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Once again we have our hearts set on an excursion into the wilds of Kejimkujik. Barring any nasty weather we’ll be kayaking and camping for three days and two nights. As much as I’ve been moaning about the recent heat and humidity, I’ll take another couple weeks of mild weather. Regardless of the daytime temperatures, the nights will be cool as soon as the sun sets so I’ll be packing additional layers. Nothing beats a thick wool sweater for instant warmth. And nothing is worse than shivering in a tent. After the last trip got cancelled we decided to eat some of our camping food. The chocolate covered almonds were the first to go, obviously. <grin> We also ate one of the suppers – a dried-prepared-pasta-side-dish-from-a-foil-packet (hint hint) along with a can of flaked ham. It was yummy but could be even better with a few tweaks. We’ll add a few shakes of garlic powder and a couple shakes of crushed red pepper to make it more robust. We’ll also take freshly grated parmesan, because everything tastes better with parmesan. Except cake and cookies and all those other things that don’t taste better with parmesan. I frequently tweak recipes I make from scratch so why not a prepared mix? Do you have a favourite prepared mix that you like to spice up? Or a fun recipe you’d like to share that you think would be good camping food? Cheers! P.S. I just realized as I was formatting this post that there weren't any pictures. How boring! So here's a picture of the crokinole board in use. The aim of the game is to get one of your markers into the centre hole. But if your opponent has a marker on the board you have to hit it off first. A controlled flick of a finger and careful aim is needed. 
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For many years we’ve grown copious amounts of green beans, sweet peppers, and tomatoes in our garden to store in our deep-freeze. A small taste of summer makes the dreariest February day a little brighter. But even with our best efforts at manual vacuum packing (sucking the air out of a zipper locked bag using a drinking straw) we inevitably lost some produce to freezer burn. Well, in this week’s flyer from Costco I saw a food saver on sale, as well as the required storage bags. Huzzah! No more freezer burn! We can also use it when we buy freezer orders of beef, pork and chicken – a fabulous way to save money. (I’d say we could freeze cookies for long-term storage but I don’t think the food saver works on baked goods…and who am I kidding? Cookies never last that long in our house.) Now let’s see if we can leave the store with only the food saver in our shopping cart. Ha! Oh, and since we’ll be in the big city we’ll swing by IKEA and scope out closet innards to furnish our new walk-in. One more item to check off our to-do list.  Bruno living dangerously in his favourite evening perch.
What are you up to this weekend? Do you shop at a big wholesale club store? Do you ever stick to your list? Cheers! As I mentioned last week, I’m in full-on pumpkin spice flavoured foods mode. I baked these pumpkin cookies and took them to our friend’s house for our weekend stay. They were a definite hit. And boy, were they a nice treat during our deconstruction/demolition project. The recipe calls for only one cup of canned pumpkin puree so, hm…What to do with the remaining pumpkin? Well, I’m giving this recipe a try. Pumpkin Roll Bars Janet made them and passed along the recipe so I know they’ll be tasty. I’ll let you know what Hubby and I think.  The mainland as seen from the lighthouse at Boar’s Head.
Do you have a favourite pumpkin recipe, either sweet or savoury? Cheers! Lest you think I limit my alcohol consumption to wine, I’m hear to talk about two of my most favourite simple cocktails. And by simple I mean a shot of booze and a splash of mixer. No garnish, no ice. That’s how I roll. My summer cocktail of choice is good old gin & tonic. If I happen to have a lime in the fridge, one that hasn’t withered and died, I’ll pop a wedge in my glass. But I don’t consider it necessary. A good quality tonic water (I use Schweppes) has just enough flavour to complement the gin. My gin of choice these days is made by a local distillery (no, not the one behind the wood shed!). IronWorks   Can you see how much I’ve been enjoying it?
When the days get colder I switch to rye & ginger. My preferred ginger ale is Canada Dry, of course. I don’t have a preferred rye whisky – yet. I’ll be doing extensive research in the coming months. Oh, and I’ll be giving this cocktail a try – Apple Butter Old Fashioned. It screams autumn! I can picture me sitting next to a campfire, bundled in a wooly sweater, sipping on this warming cocktail. Do you have a favourite drink, alcoholic or non-, of the season? I certainly hope everyone had a relaxing weekend. Or an exciting one if that was what you were going for. I enjoyed my birthday weekend, starting on Friday with supper with our good friends Janet and Ron. Then on Saturday we had supper with the family at Mum’s house in town. (No, my brother is not in the witness protection program, just respecting his privacy) (We often share a birthday cake cuz our b.days are two days apart.)  We came back to our temporary home on Sunday where I played with the fabulous writerly pretties my wonderful friend Cara Carnes sent to me.  I can vouch for the excellent quality of both sets of stickers.
www.etsy.com/shop/AshwoodArts https://www.etsy.com/nz/shop/INTCO But man, was it hot this weekend! Not the normal temperatures for this time of year. And you know what? I’m done with summer. I’m ready to move on. I’m craving thick wooly sweaters and mulled cider or wine. Yum. Are you ready for a change of season? A very important weekend starts right now! You might be glancing at the calendar on your wall or desk and be thinking “okay, the autumnal equinox is today at 5:02 PM (Atlantic Daylight Time) in the Northern Hemisphere, big whoop”. Which would be an understandable reaction unless you were part of my family because this is a big weekend for birthdays. Son2 celebrates his. As do I. As does my brother. I know of people who celebrate a birthday month. And my friend Janet celebrates birthday week – part of which is eating cake for breakfast the day following the big day. Brilliant! That’s a tradition I’m starting this weekend. Here’s the recipe for birthday cake in my family. Aunt Hilda’s Chocolate Cake 2 cups sugar ½ cup butter, room temperature 2 eggs ¾ cup sour milk (milk + 1 teaspoon vinegar) 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt ½ cup cocoa, dissolved in 1 cup very hot water Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and dust with cocoa a Bundt pan, tube pan, or two 9-inch layer pans. Sift together flour, soda, baking powder and salt. Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and beat until well combined. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk and cocoa water. Mix until well blended (mixture will be very wet). Pour into pan, or pans, and bake for 45 – 50 minutes. (25 - 30 minutes for layer pans). Tester inserted near centre should come out clean. Cool in pans on rack for 10 minutes. Turn out and cool completely. Use the frosting or icing of your choice. Son2 prefers chocolate butter cream frosting. Brother enjoys coffee flavoured icing. I like vanilla. Or as an occasional change of pace, orange flavoured frosting. It captures that chocolate-orange combination that’s a slice of perfection.
Cheers! |