Woo hoo, so Obla-Da, life goes on

Actually this premature warm weather is a bad thing.

But I wouldn't expect anyone from the south to realize that.

Some of us think that excess warmth at any time
of the year is not a good thing.

Further downside: the Snow King Ice Castle had to shut down early
and the Equinox Festival had to be move from the ice on Yellowknife
Bay for the first time ever to a parking lot in the city.

For the latter, was there a decrease in attendance?

temps as high as +8 for a week
20 degrees above average.
All the ice roads [,,,] had to shut down

We had the hottest weather in recorded history (100 years) for
several days running, almost everywhere and broke hundreds of
records.

And Lilli's has had the wettest winter in
recorded history, with way below average
temperatures (however not cancelling out
Australia's hottest summer ever or the
climate issues in your semi-frozen north).

The warm spell is over and we are back to normal seasonal temps of
-1 in the day time to as low as -20 at night. We have at least 6
more cold nights forecast so it looks like all the freight will get
delivered everywhere after all.

Normal can be a good thing, I suppose.

Who determines the safe loads,
and how - sonar? Or some more boring method.

The road builders have decades of experience and can judge ice by
look and feel just like an Inuk hunter. But they also rely on radar,
sonar and test drilling too.

Well, white folks can be just as smart as
brown folks when they have to be.

Title: Lithuanian Baked Eel
To serve baked fish, cut into medium pieces and garnish with lemon
slices and parsley.

Doesn't look too bad, but ...

This is eaten as a snack with black or white fried bread.

Though not a bread person I'd preferentially eat
the fried bread (as are most of my friends, I am
a fried person.

... Geese aren't silly; they're small winged dinosaur monsters.

That goes double for swans.

Deep Fried Gingerbread Men
categories: odd, dessert
yield: 24

24 gingerbread men cookies
1 c pancake mix
1 c milk or water
oil for frying
powdered sugar for sprinkling

In a medium bowl, combine the pancake mix and
enough liquid for a thin pancake batter
consistency. Mix until smooth.

Dunk those little guys into the batter, making
sure to coat them evenly on both sides.

Plunge them into 350F oil. Flip them so they
get evenly fried and nice and golden.

Let them cool and dust with powdered sugar.

ohbiteit.com
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.FIDOSYSOP.ORG (1:123/140)

Quoting Michael Loo to Jim Weller <=-

the Equinox Festival

(Long John Jamboree, formerly called Caribou Carnival)

had to be moved from the ice on Yellowknife
Bay for the first time ever to a parking lot in the city.

For the latter, was there a decrease in attendance?

The turnout was just slightly below normal and the general opinion
was "a bit disappointing but still fun".

One interesting food booth served seal meat. Two guys served up seal
tartare, pate and seared loin.

Francois Rossouw is a local guy who's day job is in wild fur
marketing and the traditional economy for the NWT Government's
Industry and Trade Dept. He also writes about foraging and using
wild foods in our local Edge magazine. I've posted some of his
recipes published in the Edge in the past. (His Mom is an old family
friend and Roslind's hairdresser).

He worked with visiting chef Joseph Shawana, who is an Odawa
(Ottawa) Native Canadian from Manitoulin Island which is in Georgian
Bay, a part of Lake Huron. He is trained in Classical French cuisine
and has a high end French-Algonkian fusion restaurant in Toronto
utilizing traditional Indigenous ingredients and had recently
started researching Inuit foods. The place is called Ku-Kum which
means "Grandmother's" in Algonquin, Ojibwa, and Cree.

The seared seal loin was cooked in a bit of olive oil and salt and
pepper and paired with a variety of wild fruit: Saskatoon berries, cloudberries, elderflower syrup and wild rose syrup.

The meat was sourced through a company called SeaDNA, harvested by
Canadian sealers on the Magdalen Islands, processed right on the
boat and vacuum sealed, so very fresh, not at all like the dried
up, rancid seal I served you imagine the richest wild game red meat
you've ever tasted; now imagine it being oily (nice oil, not rancid)
rather than lean ... that's what seal can taste like.

temps as high as +8 for a week

All the ice sculptures were severely damaged.

All the ice roads [,,,] had to shut down

They reopened long enough after it got cold again so that almost
everybody got all their supplies in.

And Lilli's has had the wettest winter in
recorded history, with way below average
temperatures

Which was so badly needed there. And that too (abnormal extremes
and more frequent severe weather, not just hotter weather generally)
is all part of the overall picture that was predicted accurately
decades ago.

On a lighter note I came across a collection of short Whole Foods
jokes. Here's the first one ...

If I had a nickel for all the "Whole Foods is expensive" jokes I've
seen I could probably buy some peanut butter there now.



Cheers

Jim


... Going to cash in my 401k so I can start shopping at Whole Foods

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.FIDOSYSOP.ORG (1:123/140)