Monday, December 26, 2005

Monday Musings

Hello Everyone,
Well we all made it through another holiday season, so yeah for us. I'll start with some Q & A, first I'd never heard of the doneless turkey before till I got hear however I'm assured by the butcher that al butchers do it, Brian came here from Ottawa in May and he used to de-bone birds down there as well. After you de-bone the bird it is nothing but a floppy mass of meat. So you then stuff it to hold the shape of the bird. When stuffing you can stuff all the bird that used to contain bone, so you can stuff the wings and legs. In this case we stuffed the legs and wings with white meat to make them more appealling. Obviouslyb this increases cooking time as you now have a solid meat bird (30 Minutes per pound seems to work). Then you just carve the bird in slices, its like cutting a loaf of bread, no bones, white meat everywhere and no waste. I'm going into the butcher shop for training soon and I hope to learn to do this.
Ok land ownership in the north. I'm not sure I have all the correct Data for all cases so please forgive any mistakes. In the 90's the government set a homestead date. If on this date you had built a perminant structure then you owned the land, If not then all lands are reverted to Town ownership. So in this community 85% of land is owned by the town, Now you can lease any available land from the town and build on it, Your yearly rent and taxes will equal about $400.00 (but the cost of building is huge, all materials at northern rates, construction teams the same). Most of the housing in town is owned by the town and controlled through the housing comission which alloactes housing based on family sizing and similiar considerations. I have no idea what rent on these units are however I am able to speculate that they don't throw you out quickly for non payment (They are triing to force one eviction currently for non-payment, The resident in question hasn't paid since he moved in 17 years ago). All lands within a couple of miles of town have been plotted and are managed this way. What you would do to aquire land in the tundra I have no clue.
Ok Election Process, There is a voter list based on tax returns same as in the south. No we haven't seen anyone from any party, actually I haven't even seen a piece of literature from anyone yet. The Provincial Parlament is a little differet though. They have no home legistlature such as in the south. They actaully travel the house through all the northern communities. They come into town hold legilasture for a couple of weeks and then go back to thier comminties until the next one.
Yes we have had caribou, I don't particularrly like it. We've had roasts, steaks, jerky and stir fry. Melissa doesn't mind it but I find it tastes of too much iron, Its like boody meat with a long aftertaste. We're actually waiting to try Mittaku, which is beluga whale but there hasn't been alot in yet this year.
Ok it looks like I'm up to date on questions, I'll do a musings later.
Take Care.
CG

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am glad to see that you survived Christmas and are still sending out your thoughts via this media.

Currently, we are having a mini heat wave - I mean it's above freezing, and considering the date, it's a welcome relief to winter. We were able to travel (north of Guelph) without any driving problems and got to see most of my family. Lots of food, gifts and catching up - what more could you ask for eh?

I have noticed that you have been throwing in a few words from the locals. Is there only one language spoken there, other than English?


Rosalie

Anonymous said...

Re: Boneless Turkey
I heard a radio interview with the chef that created the boneless turkey. He has a resturant in the french quarter in New Orleans, makes this his Christmas special for parties. The last bird he cooks is Christmas Eve, and that's it until the next yule season.
He uses 3 different kinds of birds in one body, usually turkey, goose and chicken ,or pheasant. Thus giving you a mixture of dark and white meat. As you have stated it takes a long time to cook, 12 or more hours on low heat. Can be barbecued, he doesn't recommend it. This is not unlike a turkey roll when slicing , thats been popular for x number of years. Hope this is of some interest.
Keep up the excellent material, we are getting addicted to fine reading.
Take care.
BY.

Anonymous said...

Booby meat?!?

Anonymous said...

just checking in to see if there was anything new.

Just heard our long range forecast and if they are right, we should be seeing temperatures in the plus 8 and 9's for the new year. Not hard to take!! I did notice on the map that it is about -25 there in Baker Lake, but with sunshine.

ttfn - Rosalie

Anonymous said...

Hello Curtis - It's DeMaris and Don, the christmas boneless bird seemed interesting.