Sunday Randomness #232 resuming operations Museum, metro, lunch, and a mile in someone else's shoes

  We visited the Centre des memoires montrealaises https://memmtl.ca/en/

Where they had an exhibit with shoes and approximately 12 minute recordings from the life of each person who generously donated their shoes for the exhibit,  A Mile in My Shoes.

Maya was raised by family friends who kept her in contact with her indigenous family.  She shared how her mother and aunt taught her customs and language.  But, they did not share their testimonies that they gave in front of governmental panels about their experiences with mistreatment from white people. Those experiences were too painful.

Another part of the museum looking in on alleys and the items often found in these forgotten urban areas. 

Broken items, graffiti, rats, trash and other things.

Below is the description placard. 

Just a couple of pictures from different subway stations

We had lunch at a basement food hall under the museum.  Sorry, it's a very blurry photo but there were numerous eateries and we ended up getting a gyro and a vegetarian? sandwich (it's the one with the carrot shavings-third from the left) and split the two sandwiches along with the fresh lemonade that my hostess bought and shared via the water bottle we had brought along.  I had a water bottle too and lost it.  Luckily it had fallen out in the car so it was found in the end.  

National Homemade Soup Day February 4th 2021

We recently made some new soups in anticipation of soup day.  The first one is a cream base zucchini soup and the second is a cowboy stew.  Both were from the Lion House Soups and Stews cookbook.

Oatmeal Zucchini Soup

5 TBSPS butter, divided

1 TBSP minced or chopped onion

1 pinch thyme, dried

1 1/4 lbs. small zucchini, chopped but not peeled plus 1 more zucchini for garnish if desired

1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

2 cups heavy cream

2 cups milk

2 cups water

salt to taste

Saute onion in 4 TBSP butter until soft, add thyme and zucchini and saute for a few minutes more. Add oats and cook a couple of minutes-stirring constantly.  Add Worcestershire sauce, cream, milk, and water, stirring constantly until well mixed.  Cover and cook 15 minutes on low heat or until zucchini is tender. Season to taste.  Saute sliced zucchini in remaining 1 tbsp butter and add to soup.  (We cooked the sliced zucchini in the microwave with water instead of the butter, drained off the water, and then added it to the soup.) Makes 6-8 servings.

Cowboy Stew

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef

3/4 cup chopped onion or one medium/large onion chopped

1 tsp. salt (we used 1/2 tsp.)

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed tomato soup

1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 (10 3/4 ounce) soup can of water

4 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks

4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/8 inch slices (we did 1/4 inch slices of baby carrots)

3 stalks celery, chopped or diced

Brown ground beef and onion together, drain if necessary. Add salt and pepper along with soups and water. Simmer for about five minutes. Arrange potatoes, carrots, and celery in a 9 x 13 pan and pour soup/meat mixture over the veggies.  Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at 350 degrees F or until vegetables are tender or dump everything into a slow cooker after making the meat soup mixture and cook on low 4-5 hours in slow cooker.  Makes about 6 servings.  Serve with some kind of bread and/or salad.