Rum Balls

Rum Balls

Winnipeg's Susan Hendricks sent in some favourite recipes from her 93-year-old mother, who lives in Ottawa and whose children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren still fight over her Christmas baking. Susan recently made a photo-cookbook of her mom's favourite recipes, which is a terrific idea. She sent me some of its pages, and I picked the rum balls.

Pimicikamak lockdown lifted after fatal shooting

Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief David Monias said an arrest has been made and the community-wide lockdown has now been lifted after a shooting Friday that left one person dead.

RCMP were called by local First Nations Safety Officers about a seriously injured person at around 9:30 p.m. Friday on Main Road in Pimicikamak Cree Nation. Officers found two men at the scene. A 42-year-old man with a gunshot wound died at the scene. The other person was not injured.

The community went into immediate lockdown as the RCMP sought the suspect. An advisory posted by Monias Saturday had asked residents to stay inside their homes, lock doors and windows, keep children inside and not to open their doors to anyone they did not know.

In a statement on social media Sunday afternoon, Monias said the RCMP had arrested one person.

Kreviazuk, in her own voice

Chantal Kreviazuk is in the midst of a very busy year.

In May, the Winnipeg-born singer-songwriter released her 11th studio album, In My Own Voice — a project that reclaims and reimagines a selection of hit songs she’s written for some of the world’s biggest artists.

The 12-track album features Kreviazuk performing ethereal covers of Pitbull’s Feel This Moment, Drake’s Over My Dead Body and Gwen Stefani’s Rich Girl, among others.

But she didn’t stop there.

Nemat’s novel chronicles grandmother’s harrowing life in Russia and Iran

Mistress of the Persian Boarding House is the most enjoyable book I have read in the more than 15 years since I began reviewing books for the Free Press.

Author Marina Nemat’s prose, inspired by her paternal grandmother’s life, flows smoothly, like a babbling brook down a mountain.

Nemat is an Iranian-born Canadian writer and human rights activist known for her bestselling memoirs Prisoner of Tehran and After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed. Arrested at 16 for opposing Iran’s post-revolution regime, she endured torture and forced marriage in Evin Prison before emigrating to Canada in 1991.

Nemat’s grandmothers were both Russian, and she was brought up in a Russian Orthodox Christian family in Tehran. With their Iranian husbands, whom they had married before the Russian Revolution of 1917, both grandmothers fled from Russia to Iran as part of a massive wave of migration.

Manitoba Hydro expects storm-related power outages to be repaired Saturday

As Manitoba Hydro crews work to restore the last pockets of power following this week’s severe storms, some Winnipeg residents say the prolonged outages left them effectively stranded, unable to safely leave their apartments or charge essential mobility devices.

More than 30,000 Manitoba Hydro customers lost power after powerful storms swept across southern Manitoba Wednesday and Thursday, bringing down trees and power lines. Environment and Climate Change Canada recorded wind gusts of 133 km/h in Brandon, 113 km/h in Souris and 91 km/h in Winnipeg, along with more than 2,900 lightning strikes within 50 kilometres of the city.

In an update posted to social media Saturday morning, Manitoba Hydro said about 500 customers remained without power. The utility said it hoped to restore all remaining storm-related outages later in the day.

“Right now, we’re prioritizing customers that have been out the longest,” the post reads. “The final restoration work will still take time, in part because we’re dealing with small, localized outages and need to travel across a widespread area.”