Friday, December 12, 2008

Our Thursday, Warm Coats,

We met up with some of our friends from Wednesday night plus a bunch of other bowlers at The Crossroads Restaurant in Elmira for lunch, not a restaurant we favour although it seemed their food had improved since last time we were there. Matt had a BLT (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich) which was jam packed with bacon apparently and made on their own home made bread. He said it was very good. I had soup and salad and the soup was good. Turkey, tomato and basil. We were joined for lunch by the proprietor of Elmira Bowl too as two of our friends used to own a bowling alley so they know all the other proprietors. We then headed out to the alley. Some of the local bowlers had turned out to support our visit and we were all mixed in together which made it more fun. I actually bowled "fairly" well, Matt didn't do too badly either. Some of our other friends did really well and we all had a fun afternoon. It is a pity that Elmira Bowl is no longer a member of the Travel League but one of their bowlers was telling us that they had no drivers. That is a problem with older groups I suppose, many are no longer able, or allowed to drive. I hope they can find someone to drive them to the meets as it is more fun to have other alleys as part of the group, at the moment, we only have two. We did think of going to Elmira Bowl permanently, but driving could be a problem for us, depending on the weather. Not something we wanted to do every week, its not that close to home, they are way out in the country. We have closer alleys, but they don't take part in things either. It is a problem as lots of 5 pin bowling alleys are closing down, probably through lack of participation. A lot of the people where we bowl at Waterloo Lanes, don't care about any other events associated with bowling, they just go along on their bowling day and that's it. Matt and I have always enjoyed the tournaments and the Travel Leagues. It makes it more fun and we enjoy meeting other people. Of course, we bowl again this afternoon and having already bowled twice this week, I am a bit stiff. Good Morning America and ABC News are running a charity Warm Coats, Warm Hearts - they did it last year and collected several hundred thousand coats which were donated to people who don't have winter coats. Apparently a youngster who donated his coat left a message in the pocket for whoever received the coat and they have become friends. Nice story. The drive has spread into Canada as well. They get truckloads of coats from places like Burlington Coat Factory and lots from schools all over the States. Along with her Christmas Card, a friend of mine in Ireland, sent a little pocket sized cookbook of Irish Foods, Fast and Modern. This is one of the soup recipes I found. Bacon and Cabbage Soup A new life for a classic combination 1 medium onion, finely diced 50 g butter 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced 250 g savoy or spring cabbage (1 small cabbage) 600 ml chicken or ham stock 4 bay leaves, salt and pepper 175 g cooked ham or bacon Sweat the onion in the butter. Add the potato and cabbage. Cook for another 2 minutes. Add stock and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and cook until the potatoes are soft. Remove the bay leaves and liquidise or blend with a hand blender. Add the cooked ham or bacon. Season to taste.

No comments:

Post a Comment