Who Wants To Come For Dinner?

It always starts with bread. This wonderful easy to make, no knead bread. The only changes I made to the recipe are 1 tsp yeast and 1 1/2 tsp salt. I just find it rises better but feel free to experiment. I've also made it with 2 cups white flour and 1 cup whole wheat. It doesn't get quite as high but what the heck.

The pantry was a bit bare this weekend because both of us have a really bad cold and couldn't get out for groceries. I did find a pork tenderloin in the freezer, which together with some mushrooms, onions and sour cream was enough to make a meal. Oh yes, there was wine.

Fry the whole mess together until nice and brown and toss in some water and at least a cup of wine. My spices were a little salt, lots of pepper and Hungarian paprika. Cover and simmer for half hour or so. It's tenderloin, it doesn't take long.

When its nice and tender I toss in some sour cream and that's mostly to taste. I use about 3/4 cup or so and I also mix about a teaspoon of corn starch into the sour cream It helps to thicken the sauce a little.

But then disaster struck. The pasta drawer was empty, well almost empty. There were some weird shell type past kicking around in the back of the shelf of unknown age but somehow I didn't think that would go with this dinner.

So plan B...the trusty pasta machine. Not really difficult to make pasta at all, just 2 eggs, a little olive oil, a little water and flour. Oh dear, you can see the chip in my bowl, groan...it's one that I made and I'm loath to throw it out.

Looks kind of messy but trust me, it's going to be fine.

A little kneading and then through the machine. It actually goes through a few times at different setting and then ends up really thin.

Not thin enough yet but this would make great lasagna.

when it's thin enough it goes through the cutter and comes out like this. Perfect fettucine.

A quick boil in salted water, maybe 3 minutes.

Dinner's served...

Just for a little healthy I did steam some broccoli on the side. Bye the way, I really don't like cooking very much.

Next week I will try to make some of those weird Beaver Tails that President Obama so enjoyed on his visit to Canada this past week.

Socialized Medicine - Take Two

So what the heck went wrong in Canada? I can't speak for other provinces since each of them can make independent decisions on how to spend the money they receive from the federal government for health care, I can only offer my opinion on Ontario politics and how bad decisions (in my view) have ruined what used to be a good system.

Way back when we used to pay health premiums in this province. Now this was really not an odious amount of money, something like 30 bucks a month for single and 50 for families. As always, people on welfare were exempt. It was felt that this wasn't generating enough income. Instead of raising the rate, in early 1990 the new government (NDP very left) abolished it altogether and replaced with an Employee Health Tax. It was supposed to generate lots more money and make health care better for all of us.

I remember at the time that my employer, a very large real estate firm immediately fired every agent and rehired them as "independent contractors". The employers had no intention of taking that financial hit and because as an "independent contractor" you paid it yourself except if you earned under a certain income level. So lots of people didn't pay a dime. Even so that brought the government an extra billion dollars in income in the beginning. I suspect but don't know for certain that with the recession of 90/91 there were a lot of people who didn't have to pay anymore and I know for certain that most realtors I worked with in those days were well under the income level.

Must have not been enough money after. The government closed hospitals, reduced beds in those that were left and worst of all cut spaces in med school. Somehow they thought we had too many doctors and that was what was draining the health care budget. It didn't stop there, they then took on doctors directly and decided on how much they would receive per patient visit effectively making them employees of the government. That amount stands at around $37.00 for a General Practitioner today. The other thing the government did was to limit the amount a doctor could bill yearly, in other words earn.

Because of the small amount of money they earned per visit they started rushing patients. No more than 10 minutes per visit and no more than one problem per visit. There is actually a sign in my doctors office that states it clearly. Before doctors became "employees" in our socialized country they could order refills of drugs on the phone, call you with test results and do referrals to specialists also on the phone and importantly listen to the patient. Now each of those things requires an office visit with usually a one or two week wait for an appointment.

As a result of being made "employees" of the government, two things happened, almost like a perfect storm. Doctors packed up and moved to America where what they could earn was unlimited, especially specialists and when a doctor here hit his income level he stopped taking patients. My own doctor only works half days on Fridays and never on an evening. Oh yes I almost forgot, there weren't enough doctors coming out of med school to replace the ones that left for greener pastures. By the time the government of the day realized it, it was too late. In Ontario there are just 84 doctors per 100,000 persons (last known figure). Might be 83 soon as I can see my own physician getting tired and burned out. There are 1.5 million people in Canada without a primary care physician.

So where do all these people go for medical care? Well the ER of course, where else. I have seen people there with cuts on their fingers or toes, sniffles, a rash etc. stuff that should be treated in a walk in clinic or doctors office. I heard somewhere (can't confirm) that a visit to the ER costs just over 500 bucks whereas a doctors visit, well we know that's around 37 bucks. Interestingly as I was writing this post our Minister of Health David Caplan was just on the news talking about emergency room visits and he said that 5 million people used the ER last year with only half being true emergencies. That's got to deplete the kitty somewhat...

Any talk of privatization brings outrage from the general public. It is considered "two tier" medicine and in this country where most inhabitants are so used to being taken care of from "cradle to grave" the idea of paying for something is alien. It would seem to me that a private medical clinic that is funded by the government would be a real money saver? Right about now I'd glad pay to have my vision restored but cant unless I go to the U.S.

Here's the thing though, we already have two tier medicine, it's just not common knowledge. Most workers for example are covered under Workers Compensation. If these people get injured on the job and are staying off work due to an injury they get moved to the front of the line. The reason is that workers comp pays the hospital directly and pays more than the government fee. Took me a while to figure out actually, when you see a specialist you fill out a little form and one of the questions is "is this a workers comp injury". People with private insurance also have benefits the rest of us don't. They get private or semi private rooms in hospitals while the plebes get a ward, they have drug and dental coverage which is not generally covered unless your on welfare and god forbid you get some awful disaese like cancer, the drug bills would wipe you out in a year.

The specialist that we are hoping will see Steve for his hand claims to specialize in workers comp cases! That's not two tier? Or the sports players who get injured here during various games, they pay cold hard cash to be treated because they aren't covered by our health plan. They go straight to the front of the line.

This is the system that President Obama would like to see in the U.S. Is this really the only solution? I keep hoping for a politician to come along and fix our mess but none of them have the guts. Canadians being what they are would vote anyone out of power who took away the "entitlements" no matter how crappy they really are.

If you are a senior in this province, unless you have a lot of money, life is even more tough. Conditions in old age homes are pathetically inadequate. People are left sitting in soiled diapers most of the day and the last Minister of Health was lambasted for trivializing it. After the initial outrage, did anything change? According to a good friend who does a lot of volunteer work in a seniors residence nothing has changed. Again, I know from the experience with my mother that this happens in hospitals as well. Short staffed was always the excuse I was given with my mother. In SEVEN weeks my mother did not get one shower, not even one.

Our own Premier McGuinty runs away from any serious questions and spouts platitudes. I have a drawer full of form letters from him in response to queries. His Minister of Health, David Caplan didn't even both answering my email. During election campaigns they all talk big, there are so many promises it's hard to keep track. Once elected they hope we forget them. Our current premier made over 200 promises when he was first elected and managed to break over a hundred of them the first 6 months. But four years later, guess what...people have short memories and he was reelected. That's why I've lost all faith in politicians of any stripe, they say the things you want to hear but hardly ever follow through.

And the solution is? Kick them all out and elect some real leaders...

Socialized Medicine - Patience Needed

So let me tell you how things work here in Canada for those of you who don't already know. You have a problem, in my case my eye and you go off to your friendly Primary Care Physician (GP). He is the gatekeeper of all and he decides who you need to see next. He doesn't order tests, at least not expensive tests he just sends you up the food chain. Problem is the food chain has many hungry people so you wait your turn and hope for the best. In case you think your health care is "free" let me disabuse you of that notion. We pay for it in the form of higher taxation and payroll deductions. There are also things not covered like the Optometrist and the eye scan in my case although there are many more on that list. Of course if you need a sex change operation, yup that's probably covered especially if your a prisoner, go figure...

In my case (we'll talk about Steve later) it was an appointment with the Opthamologist who had a look see and said, "nothing serious, just some floaters" things will sort themselves out. Ya right... here I am three months later half blind in one eye. That was early November, 2008.

In early January when we returned from our lovely (freezing) holiday in Calgary, I suddenly had flashes and waves in my eye. I thought maybe it was a stroke or some such nonsense and off we went to the ER. Many hours later I was told it was an eye issue and needed to see a Retinal Surgeon, call your Opthamologist I was told. The next available appointment was 10 days away and being an impatient person I took myself off to the Optometrist (which is not free). She had a good look at told me it was a macular hole or pseudo hole but couldn't be sure. Only a dye x-ray would show it for sure.

I waited patiently to for the next appointment with the eye doc. He then referred me to the retinal surgeon. That appointment was yesterday after a three week wait. Now I'm assuming rightly or wrongly that he is a good surgeon since the wait was so long and because the appointment was at a major hospital assumed (wrongly) that a resolution was not far off. Never assume, dam it, I'm always wrong.

He also had a good look and told me it was retinal scarring, huh...were did that come from. From the best I can glean after googling, it could have been the floaters back in November that started this unlucky chain of events. Now the problem is if the scarring is too thick it can't be operated. Great, said I, book the surgery. Not so fast...it all takes time.

Two more tests yesterday, a dye x-ray and some fancy MRI type scan (not free) and more waiting. This doc is so busy that even though I had the tests done right away and had the results available, he can't see me again until March 18th to discuss those results!

His gatekeeper is the receptionist and even though I was all done with the tests in half an hour and had the results in my hand she wasn't budging, March 18th was the date. I almost begged for an earlier appointment and came close to breaking into tears. How long does it take to look at two test results and decide yes or no and book surgery? I would gladly have sat and waited no matter how long.

It was not to be and the wait goes on. Remember, this all started early November and as each day goes by my eye gets blurrier and I am scared that by the time "my turn" comes around it will be too late and my vision will be lost.

Now this is not an anomaly here in Canada. I waited TWO years for a hip replacement, four months for gallbladder surgery and 5 months for heart ablation. Oh yes I almost forgot, there is a ONE year wait for a foot surgeon to fix my foot. In the U.S. my cousin had her gallbladder out within weeks with her choice of surgeon and another cousin got a pacemaker in 24 hours.

My mother, in May of 2007 died of heart failure because it took the hospital 4 weeks to give her a lifesaving pacemaker and never did get her MRI even though she was in the hospital. If I'd know that would happen I'd have taken her stateside for that surgery. My husband has been waiting for surgery on his torn tendon since last October. He has been sent from one doctor to another and is still waiting for an MRI booked for March. He has now missed the "window of opportunity" and requires TWO surgeries instead of one. We also still don't have an appointment with the surgeon.

My offspring and I disagree about this all the time but I would rather have had the option of paying for insurance and having some sort of private system running concurrently with the public system as is the case in many other countries. This system is broken. The people with money go to the U.S. for immediate treatment and those covered under Workers Compensation jump to the front of the line here. It is an unequal system in spite of what our politicians like to tell us.

That's it for ranting, I'm going to go have a shot of cognac, might as well be dizzy for a good reason...

Getting Ready For Hard Times

Well sort of, I mean I know that bad times are definitely ahead of us, but I'm ready.

Lest you think we're rich buying that much wine, let me assure you it was cheap. It's home make plonk actually and costs about 4 bucks a bottle. And we actually like it. We put up 60 bottles of the stuff, half Riesling and half Gewuertztraminer and it's very drinkable. At least to this non wine snob.
I am overwhelmed by the bad news out there. Job losses in Ontario are staggering. The national unemployment rate is 7.2% but in Ontario it's 8%. this is the largest job loss in 30 years. Now I know that Michigan for example, has unemployment rates in the 10% range but that is because the big three auto makers call that state home. They are, unfortunately responsible for their own near demise. I have owned and still drive a North American vehicle but I did have the pleasure of having German car once. My North American vehicles never lasted more than 10 years maximum and that's with spending mega bucks on repairs. And they want a bailout? I had my German car for 20 years and it looked as good as the day I bought it, not one rust spot.

Sales of homes in Toronto are down 48% over last year yet our city fathers wont rescind double taxation to help the situation (Ontario land transfer tax is double in the city). Most of my friends are in real estate and they are feeling the pinch. These are also the people who don't qualify for unemployment benefits. These are the very people who, when times are good spend lots of money to keep the economy moving. They won't be spending too much anytime soon.

Both our government and the American government are going to pour BILLIONS of dollars into bailouts and job creation programs. I've been watching the debate with interest. Some of the things that were in the American bill and were cut belie belief. How would some of these things create jobs?

Protectionism isn't fully off the table yet and that may make things much worse. Here's an interesting commentary on the subject. Canada and America are so entwined trade wise any kind of protectionism would be bad for both countries. I would hope though, that since Canada is America's largest stable foreign supplier of oil, and Canada also takes $100-billion more of America's exports than does any other country the people who are debating the stimulus package remember that. For both our countries and the world's sake.

In our recent stimulus budget there were some interesting things on offer. There was an increase in the personal exemption which is always a good way to reduce tax but the one that affects us directly in the Home Renovation Tax Credit. This allows a home owner to do a little work like maybe a new bathroom, kitchen or maybe even a new deck. There is a 15% tax credit up to $10,000. So that give you another $1,350 bucks tax deduction. This little goody is only good for one year and already we've had two bathroom jobs and a fence job booked. That tells me there are still people with money to spend. Unfortunately Steve may not be able to take the jobs since he is has been waiting for hand surgery since October with no date booked yet.

The automakers will get their pound of flesh too but they might have to re negotiate some contracts and take pay cuts. Maybe they will start making cars that people want to buy. If not, they deserve to go under and I'm sorry for all the lost jobs. But really, can we afford to support an industry to makes cars that nobody wants to buy and just sit unsold in parking lots? I desperately need a new vehicle as does my husband but we are loath to buy one now, we'll just make do. We also need to replace the tv which seems to have lost three inches of the picture in recent months but again, waiting is the order of the day.

Around here there will be less yarn purchased for a while and when I get groceries I concentrate more on ways to save money than buying things we want. Luckily for me having been poor before is now serving me in good stead, I really know how to stretch a buck. I don't like it, but what the heck, this too shall pass.

As long as I don't loose my vision, nothing else matters much. My fateful appointment with the Retinal Specialist is Tuesday, wish me luck.

Watch What You Eat - How Safe Is Your Food?

I heard today on an American news channel that there is a debate as to whether or not the company responsible for bringing us Salmonella tainted peanut products should or should not go to jail. That shouldn't even be up for discussion. If they knew about the problem and ignored it, yes they should be prosecuted.

They should then consider themselves very lucky that they don't live in China where the recent tainted milk scandal brought death sentences for the unlucky factory executives and serious prison sentences for some workers.

I was lucky, I was away over the holidays and didn't eat any of the products that were hiding in my cupboard and freezer, but as soon as I saw the list I cleared them out. I had some power bars and some ice cream cones that were on the recall list. Salmonella has killed a number of Americans thus far and has sickened thousands.

Here is the FDA list of recalled products.

Some Interesting Numbers

Just a little update...I just heard on the news that President Obama stated that he did not want "any clauses that could trigger a trade war". There is hope yet..


When Canada and U.S. negotiated the free trade agreement in the late 80's most Canadians myself included thought this was a bad deal for Canada. I felt we'd given away too much of our natural resources such as oil and gas. The agreement was slanted in U.S. favour. Almost overnight a large portion of the manufacturing sector packed up and left town for places like Georgia or Ohio, wherever wages were cheap. That in itself decimated the Ontario economy but what the heck, we're Canadian, we sucked it up and took it on the chin.

Years later there came the softwood lumber dispute which took years to resolve and many millions of dollars in legal fees.

Now we seem to be back to square one where there is a trade war brewing which could devastate this country. It is up to President Obama to recognize that Canada is the U.S's largest trading partner and to solve this issue before it's too late.

I recognize that there are many Americans who have lost their jobs and their homes, but there are also many Canadians in the same boat. A lot of people have lived very well in North America in the last few years without ever thinking that it could end some day. If Americans think we are taking their jobs I'd like to remind them that their banking fiasco has robbed a lot of people the world over of their retirement savings. Greed is not a good thing and a "beggar your neighbour" philosophy will only make it worse.

Keeping in mind that the U.S. has about 200 million people and Canada around 34 million, I'd say we buy more American than Americans buy Canadian. Just for interest here are some trade figures for those Americans who think they are getting a bad deal.

Exported TO U.S. ---Imported FROM U.S.

2003 - 2,825 million - 2,163 million
2004 - 3,526 million - 3,430 million
2005 - 3,977 million - 4,047 million
2006 - 3,969 million - 4,084 million
2007 - 4,063 million - 4,326 million

I'd say that gives Canada a bit of a bargain chip...maybe it's time we stopped sucking it up by the 800 pound gorilla...

The 800 Pound Gorilla In The Room...

That would be the "Buy American" clause in the bail out package.

When President Obama way back when said he wanted to open NAFTA I guess he wasn't kidding. Of course at the time his campaign team said otherwise, nope they said, it's not on the agenda.

Reading the news from around the world lots of countries including Canada are in a panic over this clause that would affect all manufactured goods coming into the U.S.

I'm not an economist but from everything I read this can't be a good thing. I know Canada will have no problem selling it's oil, gas and steel to other countries like China or India but it will also mean less American goods in Canada if our government decides to retaliate. Darn, I may have to give up buying my wool from my favourite American suppliers...