Sil--Pickled Herring--for the Soderstroms' Reveillon

The kids will be over tonight for our version of Reveillon. Christmas Eve was not a big thing when I was a child. We might have gone to church (9 p.m. service, none of that Midnight Mass stuff) but aside from my father feverishly trying to wrap presents, the evening of December 24 was rather quiet, with the big show coming on Christmas Day.

Lee's family, being Lutheran rather than Presbyterian, put more store in a late church service. The Swedish tradition of lutfisk for supper was also followed. I cooked it several years after we were married but there can't be anything more disgusting than the dried and lyed and soaked cod dish. When we fetched up here where lutfisk is unknown, but where a big Christmas Eve celebration is the norm, it was clear we had to create our own traditions. Chief among them was a switch to potato sausage as the main course for Christmas Eve dinner.

But one tradition we keep is pickled herring as a first course. Here is the recipe from Lee's mother, slightly modified. It's best aged for a week, which means that if you make it today, it'll be perfect for New Year's Eve.

SIL

For each large salt herring or for each two small herring:

1/2 cup vinegar

2 tablespoons water

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons chopped onions

5 peppercorsn, crushed

10 whole allspice, crushed

2 sprigs fresh dill

Soak herring overnight, clean and remove bones, cutting filets.

Make dressing by mixing ingredients listed above, then bringing to boil. Let cool, pour over fillets, add more sliced onions and dill springs. Let maribate in refrigerator for at least three days. A week is better.

Serve with rye crisp and beer.

Snow and Poinsettias

Only a photo today, because there's just too much to do.

Conservatives Are Already in Holiday Mode, While the US Senate to Work Until Santa Fllies, This Year

What a difference political will makes: Senators in the US are scheduled to vote on the new health insurance reform package on Christmas Eve, but Conservative members of the Special Committee on Canada's Mission in Afghanistan will stay away from hearings today because "The Christmas and Holiday Season is a time to spend with family, friends, and loved ones," according to a memo from Laurie Hawn, a Conservative honcho. She continues: "One would hope that only the most serious of emergencies should interfere with these moments."

Oh come on, this is just another delaying tactic on the part of a government which doesn't want to face up to what it's done. If you really want to do something, you work like hell to get it done. While the US health reform is far from perfect, at least the Obama government wants to get it paased. If only there were more folks in Ottawa today who wanted to do the right thing!

Memo to CBC/Radio Can Brass: Remember This is Another Country and We Like Serious Music

Changing measuring systems can mean big differences in results, and that's what appears to be happening with widespread use of "portable people meters" of PPMs, little devices that pick up what a sample of the population (all volunteers) is listening to. PPMs have been use in Montreal and 12 major areas in the US for a year now, with some disconcerting results, particularly in the US. (Previously, the ratings were based on listener diaries. The switch is being made in other markets, including Toronto, this fall and winter.)

Last week the first year-long ratings comparisons were available in the US, showing that less classical music was being listened to than had been thought. Classical radio’s market share fell 10.7 percent in the 12 markets which include New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, according to The New York Times.

There are inherent dangers in comparing listenership measured in two different ways, of course, but it's interesting that not much difference shows up for the BBM figures for Radio Two stations before or after the switch. (See my blogs of a year ago last spring and last week.) What is clear that the dumbing down in Radio Two programing--which coincided with the change in measurement--has not done anything to increase listenership.

On the other hand, a story in the weekend's Le Devoir gives some comfort to those who think the Mother Corp has taken a very wrong turn in decreasing serious music in its programming. The highest rated programs on Radio Canada's Espace Musique (the equivalent of the CBC's Radio Two) were classical ones, it seems: a Sunday morning show animated by a pianist, a Saturday morning one hosted by classical music buff Edgar Fruitier and the opera on Saturday afternoon.

The Brass at CBC and Radio Canada should take a close look at these figures, and do some serious reflection on what they should program. Unfortunately, they may do what they'd done in the past, which is fall all over themselves to try to reproduce what is happening south of the border.

Saturday Photo: Christmas Bird Count

The temperature was hovering a little below minus 20 C (a degree or so below 0) as the sun was rising this morning. At the entrance to Mount Royal Cemetery I passed a group of hardy souls, shivering as they prepared to take part in the annual Christmas Bird Count.

The counts began at the beginning of the 20th century when American ornithologist, Frank Chapman, looking for a way to counter what was then an American tradition, a Christmas bird "shoot.) The first Montreal count was held 1931, and has continued every year (except for four wartime years.) Thousands of birdlovers in North America will take part in the counts this year, enjoying being outdoors and collecting data which has become a treasure trove for biologists.


Back when we first came to Montreal we took part a couple of years, but after the kids were born we stopped going: it's hard to interest a small child in being quiet while the adults search the forest or the fields with binocs.

But it was a pleasure to see the counters out this morning. They invited me to join them, but I opted for heading home and getting warm again. I told them, however, that they'd given me the idea of today's Saturday photos. The pix were taken in Kamloops in early November: some Bird Counters in Quebec will likely find Canada geese today since they've begun staying around longer and longer, but they're almost sure not to find black-billed find magpies (bottom photo) since their range is in the western part of the continent.

Canada Wins Fossil of the Year Award--for the Second Time!

This just in: it seems that our country's sterling performance has merited it the Fossil of the Year award. I'm not surprised, given the Harper government's actions during the Copenhagen conference on climate change. What is suprising to me is that this is the second year Canada has won it.

Shame! Shame! as they say in Hansard.