Good Friday

This is me taken in Fiesole (Italy) so many years ago when a friend and I went to Florence at Easter by train. The journey took us three days, I kid you not and we were there for four days. Hopefully the journey is not so long now, but we were young and went on the cheap.

Here's a quote that I used last year on Good Friday when we had golf-ball sized hail in Madrid. The only thing I've heard about the weather for tomorrow is that it's going to be colder. Happy Easter everybody.

'Since weather records started being kept, Good Friday has had the most overcast and unseasonably cool days between March 20th and April 23rd, the earliest and latest dates on which Good Friday can fall'. Taken from gullibleinfo for April 6th, 2007.

Angry Chicken Recipe

Sorry no pic, but I liked the name of this chicken recipe, which calls for white meat as I'm not a dark meat fan. I've even made my own Cajun seasoning for it. You can probably buy it already made. Hope your chicken is an angry one!

Angry Chicken

Features of Angry Chicken

Served as main course. Non-vegetarian dish.

Region of Angry Chicken

American

Ingredients for Angry Chicken   

4 Chicken Breasts, cut into strips

6 ounces Portabello Mushrooms, chopped

3 Tablespoons crushed Garlic

1/4 cup White Wine

3 cups Whipping Cream

3/4 cup mix of grated Parmesan and Romano Cheese

1/4 cup Cajun Seasoning

Method for making Angry Chicken

Season chicken with salt and pepper; grill or cook in a skillet. Sautee the mushrooms in butter or oil until just done. For the sauce: Combine garlic and wine. Cook over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes to reduce by half. Add cream and increase heat to bring to a low boil. Reduce heat to simmer and add cajun seasoning. Simmer 10-15 minutes, add cheeses until smooth. Add in chicken and mushrooms over low heat. You can add 1 pound of pasta (cooked) and toss to coat with the sauce, or you can serve the chicken with the sauce over a bed of rice.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Serves: 4

 

Victims of Terrorism

Today is the European Day of the Victims of Terrorism, and  all day I've been thinking about the 191 people who died in the infamous Madrid train bombs on this date 4 years ago, Spain's most recent victim of terroism, an ex-councilman, the many other innocent victims in Spain and the rest of the world. Like anyone who respects life (this certainly excludes terrorists of all nationalities), I will remember these 192 + people and their poor families and how  we still can't believe that these senseless cold-blooded murders really happened much less understand the reasoning behind them.  

ETA is Not a Basque Separatist Group

ETA has once again proved that they are nothing more than murderers of the most cowardly kind  - those who shoot innocent people in the back. Today at about 1.30 p.m. Spanish time a former council member was shot three times in the back and neck in front of one of his daughters in the town of Mondragon. The poor man was a 42-year- old father of three whose only crime as far as I know was that he was a member of a political party. Certainly he wasn't, politically speaking, anyone important enough in his party to be considered a target. But then ETA is like that - kill, destroy a family, show no mercy, the effect of surprise.

Ironically today in Madrid there were small tokens placed in the various parts of the city  in memory of  the attacks carried out by ETA. I'm not sure if I imported the blog from 360 in which I was talking about ETA and the fact that in one of their car bomb attempts an American citizen was killed, but if you're interested in reading about the person who was killed I'm sure you'll find it on the Internet. Just look for Eugene Kent Brown and you'll even find the name of the person who engineered the attack - the person we saw sit through his trial with a look of contempt for everyone in the courtroom. I think it's understandable that I get fed up with reading how ETA is called nothing more than a separatist group, especially after seeing an old man, who happened to be one of my ex-colleagues, crying at his son's funeral or a woman whose legs had been blown off trying to sit up! Today was supposed to be the last day of the political campaigns because Sunday is the election day, but under these circumstances, all acts have been cancelled. What a sad day! In comparison everything else is trivial.

Did you know this about Ohio?

DID YOU KNOW?

• No one has won the presidency without winning Ohio since John F. Kennedy did it nearly 50 years ago.
• If the Democrats had carried Ohio in the last two presidential elections, they would have won the White House.
• In the past eight years, Ohio has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs and the state's median income has fallen by nearly 10 percent.
• If Ohio were a country, it would have the 25th largest economy in the world, just behind the Netherlands.

 The General Elections in Spain to decide the next President will be held this coming Sunday March 9th. Under what conditions, we can't be sure because in Madrid at the moment we have ongoing strikes - bus, rubbish, cleaners for the underground, state schools (schools are the voting polls), hospitals, nursing homes, and if I've forgotten any important strike which affects us all here, please forgive me.

With the exception of the bus strike, these other strikes in the sanitation field have just started. If the information is accurate, the rubbish collectors should be coming around every 48 hours, but who can say how much of the rubbish that will have accumulated in the streets will be picked up. Although it's a lot colder today than it has been for a week or so, we´ll still have the problem of rotting bags of waste. As for the strike of the workers who clean the underground, this is our second strike this year. The company that had the contract to clean lost it because the strikers were caught on tape pouring  litres of oil  in the halls near the exits, causing several old people to fall. These strikers were subsequently identified and taken to court though I have no idea what their punishment was. Probably a fine. Now we're going to suffer through all this again?

And will these strikes affect the election results? It certainly won't be pleasant casting your vote amidst piles of smelly rubbish. I always laugh when I see someone leaving a bar with a paper serviette trailing off their shoe (unless it's MY shoe). That's because here in bars the customers throw everything on the floor. The last elections for President were affected by some tragic events which happened just before election day. These are events which will be remembered for a long time in Spain like September 11th in the USA - the train bombs of March 11th and the election results were very much affected by these tragic events.Let's just hope that whatever the results of the elections on Sunday are that the worst thing that happens is some politician getting a paper serviette stuck to his/her shoe or even forgetting to take his/her ID like so often happens.

The Recipe I Don't Have

Here are those beancakes that I was talking about on Diana's page. I don't know many, if any, native Kentuckians who don't like good old soup beans along with cornbread or biscuits. About the second or third day after you've made your beans when the soup part starts to thicken is the perfect time to make your beancakes. So while your oil is heating (like all good Spanish cooks I use olive oil, but the cooking quality and not the olive oil for salads), mix enough flour into your beans to make a very stiff batter. Drop them by tablespooons into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. Using papers towels drain off the excess oil if you so desire. You can serve these delicacies with vegetables, rice, etc. However, remember beans were, and are for me, a substitute for meat. With these delicious beancakes, who needs meat?

Now that everybody knows that this is the recipe I don't have, I'm going to go over to Post Secret for a read. Later on we're going to the park that we always used to go to so I'll take some photos of the almond trees. Hope everybody has a good week.