THEY SAY MONTREALERS LOVE TO                   COMPLAIN ABOUT THE WEATHER,
Well, it could be more like we like to complain about la Ville de Montreal andpitifully poor lack of snow removal even though Montreal prides itself on having the most up to dayte as well as the best snow removal equipment in the world.  If so why don't they get down and do it???

Hello there, I'm having a time of it trying to swallow the lack of snow removal pill in my neighbourhood in the burough of Ville Marie in Montreal, Canada.

Bike path on the left.  Looking good!

I'm not in denial of winter, just the absurdity of how this city functions.  I live on a major artery that provides one of the few north south access entries to the downtown core.  One would think that it would be  a priority to have the streets cleaned and preened before  many residential streets after a mega snowstorm.  Not Montreal. One week later only the bike path has been ploughed and of course there's NO PARKING let alone STOPPING on that side of the street!!

Is it worth the trouble?

 The signs go up on both sides of the streets and stay up for days and days before the snow removal operation  finally comes in all its glory to swallow up the tons of snow in its path.  Last week they actually took down the signs after several days without touching so much as a flake of snow.

Hint:  The Snow Removal /Towing signs are the Orange one's
 added to the regular parking signs. 

The black car on the left side of the street is parked!!!

In my frustration I wrote to the mayor  and am further venting here.  Thank you and the internet for that.  The worst thing is that snow removal signs are put up as early as 5 days before the actual removal and on both sides of the streets in the area.  On the side street where I usually park the signs were taken down after almost a week and the snow had not been dealt with.  GRRRR......and why on earth would the bike path be the priority!?!?!

Enough bitching and on to more important matters:           

                          !!   FOOD   !!      

To appease my frustration and despair I took to baking which is definitely not my forte.  But being bold and attempting to impress last week's dinner guests I took a crack at making one of my childhood favourites.  Mariannes.  I called mom and she gave me the basics, white cake batter poured into an uncooked pastry shell with a dollop of jam at the bottom of each tart. Toss them into the oven ant 350 for a half an hour or so and ice when cool.   Sounds easy enough doesn't it?  Well, I who usually pride myself on being able to whip up a  a perfect pie crust, flubbed it totally.  The crust was as hard as rock and was in total contrast to the cake batter which I borrowed from Aunt Carmen.  Now that was the most light and delicate cake I've ever made, so I guess it was only half a disaster.  I did have another chance on Sunday. It being my sweetheart's birthday I decided to bake the cake again and forget about Marianne.  I have to admit the second time around the cake was even better.  If you're interested here's the dope on the most delightful sponge cake I've come across.

                                     Carmen's Egg  Cake:

6 eggs  room temperature

1 cup of sugar (I like to use raw cane sugar)

1 cup of flour

1 T cold water

1 T lemon or lime juice (I only had lime and it was sublime)

Beat eggs separately, whites should be medium stiff. Add 1/2 of the sugar to each. Then fold the whites into the yellows.  

Add the water and lime juice.  Fold the flour in 1 Tablespoon at a time.

Butter and flour an Angel cake mold or if you don't have one of those but have a metal bowl, place a buttered, floured conical glass in the center of the bowl and pour in the batter.  

Bake at 350 for  35-40 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool.  Ice with a simple butter icing:

1/4 cup of butter. 

About 1 cup of icing sugar

1t vanilla

1T or so milk

Cream the butter and icing sugar until you have a creamy thick paste.  Mix in vanilla and milk and stir until you have the desired consistency.  I like it to be thick yet fluffy. 

My daughter, Lyra then iced and decorated the cake with Amethyst coloured icing, cinnamon and red sugar!!  Et voila!!

         HOW CAN I FORGET MY PRECIOUS         
                               HIBISCII

ONE MORE THING:
I CAN ONLY IMAGINE HOW THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE IN EGYPT FEEL TODAY AFTER MUBARAK'S DECISION TO NOT STEP DOWN.  WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO END THE OPPRESSION?!?!
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Anti-Mubarak-Protest-Crowds-Swell-Across-Egypt--115904149.html

       !!!OMG!!!  Can this be possible....
Mubarak appears to have reconsidered
although, how can he still  have the power to appoint the army!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/feb/11/egypt-hosni-mubarak-left-cairo


http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/11/2648029/egyptian-president-mubarak-steps.html