Who baked what with the what now?

I never would have believed it had I not tried it with my very own little hands. It was two weeks ago now, but certainly worth a repeat (especially since my courgette plant keeps turning them out like nobody's business!

Chocolate Courgette Cake:

Batter:

1/2 cup margarine (i used butter - go hard or go home, eh?)
1/2 cup oil
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour milk (interestingly, I didn't bother with the milk + vinegar trick - I just used milk that was slightly off, and it was fine!)
1 tsp vanilla
2.5 cups unsifted flour (does anyone still sift flour these days?)
4 tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp baking power
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups finely diced courgette (I grated mine, and it was fine!)

Topping:

3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup crushed walnuts

Method:

1. Cream margarine, oil and sugar
2. Add eggs, vanilla and sour milk
3. Mix all dry ingredients together and add to the creamed mixture
4. Beat well
5. Stir in diced courgette
6. Spoon into a greased and floured 9x13 inch pan
7. Sprinkle topping on batter in pan
8. Bake at 350F (that's gas mark 4, for my British readers) for 40-45 mins or until a toothpick, when inserted into the middle, comes out clean.

It is just heavenly!

Produce from my allotment

Many things have died (due to a tragic outbreak of blight) but my courgettes have been doing well:

Three different sizes of courgette (with CD case for comparison):



A large courgette (with baby for comparison):




My first attempt at Strawberry-Rhubarb pie (or any type of pie, for that matter...perhaps I went overboard on the filling?):





Blackberries:



Green tomato pickle made from the tomatos that were saved before the blight wiped everything out:

Finders Keepers

My flatmate is moving out this weekend and I am getting a new one soon.

Whilst packing, some stray socks have been found in her room.

Please feel free to claim them if they are yours:

clean carpets!

Our carpets are being cleaned today.

I am so excited I could cry!

These feet are made for walking...

Clare has just driven off in the Silver Bullet.

I feel the strangest mixture of absolute relief (no more insurance, repair bills, flat tires and annoying times when I leave a light on and need a jump start!)

But on the other hand, the Bullet has taken me on numerous trips across England, Scotland and Wales, to Germany and back... and in it driving away many happy memories went too. No, that's stupid. The memories didn't drive away in the car - Clare did!

I expect my grief won't last for as long as I imagine it will. It means I will use my travel time a bit more creatively, get a bit more exercise, read even more on public transport, perhaps invest in a better bike and well...one more Polar Bear may find food this winter for my sacrifice.

Yes, my grief may pass quickly - the car is off to a very good home. And I am off to the pub to celebrate Canada Day with a couple of Scottish people.

God Bless the new journeys of the Silver Bullet! And Happy Canada Day, everyone!

What to dooooo with a pooping racoooooon

My parents are having troubles.

It seems that a local raccoon (hyperlinked here, for those non-North American readers who may not know what a raccoon is) has been climbing the steps to their back deck (no easy feat, as there are about 15 quite steep steps)

I giggle as I write this, but I really ought not to, because I can imagine it must be dreadful to a) have an animal so determined to shit upon one's back doorstep and b) play a daily game of watching their feet when they leave the house.

When I was there a baby-gate had been bungeed to the top of the steps, but it seems that now the raccoon (likely due to their opposable thumbs) has perhaps now learned to climb, or Heaven forbid! open said baby-gate. According to their last email a barracade of sorts has been contructed and an outside light has been left on. There is talk of a live-trap when they get home if the problem is not solved.

I have done some investigating though, and have found a few other ideas to help save the problem of the pooping raccoon.

There is Critter All Natural Animal Repellent

Wolf Urine (right...now we just need a wolf)

Hare-less Hot Pepper Rabbit and Raccoon Repellent (these people also specialise in deer, mole, squirrel, and armadillo repellent)

The Toronto Humane Society reminds my parents to secure the house so that they cannot find shelter within ("David what a hairy arm you suddenly have!")

This site specifically mentions raccoons on porches, and suggests a good dousing of water. Mom already has practice at that, and just the super-soaker to do the job....

There are battery operated sprinklers, lights and scarecrows attached to garden hoses

A little recipe for a stew made from onion and cayenne and jalapeno peppers

Napthla and loud music (and ammonia soaked rags) will be popular with the neighbours I'll bet!

Pellet Guns didn't work for one of these guys but if you read further a 22 rifle seems to work...

Best of luck, lovely PU! For what it's worth, the raccoon couldn't have picked the doorstep of a lovlier couple to poop upon!!

One of the unanticipated side effects of my trip to Canada is that I learned to like rhubarb.

I've always hated rhubarb. With an intense passion. Rhubarb is the only food I have approved of being thrown out unconsumed - especially because then it would never fulfill it's food destiny (that is, to be eaten)

However, there is hope that we all may one day be saved, and on my two week holiday to Canada, I was. When I arrived it seemed that rhubarb season was in full swing, and that everybody I was staying with was presenting it to me in some form or another - jam, coffee cake, pies... so, I thought "what the hey" and (especially because I have a large batch of it in my allotment) I thought I'd throw in the towel and join the fun (if you can't lick 'em join, 'em, so they say).

On my first Sunday there, Hallah (being unaware of my intense dislike for rhubarb which had become slightly less intense since eating Andrea's rhubarb-strawberry jam the day before) put my in charge of making the strawberry rhubarb coffee cake for her sister's wedding brunch.

So, I tackled it. I smelled it, touched it, washed it, cut it, stewed it, spread it and baked it into a cake.

And loved it!

Here is said recipe that I plan on making this weekend... (copied and pasted verbatim from Hallah's blog - thanks kiddo!)

rhubarb~strawberry coffee cake

• 28-May-08 at 9:14 AM
• 2 comments

From Better Homes and Gardens
(and no, Jeff, there is no coffee in a coffee cake!)

FRUIT FILLING
3/4 c cut-up rhubarb
3/4 c cut-up strawberries
1/4 c water

In small saucepan, bring these 3 to a boil, reduce heat, simmer covered for 5 minutes or until fruit is tender.

1/4 cup sugar
2 T cornstarch

Combine and stir into fruit mixture over med heat until thickened and bubbly. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350*

DRY MIXTURE
1 1/2 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda

Combine above 4 into medium mixing bowl.
Cut in 1/4 c butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Make a well in the middle and set aside.

WET MIXTURE
1 beaten egg
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 c butter milk
(if you don't have butter milk, make sour milk. Put 1 T lemon juice or vinegar in a glass measuring cup. Add enough milk to make one cup. Stir. Let mixture set 5 minutes before using. *NOTE* this makes 1 cup of sour milk and this recipe only calls for 1/2 c)

In another bowl, combine these 3.
Add wet mixture to dry mixture all at once.
Using a wooden spoon, stir until just moistened (will be lumpy).
Spread half of this batter in an ungreased 8x8x2 pan.
Spread fruit filling over this.
Drop remaining batter over the filling in small mounds.

TOPPING
1/4 c flour
1/4 c sugar
Mix in a small bowl.
Cut in 2 T butter until crumby.
Sprinkle over coffee cake.

Bake 40-45 min or until golden.
Cool slightly; serve warm.

Hallah suggests that it is best served the day it's made, but I don't think there was any left the following day to test that theory!

Although, Hallah, I must confess...I don't remember putting the cornstarch in, did you?

Anyways, I have since embraced the rhubarb patch on my allotment, shown below:


A triumphant post- Picking the rhubarb pose (the "bending down picking the rhubarb" shot ended up with more clevage exposure than I think is decent for a family blog...)

The Cottage

More about the rest of the trip later...but I have just been looking at my pictures...it was at the cottage, the precise moment when my dad and I went out in one of the canoes (the pre-betrothal canoe, as he calls it - because it was his and mom's first major purchase together before they got married) when my paddle first slipped through the water, that I realised that I am a Canadian through and through and nothing will ever replace the feeling of being in a canoe at the cottage and that I want to come home for good someday. Later we encountered a family of Geese...

This is actually beside my parents' water garden at home, but I think it's just lovely thing for them to have at the spot they eat lunch at every day...


View from the cottage deck



A wonderful cottage pastime!



Mom and I at the front door...we look huge! How funny! It is actually very low at the front...



Ready and waiting...



Setting off





My brave dad taking a plunge (although the water was lovely, and if I had had my bathing suit...)



Geese!

Template update

I am going to try to figure out how to update my template to get rid of my UBS (ugly blog syndrome). It says I may lose things...here's hoping I don't! Although if I lose things, you may not be able to read this...hmmmm....

Sherbrooke

We have been chilling at Matt's for the past couple of days, and it has been lovely! The cat has found a bit of a sucker family to snuggle up to!











We went for breakfast in Sherbrooke this morning. Breakfast here is worth moving to Sherbrooke for alone!

Epic Train Journey Across 1/4 of Canada...

In an effort to save the environment and up the romantic ante (as in the romance of travel...not as in a hope-to-find romance on the train) of travel, I decided that instead of flying, I would make my way from the East Coast to Montreal (and then on to Sherbrooke) by train and bus. My overnight train experiences have only consisted of once when I was a wee thing and we moved from NB to Ontario, and a couple of years when Ashley and I took the overnight from Glasgow to London (total travel time: 7 hours). As one of my dreams has always been to travel across Canada by train, I was delighted to get a taste of how that will be someday. I loved every second of it! I had heard horror stories of poopy bathrooms and not being able to sleep in uncomfortable seats, but the bathrooms were poopless and being short means that I got a pretty good sleep with only a slight krick in my knee and neck. As part of my onboard entertainment, I decided to document the journey a little bit...

This is how I passed the time on my Epic PEI - Sherbrooke voyage...

14:00: Just before my final PEI nap, I discovered that the shuttle bus I was to take from Summerside to Moncton would not actually guarentee to get me there on time for the train. After a frantic scramble, it is determined that Matt and Karl will drive me to Moncton. I offer to pay $40 for the bridge which is accepted, but my offer to pay for petrol is not.

15:00 I say my final goodbyes to Niamh and Jen and feel sad to be leaving PEI but excited to see my family and for the 15 hour epic train journey)

16:25 - 40ish: After a car journey complete with sharing harrowing stories of encounters with animals in nature, talk of D&D (Matt and Karl) and some happy day-dreaming whilst staring out the window (me) I am deposited by Matt and Karl. They kindly wait and take turns going pee (in the bathrooms, naturally) while I make sure I get my tickets without any problems.

16:28 I collect my tickets without any difficulties and Karl comments on how easy it was. I agree. Together we realise that due to the time change, my journey will actually only be 14 hours, and not 15.

16:45 Buy Globe and Mail and go pee. I hope not to pee again until I reach Montreal, but know that that probably is not realistic.

17:20 The train is late! While waiting for said train some kind elderly ladies (I will call them Doris and Lilly) kindly answered all of my overnight train questions. I am astounded to learn that there is only one train per day that goes from Halifax to Montreal. There used to be two (the Scotian train and the Ocean train) but that they stopped the last one a few years ago. One of the ladies' father used to work at the station back in the days of yore (well, maybe not quite that long ago) and apparently in its day, Moncton was quite a hub and the station had 6 busy tracks

17:38 I am on the train and it is leaving. This is the view from my window as we leave Moncton. Not pretty - but I suppose train tracks are not really meant to be so...



17:40 My ticket is taken. It is nice to know I am on the correct train.

17:50 I am reminded of just how many trees Canada has...and this was just the beginning of hours upon hours upon hours of trees:





18:02 Am hungry. Eat sub I brought with me. Decline food from passing trolley. Am worried that I have not brought enough food with me, but decide I won't starve if I don't eat until Montreal. Crave chocolate though, and wonder if I may have to break into stash saved for presents. Decide that's quite desperate and I won't die if I don't have chocolate until Montreal either. Will eat fruit (much more sensible option) instead.

18:11 Look around and decide I am not likely to befriend anybody sitting around me - mostly because they are all speaking French and seem to be getting off quite soon. Instead, I take a photo of my most likely travelling companions:



18:12 Am given a blanket and a pillow. What a pleasant surprise! Try pillow out to discover that it doesn't quite seem big enough. May have to locate a second...

18:22 There is a dinner announcement informing people that the dining car is open for its second sitting for dinner, and that people with reservations should be sure to proceed immediately. Dinner car? Reservations? Clearly other people have done this before.

18:27 I am given a million page survey to complete by the kind people at Via who want to improve people's rail experience. I agree to do one, as I will be sitting on the train for the next 13 hours with not much else to do...

18:38 I do not complete the survey as many questions need to wait until my journey is almost over...

19:21 Have been reading/dozing/looking out the window. We stop at Mirimishi and I have a moment of realisation of how big this country is, and how few people live in it...and how many people out East speak French! I for a moment think "If this was England, there would be many more trains than this" but then realise that I am in a much less densely population place than the UK and once again find it amazing that a train that offers one East-West service per day and its not even full!

19:27 The snack trolley comes around again and I abandon my noble ambition of a chocolate-free journey and buy a kit kat and eat half. It was $2.00! A bit steep for a kit kat, I think. Maybe I should write that in my train survey. I discover that the snack take-out car is open until 11:00 p.m. and decide that I am entitled to a night-cap. Do Canadian trains serve alcohol? I still have a gift bottle of Blomidon wine from Nova Scotia if things get desperate. I just need to locate a person who looks like they might be the cork-screw carrying type to befriend...



19:28 Wish I had knicked Karl's Crib board as a way of befriending the above mentioned cork-screw carrying individual. Decide I don't need to resort to opening own bottle if one can't be bought anyways. That's not a party - that's a problem!

19:38 Since I am missing three french classes for this trip, I have done a bit of French homework on my own and have written a little journal of my trip thus far en Francais!

20:04 Whilst staring out the window passing many, many beaatiful forests, swamps, rivers and meadows with the brilliant evening sunshine flickering through my window I think "This is a big, honking beautiful country and resolve to cross it by train with car day-trips on the side someday.




We then cross a big wide, rushing river and as admiring the view I realise that we seem to be suspended in mid-air! I peer out the window to discover that we are being held up by a seemingly little track and is presumably being held up by something larger, that I could not see). God Bless the CN Engineers!





20:17 Just minutes before pulling into Bathurst station the "third and final" call is made for the dining car. I decide to investigate said car (shown below). On the way I discovered newspapers (I took a French Acadian one) the pillow/blanket stash and I helped myself to another pillow as there seemed to be plenty (also shown below). The take-out snack car was playing some film starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore with no sound. I decide I am having more fun at my seat. I again marvel at how many people are speaking French and I wonder if we are in Quebec now.






20:18 Decide I need to learn more French and more Canadian Geography

21:12 The scenery on the right side of the train coming into Charlo (where?) is just stunning and there are hills (small mountains?) sweeping into a long narrow lake (or inlet) and they remind me of the hills sweeping into Loch Lomund. It is getting dark. Time for a pee break and a glass of wine! I hope we don't miss Gaspe due to darkness. I hear it's beautiful.

21:47. Oh! This lovely area is Gaspe! I tried to get wine from the take-out car, but apparently I needed to get it before 21:00 from the snack trolley. Oh - these funny non-European trains! I suppose I will survive!



I realise I forgot my toothpaste for me teeth. Oh, and I suppose my PJs are out of the question too - ha ha ha! I'd love to try a sleeper car someday - with a significant other and a bottle of wine, perhaps? But this time I felt that sitting upright for 14 hours would be much more adventurous! Well, time to don my eyemask and "turn in" for the night I guess!

Anyways, here is the bit of Gaspe I could see in the dark... followed by my make-shift bed!





Time Change! I forgot. Time change. Now I am "in bed" an hour early. Oh well, I'm going on 4 hous sleep from last night's Crib lesson and am pretty tired so I suppose it's just as well...

04:25 Woke up. I slept pretty well, all things considered. I think there were stops through the night as I recall people coming and going a bit. I think I woke up about once an hour to move around a bit. It is now just dawning and I have no idea where we are, other than somewhere in Quebec! I really wish I had brought my toothpaste. I am travelling backwards now instead of forwards. Will I soon be back in Moncton? I might go back to sleep now.

04:37 A-ha! We are in Charny!

04:56 I am going forward again. I guess Charny's just a bit off the beaten track...

06:53 I am having a coffee to try to hide my horrible breath, but I think it's just making it worse. I fear I will flatten Montreal with my first exhale when I arrive. I wish I could at least find my chewing gum!

07:17 I found my chewing gum in my jungle of a bag! Praise the Lord! Now I won't be responsible for the demise of an entire city! I am overall a bit smelly I think though...



07:30 Last call for breakfast in the dining car. I hadn't even considered that as an option, but I don't think I will now either.

07:34 We will be arriving in Montreal in 45 minutes. The announcements are in French now and I can basically understand them!

8:22 - 9:05 - **warning...my notes are now in my best attempt at French...some sort of mixture of past and present tense...I make no claims that it is accurate but no apologies either - that is why I'm taking lessons, you see! Oh, and I haven't quite got the accents on this keyboard figured out, so they are missing too!**

J'arrive a Montreal! Les batteries pour ma camera sont mort, alors je prends juste un petit vue de Montreal. C'est domage parce que c'etait un beau vue de la train! Quand j'arrive j'achete un bagel-Montreal avec creme du fromage et je suis alle au metro a Berri UQAM et le terminus centrale d'autobus. J'achete ma billet (la conversation est demie en Francais et demi en Anglais parce que je ne sais pas la mot pour "one way"). Apres j'achete duex journeaux: The Globe and Mail pour lirer les nouvelles Canadienne et leurs compris et j'achete aussi Le Devoir pour practicer lire en Francais. Je ne vue pas beaucoup de Montreal, mais je pense que cette une ville tres comfortable pour moi habiter. Il y a beaucoup des personnes qui parlons Anglais, alors I would survive, mais aussi je practicais because de Francais aussi!




J'ai predais l'autobus de Montreal a Sherbrooke et dans les deux chaises a cote de moi, il etait un garcons qui dirai beaucoup de l'histoire de Montreal a son ami. C'est tres interessant!





Dans cette journey je lire ma livre et tout a coup nous somme arrive a Sherbrooke! Je suis plus excite pour vue mes parents et j'oublie prends un photo de lui a la station!

En suite, nous sommes retournez chez mon frere et nous mange notre diner et je dormir pour deux heurs!

C'etait un voyage fantastic!

Hello to Nova Scotia (and the East Coast)

A week ago I arrived back in The True North Strong and Free - East Coast Division partly for a wedding, and partly to (a-hem) check it out (see blog of January 3 The Announcement). My time thus far has been fabulous! Since I generally get bored blogging things much later than they have happened, I will just recap some of the highlights:

The arrival. Andrea was there. And so was Tim.


Halifax seems like a decent little town...I captured these shots of the Historic Buildings in a parked motorbike.




The Alexander Keiths Brewery Tour. Well, to be honest, the Tour was a bit half arsed, but the beer is good, and the knocking down of the display after this picture was taken provided minutes of amusement for both Andrea and I as well as the amused onlookers.



And catching lobster for our dinner. (I suppose tis true that they were somewhat being held captive in a tank)



Peggys Cove with Andrea






Ciaran s wedding and seeing Topaz, Zoic, Hallah, Lemme, Greg and of course, the lovely Ciaran! (I very stupidly did not get any photos of it so it is here represented by eyelashes belonging to Hallah!)



Prince Edward Island:

Meeting the Island (this is Thunder Cove and my happy red-sandy feet!)





This is the view from the LM Montgomery Museum...



Doing some amateur film making with Jen:



And frolicking on the beach (I thought she was just taking a picture, but sneaky Jen was recording another video):




Meeting little Niamh (who adores her aunt Jo very much!)








Being taken by Jen, Matt and Karl to Cavendish Beach (it was lovely and sunny, but the water was cold!):











Learning to play Cribbage late into the night at a 24 hour Tim Hortons...



I was very sad to leave a beautiful part of the country and the amazing people I spent time with there, but was also excited for my epic train journey and to see my family at the other end of it...