GENEALOGY: Genetics

Genetics are an amazing thing. These two little boys were not born to the same parents. They don't even have the same Grandparents or Great Grandparents but there is no mistaking the similarities. The connection between the two boys would be 2nd. cousins twice removed. That is why genealogy is so important to me. My family from long ago and from right now are connected to me in a deep and profound way

RANDOM: Never Again

Trying to get this whole web thing going is the most frustrating thing I have ever done in my life. I will have to hire someone to help me with this. I could just cry it has been so difficult.
On the bright side there is a chicken roasting in the oven and it will be good.

RANDOM: I Am Now The Master Of My Own Domain

Yup, I am. Master of my own domain name...familytreesmaycontainnuts.com legally belongs to me. You can't get here from there just yet because I haven't learned how to "point" the name to my site.
I am looking into a web hosting site which will have much more space to work with and lots of other groovy things that I don't even know about yet.
I got the book for dummies and am crawling my way through. It makes my head hurt and I am not a complete beginner.
What is lower down than dummy? Maybe Cretin? Fool? Bozo?
Well I am nothing if not stubborn so I will get there I am sure. Wish me luck and please follow me there, where ever there is going to end up.

GENEALOGY

It is a very exciting day for genealogists. The 1916 Canadian Census for Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta has been released. This is especially important because it can make the difference of whether or not you are searching for Grandparents or Great Grandparents. Most of us know who our Grandparents were but not as many know the generation before them. Woot, woot. Hurray.

CABIN STORIES: What Do You Mean It Won't Go Down?

There are no cabin pictures with this story. Even if my BB had taken some I don't think they would have been suitable to post.

Last day of his birthday weekend at the cabin and the drains back up. That included the kitchen sink, the shower and the toilet.

They plunged and plunged until the seal on the toilet broke. Perfect.

He did learn a lot about septic fields this weekend.

Did you know that the septic tank should be only about 1 foot short of being full? Do you care?

Did you know that there is an intake and an outflow opening too?

Did you know that most problems are caused by the intake pipe being clogged up. In our case it was plant roots.

Did you know it is really hard to dig in earth that is frozen solid but if you heat it with a propane heater you can pick through it?

Did you know you can do a load of some one's laundry without even physically touching it? Believe me, you can. Yuck.

RECIPES: Mexi Style Stew

When ever I give out a recipe I assume you will have some basic things available in your kitchen such as salt, pepper, olive oil, sugar, water etc. I don't always add them in the picture. (my olive oil is in the pretty jug right there).

1 1/2 lbs. of stew beef (could be pork or chicken)

2 tablespoons of flour

2 tablespoons of oil (you choose what kind, not motor)

1 meduim can of diced tomatoes

1 onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, chopped (never enough garlic for us)

2 large Poblano peppers, seeded and chopped

2 tablespoons Mexican chili powder

2 tablespoons cumin

1 tablespoon Ancho chili powder (this is the dried form of the Poblano chili)

1 tablespoon oregano

1 tablespoon pepper

salt to taste

2 cups of beef broth

2 cups of frozen corn or other veggie you like

chopped cilantro to garnish if you have it on hand.

Toss beef lightly with flour and brown in batches over medium high heat in oil. You can't do it all at once or it will steam and not brown. Don't turn too often or you won't get the nice brown seal. Remember...brown = flavour. Remove browned beef to a separate bowl as it is browned on all sides. I removed the smallest pieces early so they don't have time to cook right through. They will have to borrow the flavour from the rest of the meat.

Toss onions and peppers into pan and cook for a few minutes on their own. Then add the garlic and spices. Stir it all around to spread the goodness of the spices and let them feel a bit of the heat. It will develop more of their flavour.

Then you can add the tomatoes. Stir it up and add back the beef.

Last I add the stock but maybe not the whole 2 cups. I want enough to cover the bottom of the pan about 1 inch deep but not so much that the dish is like soup.

Cover tightly and simmer on low heat for a couple of hours. Stir in corn towards the end. Top with the cilantro that you ran out to buy just for this dish.

ARTISTIC ENDEAVORS: Wine Cork Wreath

It's not like we drink a lot of wine or anything...we just entertain a LOT. Not buying that are you? The truth is these corks have been collected over a span of about 5 years. There were a lot of really fabulous wines along the way.

I didn't want to do the usual cork board that is so common.

I thought what would be better with wine corks than a grapevine wreath?

First I cut up some richly coloured grape vine leaves from Michael's Store into shorter lengths. Start at the top of your wreath and push them firmly into the wreath doing half to the right and half to the left. They will overlap at the bottom. You don't want to just wrap the whole vine around and around the wreath because that doesn't look right. Curve it like ( ) this.

Using lots of hot melted glue dip the ends of the corks in and stuff them down deeply through the leaves into the grape vine. Use lots of smaller pieces vine leaves to fill the bare spots. Then hang it on the wall and take a picture so you can see the big sticking out strand on the right. Adjust this and take another photo for your blog.

Eventually when we have a dedicated wine room in our new house which doesn't exist except for in my head I will hang it there. For right now it is in my entry way and will serve as a warning to all who enter. LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO DRINK BAD WINES. For the record my walls are a lovely shade of yellow??? Go figure.

RECIPES: How To "Supreme" a Grapefruit

I love grapefruit. The red ones I have right now are so delicious I am eating two a day.

To be very Martha-like I supreme them. It is quick and easy once you learn how.

First you slice off both ends. Use a medium sized knife that is somewhat pliable.

With it sitting flat on a cut end start at the top and slice to the bottom following the curve of the fruit to remove all the peel. Your mouth is watering right now isn't it?

Cup the fruit in your hand and carefully slice down along side the membrane in between a segment to the center.

Tilt the knife and now slice upwards on the side of the next membrane to free the slice of fruit.

Down one side and up the other.

Do this over a bowl to catch all the juice.

Once you have worked up a sweat doing this you can use the juice that you collected to make the Double Grape Cocktail posted below. Waste nothing.

RANDOM: Enlarge The Photos

Did you know you can click on MOST of the photos to see them full sized? Sure can.

RECIPES: Pork Shoulder

I found a large pork shoulder at the store for $10.00. I thought this was a good deal and bought one to make into pulled pork.

I put it in a large roasting pan with a beer, bay leaf, black pepper, Ancho chili powder and enough water to cover bottom to a depth of 1 inch.

I covered this up with lots of tin foil and left it in a 325 degree oven for 6 hours.

The house smelled fabulous.

Using two forks I pulled out all the meat I could. There is a fair amount of fat but I ended up with an 8 x 10 pan full of meat.

Serve it on a bun with lots of barbecue sauce and some cole slaw.

Pretend it is July.

COMPUTER LESSONS: Final Day

Today was the last day of class in this round of lessons. I think we had a very good day. Of course they were not expecting a test. I told them they would be doing the test after the coffee break and they had better come back.
When TB didn't come back I actually went looking for her in the Seniors Lounge. She wasn't there! Did I really scare her away? No she was just freshening up.
You really would have thought we were in grade 6. Such anxiety. I gave each one of them a topic with specific results required to search out on the Internet. They had to find the exact topic, save a picture from this topic to a folder they had made on the desktop and then email me a link from the web page. It was an open book test however with me being the open book. They did great.

TB who was always searching for foods rich in iron had to find the top steakhouses in North America.
JD always searches out stuff on soccer (or football as they call it...so Scottish) so I had him find the names of the wives and girlfriends of singer Rod Stewart, who owns a soccer team.
ER always searches and writes about animals and his search was to be on the winners of the Westminster Dog Show this year.
When this had been successfully completed they used the paint program to then play around with their saved images.
The delicious looking steak had hearts drawn around it, the judge in the dog show was first given some hair but then had a lobotomy when ER tried to erase it and poor model/ex-wife of Rod Stewart, Rachel Hunter, has a nasty moustache and some pretty ugly braces. Poor ugly girl.
Well done group. I am so glad you have signed up for more lessons. You are a blast and thanks JD for the latte afterwards.

RECIPES: Double Grape Cocktail

1 ounce of Van Gogh's White Grape Vodka

3 ounces of Sunrype pure Pink Grapefruit juice, no sugar added

Combine with ice in a shaker and shake gently about 15-20 seconds. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with pink grapefruit slice and some grapes on a cocktail pick. (white grapes would have been better)

RECIPES: Chocolate Mousse

This is so good it will make you cry. Happy, happy chocolate tears.

8 oz bittersweet chocolate. (I mixed in chocolate chips)
2 T. cocoa powder
5 T. water
1 t. instant espresso
1 t. brandy
2 eggs, separated Pinch of salt 1 cup plus two tablespoons of whipping cream 1 tablespoon of sugar divided between the egg yolks and whites

Melt chocolate in top of a double boiler over low simmering water.

Add in cocoa, espresso, brandy and water whisking together well.

Separate eggs. Beat egg yolks with half the sugar and the salt.

Add a little of the slightly cooled chocolate mixture to the eggs and mix well. Then add this egg mixture back into the chocolate. If you add the egg yolks right into the hot mixture you will end up with chocolate scrambled eggs and this is not a good thing.

Whip cream until soft peaks form.

Whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Start on med. low for 2 min. add sugar then move up to higher speed. Don’t over beat.

Add ¼ of egg whites to chocolate mixture and then fold in remainder gently.

Fold in whipped cream
Spoon into dishes 6-8 bowls and cover with plastic and chill for 2 hours can be made up to 12 hours ahead.

This is so rich you only need a small serving. No really you can't eat a big bowl full. Enjoy.

RANDOM: And The Oscar Goes To

Well I called it. I knew Slumdog Millionaire would win. It was interesting to pick the winners when I hadn't seen a single one of the movies nominated. A.F. and I made our choices on a printed ballot sheet before the show started and out of 24 categories I hit ten of them.
Slumdog may have had an advantage because of the fabulous Indian dinner I made tonight.

RECIPES: Cashew Chicken Masala

In celebration of the Oscars and Slumdog Millionaire I decided to make an Indian Chicken dish that is a variation on a recipe by Andreas Viestad. His recipe called for cardamom pods and I think they taste like barf so I didn't use them. Sorry but it's true.

I also switched out the whole piece of cinnamon for the ground variety because I didn't think I could pulverize it enough. No one wants to chew on chunks of cinnamon pieces. This came out quite spicy but delicious.

2 tablespoons garam masala
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons red chile flakes
2 teaspoons fresh ginger
2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup plain full-fat yogurt
1 whole chicken cut up or 8 pieces
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil for frying
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
6 tablespoons cashews
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup heavy cream, optional
chopped fresh cilantro



1. Place garam masala, cinnamon, chile flakes, ginger and salt in a mortar and lightly crush with the pestle. Mix into yogurt. Add chicken pieces and turn to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. (you can easily peel ginger with a teaspoon)


2. Using a rubber spatula scrape excess marinade from the chicken but keep it. Pat chicken dry with paper towels so that it will brown properly. Sprinkle with the turmeric.

3. Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a Dutch oven over high heat. Working in batches add chicken and brown turning occaisionally about 10 minutes or until nicely browned. Add a little more oil as needed. Oh yeah baby. Look at all that golden brown flavour. You should smell the kitchen right now.




4. Remove chicken from pot and set aside. Reduce heat and add onions and garlic. cook stirring until softened about 4-5 minutes. Mix in reserved marinade and tomato paste. Add cashews and chicken. Add a 1/4 cup of water if needed.



5. Cover and cook 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Stir in cream if using or 1/2 c. yogurt. Garnish with cilantro.