Doris Beck
Having missed all the cold weather while we were gone, I’m liking these “almost spring like” temps. I also like the longer days. I won’t jump the gun and say spring is around the corner, Feb. and March can bring some winter like weather. So, we will just have to be patient and not whine too much about the gray and drizzly days. Spring will come soon enough
Book Club
The Jan. book club was held at Eddy’s. She reported there were 7 in attendance. The group discussed The Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig. Feb. book club will be on Feb. 13th here at my house. We will be chatting about Orphan Train by Christine Baker. The leader of the discussion will be Betty. Let me know if you will be coming. I have missed the last couple of book club get togethers so I will be looking forward to seeing everyone.
Recipe du jour
Chicken, wild Rice and Mushroom soup
Serves 4-6
1 T. olive oil
3 medium sized mushrooms, sliced
2 T. butter
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 stick of celery, sliced
2 T. all-purpose flour
1/3 C milk
1 C basmati and wild rice blend (or long grain and wild rice blend)
½ C white wine or vermouth
4 cups hot chicken or vegetable stock (water plus a couple of stock cubes works fine
1 tsp. dried thyme
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
Juice of half a lemon
1/3 C heavy cream
½ packed cup shredded gruyere cheese
2 C. leftover cooked shredded chicken
2 T fresh parsley, chopped
- Heat the oil in a large sauce pan, fry the mushrooms on a med. Heat until browned. Remove from the pan.
- Melt the butter in the same pan, fry the onions and celery for 4-5 minutes until softened. Add the flour to the pan, stir together using a whisk until the flour is incorporated with the vegetables and butter. Turn the heat up to high, pour in the milk slowly while whisking until the mixture is smooth.
- Add the rice and white wine, stir. Add the stock and dried thyme and stir. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 20 minutes stirring 2-3 times during cooking. Test the rice to see if it is done.
- Add the salt, pepper, lemon juice, cream, cheese, cooked chicken and mushrooms. Stir together and test for seasoning. If the soup is too thick you can add in more milk. Top with fresh parsley.
I like this recipe, it is a great way of using left over chicken or turkey and it doesn’t make a huge amount.
RMC Birthday’s.
Linda W. had a birthday in Jan. In addition, she and John celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary recently
Traveling neighbors
Recap of our South American trip.
Buenos Aries is a lovely city, in some places the architecture reminded us of Paris. We were lucky to find and hire a great tour guide, a young man from Canada who now lives in BA. He was filled with great stories, history. We walked us through the city for two mornings. The ship, the Celebrity, Infinity, was a bit challenging. On the previous cruise, there had been several cases of Norovirus on the ship. Consequently, the ships staff were constantly spraying down all surfaces. There were still some cases reported but none of our traveling companions came down with the dreaded affliction. We enjoyed Montevideo Uruguay and a resort suburb named Puente Este. After a couple of sea days, we arrived at the “end of the world”. The weather so far had been hot but as we navigated south cooler temps prevailed. During the passage “around the horn,” which involves, circumventing an island called Cape Horn, we encountered some heavy seas and 70 mph winds. It was a bit bumpy but nothing too scary. We took a tour out of Ushuaia to see penguins and some other local sea life. The area called “glacier alley” was beautiful, seven glaciers in a row. The two-day trip through the Chilean fiords was a bit disappointing, the weather didn’t cooperate, low clouds so we didn’t have much in the way of scenery, occasionally an island would pop out but we missed getting to see the Andes mountains. What we could see reminded us of sailing though our own San Juan islands only it took 2 days to make this passage.
We ended our cruise in the port city of Valparaiso. We had again hired a private guide to show us the city. It is quite interesting. It looks thousands of boxes stacked on top of each other held together with who knows what. The buildings are covered with graffiti and some interesting murals. A bit scary because the city like us is in an earthquake zone.
Our guide told us they don’t really get excited until the quake is over a 7. On to Santiago, another beautiful city. They city was covered with a brown haze of smoke, Chile is experiencing some nasty fires and the smoke simply hangs over the city.
All in all, it was a great vacation, a beautiful part of the world.
Photo Show
Here is a collection of great photo’s I hope you enjoy them.
Have a Happy Valentine’s Day!