Raven's View

A friend sent out an invite to a bunch of us for a Bigos party this weekend. I Googled Bigos - it's a Polish Hunter Stew. Meats, sausage, apples, sauerkraut -  I tried one recipe yesterday.

Made a heck of a mess

And a full pot of Bigos

So I had a plate full for dinner - with a Polish beer of course.

Yes - it does look a little blah. And tasted a little blah, once I got past the sauerkraut -even after two helpings.

So I added a bottle of beer, and some cooked cabbage and cooked carrots (didn't want to simmer another hour and have the meat dissolve).  Recipe should have some game (as in HUNTER stew), but I couldn't find any roadkill today. Good news was that it tastes a bit better - bad news is the pot is full to the brim again. Maybe I can leave Tupperware containers of it on the bus, or give some to the next spare-changer I see downtown.

Next time I'd dredge pork in flour before browning, less sauerkraut, some cabbage, bottle of beer, skip the cooked ham, add a second kind of Polish sausage (kielbasa).

Smell of woodsmoke is always nice - especially along with sausages on the BBQ. The winter cold snap seems gone, and the day was up to - oh my god - a sunny plus 7. Good excuse to drop over to the neighbour's back yard for a casual dinner.  A little snow didn't bother us, especially with a hot fire and some cold wine.

Police in Toronto are using a new approach to try to find the abusers of a 9-year old blond girl. They've taken five of the images that have been circulating on the Internet since 2001, digitally removed the girl and her molestor, and published them in a news release. The hope is that someone will identify something in the locations to enable them to narrow down their search. Please take a look.

Update: Feb 5 - Toronto police received a tip shortly after they released the altered photos, from someone that had stayed at a Walt Disney Hotel in Orlando, Florida, and recognized some of the locations from his vacation photos. They are now working with law enforcement officials in the US to focus in on hotel guests from 2001.

I found this link (via Cynthia on the Web) of how talking on a cell gives you the driving reaction times of a 70 yr old. And yes, a 70 yr old on a cell slows even more, but not as bad as predicted. I suppose those with walkers would be better off with a handsfree set.

I would be more worried that the teenagers (18-25 was the range) are reading or even worse sending text messages while driving - the study didn't mention that. It seems my kids and their friends are always "thumbing" each other. Or the reaction delays for a bike courier on a cell, weaving through rush hour traffic.