Sunday, January 17, 2010

Panda Thumbs, Tutenkhamun,

Talking about the giant pandas in Adelaide zoo on Saturday and watching the films, I was surprised to note the pandas actually holding food in their paws. I previously had no idea that they had an extra pseudo thumb on their front paws - I now discover red pandas have the same pseudo thumb. Satima also wrote about her visit to the zoo to see Wang Wang and Funi. I am very envious I would love to see them. We don't have any pandas in the Toronto zoo - we were sent some on loan in 1985 but they went back to China. If the Chinese are interested in giant panda conservation I would have thought they would send them to as many zoos as possible.
I have just discovered that the King Tut exhibition is on in Toronto right now. I was under the impression that the Egyptians were not going to send the artifacts out of Egypt any more but here they are again after some 30 years. I'm not sure how come I missed this, they have been in Toronto since November apparently. When they were here before, Matt had a cartouche made for me with my name in heiroglyphics which I wear all the time. He also gave me a copy of a scarab on a pendant. I am glad it was only a copy, I can never understand how people could wear beetles crawling around on them, however beautiful the critter was. I would really like to go to this exhibition, but not sure if I will make it.
Sunday I finally made the Avocado Soup. It was a delicious soup, easy to make, but, it didn't taste too much of avocado to us. I think I might add more avocado another time. For supper last night I threw together a chicken dish which turned out pretty good. I was hunting on the internet for recipes for skinless, boneless chicken thighs (I bought a packet on Thursday) and then used what I had read to throw something together. I basically browned the thighs in butter until they were nice and golden. Meanwhile in a Dutch Oven I sautéed some leek, onion, garlic and carrots. I then added the chicken to the vegetables and deglazed the pan with wine and added that. I then cheated and added a can of Red Wine Sauce from Homepride. Made a delicious meal and we have enough for two more meals. For some reason my supermarket has stopped selling this Homepride product so I emailed them asking where I could obtain it. It is a very useful sauce to have in the pantry. Having done this I found a recipe for chicken thighs with cranberry sauce. I have some left over from Christmas which is still OK. I will now have to buy more chicken thighs.
The recipe appeared in the magazine What's Cooking which a friend passes on to me now and then. It is issued by Kraft Foods so obviously the recipes have their products included. We found two chicken thighs was plenty of food which is what is recommended in the magazine, or one chicken breast.
Catalina Cranberry Chicken What's Cooking
Serves 8.
4 lbs. bone-in skinless chicken pieces (breasts and/or thighs)
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1/2 C Kraft Catalina dressing
1 env. onion soup mix Heat oven to 350°F. Place chicken in 2 (13x9") baking dishes. Mix remaining ingredients; pour over chicken/
Bake 50 minutes or until chicken is done (170°F).
Have a great day

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