Labour of love

I'm making our wedding cake!

Tiers one and two are done (one and two being the top two) and tier three will be done on Sunday. We're freezing them and will take them out the week of the wedding to decorate, so the adventure will be finding somewhere to freeze it on Sunday. Our freezer isn't big enough for a 12" square cake. Some would say that we ought to find somewhere big enough first, but that wouldn't be so much fun that driving around looking for friends or relatives who are better freezer endowed than we are.

We decided on carrot rather than fruit partially because of the house move and fruit cake baking all within a week was a bit much, and also because I don't want to be tired of fruit cake by the time Christmas comes around...

The ingredients:



We have a cake in the oven!


The finished top tier...



OK. So as it turns out I haven't done such a good job at documenting the baking of the cake. But actually, the photos of the bowls of mixed ingredients ended up looking like sick (and I didn't want to put the wedding guests off) and the photos of the baked second tier looked just like the photos of the baked first tier...

Perhaps the decoration photos will be much more amusing...

In with the new

It is now the 7th week in the new home, but already it feels so much longer than that! The furniture has arrived, the unpacking is mostly done, the smells of the old people have dissapated (they weren't bad smells...just other people smells) and it is starting to feel like home.

At the door about to take our first steps inside...



Poking around (or actually, trying to figure out how to open the back door now that no one else was there to do it for us) and reading instructions left for us by our lovely vendors...




The truck and the moving mascot (I didn't have a hat box so the hedgehog had to wear it)



Popping the champagne (in the garden, so that we didn't break anything, obviously)




Oh yeah...we have to unpack all this....

Out with the old...

Please excuse the lack of posts, however one will appreciate that the times, they are a changin'

Way back when I lived in London, on my last Sunday before moving away from said large inner city, Mr P and I went for a walk around his marathon training route (although we only walked about 14 km of it, not his whole 22 km training route...) because I hadn't ever walked along the entire South Bank from Greenwich to Tower Hill. I loved it (and I loved the assortment of random statues and sculptures along the way too). The idea was that P would run to Greenwich while I walked to Canary Wharf and took the DLR from there and meet him on the other side of the river. However, I was rather enjoying the walk and so I decided to walk to Greenwich so poor Mr P had to jog laps back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth to wait for me. So while I walked about three miles he ran about 12. Bless him.

Photos:

Mr P running along the North side across from Greenwich approaching the Greenwich Tunnel (he ran back and forth along the North Bank between Canary Wharf and Greenwich to accommodate the fact that I walk about 1/10 of the speed he runs)



Following the walk through the rather dodgy estates that surely would frighten any tourist, but are rather endearing to me as I have lived on one myself, we once again emerged into trendy territory where we found a lovely set of stairs in the middle of the path just so...



And the ship repair yard...



One of the things I liked about this area is that they have kept the old docks largely intact whereas they have been changed quite significantly on the North Side...



And some men just "sitting of the dock of the..." oh, just sitting on the dock...



Another random sculpture across from Canary Wharf:



A City Farm (with pigs, if you look really hard...)



We had a stop at a lovely pub that served some of the best Thai Food I've had in ages..



...and we befriended a ladybug...



Represent!



The Anchor is here, but the boat appears to have got away!




Phil checking out what they read just before they boarded the Mayflower...



The Mayflower Pub...at the site (or thereabouts) of where the Mayflower left from. Not sure the Puritans stopped in for a pint first though...



King Edward Park (my local) from across the river...




Ah! Tower Bridge! The beginning of the home stretch!



Butler's Wharf. One of my earlier discoveries but still loved location...



Truth be told, my feet were terribly sore, so I'm afraid that St Katherine's dock to my house on the north side got neglected!

Church Desert...

I phoned home tonight and spoke with my parents who were puttering about doing random things. My mom mentioned that dad was making a desert for an upcoming church dinner. I asked what he's making and he said "Sex in a Pan". I couldn't imagine bringing that to a Church of England Bring and Share. I'd forgotten all about it though, so for those of you who have as well, please indulge yourself (recipe courtesy of about.com and picture randomly found on a very yummy looking blog called Jam on Your Face which I encourage you to check out. I tried emailing to ask for permission to plop it here, but it wouldn't accept my comment...I didn't see any copyright information so I hope it's OK)

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1 (8oz) package cream cheese, soft ened
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tub whipped topping, 32 ounces
• 1 package (4oz) vanilla instant pudding
• 1 package (4oz) chocolate insta nt pudding
• 3 cups cold milk, divided
• 1 square semisweet chocolate, shaved, or mini semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation:

Combine flour, butter and pecans and press into a 9x13x2-inch baking pan. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack.

Combine cream cheese and confectioners' sugar and spread over pecan mixture. Spread half of the whipped topping over the cream che

ese layer.

Mix package of vanilla pudding using 1 -1/2 cups of milk. Spoon evenly over the whipped topping; spread until layer is even. Mix package of chocolate pudding using remaining 1-1/2 cups milk. Spread on top of vanilla pudding. Spread remaining whipped topping on top and sprink le with shaved semisweet chocolate or mini chocolate chips.

Blog or bust...

I realised the other day that I haven't blogged in almost a year. I thought "maybe I should just delete it entirely" But then I thought "maybe I should persist. So this is my attempt at persisting...

I have been doing Christmas baking over the past week or so.

This is how my kitchen normally looks:




This is how it looked with two Christmas pudding steaming for 8 hours, the other ingredients out, lunch being cooked, and my slow cooker on the go...





Traditional family cookie recipes



The Gingerbread Men A&E Department...


My first proper attempt at Home made Mince Pies...

Common Sense Doesn't Sell

A Yahoo! Article on how to save money in the January Sales:

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/23122008/401/golden-rules-successful-sales-shopping.html

My thought was "don't go shopping", but apparently that's not the slant they were looking for...

My pleasant pheasant experience

Mr P came around for dinner last night to bring in the New Year, and something inspired me to cook a feast featuring pheasant (having never done that before!).

The menu consisted of:
Roast Pheasant with Lemon and Rosemary
Pan-friend brussel sprouts and shallots with pomegranate and purple basil
Boiled Potatos
Crusty Bread
Dark chocolate mousse with Baileys and mascarpone cream.
Mr P had picked up a lovely 2007 Zinfandel from a wine show we went to in October and it complimented the meal perfectly (apparently pheasant and zinfandel are a good combo!)

I got the pheasant recipe from Mike Robinson on www.bbc.co.uk/food. He very helpfully had a video on how to prepare the pheasant, and while it looked much easier to get the backbone out than it was (although it wasn't too hard - just more messy than it looked on the video and he didn't say anything about dissecting the giblets out either!) it was very helpful and very yummy!

In the end, it turned out rather well (if I may say so myself!)


The pheasant - in packaging...



The pheasant just before the preparation...



The final result...

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!