Hurricane Bill has arrived and moved on so all the weather channel drama has subsided and moved on to Newfoundland. We had a ring side seat this morning as the waves crashed on the shore. There was quite a bit of rain during the night and morning which means the flowers in the planters look pathetic but not as much wind as predicted however we still managed to have a totem pole in our yard as one of the dry standing spruces got snapped off midway. The seas were high and the tides quite full so lots of surf. And there was that weird warm hu
mid air that a co-worker described as “coming all the way from Co
sta Rica”.
On the left is the view from the best seat in the house in the morning when the tide was up and on the right is a shot a few hours later when the sun had come out but it was still .............. r-o-u-g-h!
This afternoon I had a call from my former cruise partner to go for a walk on the beach and it was quite a spectacle with the sun out but huge walls of surf just offshore while shorebirds scooted along.
mid air that a co-worker described as “coming all the way from Co
sta Rica”.On the left is the view from the best seat in the house in the morning when the tide was up and on the right is a shot a few hours later when the sun had come out but it was still .............. r-o-u-g-h!
This afternoon I had a call from my former cruise partner to go for a walk on the beach and it was quite a spectacle with the sun out but huge walls of surf just offshore while shorebirds scooted along.
We debated about taking the dog but….she has panic attacks in the car, she’d be wet on the way back etc etc. I felt even guiltier when I shortened the canine after supper walk due to hordes of mosquitoes and I mean clouds – there were so many dragonflies out dive bombing them you’d think you were in a heliport. They must have all been taking advantage of the prime feeding conditions.
Speaking of feeding, it was a culinary weekend as the shore captain and I headed in to Lothar’s Café for supper. It’s been open two years and this is the first time we made it. We had planned to go to camp for the weekend but the weather forecast changed that plan and not just because of the rain and wind but it’s not a good idea to be a long ways from the wharf/boats in a hurricane. So, the alternate plan was supper out. Been a while since we were on a dinner date locally and it was wonderful. Lothar explained he’s going to spend January to March in Belize in a little place called Hopkins on the Toucan Trail so we told him we’ll come and visit him.
This morning I felt moved to try out Julia Child’s recipe for blender hollandaise sauce and whip up some Eggs Benedict. It only took three shopping trips to assemble the ingredients by the time I procured English muffins, back bacon and butter. Then this morning I discovered that the egg poacher which hasn’t been used for some time had only one cup in it so I improvised with a slightly larger custard cup to poach two at once for his majesty. But the recipe itself worked well despite the fact that my blender is a magic bullet so super charged and must be approached with caution. Since my life partner tends to being ‘detail orientated’ and doesn’t worry that he may sound negative, after I had created the culinary masterpiece he evaluated it as “too much lemon and the eggs poached firmer than he liked but it was okay”. So I explained the poacher modification led to the well done eggs as one would’ve been raw otherwise and that the lemon juice called for was 1 – 2 tbsp. so I split the difference at 1½ and for someone as lucky as himself he was being a tad on the brutally honest side. It may be a while before he gets the chance to eat/comment on them again. For those with a less critical audience here’s one link to the recipe:
http://lifewise.canoe.ca/FoodDrink/2009/07/31/10326756-ap.html
On the topic of recipes, I made an interesting dessert yesterday called Innkeeper Pie and it’s either a cake/pie or pie/cake depending on how you look at it. But we liked it and the man of the house stated it was somewhat like cheesecake and ate two pieces so with his food critique history that scores quite highly and will be in the ‘make again’ category.
Innkeeper Pie
Sauce - in saucepan stir together
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup water
Cook/stir over med. heat until boils x 1 min.
Remove from heat and stir in
1½ tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup butter
Filling - in small mixer bowl stir together
¾ cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
Add
¼ cup shortening
½ cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Beat med. speed x 2 minutes
Add
1 egg and beat 2 minutes
Spoon batter into deep 9 in. pie crust
Stir chocolate mixture and pour gently over the top
Sprinkle top with
½ cup chopped nuts
Bake 1 hr. at 350 F or until tester comes out clean. Cool and serve with whipped cream.
However, I didn’t spend the whole weekend making or eating food as this evening I put the finishing touches on the Norwegian Fjord powerpoint for the MidWeek Break at the library next month. Always the optimist I can count it as one more towards the elusive 60 required for the world cruise. I happened upon an article about people traveling on freighters and a world cruise with them was still about ½ the cost of a regular cruise and they were bragging about it only costing $90 per day each. Hah! I thought, I’ve got you beat. Now to get started on the PEI presentation.
Speaking of feeding, it was a culinary weekend as the shore captain and I headed in to Lothar’s Café for supper. It’s been open two years and this is the first time we made it. We had planned to go to camp for the weekend but the weather forecast changed that plan and not just because of the rain and wind but it’s not a good idea to be a long ways from the wharf/boats in a hurricane. So, the alternate plan was supper out. Been a while since we were on a dinner date locally and it was wonderful. Lothar explained he’s going to spend January to March in Belize in a little place called Hopkins on the Toucan Trail so we told him we’ll come and visit him.
This morning I felt moved to try out Julia Child’s recipe for blender hollandaise sauce and whip up some Eggs Benedict. It only took three shopping trips to assemble the ingredients by the time I procured English muffins, back bacon and butter. Then this morning I discovered that the egg poacher which hasn’t been used for some time had only one cup in it so I improvised with a slightly larger custard cup to poach two at once for his majesty. But the recipe itself worked well despite the fact that my blender is a magic bullet so super charged and must be approached with caution. Since my life partner tends to being ‘detail orientated’ and doesn’t worry that he may sound negative, after I had created the culinary masterpiece he evaluated it as “too much lemon and the eggs poached firmer than he liked but it was okay”. So I explained the poacher modification led to the well done eggs as one would’ve been raw otherwise and that the lemon juice called for was 1 – 2 tbsp. so I split the difference at 1½ and for someone as lucky as himself he was being a tad on the brutally honest side. It may be a while before he gets the chance to eat/comment on them again. For those with a less critical audience here’s one link to the recipe:
http://lifewise.canoe.ca/FoodDrink/2009/07/31/10326756-ap.html
On the topic of recipes, I made an interesting dessert yesterday called Innkeeper Pie and it’s either a cake/pie or pie/cake depending on how you look at it. But we liked it and the man of the house stated it was somewhat like cheesecake and ate two pieces so with his food critique history that scores quite highly and will be in the ‘make again’ category.
Innkeeper Pie
Sauce - in saucepan stir together
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup water
Cook/stir over med. heat until boils x 1 min.
Remove from heat and stir in
1½ tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup butter
Filling - in small mixer bowl stir together
¾ cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
Add
¼ cup shortening
½ cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Beat med. speed x 2 minutes
Add
1 egg and beat 2 minutes
Spoon batter into deep 9 in. pie crust
Stir chocolate mixture and pour gently over the top
Sprinkle top with
½ cup chopped nuts
Bake 1 hr. at 350 F or until tester comes out clean. Cool and serve with whipped cream.
However, I didn’t spend the whole weekend making or eating food as this evening I put the finishing touches on the Norwegian Fjord powerpoint for the MidWeek Break at the library next month. Always the optimist I can count it as one more towards the elusive 60 required for the world cruise. I happened upon an article about people traveling on freighters and a world cruise with them was still about ½ the cost of a regular cruise and they were bragging about it only costing $90 per day each. Hah! I thought, I’ve got you beat. Now to get started on the PEI presentation.
