's a six-quarter, so my idea is to make large batches of stuff for the two of us, some of which I can put into our freezer downstairs.

    Does anybody have fave recipe suggestions? Do you use a slow cooker at all, and if so, just once in a while or regularly? I don't want this one to go to waste...

  • Curious Georgina is happy about the notion that a day will come when "black will not be asked to get back, when brown
    can stick around -- when yellow will be mellow --
    when the red man can get ahead, man -- and
    when white will embrace what is right.
    "

    Great inauguration ceremony, Americans!

  • Once and Future Aix

    Today I found myself thinking about my time as a student in Aix-en-Provence, France, in the late eighties. I spent my third year of university there, sitting alongside French students and sharing their day-to-day struggle. It was one of the most amazing experiences in my eventful life.

    provence8

    There were a few problems in paradise, of course. My roommate and I had little or no money and were constantly scrambling to avoid starvation or eviction. We had no phone, and our feeling of isolation from everything familiar rendered the buzzing approach of the three-wheeled mail van a highlight of each day. We spoke too much English to each other in our times alone, lessening the effectiveness of this immersive experience. Neither of us was committed enough to our studies to get everything out of them that we could.

    Despite all these drawbacks and challenges, I will never forget the sense of history alive all around me wherever I cared to explore; the beauty of the ancient cathedral; the odd tired feeling in one's mouth, at the end of the day, after speaking a second language for hours on end; flocks of chattering magpies in the plane trees; the sweater weather at Christmas and the blustery Mistral of February; the elation of Provencal children over a few wet snowflakes; and especially the warm honey colours of the walls, sunny red-tiled roofs, and winding cobblestone lanes that made the whole place seem like something out of an otherworldly fantasy. The very air smelled wonderful to me. All of this happened twenty years ago, and yet it might have been last year, it might have been last week. I can draw it so close in my heart.

    One day I know I will go back there. So much about the year felt unfinished when I had to leave. I want to retrace my steps through the old medieval town to the university. I want to visit the restaurants and sample the year's Beaujolais with everyone else. I want to go into the chocolatier and buy some specialités Grand Marnier and some of those pastel homemade marshmallows, oh and some calissons d'Aix, the special almond candies native to that city. I want to do all the tourism that I had no time or money for before, and also to lounge for hours in a sidewalk café on the Cours Mirabeau and watch the world thread its way past those mossy thermal fountains in the road.

    One day, back to the land of Cézanne I shall wend my way, up to the top of Mount Sainte Victoire to look back over my very own wandering youth.

    cezanne

  • Historic Lolcat!

    I've gotten a bit tired of lolcats over time, but my interest in history gives this, the oldest lolcat yet found, a fresh interest for me. I guess this trend is older than I thought!

  • It's OK (an iTunes shuffle-meme)

    This was a fun little game.

    Yes, I tagged ten of you whom I visit from time to time. If you have an MP3 player with a shuffle function, consider yourself busy. Otherwise, you're off this hook.  

    INSTRUCTIONS:
    1. Put your iTunes on shuffle.
    2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
    3. Write that song name down as the answer even if it makes you snarf your tea.
    4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing the meme.

    IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
    Here There and Everywhere (The Beatles)

    WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
    Trash (The Bobs)

    WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
    I Was Hoping (Alanis Morissette)

    WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
    The Psychic (Crash Test Dummies)

    WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
    I Can't Wait to Meetchu (Macy Gray)

    WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
    52 Girls (The B-52's)

    WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
    Embrasse-moi (Edith Piaf)

    WHAT IS 2+2?
    Mami me gusto (Ibrahim Ferrer)

    WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
    I'm Looking Through You (The Beatles)

    WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
    Rose (Maddy Prior)

    WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
    Run On (Moby)

    WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
    Ohio (Crosy, Stills, Nash & Young)

    WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
    Tower of Song (Leonard Cohen)

    WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
    The Trick is to Keep Breathing (Garbage) -- lol

    WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
    Night of the Kingsnake (Big Rude Jake)

    WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
    Carpe Diem (Aldebert)

    WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
    Concerto No. 3, Op. 13, R. 428 (Il Cardellino / The Goldfinch) in D Major (Vivaldi)

    WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
    Road Ode (Loudon Wainwright III)

    WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
    Peggy's Kitchen Wall (Bruce Cockburn)

    WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
    California Promises (Steve Goodman)

    HOW WILL YOU DIE?
    I Know (Barenaked Ladies)

    WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
    Career Moves (Loudon Wainwright III)

    WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
    Hide in Your Shell (Supertramp)

    WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
    Nanny (Loudon Wainwright III)

    WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
    Sexy Sadie (The Beatles) -- well yeah but been married twice now, so :P

    WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
    Shines Right Through Me (Great Big Sea)

    DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
    America (Simon & Garfunkel)

    IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
    It's Too Cold (Moxy Fruvous)

    WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
    People on the Street (Neil Young)

    WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
    It's OK (Tracy Chapman)

    I promise to visit your page and enjoy your version if you comment below!

  • I find hope

    "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place
    where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our
    founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our
    democracy, tonight is your answer."
    -- Barack Obama

    It was a beautiful election to watch from my northern fastness. Now I, like so many others around the world, will watch to see if it matters who gets elected president of the United States anymore. Will we feel this shift in our bones, in our lives, around the world? I hope we will.

    Yesterday, when I wasn't entirely sure how this would come out, I was thinking of Joni Mitchell's haunting song "The Fiddle and the Drum":

    And so once again,
    My dear Johnny, my dear friend,
    And so once again you are fighting us all.
    And when I ask you why,
    You raise your sticks and cry, and I fall.
    Oh, my friend, how did you come,
    To trade the fiddle for the drum?

    You say I have turned,
    Like the enemies you've earned,
    But I can remember all the good things you are.
    And so I ask you please,
    Can I help you find the peace and the star?
    Oh, my friend, what time is this,
    To trade the handshake for the fist.

    And so once again,
    Oh, America my friend,
    And so once again,
    You are fighting us all.
    And when we ask you why,
    You raise your sticks and cry and we fall.
    Oh, my friend, how did you come,
    To trade the fiddle for the drum.

    You say we have turned,
    Like the enemies you've earned,
    But we can remember all the good things you are.
    And so we ask you please,
    Can we help you find the peace and the star?
    Oh my friend, we have all come,
    To fear the beating of your drum.

    Well, I'm not so naive as to expect the death toll to drop anytime soon. But I can't help wondering if ordinary voting Americans have just politely requested a little more peace and quiet in the world. If that's so, then I'm a thankful Canadian.

  • Gratitude that can hardly be expressed

    I was sitting here this morning wondering what to write about, since I have undertaken to write here more often. I looked around at my home and out the window to the bird feeders. I made some tea and checked my e-mail. I thought about a neighbour's cats, which I'm looking after while they are away. Happy home, cheery birds, nice hot tea, spammy e-mails (what's new), fluffy cats. Oh, and my regular mail just arrived too. A fine ordinary day.

    What's extraordinary, for me, about any day at all, is that my life almost ended in 1990 when I was only 25. This isn't something I think about constantly, but now that I consider it, it does occur to me several times a week, and it does add to my sense of appreciation for everything around me. It's hardly normal to have survived cancer for 18 years -- in fact, to feel sure that the cancer is really gone.

    Everyone talks about the "battle" against cancer that its victims daily wage. In my experience, that battle is more about keeping your spirits up while the doctors fight your cancer. That's where my gratitude comes in.

    murphy

    This woman is Dr. Joan Murphy. Since she eliminated my cancer, I have often thought of her with thankfulness, and once even glimpsed her in an airport. She has made almost two decades of subsequent life possible for me so far. I am sure she doesn't always enjoy such success, brilliant though she is, because cancer is such a formidable opponent. But I am here, and I am grateful for this ordinary day.