Do you know what's in my pottet?

I finally found it. One of my favourites from my childhood poetry books. You can tell I had refined sensibilities, even back then.

A LITTLE BOY'S POCKET

Do you know what's in my pottet ?
Such a lot of treasures in it!
Listen now while I bedin it:
Such a lot of sings it holds,
And everysin dats in my pottet,
And when, and where, and how I dot it.
First of all, here's in my pottet
A beauty shell, I pit'd it up:
And here's the handle of a tup
That somebody has broked at tea;
The shell's a hole in it, you see:
Nobody knows dat I dot it,
I teep it safe here in my pottet.
And here's my ball too in my pottet,
And here's my pennies, one, two, free,
That Aunty Mary dave to me,
To-morrow day I'll buy a spade,
When I'm out walking with the maid;
I tant put that in here my pottet!
But I can use it when I've dot it.
Here's some more sings in my pottet,
Here's my lead, and here's my string;
And once I had an iron ring,
But through a hole it lost one day,
And this is what I always say-
A hole's the worst sing in a pottet,
Be sure and mend it when you've dot it.
Unknown

Recipe for Canned Mackeral - Pasta Dish

Thinking about The Hunger Challenge and looking for food bank recipes which use cheap sources of protein.  Canned Mackerel is a very cheap source of protein, and canned mackerel has the advantage of keeping without a fridge.
Mackerel Pasta

1 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp fennel seed, slightly crushed
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, minced (about 1/2 cup)
1 carrot, julienned or grated
1 clove garlic, crushed or minced if no press
1/4 cup white wine* (optional,)
1/2 cup peas, fresh or frozen is fine
1 (15 oz.) can mackerel
1 tbsp butter
1/2 pound pasta (I usually use spaghetti, but use your favorite)

1. Put on a large pot of pasta water to boil, and cook your pasta while preparing the sauce. Add salt and oil to the pasta water if you like.

The trick is to have the pasta come done at the same time as the sauce without overcooking the pasta, peas or fish. I do it by preparing the sauce up to step 5., and then dropping the pasta in the boiling water. When pasta is five minutes away from done, proceed with step 6., and so on.

2. Heat chicken broth to boiling. A bouillon cube is fine for this. Add turmeric, fennel seed and crushed pepper to the hot broth so they begin to soften and release their flavors.

2. Heat olive oil in saucepan. Add onion and stir-fry until caramelized. Add carrot and garlic and stir-fry about a minute. Don’t let garlic get dark.

4. Add wine to the skillet and let boil to deglaze pan.

5. Add your spicy broth, and let this come to a boil.

6. Add peas, and if they’re still frozen let come back to a boil before adding your fish, which is already fully cooked.

7. Add mackerel to sauce, and you want it to just come back to a nice hot boil, but not to cook anymore.

8. Finish the sauce by swirling in your butter, and serve immediately over your hot pasta, which you have drained and placed in serving dishes.

* You may want to add 1/2 tsp. white vinegar to your chicken broth if you choose not to use the wine.

Sunset Recipe for Habanero Marmalade (using Jalapenos)

I made this recipe once, then couldn't find the site again, so I'm posting it here so that I never lose it. Print this one out - it's fabulous.

Jalapeno Marmalade

Notes: These jars of marmalade seal without water-bath canning.


1 3/4 ounces (4 to 5) fresh jalapeno chilies (original calls for Habanero)
1 1/2 pounds red bell peppers
1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
6 1/2 cups sugar
2 pouches (3 oz. each) liquid pectin

1. Place 7 clean canning jars (1-cup size), rings, and new lids in a 6- to 8-quart pan. Cover with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat; leave in water until ready to use.

2. Wearing rubber gloves, remove and discard stems and seeds from chilies.

3. Cut off curved tops and bottoms from bell peppers; discard stems and save pieces. Cut off and discard white membranes; save seeds. Slice straight pepper sides into 1/8- by 2 1/2-inch strips.

4. In a blender, whirl chilies, bell pepper tops and bottoms, and 1/2 cup vinegar until a smooth purèe.

5. In an 8- to 10-quart pan over high heat, bring chili purèe, bell pepper seeds and slices, remaining 1 cup vinegar, and sugar to a full, rolling boil, stirring constantly, then boil for exactly 3 minutes.

6. Add pectin to pan. Stirring constantly over high heat, return to a full, rolling boil, then boil for exactly 1 minute.

7. Drain jars, rings, and lids. Ladle chili mixture into hot jars to within 1/8 inch of top. (Let any extra marmalade cool, then serve or chill airtight up to 2 weeks.) Wipe jar rims clean. Cover with hot rings and lids.

8. Protecting hands with pot holders, invert filled jars on a towel for 5 minutes. Turn right side up. Every 5 minutes, turn jars over until marmalade has set and seeds are evenly distributed, 45 to 60 minutes.

9. Let marmalade cool at least 2 more hours. Serve, or store up to 2 years.

Nutritional analysis per tablespoon.


Yield: Makes 7 jars; 1 cup each

CALORIES 47 (0.0% from fat); FAT 0.0g ; CARBOHYDRATE 12g; SODIUM 0.3mg; PROTEIN 0.1g; FIBER 0.1g

Sunset, SEPTEMBER 1998

The Human Zoo

Apologies to Desmond Morris for stealing his title...
I heard an interview on CBC Metro Morning this morning between the host and the engaged and caring parents of three children. Essentially, these parents forgo holidays to places of mere enjoyment, relaxation, and entertainment for holidays to places where their children see creatures in their natural habitats. The aim is to make their children more aware of the integrity of other lives on this planet and to spur them to become engaged and caring themselves. The latest vacation lasted three weeks and the family flew a long distance (to Africa this time) to a habitat where first world development has not yet succeeded, where they were all able to study their subjects in as close to their natural habitats as possible. This type of travel is becoming more and more popular, especially among the caring and financially comfortable.

This same sort of expedition used to happen in the late 1800's - via ship, of course. Travellers would go to exotic, far-flung locations and bring back, often surreptitiously, specimens of plant and animal life. Many beautiful, or at least interesting, artifacts which grace our museums were acquired this way.

Today - we have as many wild and diverse plant species as we care to have - many hybridized to grow in our gardens, others happily basking in sunny greenhouses. Our high-tech zoos with cunning or real habitats provide homes for species from around the globe. Most people are within a few hours drive of seeing almost any exotic animal which catches their fancy.

What is different about the type of vacation this family is taking, and many others like them take for the same reasons, is that they are going to see human animals. They get off their respective planes, with their UV protection clothing and malaria tablets in hand, and for a relatively modest fee, are able to gawk at all the wonders of the Third World. Their children can laugh with delight at the antics of the local children, so eager to crowd round and beg for pencils, or candy. They can all recoil in horror at the stench, gasp in terror as they drive the precarious routes the local inhabitants amusingly refer to as "roads", shed tears of pity for maimed and deformed creatures wailing in pain, and sample the unusual mixtures of pounded grains, strange animal parts, and local produce - always surprisingly cheap!

I have to admire the parents of these children. Disneyland is so 1980's. These vacations have much more cache, and for a small sacrifice of comfort (the roads are often very bumpy!), their children can enjoy the social benefits of espousing a philosophy of global compassion to friends who were not able to actually touch the bodies of real, live, third world people. How lovely for them to discuss their "experience", and what they have learned, and how they have become better, more caring, people.

But I can't help feeling that these vacations are perpetuating a culture of elitism. After all, why should only the fairly well-heeled inhabitants of our planet get to see these fascinating exhibits? I think in the spirit of caring for our fellow first-worlders, we should import some of these third-world people for educational purposes. Lets create duplicate environments for them here, in North America, just like we did 100 years ago for lions, and tigers, and bears. We could have special exhibits, like a war zone, or a ship salvage yard, or even a local school with no supplies.

I have ideas for how to do this. Some environmental standards would have to be waived to allow for the unsafe drinking water. Health and safety standards would have to be waived in special cases, like oil tanker dismantling, or food preparation. Immigration standards would have to be modified, perhaps a new class of worker created. And of course there would have to be waivers signed by the visitors because of the risk of infectious diseases. Yes, there are many obstacles. But let's not let the naysayers stand in the way of this opportunity. If these experiences really teach us how to become better people, shouldn't each and every one of us be able to experience first-hand the thrills of gawking at third world suffering and poverty? Shouldn't we all be able to care...

Time Passes

I looked today and realized that it has been about one month since I posted anything. Have I had no thoughts at all for one month?
Nope - nothing coherent. Just absolute panic, dread, exhaustion, despair, resolution, more despair. Nothing remotely conducive to blogging.
But, things have settled down a little and now soon I will be sitting calmly with only my thoughts. I hope. Then, oh yes, then, my posts will be brilliant - scintillating, scandalous, sumptuous. But not just yet...