Caught the Fugitive!

It's been eight years and a few months since my last post.
A lot has and has not changed in that time.
For one thing I had a document with about 40 more posts for here that has vanished like some of my hard drives.
Another is my mother has Alzheimer's and I have been taking care of her full time. Well part of it.
Still another thing is my father passed away about six months ago.  I was looking after him (obviously not very well) too but he had multiple problems like mild senility, arthritis, a new knee, prostrate blockage, and carpal tunnel to name a few items.

This has left me not wanting to talk about this, my life, or anything else during most of that time. It literally can drive the stress to make you want to do stupid things. Isolation though I have found is not a real solution and sharing verbally at least can keep the noggin from burning out.  Isolation just makes the shame of you having to do what you do more intense. But I digress.
So while I have been on the run from twitter, or facebook, or this blog (see title of post), I have been busy with the mundane.
I got a new ball cap to celebrate the Year Of The Monkey. I has a logo for this blog on the front and my name/twitter handle/Facebook id/email start on the back so people can identify me.  It was an expensive splurge for me but I have found it is worth it.  One Mum is less like to ask who does this hat belong to and dump it in a pile of dust. Two when people ask me for my name/twitter handle/Facebook id/email start I just show them the back of my hat. Really does save time. Plus it boosts my ego bragging my name that way. These are some of the biggest news for me just to emphasize how mundane life can be, really.

Other things like the van I used to drive was junked almost 4 years ago next month. I drive Dad's old work van which my brothers cleaned out.

The basement has been cleaned out of most of Dad's and a lot of my stuff. It is best I don't dwell on that or I become morose and sullen possibly even reaching a depression spiral and it's useless feeling to have putting me on a hoarder mentality of emotional attachment to items. Treat it like a giant Mickey Mouse watch, ticking onward but knowing even his hands move onto the next number.

Last fall my brother Mark went to clean under and move my bed and in the process wrecked it.  Technically it was his (long convoluted story) however I have been sleeping in it for the past 3 some  decades I think of it as mine. Result was a new bed for me for my birthday last year. Yippee for me!

Mum latches on to the negative incidents in her life as if it's the only history.  So the softer happier times fade for what occurs in the moment.  Help her up off the floor after a chair breaks and she is okay then days later wonders what you did with her chair.  Make her a great dinner or dessert and you get a brief accolade after the meal.  Bring flowers or fun and that's nice.  Do one bad thing in the past and it is the only history Mum has of you.  Mum loves her kids but she has told everyone and I mean everyone from Doctors to Nurses to strangers in conversation at a day out how my brother Paul savagely beat her and called her names.  The incident in question happened 2nd November 2016 when I turned the lights out in the basement on my brother's because they were not listening to what I had to say about some of the stuff they were dumping from the basement. So Paul, furious thought it was Mum who did it, raged across, slapped her ear while I stood by the door.  Since then Mum has quieted and repeated the story hundreds of times to the point I had to explain to one nursing authority the law did not need to be called.  Mum does the same thing when she recalls Aunt Marilyn (Dad's sister), talking about how she (Aunt Marilyn) had to be held captive to keep her from making a scene at Mum & Dad's wedding.  It skips how Mum and Aunt Marilyn were chummy in the 1970's or how they have bonded at both my Dad's and my Uncle Douglas's (Dad's brother) funerals.  I am not saying there isn't animosity in the past.  Dad put most of that aside 3 years ago when he made peace with his sister and said hello to his baby brother after 17 years apart.  You would think things could get along peacefully then you recall my saying Mum latches onto the negative as it happened yesterday. So part of what I do is remind of what are good feelings even when it can kill me.

So that paints the picture of part anxiety and stresses being dealt with.  This is not the place to squabble about finances, maintenance, or putting my own life on hold.  Occasionally things progress for little excursions and enjoyments.  That why they are called occasions,  We find them and enjoy them where we can.  Have a good day and I will endeavor to stay more in touch than I have been with the world.

Time for some baking part three

Time for some baking.
I have number of family recipes. Today I will present some of the favourites here and any special commentary at the time.
Let's finish this off for the moment with some good new fashioned pie!

This is my brother's pie Recipe!
He commonly swaps the fruit filling all the time!

Ingredients
For the dough:

* 2 1/2 cups flour
* 1/2 cup stone ground cornmeal
* 3 tablespoons sugar
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, divided, diced
* 3 tablespoons apple juice concentrate
* 2 tablespoons cold water

For the filling:

* 2 Anjou pears, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
* 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
* 4 tablespoons sugar
* 1 pinch grated nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1 cup blueberries
* 1 teaspoon flour
* 1 1/2 cups pound cake, cubed
* 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
* 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Directions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a food processor, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt. Pulse to combine. Place dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and put the bowl into the refrigerator. Remove 1/2 stick of butter from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. In a food processor, add the 1/2 stick of butter to the flour mixture. Pulse until the fat completely disappears. Add the remaining 1 1/2 sticks butter in separate blank. Pulse until flour mixture resembles the size of a pea.

Combine the apple juice concentrate and the cold water. Using a spray bottle, spritz the dough with the apple juice mixture while folding the mixture with a spatula. After about three tablespoons of the liquid, check the dough for consistency. It should hold together when compressed but remain relatively dry to the touch. If it does not bind, add a little more water. Remove from the processor and form the dough into a ball. Wrap the dough in wax paper or parchment paper and rest in refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add pears to the pan and toss for 2 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and continue to toss for 30 seconds. Add sugar and cook until the pears have softened. Add the nutmeg, cinnamon, and the butter and melt slowly. Fold in the blueberries. Remove from heat. Sprinkle on the flour and combine well. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Place dough on a floured piece of parchment and roll out to a 1/4-inch thick disk. Transfer to a baking sheet. Place cubed pound cake in the middle of the dough, leaving a 3-inch margin of crust on all sides. Spoon filling over the cake cubes and top the pears with 1 ounce of cubed butter. Lift excess crust onto filling and repeat in a clockwise fashion until a top lip has formed around the edge of the whole tart. Brush the tart with the egg wash and sprinkle the crust with the sugar.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the filling begins to bubble and the crust is golden brown.

Remove from the sheet pan immediately and cool on pie rack.

Some time in the next 365 days I will post my mother's HollyWood Meatballs recipe! In the mean time as Alton Brown says enjoy the Good Eats!

Time for some baking part two

Time for some baking.
I have number of family recipes. Today I will present some of the favourites here and any special commentary at the time.
Let's start with the beginning of the debates my maternal grandmother's own Wacky Cake!

While I like a good ole American Pie or even some Cherry Pie or Apple Pie and even some Chocolate Mud Pie...hmmm Chocolate Mud Pie.... Oh right where was I? Yes I recall now while I like Pie I enjoy a good good cake more.
We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries with cake not pie. The children's icon is called Strawberry ShortCAKE not Strawberry ShortPie. The children's rhyme is called Pattie Cake. You look at taking a picture of a hot girl it's called CheeseCAKE. She likes your muscles she calls you BeefCAKE. Fat Tuesday we celebrate with PanCakes then give it up for Lent. What did they find on the way to the American revolution or even during WW1 and WWII why it was Johnny Cakes!
How are they selling this so far? Why like Hot CAKES!
What's the biggest British exported selling cookie? Shortbread cookies also called Short CAKE Cookies.
What's the best selling dessert bread but POUND CAKE.

Here's a Cake recipe for you people.

1.5 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons cocoa
pinch of salt
1 cup white sugar
Mix together in baking dish
make 3 holes
add
1 tablespoon vinegar
6 tablespoons melted margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cold water
put in 3 holes
stir with fork to mix thoroughly
bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.
test with a toothpick
let cool on a rack.

more to come....

De mortuis nil nisi bonum: Do not speak ill of the dead

Time for some baking part one

Time for some baking.
I have number of family recipes. Today I will present some of the favourites here and any special commentary at the time.
Let's start with the beginning.

Eccles Cake recipe

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Pre-heat oven to 220°C (note)

Ingredients:

500g flaky pastry
25g melted butter
Nutmeg
50g candied peel
100g sugar
200g currants
Method:

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and butter and cook over a medium heat until melted
Off the heat, add currants, candied peel, nutmeg and allspice
On a lightly-floured surface, roll the pastry thinly and cut into rounds of about 0.5cm thickness and 10cm diameter
Place a small spoonful of filling onto centre of each pastry circle
Dampen the edges of the pastry and draw the edges together over the fruit and pinch to seal
Turn over, then press gently with a rolling pin to flatten the cakes
Flatten and snip a V in the top with scissors. Place on a baking tray
Brush with water and sprinkle with a little extra sugar
Bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes (220°C) or until lightly browned round the edges
Place on a wire rack and allow to cool.
Try not to eat them all at once!

Long ago and far away

Long time to post!
Not for lack of trying my computer suffered a series of failures last year that kept me away.
However in anticiaption I "borrowed" my father's little note book and created a series of posts ready so I can sort of stay in the game.
Here they be.

In middle School I wanted to be an Ambulance driver

Okay no time to be real vocal here busy all over the place this 21st of April 2011.
Basically chauffeur extraordinaire David Riches has gone for groceries, comics, got his brother to the doctor, then the pharmacy, then the hospital where the made a seven inch wide six inch incision into his back to deflate a softball sized growth, then to his work to show off his wound, then home where they made arrangements for a nurse to visit him at home to change his bandages & clean his wounds, and clean the house to be presentable for when they come. oh and I have to go back out because today is the last day ice cream is on sale before Easter next w2eek and mum wants to treat Mark over all the time he is missing from work and college and having to recuperate. That's right it looks like another unpaid job for errand boy extraordinaire David riches as he goes forth to fetch what he is told to do.
Good Boy David. Try not to drool on the carpets.
Grrr Woof woof ruff. see you all later.

PSP or Toast is popped

So the world is up to for David Riches these days this 13 April 2011? Well it's simple enough I have been off facebook for the past ten days, off e-mail even longer and keeping up with the rest of the world in small tiny bits as a lurker while catching up on backed up downloaded television. Dad had another eye appointment this past week and while traffic was slow going there it was quick getting back and at no time was anyone late for anything. He had a relatively good report except that Dad has to go back in two weeks and this is what upsets Mum he may need botox to keep the extra skin around his eyelids from closing off his tear ducts. Mum thinks botox is only for cosmetics and costs a fortune not covered by OHIP. Whatever.
Mark has been hard at work especially now that the Garden Center has opened. Also hard at work at college. Though he has had a lot more flex time hours lately for classes and hard hours for the Garden Centre. In between he has been catching up on his DVD collections from his birthday. His old PSP burnt out so he got himself a new one. Unfortunately it would not charge up. So Mark took that back and paid more money to get another that also took his Metal Gear Solid
case. At least this one works so he plays Final Fantasy Crysis Core on it in between DVD collections.
he is on an anti-biotic pill for an absyss on his back that has grown to the size of a softball. It's going to pop any day now. I picture the scene of john Belushi in Animal House where he imitates a zit popping.
Mum has been doing the same old same old reading her daily newspapers, listening to the television news, and eavesdropping on everything else in the household. With her radio on the weekends and the election in full swing her opinions have started to creep up the small exaggeration scale. It hasn't caught up to her yet but I have kept an ear open.
Election coverage this year is really washy. You would think that the leader of the opposition would visit his own riding or the neighbouring riding to show support. When Iggy announced his new party riding celebration he has his riding in Lakeshore West and his launch was in Mississauga which I think was crass. When he had a gathering for Toronto nice that he chose Yonge Dundas Square weird he didn't mention his riding. Borys my own member of parliament got a bulletin out right before the election was called with pictures of him at various events all last year. Oddly I do believe he is still in Ottawa with his family and has done no campaigning locally yet. You would think a member of parliament would run some personal campaign to retain his seat but I have seen nothing of him in months. Now his competition Ted, has been calling with virtual town halls. Nice but no connection makes it look like a future failure and no one wants to support a failure. The NDP candidate has no constituency office and has only sent representatives who keep saying look at the pamphlet.
Not much confidence in this election.
Well that's enough this week speak to you all later.