Rich, spicy hot chocolate a decadent treat

Adding emergency doctors, nurses and support staff is great, but it won’t break the wait-time logjam

It was the kind of announcement that should have brought universal applause.

Instead, on Tuesday, when Premier Wab Kinew recently announced his government had recruited more than 4,700 net new health-care professionals and support workers, the proclamation was met with quite a few rolling eyes.

Unions representing health-care staff reacted more with disdain than gratitude. The Manitoba Nurses Union continued its inexplicable war of attrition with the Kinew government, with president Darlene Jackson openly questioning the veracity of the premier’s math.

Why all the grumpiness? Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, probably said it best. “The metric that matters is whether Manitobans wait less time for care tomorrow than they did yesterday,” he said.

Max youth sentence for boy in liquor store robbery

A 15-year-old boy has been handed a maximum youth sentence of three years custody and community supervision for a violent liquor store robbery a judge says impacted not only the people he attacked, but the entire city.

“This is the type of incident likely to cause some Winnipeg residents to pose the question to themselves whether the city is as safe as they thought it was, or, if this could happen in the middle of the afternoon in a busy shopping mall, is anybody safe anywhere in the city?” provincial court Judge Dale Schille said Tuesday.

“The impact of these offences is not restricted to the individuals involved, it has impacted the community in a broader way,” he said.

The boy previously pleaded guilty to five counts of robbery, three counts of assault, and one count each of mischief and uttering threats in connection to the robbery last November at the Tyndall Market mall Liquor Mart and the mayhem that followed.

Rich, spicy hot chocolate a decadent treat

Today for Homemade Holidays, we have a spicy and satisfying stovetop hot chocolate recipe from Free Press reader Sandy Rubinfeld. Hot tip: If you don’t finish the whole pot, you can store the leftovers in the fridge and mix it into your morning coffee for a fancy faux-mocha — make sure to stir well, as the hot chocolate thickens further in the cold.

“This is the very best hot chocolate I have ever tasted! It is perfect for a chilly Winnipeg winter day. It is incredibly rich, like a hot chocolate pudding, so I save it for rare occasions. I came across it decades ago in The Vegetarian Epicure Book Two. It is authentic to northern Spain,” writes Sandy.

Castilian Hot Chocolate

Submitted by Sandy Rubinfeld

A young Canadian women’s soccer team should have continued success, but for how long?

Canada is the only country currently ranked among FIFA’s top 10 that does not have its own women’s league.