Return of the Jedi

I said it in an earlier post that I had met The Chef after more than a year. We talked for a hike, although I knew he would not, most likely, be able to continue to the top, based on the previous experiences but agreed to go this past Thu. I wanted to finished the damn Thrift Peak. This would've been the 4th attempt but then thought to myself that despite the fact that The Chef will accompany me and it would not be a boring 230 Km (~ 140 miles), it would not be a good thing for my old vehicle which, now, has almost 167,000 Km on it! The Chef as a company would have had other benefits! You can laugh by the way he acts and we would have shared the cost of the trip. Then I tried to rent a damn car but nothing was available. I tried 2 rental companies and stopped there. Then I realized that there was smoke in the air and used it as excuse to cancel the trip! The Chef didn't like the idea but I was able to convince him to not to take the trip while I promised that we would, instead, have Fish! 

This small apples, called September Ruby are planted next to the community orchard I have mentioned. They are a bit sour and I'm going to try them in a jam(!) to see how they tatste

I went to his place yesterday, to pick him up and as soon as he sat next to me I realized he was drunk! We went to a nearby The Real Canadian Superasshole(!) because that's where you can get good and fresh fish and bought two medium size Salmons. I don't know kind they were but I told him that was too much. He insisted it was not! We got some vegetables and headed to the cashier where he realized that he had forgotten Lemon. I paid for the stuff and when he returned with a couple of Lemons, I tried to make him understand the he only had to pay for them and the bottle of Olive Oil that he had insisted to buy! He paid for those and while we were leaving, he grabbed the shopping cart of a women who was behind me and rolled it out until the woman, who already had her shopping inside told him about it! I couldn't stop laughing! I reminded him that it happened because he was drunk! He said that he only had had one glass of Red Wine at noon! I know what he means by " only one glass "! It must have been the whole bottle. 

Before heading home I stop by this Community Orchard that I had discovered last week and we picked some apples to make jam. The Chef was thirsty and when I told him to try an apple, he liked it. The apples are good but because no one takes care of them, they're not excellent. Besides they don't look like the apples you see in the stores because there's no fertilizer and no pesticide. That's probably why people leave them there to rot! 

At home we sat for a chat and fortunately there was no alcohol or the whole event would turn to disaster, as it has happened before, several times. He wanted to buy alcohol but I told him that I would, them, not be able to drive him home! I don't have any issue with alcohol as long as it's consumed moderately. My issue is The Chef that always turn to a monster after a few drinks! 

At this point it was almost 21:30 and we just wanted to start cooking! The Chef started chopping and cutting the vegetables. He is usually excellent but years of drinking alcohol has done serious damage to his brain! At one point he forgot why he had cut all the tomatoes! Then he cut 5 Jalapenos despite the fact that I told him it would make it too hot to be tolerable. He made two types of Salmons: One in the oven and one in the pan. We finished the latter and divide the first between us for later. It was as good as every time he makes anything with this difference that it was so spicy that I was sweating like a pig while The Chef was eating like it was candy! This was the story of Return of the Jedi! Needless to say that our Jedi here is Lord Chef! 

(Photo: This is not Fish& Chips! Different types of fish is enjoyed differently in different parts of the old country. Here, in Canada I have had Fish & Chips a couple of times but this is completely different: Fried fish, not dip fried, with home made flat/pita whole wheat bread, which I had made the day before and of course you squeeze fresh lime or lemon on it)

Whole Wheat Flat (Pita)

With unemployment still going on, I waste most of my time every day. The only positive things I have been doing is exercising and studying. Not to the level I have to but this post is not about them. It is about eating better. 

One of my shocks here in Canada, even now after more than 20 years of living here, is bad breads! Really bad breads available almost everywhere! It's baffling and sad, at the same time, to see one of the biggest producers of Wheat, Barely and other grains is the maker of one of the worst different types of bread that you can possibly eat!! There're so many different bakeries and producers all around the country but the majority of them that I've tried are awful! They are both bad in terms of taste and ingredients. Not to mention the devastating environmental affects that mostly have! They add so much shit to the damn breads that you can keep it at home, probably up to two months! Not that I ever have tried. Besides, many of the sliced breads have loads of sugar! How can you make a good sandwich, say, Chicken Sandwich, with a sweet bread! Most of the breads are made with White Flour which is not only bad for the digestion system but only contains more sugar which gradually and naturally leads to diabetes. In addition to all of the above, these greedy and careless bread companies use tremendous amount of plastic in their daily production. All these plastic bags get accumulated and becomes part of the problem that the entire world has faced: Plastic! 

With all the above said, I have stopped buying the damn, disgusting breads of different kinds long time ago. What I did first was purchasing a Bread Maker and then today, for the first time I tried Whole Wheat Flat Bread in a frying pan! The result was not so bad for the first time but I think it becomes costly. I used to purchase a bag of Pita Bread, Shamsane (I'm not Arab! Neither is the owner of the bakery) brand for only $2.5 and that is only available in Kalamata Grocery store in Downtown Calgary but that is too far away from me now. Mom, at times, when she visits me, she brings me a bag or two but I don't want to trouble her. Other stores and brands are either bad or unreasonably expensive. I show how to make such bread and you can eat that with everything. You can make Chicken and Stake Sandwich or use for any other things that you like. It's just simply stupid, really stupid to think that Flat Bread (or Pita some like to call it) is only good with certain foods which comes from the same area that the Flat Bread comes!! Nevertheless this is what you need to make Flat Bread and this ingredients are for, I would say 10, breads but it would depend on how big you make the dough balls: 

1) 4 cups Whole Wheat Flour. I use Robin Hood brand but it's up to you. 

2) 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar. I believe the sugar, when gets mixed with water, helps the yeast to work better and faster. 

3) 1 tablespoon Slat. If you want your bread salty, you can add more because this much doesn't do anything! I wonder why it was in the original recipe that I have found. I might add more or eliminate completely, the next time I'm making bread.

3) 1 tablespoon Active Dry Yeast. This certainly a must unless you use Baking Soda and Baking Power, each the same amount

4) 1 tablespoon Olive Oil or any good(!) vegetable oil. Try to avoid the damn processed oils but I know it's hard and could be expensive. There're lots of fake oils in the market which are offered with statements such as " healthy ", " Extra virgin " or " no cholesterol "!!

5) 2 cups of water. Better be in the temperature range of 18 ℃ to 21℃ (64 ℉ to 70 ℉). The intent of mentioning this range is to make sure not too cold or too hot water is used. 

These are the tools and utensils needed: 

1) Big bowls (you need two)

2) Measuring cup (I have three which make my job much easier because I don't have to wash and dry one to measure something else!)

3) Tea Towel

4) Frying pan

5) Spatula or tongue (not Thong!) 

6) Rolling Pin

7) Parching paper

8) Knife (a butter knife or 

My Whole Wheat Bread using my amazing Black+Decker Bread Maker. It's so good that you like to eat it as snack because I add walnut and raisin as you can see. It certainly not a cheap bread!

Now you have everything ready, this is what your going to do: 

1) Mix all the ingredients in one of the bowls, very well.

2) Knead for at least 8 minutes in the same bowl.

3) Oil the other bowl and transfer the dough. Oil the tough all around.

4) Cover with a tea towel and set aside for 1 to 1.5 hours. You can use cellophane. I left it aside for 1 hour only and the result was not bad. Some bakers have recommended 1.5 hours and I think it all depends on the ingredients. Least limit it to 1 hour only! 

5) Take the dough out, after the hour is passed, dust your counter top and roll with hand in a shape that you get a long cylinder and then cut that to 10 pieces. 

6) Then make balls out of those 10 pieces, dust them with flour and keep them under your tea towel for 10 minutes. 

7) At this point you are going to turn the balls to, first, small and then bigger circles, using your hand and a rolling pin. This part requires practice to be able to make all the pieces the same size. So if you can't do it the first time, don't get disappointed or mad at yourself! 

8) You're going to have to leave this unbaked, circular and thin dough pieces on a parching paper (you need long enough for all) and cover them with your tea towel. 

9) After you make 10 flat bread pieces as described above, you are going to have to leave them for another 20 minutes or even 30! It might sound nuts but that's how the dough is prepared for a good baking. 

10) After 25 minutes is passed you put your frying pan and turn the stove up, all the way passed half. This 5 minutes to the 30 minutes holding of the previous stage helps you to have a hot pan and then you put the dough in the middle and watch it closely. At this point you are looking for puffs! The bread is puffing and coming up and you need to flip carefully to make sure that while your bread isn't turned to a small charcoal(!), it doesn't get punctured! Keep flipping until both sides are brown and puffs are seen. If the bread does not inflates from inside, it doesn't necessarily mean it's not baked. It just indicated that you cannot use it as a " Pocket " to make your sandwich that way. It still is the same healthy and delicious bread. getting the perfect colour and puff in the first time is not easy. It, again requires, practice. You also need to play with your stove a little bit to avoid overheating the pan. This comes to you after a few times baking this bread. 

11) Keep the baked breads in a plate and covered with tea towel until they cool down. They will be ready after a few minutes. I usually transfer the store-bought or the machine-made (my own machine) breads to either a bag or a tupperware and keep in the refrigerator. This is what I'm going to do with mine tonight, as well. 

12) I read once somewhere that you can use your oven instead of a pan. You put them on a tray and bake for 5 minutes in an appropriately pre-heated oven! I haven't tried that because it would be hard to bake all the 10 at once and you need to open the door and get exposed to the extreme heat. I also think it consumes more electricity. So I'm not even sure whether I would try it the next time I, baking or not but you give it a try and let me know. 

At the end remember that you don't need no video or picture to understand how this baking is done! We're not sending a spacecraft to Venus! It's just a piece of bread that you will enjoy and you will master it after the 3rd or maximum 4th try. The only thing you need to consider, now that you have everything explained to you is the time which you need the fresh bread? The whole process, from making the ingredients and tools ready to baking, plus the required pauses in between might take up top 3 hours! So if you need to serve your lunch at 13:00, you will have to start at 10:30, the latest, considering you have everything ready at home. 

(Photo, top: My first batch of bread. As you can see they are not all the same size but the taste came out really good)

The more from the Third World will lead to the Third World

Now I'm out of work and don't have much to do, I'm going to the people whom I ignored them for the past year or so! Stupid? Ha? I'm always like that! I'm very friendly and become friends with everyone but then for no serious reason leave them and make no contact! 

I first called the Newlywed yesterday but since I had claimed that I was not in Canada(!), I called him using WhatsApp and we chatted for a little bit. He didn't sound very well, emotionally, but he was okay. Will call him to see what he says about being so upset and down later. Then I went to see The Chef. He lives in the northeastern part of the two where the majority of the people in those neighbourhoods are from either Indian subcontinent or similar countries such as Afghanistan, Africa, The Philippines and all the geniuses and cleaver people of the world, responsible for all the technological advances and inventions we have had in the last century! 

I'm there and we decide to go for a walk. The Chef tells me about an area where is designated for walking and picnic and it's quite close. We're walking and talking and all of a sudden we here a commotion. Cars with young fellas who stick their heads out of the window and are waving flags appear! The Chef immediately gets mad and starts cursing! These are a bunch of Pakistani guys who rev their engines and honk their honks! At first I thought it was about the recent political issues in Pakistan. I don't follow but because every time you open the news, they are showing them and there's news about them, I knew that was the topic. So I approach a fella who has pulled his motorcycle at the side of the street and watches over his buddies and ask him what that was about. He says they were celebrating Pakistan's independence day! 

It goes back to Aug.14.1947 when India and Pakistan became two separate nations and they have fought three major fights ever since. Their hostility has not ended and every now and then there's a problem: Terrorist attacks, planes crashes, diplomatic arguments, you name it! So now these guys are really annoying and I know if it was a Canadian(!) neighbourhood someone would have called the police by now because they were being really dangerous and making too much noise. There was a possibility that they get into an accident and cause damage or hurt someone, not to mention that they were disturbing the peace of the neighbourhood. The Chef is still pissed and we walk away from the main road and don't here much after that! We then decide to go and sit for a coffee, after we finish our walk and on our way we see a couple of police officers on motorbikes. We first thought they were stopping a truck because one of them put his beacon up in the middle of the road while the big truck was right behind him but then the truck drove around and continued on the road. Then it hit us: Why the hell we didn't call the police when first hear the craziness?! CPS main headquarters is only 10 minutes drive from where these idiots were showing their patriotism! It was too late and those guys must have gone back to their dirty caves but this shows how careless Canadians are to their county. I don't know if there was a clash between these Pakistani guys and Indians but it would not have been completely impossible. Indians of, mostly, I would think Hindu faith were in clash with Sikh Indians just about a month ago somewhere in Ontario, perhaps Toronto over Khalistani Movement, the terrorist acts that Sikhs have to seek independence from India. They were showing that the police had to contain a man who was shouting angrily and possibly intended to attack the opposition people! Canadian politicians have done that to their people! Just because they need more population, more vote and more revenue, they let every pile of horse manure in and in just two generations Canada will look like a country such as Pakistan, Iraq or Afghanistan! There was a documentary a while back that many politicians in British Columbia where a huge population of Sikh people live, mostly in Surrey and Abbotsford, go to these people ceremonies, even to the groups who have been connected directly with terrorist separatists to guarantee their vote at the time of election. This is what happens when a society is solely based on MONEY! 

(Photo: The Caravan of Pakistani guys in 64 Ave., celebrating Pakistan's independence day in Canada!)

A Jewel in Alberta

One of a very few smart decisions made in by City of Calgary is establishing Nose Hill Park in the northwestern part of the city. The fact that they were able to keep this part of the city away from the filthy palms of the nasty, stinking, greedy builders, is a bless. Builders or as they are stupidly called " Developers " here in North America (and everywhere else for that matter!) are one of nastiest, filthiest greedy animals in the entire universe. They grab  a bunch of guys, buy cheap material in bulk, steal lands and lots, with the help from municipalities and build, mostly, cheap, disgusting homes out of wood and make millions and millions of dollars every year. Their hands, as I just said, has been cut off that beautiful part of the city. I've been going to Nose Hill since 2003! Not frequently, especially now that I live outside the city, but I always enjoyed it.
I went there for a little walk yesterday around 11:00 and fortunately it was not crowded. I'm walking on a trail and as usual I'm looking for any photo-op although I only have my phone on me and all of a sudden I see two beautiful deer with big antlers staring at me! I had my phone in my hand, brought it up and tried not to spook them. I got a few shots and then left quietly, made sure I don't disturb their peace but I know the shot would have been amazing, had I have my camera on me. It was a beautiful day and surprisingly a bit cold. It was only 14 ℃ (~ 57 ℉) but there were a few people around. I regretted that I had not come earlier because after a few minutes I felt that I really needed to go! I left all the beauty behind and went back home before something catastrophic happens! 

(Photo: I think I should have at least one more walk with my camera before winter hits. Perhaps I'm lucky to catch these two or anything worth taking picture, once again)

From " The Maltese " to " Peanut Butter " Falcon

I haven't had the chance, yet, to see the new movies that everyone's been talking about for the past month. One reason is when you're out-of-work, you don't feel like you want to go anywhere, particularly when you're by yourself! You have this feeling that everyone knows that you're on a limited and fixed budget and inside of them they're laughing at you! 

Instead you try to make yourself busy with everything at home. For me who has been working since late 2019 and even during the pandemic, sometimes 6 days a week, 9 hours a day now it's not so easy to stay home all day long! Most of my time is wasted and there's not much I can do. One thing I do regularly is watching the movies I have, either for the first time or repeatedly! 

One movie that I've watched recently is The Maltese Falcon. A movie made 1941! This, obviously is a very famous movie and a classic and I had seen it once in the old country but I barely remembered the details. I don't think the new generation is interested in a movie which, to my surprise, was made during the time that many countries were involved in war and that's the same year the US got involved in war with Japan! 

The movie is mainly orchestrated by two characters: Humphrey Bogart's and Mary Astor's. A great story and direction but Bogart's act is not as impressive as you expect although I haven't seen any other movie from him to be able to compare but he doesn't wow you! Astor, a pretty lady for her time is good as well but maybe acting was different 80 years ago! 

It was not very easy for me to understand everything as someone English is his second language. I don't think my English is bad but they all speak fast and with a sort of accent that you rarely hear that in today's movies! There's a scene that Bogart is talking to D. A. and a couple of other authorities of San Francisco and turns to a guys who is writing everything down and goes: Did you get everything or am I going too fast!? Great movie overall in many ways different from the today's.

Johnson and LeBeouf in a scene of Peanut Butter Falcon 

On the other hand there's this B-Movie Peanut Butter Falcon. Boring and stupid! Despite the fact that both LaBeouf and Johnson have good acts, mainly LaBeouf but the story is so cliche and boring, not to mention Stupid! Two people, like most movies, a man and a woman, get involved in a problem, unwillingly and disagree. The disagreement continues to the point that things get better and they kiss and fall in love! Dakota Johnson who has became very famous does not offer much but her look. She's truly pretty but that doesn't help much in the movie! I only had seen him in Black Mass with Johnny Depp. While the movie is great and Depp is very good, Johnson's role, as her wife was not good at all. I don't judge an actor or actress based on one or two movies and will wait for more of her works but the movie definitely a big F for me. Not every movie with falcon in it is good! 

(Photo, top: Bogart and Astor in a scene of The Maltese Falcon. I think if this movie had been made in the 80's or 90's there would have been a sequel to that by now! In fact I'm surprised why no one has done that! Maybe Hollywood is waiting for the 100th anniversary!)

Hot Water instead of Tea!

The widespread of Internet in the past 20 years or so have had many negative affects on people's lives but that's what the Corporate West wants! (If you do not know what the term Corporate West mean, let me know and I will explain it to you!) This way they reduce their cost. Look at the banks: Many of the branches are closed now and they continuously ask you to use banking App. Not even online banking! They want to close done all of the malls, restaurants and movie theaters so people do their shopping online, order their food online and eat at home and watch their favorite movies or series while sitting at home and streaming. I do not do any of the above, not because I dislike the internet. I don't eat at 95% of the restaurants and I'm not a person who enjoys buying the things they don't need! But the whole internet thing has a negative effect on me this way:  I used to read a lot but know I spent a whole awful lot of time on the net reading and watching nonsense materials, mostly! And compare the the majority of the population, particularly the young, I spent a lot less! 

With that in mind, one of the great books that I read years ago and I've written about it once is Dragon Seed. I remember it was a gloomy January evening and we, the family, all were out and my Dad bought the book for my birthday. You might be surprised as why it was such a lame birthday party but you have to understand the fact that, first of all we were in the old country and unlike today, birthday parties were not as common. Secondly, those were the war days and while I was only a kid, only now I can imagine the hardship that parents had to go to provide everything to their kids despite the fact that both of my parents were working and they had good jobs. So I read the book and enjoyed what Pearl Buck has written but what it has to bring up here is the fact that she was saying the fact that the Chinese as a result of the devastating war had to cut back even on the most basic necessities of their lives. She narrates in her book how some Chinese had to drink hot water instead tea to save even more, in their daily lives the concept that now is applicable to many Canadians these days due to the high cost of living. It is worse for me because I live on E. I. now and I hardly spend between the two pays. I'm very careful as all these expenses pile up at the end of each months and in between. I've had one face-to-face interview, one phone screening, one e-mail regarding an application and one evaluation exam and none has led to anything! For that I have to keep drinking hot water instead of tea, metaphorically, until things get better. 

(Photo: This post would not be completed without a picture that somehow relates to Pearl S. Buck. This house in West Virginia is her birthplace, which, I hope, has been preserved to this day and I hope it will stand forever. What a great novelist)