In praise of cast iron ...

It has been about a year and a half now that I have been enjoying my cast iron fry pan. Some visitors have expressed surprise that I no longer have any Teflon pans in my home. I was pleased to show off this week when folks were at my place for omelettes. Using my big pan, which is now perfectly seasoned, I was able to make excellent omelettes without anything sticking to the pan. The same goes for steaks, chops, burgers, raw veggies and even grilled cheese sandwiches. And it's perfect for frying fish. Cleaning up is easy. I have a couple of stiff brushes, some hot water and then wipe it clean with paper towels. When I cook fish or eggs, I usually throw in a bit of baking soda and vinegar, to kill any lingering odors. Rinse with hot water, wipe with paper towel and then half a teaspoon of oil to season the pan.
I noticed that the Lodge Company, which makes my favourite pans, has released an updated video about cast iron cooking.
It is worth taking a few minutes to have a look.

This is important because I have read that in some parts of the world, factories using any kind of recycled metal to make up cast iron, including old lead.

Northern lakes are so refreshing

I have been nursing a bit of sunburn in recent days, but I think it was worth it. I have been prone to burning ever since I was a kid, but these days I feel it more. I don’t have enough hair to keep my scalp from burning and last night I had to soak my head with cold water for relief. I say it was worth it because I spent a day at Bigwater Lake, just north of Timmins. The water was clean, fresh and oh so cold. I find the best way to beat the heat it to jump into a northern lake. I had put sunscreen on my shoulders and face, but forgot the top of my head. Anyway, if the hot weather continues, I am heading back to the lake.

Just some photos from this summer in Timmins...

A woman, Lynne Bouchard, was the captain of a winning mine rescue team.


The Mr. Schumacher statue was nicely repaired and cleaned up.


Entrepreneur Jon Bonney set up a wakeboard ride on Gillies Lake.


Gillies Lake, just a nice place to hang out on a summer day.


A blasting incident at the Hollinger pit. A rock escaped the blast zone and landed on a parked car. Production shut down for three weeks.


Some local teenagers were rescued after spending a night stranded on the shore of the Grassy River when their canoe flipped over.


The summer concerts every Wednesday night have been a hit with a lot of Timmins folks.

Click on the photos to see the large version.
Photos by Len Gillis ©

I was hooked ...

I had an excellent discussion this past week when I dropped in at Collège Borèal in Timmins for a photo. They were having a fish fry to entice students, parents and visitors to drop by the campus to see what courses were being offered. Pretty good marketing idea. It was even better, when after I shot my photo, one of the kitchen staff walked over and plopped down a heaping plate of pickerel, French fries and cole slaw. Now that is what many folks in Northern Ontario call dinner fit for a king. How much better can it get? … well it could be a little better with a nice bonfire, a breeze off the lake and a fresh beer so cold that it snaps your molars. Anyway, during lunch, I was joined by a staff member. We discussed that life is indeed good in Northern Ontario. Yes, it’s nice to visit Toronto and other points down south, every now and then, but it is hard to beat the good life in the North, where people know you, where the streets and pretty safe and we are close to the best of Nature. Both of us could name several instances of where folks have gone south and then returned to raise their children and carry on. I try not to get political here, but the only downside is that we are not masters of our own destiny. Northern Ontario makes up nine-tenths of the province. We have the gold, silver, copper, diamonds, electricity, clean air and fresh water. But a bunch of know-nothings down south always seem to get elected by know-nothing voters (ha ha, now I am in trouble) and the North gets shut out on the decision making.

Blessings

Here it is another nice Friday in August. Lucky me I have a day off. Last Friday was excellent. I had a visit from Jennifer, Tyler and Nathan and it was just the best time. I am not much of a prayer guy, but when I went to bed that night I thanked God for the blessings in my life. That sure includes Jenn and her family. Jenn was in good spirits having just completed a couple of summer school courses as she works towards her nursing degree. I knew I would forget the course names… some science thingy or two – but she earned 90 per cent in one and 86 per cent in the other. She figured it would give her a bit of break during the regular school year to take advance courses in the summer. No kidding. I am amazed that she is a housewife, mom and university student all in one. I have to give a lot of credit to Scott and boys for their excellent support. Wow, what a change from five years ago eh? The visit was nice despite the rain we had. As usual, there was chocolate cake to be enjoyed. Whenever the boys were sniffing around the kitchen wondering what to snack on, I’d just say Chocolate Cake? Yes!! I should have snapped a photo of one such snack… we sliced a banana lengthwise, put it in bowls, ice cream down the centre topped with strawberry syrup, smack a hunk of choco cake on top of that and then smother it all in hot fudge sauce. The boys actually had to work at eating it all. It is fun being a grandfather.

I can be a pocket pain in the a$$

What a pain in the a$$ I am. Yes, mea culpa! My phone is a pocket-dialing nightmare. I thought it was ALL my fault but I have since learned that the BlackBerry is one of the worst phones for this, likely because it has a keyboard. But the keyboard is exactly the reason I like the BlackBerry. Anyway, I called Jennifer this week, not once, but twice. To make things worse, the call was late in the evening... at the time when nobody wants an unexpected phone call. As it was I took a call from another reporter, named Joey, who was trying to find the house where a murder investigation was underway. I was heading out the door and pushed the phone into my pocket. Jennifer's name was close to Joey's name. Suddenly I heard a voice saying, hello, hello ... Yes it was Jennifer. So I apologized. But it seems a week doesn't go by that I don't mistakenly pocket dial somebody. I went to the BlackBerry website and there is an app available to disable the keyboard quickly and easily. I will have to explore that.

Just catching up

Catching up. Yes, I am a procrastinator. But we can talk about that another day. Just kidding! With summer in full swing, I am indeed enjoying the outdoors a lot more. I so enjoy summer mornings, when the air is cooler and so fresh. Some mornings I sit on my balcony with a nice mug of coffee and just enjoy how nice it is. I close my eyes and listen to the sounds of the birds, the wind in the trees. Good or what. I don't missing winter a bit. Working is turning out to be okay. Although I am back in the assignment pool, I find I don’t have to work as hard as when I was alone. I still do the writing and layout for The Timmins Times, but I don't have to look after so much paperwork. The past few weeks have been nice. I was down to Sudbury to see Jennifer and her guys last weekend. The boys are so tall! I love it. You just know that a kid enjoys the compliment when you remark on how tall he is getting. Tyler and Nathan looked great and I enjoyed having some alone time with them. We went to a model air show, and then had pizza. By the way, that cheesey crust pizza aT Pizza Hut is soooo good. Jenn and Scott were off to a family wedding. Don and Denise were in town for that and so was Christine and Demetrios. I think the best thing about family weddings is how the women love to get all dressed up. They spent hours over their hair, their nails, their make up, picking the right dress, picking the right shoes… And they looked fabulous of course. The guys not so much. LOL. They jump in and out of the shower, scrape off a few whiskers, throw on a clean shirt and they stand around drinking beer waiting for the ladies to be ready…this includes matching your earrings with your dress, with your necklace, with your shoes and don’t forget it has to match the handbag too. What an effort. The important thing is that they have fun. Ty and Nate both had great school years and great report cards. Ty was mildly disappointed because he had a C in dancing. Phfft. Who grades dancing? They should have graded him for doing backflips from the top of the woodpile… He does that very well. Anyway, Tyler enters Grade 9 in the fall. It will be a whole new world for him and I know he will enjoy. Nathan is going into Grade 8 and he will be the boss of the school. This is the first time he and Tyler are in different schools. But I just know he will shine. Had fun this week writing a story about a lady whose cat got lost after some home renovation work. Twenty six days later they found the cat – still alive – which had been trapped inside a wall in their home. It was fun to write. It was even more fun to watch other media pick up on the story. It was run in papers all over Canada and then radio and TV stations picked up on it. Went out and had a nice dinner at East Side last night… first time I have been there in two or three years. But it was nice. The food was great. The company was excellent. That’s it for now.

... To be on your own, with no direction home ...

It was interesting to read that the lyrics for the famous Bob Dylan song Like A Rolling Stone sold for auction this past week for more than $2-million. I've always like Dylan. Loved his music. It reminded me that it was this week, wayyyy back in 1971, that I hitchhiked out west. Part of the trip was through Minnesota and we stopped for a few hours in Hibbing, Minnesota. That's where young Robert Zimmerman (AKA Bob Dylan) grew up. We never found his house, but we did see his high school. It was a great time to be alive. I think the world was more interesting then. People didn't walk around with cell phones in their hands. They talked face to face.

Teachers

I have a greater appreciation for teachers. This past week I was able to drop in on several high school graduations, and one Grade 8 grad. It was indeed satisfying to see the faces of the young people, so full of hope and confidence, as they move to higher education. It is one of the things that makes Canada a great place. I was equally impressed at these events to see the teachers, obviously happy with the achievements of their young students. There has to be immense satisfaction on their part to know they have given so much to these young people. That's a good thing. That being said, I was also so proud that Tyler has graduated Grade 8. I so wished I could have been there. I think he knows how everyone in his family is so pleased for him, especially his Mom and Dad.

Tweeting

I have been known to say that there is a reason that Twitter is not called SMARTer. I am not a twitter person. Several of my colleagues are, and say it is important. I fail to see why. I think some people feel the need to be "in the loop" and if they can comment on a developing situation, then they feel they are a part of the bigger world. Some of my newsie chums believe they can stay on the edge of really important news by monitoring what other people are tweeting. I don't buy it. If it's that important, we will know... I grew up in a military family, in the Sixties. If something was that important, we'd all see the mushroom cloud on the eastern horizon. Also, so much Twit information is just not reliable. Some people tend to Twit some pretty stupid things ... and those things come back to bite them in the a$$. There is also that new situation known as FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) as described in new urban dictionaries. A lot of people have FOMO. They also buy into the internet situation called ICYMI, which means In Case You Missed It. This just gives people reason to go twittering other people, usually with the most inane trivial bits of information. Thank goodness they can't see anyone rolling their eyes. Maybe we should create RMEAWYJT (Rolling My Eyes At What You Just Texted).

Passing on secrets ...

It's what families should do. Although this is not a big secret, I was kind of pleased to tell Jenn about it last week. It began as I was discussing how food can quickly "go bad" no matter how much care you take. I was telling her that I bought a pint of strawberries and they rarely last three or four days before they go all soft and mushy. But I also mentioned that I use a bit of vinegar when I wash the strawberries and it sure helps. When you get home from the store, wash the strawberries with one part vinegar to ten parts water. Rinse them all over really well, drain them, rinse them a bit more with fresh water and put them in the fridge. The word is that the vinegar kills the mould spores and keeps the berries fresh, longer. But I still say you should eat them within a week ... and they're still fresh and sweet.

Throwing out my socks

I read somewhere a few years back that actor Sylvester Stallone doesn't wash his socks. He throws them out and buys new socks all the time. I do something like that. Today was my sock-throwaway day. Just for my white gym socks. Every summer I buy several new pairs of white gym socks. I wear them with my sneakers, usually just during the summer. Here's the thing. White socks get dirty and yucky and no matter how much you wash them, they just get old, real fast. And you can never match up the pairs right. Some get stretched out. Others do not. So I throw them away and buy new socks. This year I picked up several new pairs of Fruit Of The Loom gym socks. they're less than a dollar pair. That's cheaper than a cup of coffee. I know it seems like a waste. My mom would be so upset. It's not like you can donate socks to the Salvation Army. So now I have all news sock again, that will last for the summer. Lucky me eh!

Meals to remember

It was nice to chat with Jennifer earlier today and we talked about one of those Internet sites that are all about healthy food … only this website put out a list of the nine foods you should not eat. Things like margarine, canned tomatoes, processed meats …on and on. Okay, I go along with some of that stuff, but after awhile I just think, Hey I am gonna die one of these days and when I look back on my life I just know I am NOT going to be thinking about how much soybean curd or quinoa I should have eaten. Truth be told I don’t eat that stuff. That being said tonight was a steak night. In deference to Jenn’s beliefs I have cut way back on red meat. I have stopped eating pork. I have stopped eating canned tuna. Other people have assured me this is a good thing. So every five or six weeks I treat myself with a nice cut of beef. In this case, it was a very thick slab of top sirloin that marinated for about 30 hours (Black pepper, Pepsi, olive oil). I sizzled it in the big cast iron pan for 11 minutes, then I let it settle in the oven for another 10 minutes. I added half a baked potato and some grilled veggies. It was perfection. Instead of wine I quaffed a freezing cold pint of Danish ale. But the steak was too big. So tomorrow morning, I will have an egg and steak McMuffin for breakfast. These are the kinds of meals I like to remember.

Disappointed ... well just a bit

Ontario has a new government. Voters gave Premier Kathleen Wynne a majority government Thursday. I like her. I've met her twice and she seems a person who is positive and sincere. Problem is, she's a Liberal. I could not vote for her party Thursday because of the many well-documented scandals of the previous Liberal government. Former Premier Dalton McGuinty makes Richard Nixon look like an altar boy. Funny how the Toronto media made a big deal of Mike Duffy over-spending about $90,000 on his expenses. They seemed to make less of a deal over McGuinty misspending more than $1.1 Billion on the gas-plant scandal. Anyway, it is a new time and I am hoping the new government moves forward. Interesting that Northeastern Ontario pretty well thumbed its nose at Queen's Park and continued to vote NDP.

On another note, I switched allegiance on camera brands. Since 1974 I had been shooting Nikons. In the past year or so, I tried Canon. The company bought me a new Canon 60D, a nice $2,500 mid-range pro camera DSLR. I liked it. Now that I am integrated into a new newsroom, the company said I have to share the camera. So I handed the 60D over to the boss and went out last week and purchased my own new Canon. Except I bought the one that is more expensive and more state-of-the-art; the 70D DSLR. (Seven frames a second up to 1/8000th of a second!) It also shoots HD video. So expect to see more photos here in the coming weeks and months as I continue to learn.

Gillies Lake in Timmins

A summer morning in Timmins ... ( A shot with my new camera. Click for large size)

Small world or what

The new job brought an interesting fact to light this week. One of my new co-workers, a fellow named Ron, mentioned growing up in Toronto and riding the Roncesvalles bus. That twigged a memory. I told him I used to sell newspapers nearby at The Junction, when I was a kid. I was a street corner newsboy near Jane and Dundas. I said it was the by LCBO store and the old army surplus store. That's when Ron revealed he remembered going to that store as a teen. He lived near The Junction. I said I used to hang out there every Saturday and then I would go to my uncle's house on Jillson Avenue. Ron's eyed went wide. "Who did you know on Jillson?, he asked. Now Jillson Avenue is one of the shortest streets in Toronto, all of two blocks long. I said it was my uncle Mike Maclean, his wife Marg and their children Tina, Laura and Jamie. Ron laughed. It turns out he and Jamie were school buddies. I said Jamie was really big on playing hockey. Ron said yeah, he and Jamie were on the same team. How cool is that? You never know who you know.

Back where I started eh ...

One of my colleagues said it best this week, telling me I had come full circle. I came to Timmins 40 years ago, to take a job as junior reporter at The Daily Press. Over the years I worked in private radio, network radio, magazines, freelance, TV news and then the weekly newspaper. Well go figure. I was handed a letter Tuesday, on Sunmedia letterhead, directing me to shut down my office at The Timmins Times and to move over to the daily. Today is my first day on the job. I am still going to put out the Times every week, but the company is saving huge dollars by merging our operations now. In time, I will join the general assignment pool at the daily, but I have to make sure to keep putting out the Times since it still has a huge circulation. I am told the only thing changing is the location. So we will see how it goes. The Times building has been shut down and will soon be for sale. I will miss my nice quiet office with a window. I am now in a big, big newsroom... but there are only a handful of us newsies left. We've been told that at some point, they will also put this building up for sale, and that we will also move into a storefront. Interesting times ahead... (no pun intended!)

Endorsement!

Journalists are not supposed to endorse anything! But I am gonna step out of line right now and endorse Muskol spray. I spent several hours in the bush last night and early this morning and the Northern Ontario blackflies are swarming by the billions out there. Muskol is amazing. It works. The blackflies stayed away from me. If you are going out into the boreal forest anytime soon, grab a can of Muskol!

I never did this before ...

Was pleased to go out and spend time with friends at a house party this weekend. It was nice in the sense that it was a chance to have some really good conversation. At one point I remember thinking, how is it possible for so many people to be talking all at once? It was just a huge cacophony of voices. Anyway, around midnight, I figured it was time to go. After four hours, I had nursed only two drinks. I was hungry and had not had supper. I was ready to grab a cab, but didn't need to. So as I was driving home, I saw Chez Nous ... the most popular place for poutine in Timmins. It's also where Shania used to go when she was a teen. So I stopped, went in and placed an order. About seven minutes later the lady handed me the take out bag (I also ordered a burger) and I went home. Okay, now I know. Now I know why so many people go to this place. The poutine just tasted so so sooooo good. Yes, I have tasted it before ... but this was the first time I went in and bought the stuff. This was all mine. I could savour every french fry, ... every lump of cheese ... and every piece drenched in gravy! Yeah, it was that good.

We carry on ...

It’s Saturday morning after a nice week; well nice for the most part. Tea and cake for breakfast is a good thing. I was looking at the newspaper Thursday morning. It is the last newspaper that will be printed in Timmins. From now on the papers are going to be printed at a press plant down south, and the papers will be trucked north. Our parent company Quebecor made that decision. It means the six guys in the press plant here at our paper are being laid off. Not a happy time. Our press plant had printed the Timmins Press, The Timmins Times, as well as the newspapers in Kapuskasing, Hearst, Cochrane, Iroquois Falls and Kirkland Lake. It's a shame they're closing our plant. I wonder how much thought goes into that kind of decision. It may save a few dollars today, but if the price of fuel goes up, who knows. I enjoyed some television last night, by watching Netflix. I am pleased to report that The West Wing is being presented. So I am watching it again. It was a great show that began in the late 1990s and ran for a few seasons … one of the best television shows I can remember. I had a pleasant evening Wednesday, when I attended a local coffee house where an event called Timmins Voices is presented. In this case, the voice was Diane Armstrong, our main columnist at The Times. She did a reading from her latest book. That was nice. It was also nice to see so many young people there, as well as a few oldies, who did poetry readings. When is the last time you sat down and listened to poetry? Exactly! It was just excellent. Some folks at the microphone were getting really personal and pouring their hearts out. I plan to be at the next one. It is Mine Rescue time in the North. That’s when Mine Rescue teams from the various mines compete for bragging rights. Kidd Operations won this year, at an event held last weekend. Second year in a row. Congrats to them and my brother-in-law Moe the miner, who has been part of Kidd mine rescue for 20 years. Team Kidd are also the defending champs for Ontario. ( I am proud of this because I am a former Kidd mine rescue man.) So in June, all the winning mine rescue teams will be in Timmins to once again, compete for the title of best mine rescue team in the province. By the way, this is the May long weekend. Saturday morning and there are snow flurries outside. The river is rising, and the city has set up sand-bagging stations because flooding is expected any time now. Life in Timmins … it goes on. People just carry on.