Cake

When you make a Martha recipe you know it's going to be good. I made the Cinnamon-Streusel Coffee Cake from the latest issue of Living and it is fantastic. It's a little extra work to make the topping and then the centre and then the cake but 'someone' can be doing the mixing while you are prepping all the other stuff. The finished cake needs nothing to make it a hit; the recipe even called for a glaze. Don't bother. And I love the storage tip: cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days. In 5 days this will be a sweet memory.

The Platters

I was the chief cook and bottle washer this weekend; lamb was on the menu for Saturday night along with roasted parsnips and mushy peas with onions.
But Sunday night I went all out and tried a new recipe from an old issue of Gourmet. Chipotle Meatballs with Mango Pomegranate Guacamole with sticky rice. This was so good! And both times I used my Deruta platter for serving reminding us of our wonderful trip to Italy.
De-clutter and save money; that is my New Year mantra but I could not resist this huge tin. The lid is a little tricky to get off so I suggested to my favourite Sparkie that this would make an excellent lamp base. I'm sure that once he's had time to think about it, he will see that I am right.
Cherry crisp.Yes,I used canned cherries but with lots of oats and pecans, it was quite tasty.
You can never have enough candles. I favour beeswax candles to any other and when I run out of candle-holders, I use what ever is around the house.

No butter needed

Had lunch at St. Andrew's the other day with all the snow and birds.
This is the best cookie ever! No flour and no butter but lots of cocoa and walnuts.
There is no better way to start a Saturday morning then with breakfast at our favourite coffee shop and even though they have changed their name, we still think of them as Cowboy Coffee.

Snow gowns

The trees on Victoria are wearing wedding gowns of silk mikado with an overlay of organza, a gathering of schiffli lace, and plenty of crepe ruffles. It's almost a mirror image of the gown on display in the bridal shop. Almost.

Cinnamon day

It snowed all day today which made for pretty pictures but sore backs after all the shovelling.

TG did a fantastic job of decoupage on an old pencil holder. She's had it for many years but it's time to let it go. Can't wait to do a fleamarket in the spring.

What to do on a cold snowy day? I tried two new recipes for brunch; cinnamon oatmeal pancakes and easy cinnamon rolls. Both were great along with lots of fruit and coffee.

Italian turkey pancakes

Turkey in a bag? Yes, this is the first time that I have cooked a bird in a poultry sac. Our turkey dinner was great. Maura was home from Vancouver just for the weekend so we had dinner and a movie. Went to see Country Strong and thoroughly enjoyed all the music.

The big Sunday breakfast - I always enjoy putting that together.This time I made two kinds of pancakes - pikelets and sour cream.
This month it is all about the scrapbook. I have done about ten pages of the trip to Italy but I was so happy to get the title page done. I used some fancy cotton for the boot of Italy which I machine appliqued onto the background fabric. Then I embroidered all the names of the places we visited and used mother-of-pearl buttons to mark them on the boot. Used canceled Italian stamps from my collection for the lettering. I am really impressed with the quality of the photo copy.

Weekend wrapup

It has been some time since we visited the park; this morning I was surprised to see the old ice cream place still standing.
Salmon fritters for lunch from the George Mercer Dawson Secondary School cookbook. I know the recipe called for crab but salmon from the islands made a great substitute.
Made another batch of Jamie Oliver's pizzza; this is a great recipe but it calls for bread flour - I used whole wheat bread flour. Not so good!





The house was cloaked in fog but at the trail head it was a clear and sunny day. As we slogged up the hill, we resisted the impulse to shed our heavy coats, scarves, and gloves. Instead we reduced our speed and at the top were rewarded with a sparkling view.
Back down the hill, the view from our deck almost completely obliterated by the flimsy off white fog quilt neatly covering the city.

No flour, no butter, but these cookies are loaded with crunchy nuts and chocolatey taste. I used Francois Payard's recipe.