h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Still in triple digit temperatures, little appetite and don't want to slave in front of a hot stove.

Subsisting on takeout orders, cold desserts and microwave selections with a cold and icy milkshake or two per day.

We are likely to go out for breakfast on Sunday, to a nice little cafe that serves breakfast and lunch very tasty and economically.

By default, all breakfast plates come with a generous measure of home-fried potatoes and toast. And a side order of strip bacon, seared ham, or the small sausage links. I see 3 choices for me:

- simple scrambled eggs, and a coffee

- slightly colourful omelette with ham, cheese and onion, ... and a coffee.

- a fully loaded omelette with ham, strip bacon, cheese, onion, mushrooms and bell peppers, and a side order of seared ham . . . and of course, a coffee. This one, I would end up with half of it left over for Monday's breakfast.

She will likely have 2 eggs fried over easy, with bacon, or French toast (with bacon).

This evening, we will go out for dinner. Qu'elle surprise, eh wot?

It is the 32nd eve of the formalization of a great woman becoming Mrs Rev.

It is eve of a fine gentleman's 85th birthday.

Yesterday was the official 1st day of retirement of a friend (with his bride) from about 44 years of service to our military.

And the guy with us that makes it a party of 6 is just a helluva good friend of the rest of us.

Supper will be gruel, unless I eat up the street.

Have you tried a little peanut butter in the cruel? PB adds something to every dish.

Today is our wedding anniversary, so we will build our own cake: a layer of meat sauce, a layer of self-cooking pasta, a layer of maybe 6 cheeses grated and mixed. Then meat sauce, pasta, cheese. Etc until all ingredients are in a deep pan. And then baked.

I call it a cake, some might call it lasagna . . .

The meat sauce will see a couple of little change ups. There will be sliced fresh Cremini mushrooms. But I will also oven roast some of these mushrooms and slice them. As well as several roasted cloves of fresh garlic. And then, also some small chopped red bell peppers.

I'll be on board with that once you put frosting on top.

The frosting was that top coat of cheese that turns golden brown . . .

It was beyond fantabulous. There must have been nearly 4 pounds of cheeses layered in.

Tonight's supper will be the best beef stew recipe I ever made.

We have eaten pretty well in recent days. And following her stroke (medium grade), Mrs Rev wants to minimize the red meat in meals. So . . .

Supper today (Tuesday) will be simple take out. A clubhouse sandwich for each - 3 slices of buttered toast, mayo, and layered with roasted turkey breast, crispy bacon, fresh iceberg lettuce and tomato. Hers must omit the tomato. And what they call a "small" Caesar salad (serves 3 to 4 easily) for us to share.

PaulH, can you share the recipe of that stew with us? Please?

Here's the beef stew recipe



Critic’s* Choice beef stew

Spice mixture

1 cube of beef bouillon ½ tsp of thyme
1 tsp of paprika 1 tsp of dried marjoram
[1/2 tsp of salt if desired] [6 peppercorns]

Liquid broth

1 tbsp of olive oil
1 ½ cups of water
¼ cup red wine
1 small can of corn, put through blender with
1 small can of mushrooms and
1 cup of water

Cans

One 14-ounce can of low-sodium tomatoes

Other ingredients

Half a pound of steak or beef
1 medium Idaho baking potato or red potato, peeled and chopped
Half a pound of cut green beans, fresh, frozen, or canned
One or two onions, chopped
3 large carrots or 12 baby carrots, sliced
3 stalks of celery, chopped
Other vegetables such as broccoli or garbanzos or zucchini if desired

Instructions

Put the olive oil in the bottom of a cooking pot. Add the 1 ½ cups of water and the wine. Mix the spices together and stir them into the water. Then put the corn, mushrooms, and 1 cup of water through a blender and add them to the pot. Add the beef, and turn on the heat so it can simmer in the liquid while you prepare the other ingredients. Add the tomatoes. Prepare the vegetables and add them. Cut up the steak or beef into manageable chunks. Turn up the heat, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer covered for 30 minutes. Serves 3 or 4

This is Legion Week across Canada. One of the events was a dinner on Tuesday evening, with veterans of all ages. Our Branch of the Legion has 1,066 members as of this week - and roughly 450 to 460 are veterans. I was fortunate that my name came out of the hat to attend. Both my wife and I are veterans and attended in our dress attire - with any medals earned.

The dinner began with fresh and warmed bread rolls with butter, and a very fresh and crispy Caesar salad.

The entree was roast beef - cooked to just that perfect 'well done' that is still moist and tender, very smooth and creamy mashed potatoes, a rich beef gravy for the meat and spuds, and a generous measure of slim green beans and carrots - cooked to tender yet with texture.

Dessert was a classic covered apple pie with thin sliced sharp cheddar cheese.

Then of course coffee or tea. Throughout the meal, steady service of white and red wines flowed. It was very nicely done.

As tokens, lady veterans received very classy poppy emblazoned pens, and the gentlemen each a pair of gold toned cuff-links.

I really wish someone would know just when to hold me down or apply duct tape where it would be effective. Our men's dart league was in need of a President, and guess which idiot stood up?

But I do get to choose the pizza load for the last night of play before a small Christmas break and the last night of the season. And THEN - - - the banquet for any number of the 78 players and some partners.

Into the seasonal triple digit - double digit temperatures roller coaster.

Beginning to think of calories a something more than a necessity of equable blood sugar again as the air temperature drops below optimal body temperature some days.

Ah, how far below 96 the mercury can fall when you live closer to the poles. Almost every winter, we risk having the temperature fall to or toward zero F. here. At the other end of the roller coaster, we can occasionally have triple digits. It's possible to have a year in which every temperature from zero to 100 is represented at least once.

To be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm used to it after 71 years.

I lived and worked at a site, in Manitoba, where temperatures ranged from -50F to about 110F. Quite some years later, I found myself at the north end of Ellesmere Island (2 weeks one night). By the 2nd day, I was smoking outside without gloves and with the coat open. At -18F. The body remembers and adapts.

This is going to be a week-end of good eating here. For Friday supper: I cooked about 20 black tiger shrimp to chill and enjoy with a zingy seafood cocktail sauce. A couple of them got chopped onto a simple garden salad. The entree was a similar number of seasoned and pan-fried scallops, with fries gone through the air fryer.

Saturday will see 3 large potatoes baked on the propane grill, about half a box of white mushrooms and a full box of Cremini mushrooms sauteed with a full, large Spanish onion, and a 23 to 24 oz sirloin steak grilled. Perhaps simple corn to accompany.

For Sunday, I have a 4-lb chicken to roast, potatoes to cook and mash, aged bread and other things to make a load of bread dressing, slim carrots, tender green beans and a small rutabaga. Of course, gravy will be made of the broth of the bird roast. Simple iceberg lettuce garden salad might precede the hot stuffs.

Supper here will be the last serving of paella.

All meals turned out excellent, with some measures of left-overs to carry over. By Wednesday, we just wanted lighter. So . . .

A package of maple smoked strip bacon fried crispy. The left-over baked potatoes were peeled-cubed and fried up with fresh garlic, red bell pepper and onions. And very fluffy scrambled eggs with fine shredded extra old cheddar cheese folded in right at the end. And slices of a very fresh pumpernickel with thin smears of butter.

Supper will be cassoulet.

Sunday supper was easy: pork loin chops with Shake and Bake coating, creamy parmesan pasta from a package mix, and creamed style corn.

Monday, I think, will be a crock-pot mac-and-cheeses, with a little onions, garlic and ham. Fairly basic, but good.

I have already got into some pickling again. 21 larges eggs set to work for at least 6 weeks. A jar of finger-food celery, carrots, cukes and mushrooms also working. And in the morning, about 2 good jars of kolbassa, which pickles so nicely. Bite size pieces.

Later in the week - another batch of beef jerky. No one has yet gifted me with any venison or moose.