Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Funnies, Doc, Christmas Monitor.

LaughI mentioned before that we are having quite major work done in our building which was supposed to take 2-3 weeks. Sadly, it is still going on. There are notices all over the place telling us what is happening and the one by the elevator on our floor carries a comment about being overdue and then someone else has written “way funny-pictures-the-lawn-gnomes-have-beaten-the-pink-flamingospast schudel”. My first laugh for the day. My second laugh was the collision outfit in Cambridge who always post funny comments, today’s was “He who gets the last laugh didn’t get it”. I was looking for a laugh type picture and came across this one with all the  flamingos which really made me grin. I couldn’t figure out what they were at first.

Went to see the doc again this morning, had to get up an extra hour early to get through my morning pain problems, pills, icing, etc. then, much to our surprise, we got there and she took me in straight away, I was very pleased. She commented on how lucky we are in this part of the world and that its Christmas every day compared with how some people have to live. She’s right, but I was not in the mood to give a damn. However, it turned out that she had scheduled me to visit a specialist whenever he can find time to see me and she said she would phone him again to try and urge him on. She also is scheduling me for all the tests he is likely to give me so that when I do see him, they have all been done. This made me feel better in my mind if not in my shoulder. For those not living where there is social medicine, one of the principle problems is getting to see a specialist, it often does take time, I guess there aren’t enough of them or something, however, for all these tests and for my eventual appointment I won’t have to pay a cent. That is one of the major benefits of social medicine in as much as everyone can get free medical treatment. Yes, we pay higher taxes, but it makes a hell of a difference when you need a major operation and you don’t have to worry about paying for it.

Then, on the way home, we dropped in at Staples monitorand bought me a new flat screen monitor – my Christmas present. It was actually very reasonably priced and the sales girl assured me that if I wasn’t into gaming or things that needed major screen use, it would be just fine for me. I am delighted with it. What a difference in the resolution. Things I haven’t been able to my see very well look great now. Only trouble is, because of my shoulder problems I can’t sit at my desktop at the moment, hurts too much. Also I have a slight problem with the Windows Live Writer which is where I compose my blog as its not fitting right and my brain isn’t working very well so I can’t for the life of me figure out how to fix it. I emailed my PC guy who reminded me to check the manual and then I remembered that you have to set various buttons on monitors, so long since I had a new one, I had forgotten. Only problem is, at the moment I cannot sit comfortably at my desktop for very long, certainly not long enough. It works well enough for now and I will do my blogs, which is the main problem, on my laptop where I cannot type worth a damn.

Some of you may be planning a party for New Year’s, I thought this would be a quick and easy addition. Spinach again, but it is a tasty ingredient in finger foods. Useful too, you can freeze them and take some out of the freezer when required.

Make-Ahead Spinach Phyllo Roll-Ups

Kraft Kitchens.Spinach Roll Ups

30 servings or 5 logs, 6 servings each

What You Need

1 egg, beaten

1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained

1 cup ATHENOS Traditional Crumbled Feta Cheese

1 tub (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Garden Vegetable 1/3 Less Fat than Cream Cheese

4 green onions, finely chopped

15 sheets frozen phyllo dough (14x9 inch), thawed

1/3 cup butter, melted

Make It

MIX first 5 ingredients until well blended. Brush 1 phyllo sheet lightly with butter; top with 2 more phyllo sheets, lightly brushing each layer with some of the remaining butter. Place remaining phyllo between sheets of plastic wrap; set aside.

SPREAD 1/5 of the spinach mixture along one short side of phyllo stack. Fold in long sides of phyllo; roll up from one short side to make log. Repeat with remaining phyllo sheets and spinach mixture. Brush with remaining butter. Make small cuts in tops of logs at 1-inch intervals. Place in large freezer-weight resealable plastic bags or wrap tightly in plastic wrap.

FREEZE up to 3 months. When ready to bake, remove desired number of logs from freezer. Refrigerate, tightly wrapped, several hours or overnight until thawed. Unwrap, then place on baking sheet. Bake in 375°F oven for 25 min. or until golden brown. Cool 5 min. Transfer to cutting board. Use serrated knife to cut each log into 6 slices.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Storage Know-How

Leftover phyllo sheets can be wrapped tightly and refrozen.

How to Prepare with 18x14-inch Phyllo Sheets

Use a total of 9 phyllo sheets, spreading 1/3 of the filling on each stack of 3 sheets and rolling up each stack to make a total of 3 logs. Freeze and bake as directed. Cut each log into 10 slices to serve.

Variation

Omit butter. Spray phyllo sheets with cooking spay instead of brushing with the melted butter.

Have a great day.

Jo_thumb[2]

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