I always wanted to visit Canada and this year seemed as good as any for another trip in North America. We did a lot of train riding, starting in New York City to Montreal, then Toronto, finishing in Niagara Falls. I am getting pretty good at planning these things and everything worked out nicely and it was as close to a perfect trip as I could’ve hoped for.
As always I had both the camera and the phone with me, but found myself using the latter the most, phone is always close, the quality is decent, it makes easy panoramas, and the photos can be easily uploaded from the nearest WIFI spot. I realized that I bring the camera out of habit and can see myself traveling without one in the near future.
We found Montreal to be amazing, delicious, friendly and easy to get around. And covered in great graffiti. I am a big fan of murals and other folk art and Montreal didn’t disappoint.
This is probably the last newspaper post for a while, I grabbed a few scans knowing that the Challenger anniversary is coming up in a few days. As much as I like doing this and can endlessly go on with the newspaper clips, I imagine it’s not as exciting for the rest of you.
I vaguely remember seeing the news about the crash on the Soviet TV, but I think my reaction was similar to most people’s who are watching something bad happen at another part of the world, not nearly as horrifying as people experienced here watching it live.
Two things that struck me – even in the worst days the newspapers never stop printing ads, its strange to see the account of a national tragedy juxtaposed with a shoe clearance ad; also Lee Judge’s cartoons always sucked.
Some of those are pretty amusing. In no particular order.
1956 – Khrushchev denounces Stalin, as pointed out by the Kremlin tower standing on Stalin’s portrait. Previously Stalin’s portrait on the floor – years and years of Gulag, or worse. Roses are wrapped in the Soviet newspaper “Pravda” (Truth).
Hello Ladies! There may be times in your life when you are craving something chocolaty and who knows why you may want it to be shaped like sausage. You are at the right place, kick back, relax and learn how in less than twenty minutes you can make your very own delicious rock-hard Russian Chocolate Sausage.
For this recipe you will need just a few simple products:
4 packs of Maria’s Cookies from the Mexican Aisle in your grocery store;
1 cup of sugar;
4 tablespoons of milk;
Vanilla extract;
Cocoa;
2 sticks of butter;
1 egg;
Nuts are optional but they sure taste good;
Now that all of your ingredients are assembled you are ready to start. Mix sugar and egg, add milk, vanilla extract and cocoa. How much cocoa depends on how chocolaty you prefer your chocolate sausage; put too little and it will be unappealingly pale, put too much and you will have hard time finding it in the dark when you crave it the most. Now place the mixture on low heat and continue to mix with rhythmical circular motions until the sugar completely dissolves and it slowly starts to boil. Do not beat it with the whisk, you are not trying to whip it into cream, just mix slowly so it doesn’t burn. When the mixture starts bubbling a little, add softened butter. Do not stop mixing but remove it from the heat. It’s warm enough. When the butter melts you can finally stop.
Now proceed to break the cookies into small pieces. You should end up with a mix of small pieces and crumbs. Some of you will be tempted to use a food processor but restrain yourself, chocolate sausage likes manual touch.
Combine the chocolate mixture with broken-up cookies. If you decided to experiment with nuts, now would be the time to add them.
Make sure that you are doing a thorough job, I recommend using a spatula with brisk up- and down- motions. You don’t want to leave any cookies dry, it will adversely affect the chocolate sausage.
Place a large piece of parchment paper on the table and spoon the mixture in the even layer close to the edge.
Starting at the near edge tightly wrap your chocolate sausage. When it’s wrapped squeeze and roll it as needed to even out the mixture distribution.
You are doing very good, almost done. You may want to wrap the sausage in another layer of aluminum foil just in case. Now place it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
That’s one long thick sausage you have. Doesn’t even fit on the shelf. I know you want to eat it right away but you need to wait. Leave it there for now.
When the sausage is hard remove it from the fridge, unwrap and slice up to your liking. Let it melt in your mouth, smell the chocolate, feel the crunch. Enjoy the Russian Chocolate Sausage!
