Toronto Rock Robbed by the Bandits

Tonight Teena and I were back at the ACC (I used to love it when they called it the Hangar) to see the Toronto Rock take on the second place Buffalo Bandits from just down the road. The Rock have won their last two home games and we were looking forward to a third.

It was a smaller Thursday night crowd, the attendance was not announced, not a noisy enthusiastic one. Rock fans are likely the noisiest sport fans in the city.

A drum and pipe band from St Andrews College came out to entertain before the game and the Toronto Rock Cheerleaders also came out to rev up the crowd.

It was a back and forth game throughout the first half which ended with the Rock down by a goal at the half 6-5.

Oh ... guess who's picture was put up on the scoreboard again!!

It was school night and many schools were there.

In the third quarter, it was almost all Toronto Rock. Buffalo scored the first goal of the quarter but then the Rock popped in the next five goals. At the end of the third quarter, everything looked great. The Rock were up 11-8 and on a roll.

This lady is at every game and I have noticed how the players will always go over to the glass before the game and after to salute her. She really enjoyed the quarter.

The fans did too. It was a quarter of high fives all around!

The cheerleaders loved it too!

As much as the third quarter was owned by the Rock, the Bandits stole the final quarter. Starting the quarter up by three goals, the Rock only managed two goals while the Bandits piled in six of their own and, with less than a minute to go, the Rock pulled Rose, their goalie, for one final desperate attack. The pressure was on!

 

Sadly the attack failed and the Bandits put in an empty net goal to seal the game 15 -13.

The Rock still lead their division by a game and still have the best record in the league. After the game, Teena and I bought our seats for the next game. Hopefully it will have a better result.

One final freaky Rock picture!

All About Mushrooms

I have always enjoyed white button mushrooms. Just give them a quick saute and they are so delicious with that nice earthy taste. Some people like them raw but I don't, especially knowing what they are grown in.

There are brown button mushroom, which cost more and I don't believe I have tried, although I might have. I'll just have to try them again sometime.

I do not enjoy portobello mushrooms as I find the taste too strong and have yet to experiment with other varieties.

Lately though, I have got back into using mushrooms regularly, even though Teena does not enjoy them. I have them in my eggs for breakfast and in my pesto pasta.

I never knew how to store them properly without them getting slimy.

Now I do.

I was told putting them in a brown paper bag on the counter works. It doesn't. They get slimy, as they do when you leave them out in their original package or in the fridge open.

I found that once the package is opened, it needs to be rewrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the fridge. It is also helpful to take them out of the package, place a paper towel on the bottom, put the mushrooms back in and again, wrap them again in plastic wrap and place back in the fridge.

Now, how about the health benefits. Do mushrooms have any nutritional value? I doubted it but surprisingly they do!

According to an article on Fitday on white button mushrooms, they have a good list of nutrients, have more potassium then even bananas, and are an excellent source of Selenium (12% of the RDA), which combined with Vitamin E protect body cells from free radicals. As mushrooms are mostly water (80 to 90%), you get great taste at the cost of very few calories.

I am a Fitday member so I logged in to see what was in one cup of sliced mushrooms. I saw that they contained only 15 calories, 0.2 grams of fat and 2.2 grams of protein. Since I use a lot less than that in my scrambled egg, I am getting great added taste and almost no calories or fat.

Now I'm feeling much better about having mushrooms again in my diet!

Recipe - Rumrunner Ribs

Yesterday we found some pork back ribs on sale so Teena suggested that I make my famous Rumrunner Ribs, which I thought was a great idea. Although I have made them before, I have never posted the recipe. So here it is.

Here is what is needed:

Pork Ribs
1/2 Cup Chile Sauce
1/2 Cup Ketchup
1/2 Cup Pineapple Juice
1/4 Cup HP Sauce
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

Bring all the above to boil over a medium low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in:

2/3 Cup Dark Rum
1 Tblsp Ginger
3 Tblsp Crushed Garlic
2 Tsp Lime Juice
1 Tsp Allspice

I find the best way to marinade meat is to put the meat in a plastic bag which is in a bowl in case there is leakage. Pour in the marinade, tie the bag off, then place the bowl in the fridge. This makes it easier to flip the bag around, which I do each hour for about 4 hours.

 

If doing on the BBQ be sure to spray the racks first or you will be scrubbing for a long time after. BBQ on a low heat, basting with each flip. Ribs are done after the last of the sauce (marinade) is gone.

I baked the ribs tonight, putting the ribs into a foil pan, covering with tin foil and baking at 300F for an hour. Then I basted, turned the oven up to 350F and turning and basting every 15 minutes or so for an three quarters of an hour.

For the last 15 minutes, I removed the foil and gave them one last baste. They came out fabulous!

 

There were no leftovers. It was my first time baking rather than BBQ these and they turned out great. I have Teena's permission to make them either way anytime!

Toronto Rock vs Calgary - The Battle of the Best!

Tonight was a huge game for the Toronto Rock.

The Rock came into the game first place in their division with a 5-2 record. The Calgary Roughnecks, great name, came in a top the Western Division with a 4-2 record. Tonight would be the battle of the best in the NLL.

The night started off on a bit of a bad note as they would not let Teena into the stadium with her new camera. The mm (still don't understand that) was too high on her camera. Interesting as her camera is just a little better than mine but mine does not show the mm anywhere. It is a stadium policy, not the teams, and they  checked in Teena's camera to a safe place.


The national anthem was sung and at the same time tonight it was also signed for the deaf. It was very cool!

The opening face off.

The Roughnecks scored first and dominated the Rock in the first quarter, outshooting them 17 to 8 and at one time had a three goal lead. The Rock were behind 5-3 at the end of the quarter, which could have been so much worse if it wasn't for the great play of goalie Nick Rose.

The Rock have great fans that are right into the game, cheering every save and high fiveing on every goal.

The Rock came back though and by the end of the half had an 8-6 lead. The game was a scrappy one and there always seemed to be a fight ready to break out.

 

And then it did kind of erupt when Geoff Snider decided to take on a Rock player who wisely chose not to fight. The result was a five minute power play for the Rock and Snider getting a game misconduct.

As usual, the Rock Cheerleaders put on a great show at breaks in the action.

Here are a couple of action shots. It wasn't my best night with a camera.

 

Sanderson scored the last goal of the game, sealing the Rocks win at 17-12.

10,026 fans witnessed the win. It was the first game at home for the Rock that wasn't decided by just one goal. I love the way that after each game the Rock acknowledges the fans.

 

Oh and one final fun thing happened tonight. They put up some pictures on the scoreboard encouraging fans to send in game shots from their phones. One of the pictures shown was me!

Teena took it last year at our first game when I caught a ball. They must have taken it off her blog, which is OK by me. It was so much fun to see!

Another fun thing happened tonight. It was Colin Doyle Bobblehead night. The first 5,000 fans received a bobblehead of the Rock's captain. We arrived at the game at 7:15 and they had all been given out. Teena was talking to a woman who had a bobblehead who told her she was there at 7:00 to get hers and there were only about 20 left.

I was to go home bobbleheadless...or was I?

On the way out, just a couple of rows below me, someone had left theirs behind. The whole row had been empty for awhile so I picked it up. I was coming home with an official Colin Doyle Bobblehead after all!

Teena and I both love going to Rock games. Teena bought her own Rock shirt tonight and we're going all in for season tickets for the rest of the year.

It's a fun, fast rough sport and I fast became a huge fan!

Movie Review - A Good Day to Die Hard

I think the original Die Hard movie was one of the best and most fun movies ever made and I am a fan of the franchise. Except for the third film of the series, Die Hard with a Vengeance which sucked, the Die Hard films have been fun to watch. So when the newest film, A Good Day to Die Hard, was announced, I knew that I would be there opening night.

And that was tonight!

Teena, I and our friend Trish were at the 7 PM show. We saw the movie in IMAX, which is an awesome way to see an action movie like this, but even more cool was that the theater is reserved seating, so when Trish bought the tickets on-line, she also reserved 3 seats together, so we didn't have to worry about getting there extra early for seating, knowing the theater would be sold out, which it was. Thanks Trish!

John McClane travels to Russia to help out his seemingly wayward son, Jack, only to discover that Jack is a CIA operative working to prevent a nuclear-weapons heist, causing the father and son to team up against underworld forces.

It was a fun, action packed, and loud movie. Of all the Die Hard movies, this is one which requires the movie goer to have the greatest stretch of belief in what is happening. That doesn't mean it's a bad movie. It is a fun movie which a few twists and turns.

Jai Courtney was excellent as John's son. I could really buy in that he was as tough as he was. Bruce Willis was his usual funny, tough, indestructible self. As is usual in the series, John McClane does not get along well with his family, and this is the underlying theme in this one. Jack is not fond of his father John and refuses to even call him Dad.

I would recommend this film to all action fans. It definitely is a movie to see on the big screen!

The order that I rate the films in the series is

Die Hard
Live Free or Die Hard
A Good Day to Die Hard
Die Hard 2 Die Harder

I won't even acknowledge #3 as part of this series although I should watch it again to see if my initial reaction to the movie stands.

They are talking about making a sixth final Die Hard movie. When they do, we'll be there opening night!

Book Review - The Penelopiad

I have enjoyed many of Margaret Atwood's books but have not read one in awhile. The idea of The Penelopiad intrigued me.

In Homer's account in The Odyssey, Penelope--wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy--is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumors, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters, and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and--curiously--twelve of her maids. 

 In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids, asking: "What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?" In Atwood's dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing. With wit and verve, drawing on the story-telling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality--and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery.

I had never read The Odyssey but Atwood gives a quick summary of the original story at the beginning of the book. It is interesting how the entire story is told by the long dead Penelope who still struggles to determined what happened and why.

The story is told much in the same style as ancient Greek drama's with a chorus line made up of the maids, singing, chanting and filling in some of the blanks in the story and bringing the story seamlessly together. Reminds me of the Greek dramas I took back in high school.

I really enjoyed the story, so much that I might go and read The Odyssey to learn that side of the story. Yes, most people would have done it the other way around but I thank Atwood for making me interested in the original story.

I like it when I read a book or story that takes me into another line of reading. The Penelopiad did this form me.

Beer of the Week - Meantime London Porter

To me, a porter is a beer for winter. It's a little heavier and full of taste.

The truth is that porter once was the year round beer of the working man of London back in the 1700s. This week's Beer of the Week, Meantime Brewery's London Porter, is supposedly based on a recipe from that era, circa 1750. I say "supposedly" only because I believe this will be a more refined beer than ones made over 260 years ago.

I bought this beer before the snowstorm hit Toronto so for me the timing to crack this one open and give it a try was perfect.

Meantime Brewery was first thought of by Alastair Hook and a bunch of friends back in 1999.  A year later they were brewing beer just down the road from where he lived in Greenwich about 20 minutes away from central London. The owners were pretty aggressive and a year later opened their own pub, The Greenwich Union, a pub that sold no national brands, just their own and craft beer only.

In 2004, Meantime was the only British brewery to win medals at the World Beer Cup, taking a bronze in the Vienna-Style Lager Group and another in the German-Style Märzen/Oktoberfest group. Not bad for a four year old brewery!

By 2010, they needed to expand so they moved into an Old Naval College and opened a larger brewery capable of brewing 25,000 barrels of beer per year and could be expanded to 100,000 barrels per year.  The brewery, called the Old Brewery as it is built on the site of old brewery that dates back to 1450, is also a restaurant and from looking at the pictures is gorgeous! It's a place I'll definitely try to get to if I'm ever in London again!

And the beer?

I love the fact that the bottle comes corked with a wire mesh. There's something fun about that!

The beer pours black with a brownish head, not as creamy as a stout, but creamy none the less. Chocolate really comes through in the aroma. When I first sip it, I do taste chocolate but that taste disappears quickly and a bite of coffee comes in to take its place in the finish. I may or may not be correct in this but I believe it is the harsher finish that distinguishes a porter from a stout.

Over the past couple of years, I have become a fan of porters, although I still find them a winter brew and Meantime makes one great porter! One day I hope to visit the Old Brewery and The Greenwich Union, and when I do, I would love to order this on draft or cask!

Beer of the Week Stats 

Beers Profiled 195 
Breweries 178 
Countries 37

Toronto- Adelaide and Bay, 86 Years Ago and Today

Every day I go into the website Historic Photo's From Around Toronto, which has a photo from the past taken on the same day.

Today's photo was taken from the Toronto Archives and as the caption says, this is looking eastward along Adelaide from Bay Street on February 7, 1927. On the right is the old Grand Opera House.

The picture below was taken at noon today, 86 years later.

 

It's not hard to notice that all the buildings by the corner are gone. In the distance on the left seems to be one remaining building from the first photo. Adelaide now is a one way street east and one set of streetcar tracks are gone.

Things certainly have changed at this intersection. Click here to see a picture looking north on Bay from this same intersection in 1924.

Book Review - A History of the World in Six Glasses

The idea of this book, A History of the World in Six Glasses, intrigued me. In fact the first quote of the book grabbed me:

There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life" - Karl Popper, philosopher of science (1902-94)

I have read about how rum has changed the world, the history of beer, England and the IPA, but this book tells the entire history of the world through six different beverages, beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and the last one surprised me ... Coca-Cola.

Whatever your favourite tipple, when you pour yourself a drink, you have the past in a glass. You can likely find them all in your own kitchen — beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, cola. Line them up on the counter, and there you have it: thousands of years of human history in six drinks. Tom Standage opens a window onto the past in this tour of six beverages that remain essentials today. En route he makes fascinating forays into the byways of western culture: Why were ancient Egyptians buried with beer? Why was wine considered a “classier” drink than beer by the Romans? How did rum grog help the British navy defeat Napoleon? What is the relationship between coffee and revolution? And how did Coca-Cola become the number one poster-product for globalization decades before the term was even coined?

The book was an interesting and a fast read. It starts, of course, with beer, one of the first man-made drinks, discovered thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia, how it likely was discovered, its supposed medicinal powers and how it was used in celebration back in that period.

The book then brings in wine as the next discovered beverage and how it affected the next period of human history. The book goes on like this, telling the history of the each drink and how it brought along the next period of human history. Ingenious really!

The final chapters are on the 20th century and how Coca-Cola became the first global product. I found that chapter the most interesting of them all.

Six drinks, three of them alcoholic, three of them caffeinated, each becoming a part of a period of history in the thousands of years of mankind.

The book has an extra chapter on the beverage that will tell the story of the next period of our history, but I won't spoil it for you.

I really enjoyed this book and finish with a quote from the start of a chapter

A billion hours ago, human life appeared on earth,
A billion minutes ago, Christianity emerged,
A billion seconds, the Beatles changed music,
A billion Coca-Colas ago was yesterday morning.
-Robert Goizueta, chief executive of the Coca-Cola Company, April 1997

Canada Phasing Out Penny Phrases

"A penny saved is a penny earned"

"A penny for your thoughts"

"That's worth a pretty penny"

"Penny pincher"

"Bad penny"

Those are just a few of the phrases that will soon be obsolete to Canadians because as of today, the penny is no more. After 137 years, the penny is being phased out. In fact, the last penny actually struck on May 4, 2012.

The penny was a nuisance. I either had none in my wallet or I had 18 if them and like everyone else, would dump them in a bowl. With electronic debit now, that's not as much as a problem anymore but it was a problem for the government as each penny cost 1.6 cents to make.

Talk about a money loser!

According to the National Post, there apparently there are 35 billion, that's right billion, are still in circulation or 82 million tons waiting to be melted down.

Today the new rules for cash payments are that stores are to round up or round down to the nearest nickle. Some stores are advertising that all transactions will be rounded down.

Electronic payments are not involved, only those concerning cash.

Today I encountered my first non-penny transaction at the food court. My bill came to $8.42, which now would be rounded down to the nearest nickle or $8.40 and I gave her a $10 bill. I found it funny that the woman had to pull out a calculator to figure out my change explaining her terminal is not set up yet for the rounding.

It's $1.60! It's not hard. I was there before the lunch rush so that woman may have a very long day or likely will catch on pretty quick.

There is talk the nickle is going next. I don't like that idea.

Seems like the Canadian penny is not "worth every penny" any more!