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BERWICK AREA HEART SUPPORT GROUP
OCTOBER 2005 NEWSLETTER
Next meeting October 5th at the day Hospital, Berwick Infirmary from 7.00pm – 9.00pm Guest speaker Phil Lindsay, Health Improvement officer, Northumberland Care Trust
*****
Our guest for September Jill Hunter, gave a practical demonstration, so little for me to write about. The subject was yoga and fortunately there was not enough room for us all to get involved the full body yoga, ( I don’t think there is enough beds in the hospital if we had) and so had to restrict ourselves to what we could manage sitting in our seats.
Jill has been qualified to teach yoga and its benefits for 13 years, but what she was able to demonstrate was that we could all benefit from the exercise and relaxation that could be achieved from doing various exercises even whilst sitting in a chair. So whether you put time aside to do exercise or just did some whilst watching the telly, there was no reason not to do some.
There is an exercise for every part of the body. We started at the feet, and tried to spread our toes. Not as easy as it sounds. Gradually working up the body all the different moves have different mainly exotic sounding names. There seem to be quite a few for the hands and arms, also for the shoulders to help relieve tension and headaches.
A series of individual hand, arms and body movements combined together, become the LotusHand Dance. The last time I did a hand dance was in the sixties, it was called the Hand Jive, it used a lot more calories, but I don’t suppose it was a relaxing.
Thanks for your time Jill and I feel people would take from the evening that which suits them best.
*****
Wally’s Yarn.
A man always went on holiday to Spain. Spanish life had always interested him, and this time he was lucky enough to get 3 weeks holiday. He intended to get to know, and experience, as much of Spain as he could on this visit, rather than just lie around the pool drinking as he usually did. To enable him to do this he had chose as his base a small town in the hills.
Whilst in the bar on his first night, he began speaking to the bar owner about wanting to experience local life, both culturally and especially to taste local food. The bar owner reminded him that there was a bullfight the next day that he could visit, and that if he wished he would prepare a local speciality dish for him for his evening meal.
The man thanked the bar owner for the information, and booked his meal for the following evening.
He went to the bullfight the next day, and whilst it was not really his ‘cup of tea’ he consoled himself by thinking that at least he had been once rather than dismissing it out of hand, and he still had his evening meal to look forward too.
That evening in the bar when his meal arrived, it looked and smelt delicious. The smell filled the bar, and people looked on jealously. There were two round balls of meat, slightly larger than tennis balls, in thick gravy with onions, carrots, peas and potatoes. He started his the meal and it tasted as good, if not better, than it had smelt. He went on to clear his plate.
As he was mopping up the last drop of gravy with a piece of bread not wanting to waste anything, the bar owner came over and asked him if he had enjoyed his day. The man admitted that he had not been too keen on the bull fight, but that he had enjoyed his meal immensely. Thinking he may be able to recreate the meal when he got home, he asked the bar owner what was in it, and how it was made.
The bar owner reminded him of the bull that had been killed at the bullfight that day, and said that when it had been removed from the ring it had been taken to a local butchers. As the butcher was the his cousin he got first choice of the choicest cuts and that the meal he had just eaten was a local delicacy made from the bulls ‘dangly bits’, and had been slow braised in a clay oven with vegetables all afternoon.
This surprised the man, but he had to admit that it was one of the most delicious meals he had ever tasted, and that even knowing what it was made of he would have it again. The bar owner informed him that as there is a bull fight every Wednesday afternoon and some Saturday evenings, the meal was often available. So after that, when this meal was on the menu it became his choice of evening meal.
One night about 2 weeks later he went in expecting the meal to be on the menu. When he saw that it was, he ordered it. But when it arrived he was more than a little surprised, because instead of the usual sized portions, the portions of meat were very much smaller than usual, about the size of a couple of chestnuts
He complained to the bar owner, and asked why the difference in size. The bar owner shrugged his shoulders, raised his palms up slightly, pursed his lips and said, “Alas Senor! Sometimes, ze bull, it wins”.
*****
Recipe of the Month
Irish Baked Herring
Serves 6
6 Herrings, filleted
150ml (1/4 pint) Milk
75g (3oz) Butter
2 Onions, chopped
275g (10oz) Cream
900g (2lb) Potatoes, boiled
4 Eggs, separated
Fresh Parsley
Salt and Black Pepper
Method
Pre-heat oven to 180°C: 350°F: Gas 4.
Place the herrings in a bowl, pour over the milk and leave in a cool place for an hour.
Melt 25g (1oz) of the butter and fry the onions until golden.
Drain the herrings and cut into bite sized pieces, add the fried onions and mix with 75g (3oz) of the cream.
Mash the potatoes, adding the remaining butter, cream and egg yolks, season to taste.
Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Gently fold the eggs whites into the mashed potatoes.
Spread half the potato mixture in a buttered ovenproof dish.
Add the fish mixture, top with the remaining potato mixture.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Garnish with parsley.
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