Belgian Endive in Ham

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Belgian Endive in Ham

Not many people are familiar with Belgian endive and even less know how to prepare it. It’s no big mystery really and you certainly don’t need to be a kitchen princess to prepare this dish. All you need are these step by step instructions and you’ll be ready to surprise your family with a unique European dish.

Ingredients for four people

4 sticks of Belgian endive

4 big slices of cooked ham

Flour

Butter

Cheese

Breadcrumbs

Salt

Water

Preparation

Wash the Belgian endive under cold running water. Don’t cut off the stems. The stem is what keeps the endive leaves from falling off during the cooking process. Place the endive in a pot, add plenty of water and a flat teaspoon of salt.

When the water boils, turn down the heat and let the endive simmer until soft by the stem. To test, insert knifepoint near the stem of the endive.

When soft, scoop the endive out of the pot with a fork and place them in a strainer.

Prepare the sauce

Melt a tablespoon of butter in a saucepan and add four tablespoons of flour over moderate heat. Stir with a whisk. Add the water in which the Belgian endive was cooked until the mixture is thick and smooth. Add a generous helping of cheese. If the sauce is too thick, a little bit of the endive water.

Prepare the Belgian endive

Roll each stick of Belgian endive in a slice of ham and secure the ham with a toothpick.

Place the endive in an oven dish. Pour the cheese sauce over the endive in ham. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Grill in the oven until the breadcrumbs are golden brown.

For those who are in a hurry, white sauce or cheese sauce from a packet works just as well.

Day 98: What's for Dinner

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 98: What's for Dinner

If ever there was a cat who loves to eat, it’s Greyson. Even though he, along with Charlotte, Holly, and Halley has a supply of dry nibbles to snack on during the day, come 6:00 p.m. Greyson feels it’s time for dinner. Dinner being wet food.

He usually sleeps the whole afternoon but around 5:00 or 5:30 he wakes up and after a quick grooming session he starts to talk. Actually, I should say, he starts to moan, because that’s what it sounds like.

He walks around the place meowing his head off. Some might think this nice, a cat that ‘talks’ but believe me, it can get a bit much. First, it’s a little meow, then a stretched moan, and eventually he turns it into an opera. 

That's when I usually ask him “Greyson, what? What is it? What do you want?” 

Then he gives me a look that says… Can’t you understand a word I’m saying?

If talking doesn’t get the desired result, Greyson switches to plan B… following me wherever I go and walking in front of my feet. I pay attention of course, but every now and then he gets in my way. When I tell him “Greyson, I nearly tripped over you. Can you move please?” I get another look, a look that says… feed me and you won’t have that problem.

Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. Charlotte, Holly, Halley, and Greyson gets their food around 6:30 p.m. and not before. Greyson is resourceful though and now puts plan C into action … he jumps on the countertop and looks at me. That will do it.

Once I go to the cabinet where the cat food is kept, he comes with me. He’s in business now and he doesn’t want to miss any of it. I retrieve two cans and three plates. One plate is for Halley and Greyson, one plate for Charlotte and one plate for Holly. Holly never eats with the others, don’t ask me why she’s been like that ever since she was a kitten.

As for Charlotte… she is a very nervous cat. The slightest sound or movement and she abandons her food and goes running. So, I feed her on a separate plate in a separate room where she has peace and quiet.

As for Halley and Greyson, they don’t care what goes on around them. The world can fall apart around their ears, it’s foodie time and any tragedy will have to wait until their belly is full.

While Halley is a very quiet eater, the same cannot be said from Greyson… he smacks. Seriously, when he eats, it sounds like he’s drinking. Smack, smack, smack. When he’s finished, he makes some more funny noises by licking his lips over and over again.

Cats and their food… it's unlikely I'll ever forget to feed them.

Day 97: Only one survived

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 97: Only one survived

A few days ago, I wrote a blog about one of our goldfish that was near death. For three days he lay at the bottom of the tank not moving. Dieter wanted to end his suffering by flushing him, but I said no, let’s wait until he’s dead.

https://underthetorontosun.blogspot.com/2019/11/day-91-dont-be-too-quick-to-flush.html

Then on the morning of the fourth day, that fish started moving and that same afternoon he started swimming and made a full recovery. We were so happy that he was well again. Then just when we thought we were in the clear, tragedy struck.

Yesterday, the fish suddenly died. A second one followed, and a third and a fourth. All within the span of one hour. We have no idea what happened. So far one fish survived.

Now I’m wondering if I’m to blame.

A few days ago, I read on article online that fish, goldfish and tropical fish, can be fed human foods. That they like fruits such as bananas, grapes, strawberries, and veggies such as cooked broccoli and lettuce.

Since I wanted to give my fish a treat, I dropped a small piece of banana in the tank. One by one they pecked at it and before long the banana piece was gone. I gave them another piece of banana the next day and the next day. Then suddenly the fish were dying.

So, by giving the fish banana, did I poison them? Part of me thinks yes, another part thinks no. I also gave small pieces of banana to the goldfish in another tank and all those fish are fine. If the banana was toxic to fish, those fish would have died too.

To make matters worse, all this happened while a Facebook friend was being featured on Twitter. I was looking forward to that session, thinking that I could learn something from it, but with one fish after another dying, I just wasn’t in the mood.

Some might say … it’s only fish, and in a way it’s true, a fish dying is not the same as a cat or dog dying, but still … it’s a life lost, or in this case, four lives lost. It's kind of sad because doesn’t everyone like to live?

Day 72: Thanksgiving massacre

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 72: Thanksgiving massacre

When a hundred people die individually, nobody knows, nobody cares. When a hundred people die together, it makes the news and it’s called a tragedy. 

When millions of turkeys are slaughtered, we call it Thanksgiving. 

Do you understand the picture above? We love cats, and dogs for that matter, but we mercilessly slaughter barn animals.

Why is that some animals are loved and others are killed without a second thought? 

Is it because cats and dogs are cute and barn animals are not? What does that say for people? Do those of us who are beautiful or at least good looking have more right to live than those of us less attractive?

A few days ago, millions of turkeys walked around happily. They felt the warmth of the sun, pecked at bugs in the grass, and enjoyed each other’s company. Today they sit golden brown on your table. Do you ever think what happened to them between then and now? They were grabbed and slaughtered.

If a million turkeys were killed, and each turkey had one liter of blood in him or her, that means a million liters of blood was spilled. Do you ever wonder what happens to so much blood? I Googled it and this is what I found:

It is taken to rendering plants with blood processing facilities, or disposed of in sewers (which lead into the nearest water body), in landfills or spread over land. Some amount is used to make human food and animal feed.

Frightening isn’t it, blood is disposed of in sewers that lead into the nearest water body ... that means blood ends up in rivers, lakes, and oceans. So when you swim in a river, lake or ocean, you’re actually swimming in blood.

Equally disgusting is the fact that some blood is used in human food. I Googled that too and found that blood is used in:

Pig or cattle blood is most often used. Typical fillers include meat, fat, suet, bread, rice, barley and oatmeal. Varieties include biroldo, black pudding, blood tongue, blutwurst, drisheen, kishka (kaszanka), morcilla, moronga, mustamakkara, sundae, verivorst, and many types of boudin.

So today, on Thanksgiving, don’t just give thanks for family, friends and all the good things you enjoy in life, thank the turkey who gave his life, for you. 

   

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Day 26: Something stinks

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 26: Something stinks

I’ve heard some people complain that they don’t have enough inspiration for their blog. They should come to my house for a week, they’ll have inspiration coming out of their ears.

For instance …

When Dieter came home yesterday, I asked him what I ask most days … “What do you want for dinner?” 

He suggested tater tots with chicken and tomatoes sprinkled with basil. That seemed like a good idea.

So off to the supermarket we went. As we wandered from aisle to aisle we picked up tomatoes, cat food, cat litter, 7Up, coffee, and lastly the frozen tater tots.

Once home I placed the tater tots and the chicken in the oven, cut the tomatoes, mixed them olive oil and went out on the balcony to cut some basil.

While waiting for the tater tots and the chicken, I made the cats their food. By the time I placed their plates on the floor they were all at their usual spot.

Instead of eating their dinner though, one after another lifted their head, stuck their noses in the air and sniffed. Greyson and Halley went outside on the balcony, while Charlotte and Holly went to my bedroom. I wondered if there was something wrong with their food. If one didn’t want to eat, he or she might not be feeling well, but all four of them …

Dieter who sat in the lounge with his laptop also stuck his nose in the air. “Pffff, the neighbors are cooking something stinky,” he commented.

This is nothing unusual. Some of the neighbors on our floor are from exotic countries and cook exotic dishes. Some produce a nice aroma, others downright stink.

Tonight, they weren’t cooking a smelly dish though, I was, and the stench came from my oven. When I opened the oven door to check I nearly keeled over … OMG what a foul smell. I didn’t understand it, I had made tater tots before and never had to deal with this kind of smell. 

When I looked at the bag, I got my answer … these were not the regular tater tots, these were tater tots with cheddar cheese.

To cut a long story short … the tater tots ended up in the bin and Dieter went to Burger King for fries.

Once the stink had cleared, the cats came back inside and finished their dinner.

Day 25: Naughty cats

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 25: Naughty cats

Whenever I hear or read that cats shouldn’t be fed table scraps, I can’t help but smile. I never feed my cats scraps, but occasionally they’ve helped themselves or at least tried to.

Yesterday I was having lunch, a sandwich with Baby Bell cheese. I got up to pour myself a drink and when I came back Charlotte was eating the Baby Bell.

Over the years there have been other incidents but none funnier than the stunt Pitoe pulled.

Pitoe was a big white cat who loved to go hunting at night. This was before indoor cats became popular, when I lived in a suburb, in a quiet street with hardly any traffic.

During the day Pitoe would sleep or groom himself, but come nightfall he would position himself at the backdoor, look at us over his shoulder and the message was clear … let me out.

He would come back a few hours later with or without the catch of the day. Sometimes it was a mouse, other times a bird.

He caught his most famous catch on a Saturday afternoon. He’d strutted into our neighbor Christiana’s garden and a few minutes later we heard her shrieking “Pitoe, come back here! Pitoe, drop it!” Then to her husband “Constant, stop that cat!”

Hearing the commotion I went outside and saw Pitoe come running into our garden with … a string of sausages in his mouth and dragging them between his paws.

Somehow we managed to stop Pitoe, take the string of half fried sausages away from him and return them to Christiane. She told us that Pitoe had taken the sausages right off the frying pan.

Having lost his loot, Pitoe was set on revenge. And he got it.

One night, Mom took three pork chops out of the freezer. Knowing that we had to go out, she put the pork chops on a plate on top of a high cabinet to defrost. When we came home Mom started dinner and took the plate off the cabinet. She was more than a little surprised when one of them was missing. Not the biggest one, not the smallest one, but the middle one.

Sometime later another stunt.

Mom had made brochettes. I was the first at the table and tried to push the meat pieces off the wooden stick with my fork. After putting some effort into it, a piece of meat suddenly came off, flew off my plate, and skidded across the table. Quick as lightning Pitoe’s paw grabbed the meat and he ran off with it.

It was only later that I learned how dangerous it is when cats eat human food. I had given one of our cats, Rocky, a piece of meat. Shortly afterward I noticed him under a chair making strange movements with his head. 

With a shock, I realized that he was choking on something. I rushed him to the vet who managed to get the piece of meat out of his throat. That was the last time I ever fed a cat off the table.

That’s not to say that they never get anything. Holly, for instance, is very fond of strawberries. 

Day 138: Weruva Cat Food

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 138: Weruva Cat Food

A couple of months ago, Holly developed a problem on her backside. She kept licking and licking back there and I could see that it really bothered her. We tried to clean her up as best as we could, we shaved some of the surrounding hair, but there was no improvement. So, we took her to the vet.

In the vet’s opinion, Holly was suffering from a food allergy. We had to take her off whatever she was eating now and feed her a better-quality food.

I felt a nightmare coming on. Holly is a notoriously picky eater. Still, a constantly itchy butt was no joke and if the better quality food would make her better, then better quality food she would get.

Not knowing what she and the other cats would like, I stocked up on a bit of everything: Blue Wilderness, Wellness, Royal Canin, etc.

The switching of food was indeed easier said than done. Holly and the others took one whiff of the better-quality food and turned their tails. Great, I had spent all that money and they didn’t like it. Now what?

A friend told me that I was going about this all wrong. I couldn’t switch my cat family from one food to another overnight, I had to go about it gradually.

“Give them a tin of their old food and a quarter of a tin of the new food,” she said, “and gradually increase the ratio.” So, I did that and all went well, the cats gobbled up the new with the old and within a few days Holly butt problem got better.

The next time Dieter went to the pet store to stock up on food, he came home with Blue Wilderness, Wellness, and Weruva. Weruva … what the heck was that? The cats never had this before. Would they like it? I fed the cats what they were used to by now and avoided the Weruva. When next Dieter went to the pet store he could take the Weruva tins back and exchange them for something else.

That is … until one day I ran out of cat food and the only thing left were the Weruva tins. With more than a little doubt, I took the tins out of the cabinet and … OMG, the label stated, ‘Green eggs and chicken’. What the hell were green eggs? I was almost positive that the cats would not eat this. I certainly wouldn’t eat green eggs. Still, having nothing else I had to try.

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the tin and there were no green eggs to be seen, just slivers of white chicken meat in gravy. Did the cats like it? Hm, they didn’t just like it, they devoured it! While there are usually some leftovers from dinner, now their plates were licked clean to the last sliver.

The next time I fed them Weruva it was Herring and chicken (an odd combination but they love it) and a few days later they got mackerel and something else. They only get fish twice a week and, on both occasions, they loved what was on their plate.

So, I guess the search for a quality food is finally over. The winner is Weruva. Of course, I’m subscribed to https://www.petful.com/recall-lists/cat-food-recalls/ should anything ever go wrong with Weruva or any other cat food, I’ll be informed.

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Day 49: Losing weight

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 49: Losing weight

Everybody knows that carrying extra weight is not good. There’s the risk of heart attack or stroke, diabetes, certain cancers, gallbladder disease, and quite a few others.

For people, there are various ways of losing weight. They can change their diet, reduce their intake of sugar and alcohol, and start exercising. But how does one manage weight loss in animals?

I have two male and two female cats, and while the males are of a perfect weight, the females are overweight. I talked to the vet about this and he said that there’s little or nothing to be done about it. Females, especially after being spayed, tend to get chubby.

This is Holly as a kitten ...

But as you can see, now she is on the chubby side. 

When I took her to the vet, he suggested feeding her by way of the catmosphere. The idea is that if the cat wants the food that is inside, she has to roll the sphere around and nibbles will fall out. Well, that didn’t work. Not only did my cats not roll the sphere around, they wouldn’t even go near it. When I showed them what to do, they took off. They were scared of the ball.

Adjusting Holly’s diet is impossible too. I can’t very well let her go hungry or present her with a salad. Cats need meat. So, in addition to canned cat food, I started buying weight management nibbles. It didn’t have any effect. Holly’s weight stayed exactly the same.

So now I’ve resorted to exercising Holly. We play with toys and whenever possible we take walks up and down the 11th-floor corridor of the condo building. It doesn’t always work though, as my neighbor has a large dog with a frightening bark. One woof out of him and Holly runs back inside.

So now we’re exercising inside. Running, jumping, and of late … sit-ups. You don’t believe a cat can do sit-ups? See for yourself …

 www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 5: Food

Day 5: Food. What’s for dinner?

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’m fresh out of ideas as what to make for dinner. If you’re the same, I have two recipes for you and if you serve them together, I can guarantee you, it will be a big success.

The two are “French fries” and “Tomate crevette”. In case you don’t know how to make them, relax, I’ll tell you step by step (with pictures) how to go about it.

Even though both recipes sound French, let me assure you, they are Belgian specialties. And take my word for it, being from Belgium (born and raised) I know what I’m talking about.

French fries

To make good fries, it’s vital that you start off with a good potato. In my experience, a russet potato is the best. And not only does the potato have to be the right kind, it has to be rock hard. If the potato is slightly soft, it cannot produce a good fry.

Once the potatoes are peeled, place them in cold water. The colder the better and leave them there for about an hour.

Next, take a clean towel and thoroughly dry the potatoes. Place the towel on the kitchen counter and cut the potatoes into thick slices, about the size of a finger. Then cut the slices into fries, also about a finger thick.

When you’re done, work the towel over the fries so that they’re as dry as possible. Next, place the fries in a pot and cover them with the towel.

In a french fries cooker, pour about a liter of oil. This can be sunflower oil or vegetable oil and heat it up to maximum temperature. If you have an electric cooker a light will tell you when the oil is ready. If you have a stovetop pot, drop one fry in the oil. When it sizzles the oil is ready.

Place the raw fries in the oil and turn down the heat. After a few minutes, lift the fries out of the oil, leave them to cool for about one minute and then place them back in the oil.

When the fries are golden brown, lift them out and shake off the excess oil. Place kitchen paper on a serving tray and pour the fries onto the tray. The kitchen paper will absorb any remaining oil.

Lightly sprinkle with salt. Serve plain, with mayonnaise, ketchup or gravy.

 Tomate crevette

For a family of four, take four tomatoes and plunge them into boiling water for no more than 10 seconds. Remove the tomatoes and submerge them in ice cold water.

With a sharp knife, peel the skin off the tomatoes, slice off the ‘hat’ and remove the inner flesh.

Mix about 200 grams of shrimp with mayonnaise and some salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture into the tomatoes and put the hat on top.

Serve on a bed of lettuce.

There, that’s it, that’s all there is to it.

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