I don't know why we don't hike more often

 I actually know the answer.  A multitude of reasons - other things we have to do, or, more commonly, laziness.

But it is so great.  Especially on a nice day like Saturday.  We caught the end of the leaves - many on the ground, not many on the trees.

We saw Hilton Falls which is always lovely.

We got some exercise; never a bad thing.

I took pictures of random things that interested me.

We talked about the week's events.










And we just enjoyed a nice fall day.

And said, we really have to do this more often.

Buttercream Icing

I really wish I was one of those people with fast metabolism who can eat desserts all of the time and not instantly gain weight.  If I were, I would have made every single recipe in Flour by now.

Yesterday we went to a dinner party and I pulled out the cookbook with the thought that I would make an apple pie.  Being somewhat exhausted from very little sleep last week, I decided that a cake would be a better way to go.  I had all of the ingredients in house and didn't have to fight with pastry dough (which I don't make often enough to have the flair for so always fight with).  While chocolate cake is my general favourite, I knew it wasn't a favourite of one of my hosts so looked around for something else.  After the other half did an inventory of the spices a few weeks ago, I was made aware that I have an overstock supply of a few things, particularly cloves.  Since this recipe would drop my clove supply by 1/2 tsp, it seemed like the right thing to make.  Add to that, the buttercream icing, which I've never made before, would use up 3 egg whites I froze after making the extremely rich and delicious chocolate tart from the same cookbook a few weeks ago.

If I really look at it, making this cake was probably about the same amount of work and time as the pie would have been but, based on every apple pie I've ever tasted, so much better.  Having yet to make the apple pie from Flour, I may revise my thinking at a later date but for now, this cake is the winner.

The cake was delicious with just the right amount of spice.  Not overpowering but enough so you could taste it.  The icing was smooth and creamy and loaded with 1/3 cup of dark rum which, of course, only made things better.

The latest assignment of my photo course was around taking shots of things in motion so I was out in the morning taking pictures of waves at the beach.  They remind me of the icing.  In appearance only, of course.  Although, with all of the junk in Lake Ontario, it could taste like rum but I'm not about to find out.

The nice thing about having 100 partially finished projects ...

 ... is that when you set your mind to finishing, you have a lot to show for it in a very short time.   This little jacket is for the friend who doesn't know what kind of baby he is going to have.  I have now made one sweater for a girl and this for a boy.  Now I wait to see which one gets gift wrapped and dropped off to his office when the news hits.

The pattern is from Joelle Hoverson's More Last Minute Knitted Gifts, a book I actually resisted buying because I didn't see many patterns I liked at first.  Then I looked through it a few times, had  success with the placket pullover in her first book and decided to buy it.  There are several other projects  that I can see myself making at some point so I think it was worth the money.  A buy 3 get 1 free sale at Indigo might have helped change my mind too.  

The next project were these French Press Slippers, which I am not as satisfied with.  I may try them again or I may not.  I made these with Cascade 220 and it took at least 4 tries in the washing machine to get them to felt and they still don't seem right.  Once I started the felting process I did remember that I had trouble felting Cascade a long time ago so trying a different yarn might be more satisfying.  These were going to feature in my Christmas gift giving but, although I will likely give these to my niece because they are too big for me and should fit her, I'm not steaming ahead to make more for Christmas.

A healthier Mac & Cheese

Earlier today I was bouncing around the internet and came across the Broccoli-Basil Mac and Cheese from 101 Cookbooks and was inspired to make it for lunch.  I had a couple of squash in the refrigerator and the basil has almost given up in the garden so through there couldn't be a better time.

It is a healthier version of mac and cheese and, in my opinion, even tastier.  The significant other, who would be happy never to eat a vegetable again, did say that he prefers regular mac and cheese.

Anyway, the topping is made with breadcrumbs, basil and broccoli chopped in the food processor and the mac is mixed with tomatoes, roasted squash, cheese, sour cream and more basil.  It tastes very good and makes a ton so there will be leftovers this week.

One Christmas project finished

This is the placket pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts for my nephew.  I had made one for his birthday but it was much too small so he got a toy or something instead.  This one should be big enough with room to grow.  It has a bit of a crazy variation in colours because by the time I got around to starting it, I realized I had picked up a colour-way that was not exactly the same as the other two skeins.  Close, but not the same.  I think it still works and you can barely tell that I ran out of yarn on the neck and had to finish with some leftover brown from my previous, too small version, of the same sweater.  Regardless of my yarn challenges, it is a very easy and fun sweater to knit.

Last night I went to the Creativ Festival in Toronto (not sure why the "e" is left off creative but I'm sure there is some pseudo artistic reason).  It is 1/2 price after 4:30 and it only took about an hour and a half to walk around so better worth the money than taking a vacation day, getting there in the morning and paying full price.  I like the show now that I am a quilter but found it a bit sparse on the knitting front and think that the number of booths has gone down in number from prior years.  Since I have an over-abundance of stash, I kept my purchasing to a minimum and only came home with a very small amount of fabric, a couple of skeins of yarn, a book and a subscription to Quilter's Connection magazine, a Canadian publication.  There were a lot of pretty things to look at and inspiration to be gained so it was worth the visit.

I found it quite amusing that the festival was right next door to the All About Sex show.  While some of the clientele might overlap, in general, the two crowds were about as diverse as you can get in one place.  I think that is great.

I completely understand ...

... the idea of parents-to-be not wanting to know what kind of baby they are having.  But they sure make it difficult for us knitters.  This little sweater was supposed to be unisex but after I finished it thought it looked too girly.  So for that unknown baby being born sometime in November unless he/she is early, I am now knitting a second, more boyish sweater just in case.  The fact that I chose this Debbie Bliss, Simply Baby pattern because I thought it looked boyish on the baby modelling it is neither here nor there.  My version looks girlish.

Not that having an extra item in the baby gift inventory is really such a bad thing but I'm behind on that Christmas knitting I was so excited about a month or so ago.  I've really only completed one of the projects for that event, to be blogged about later.  But I am half way through a second of the projects and a third is with nice chunky yarn so really shouldn't be too daunting.  There, I feel better.  The two pairs of socks might be another issue but it is way too early to give up.

Now for a complete change of topic, my latest recipe from Plenty was roasted pumpkin.  My Thanksgiving roadtrip resulted in the purchase of 3 small (around 3 pound) pumpkins.  One was made into Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good from Dorie Greenspan's book Around My French Table (yummy), another was made into a curried apple pumpkin soup (also yummy) and the third sat on the counter looking cute for a week until I decided to make it into Plenty's roasted pumpkin.  The pumpkin was sliced, the pieces brushed with olive oil and topped with a breadcrumb, parmesan and other good stuff crust.   Baked for 1/2 hour and enjoyed.

The only problem with my resolve to cook from my existing cookbooks - I love Plenty so much that I want to invest in Ottolenghi's other book Ottolenghi.  So far I have resisted the temptation to hit "buy" at Indigo.  Must ... stay ... resolved!

Out of the 100 half-completed projects littering my life ...

... finally a completed quilt top.  This one has been in progress for a couple of months but first it was too hot to quilt and then it was too nice outside not to be doing something out there.  Since this weekend has balanced the positives of last weekend by being relatively miserable, I have been able to work on some projects.

This quilt is Lucky Stars, another Atkinson Designs quilt.  As usual with their patterns, this one is extremely easy to follow and I really love the results.  The fabrics are random fat quarters picked up at various places.  Some from my local quilt shop, some from the Royal Botanical Gardens quilt show, some from who knows where but they all look great, I think.

Now onto piecing a back together for another quilt I completed last winter.  I've got to see these quilt tops through to completion.

And the Lentil Galettes (see previous post) were beyond fabulous.  Definitely a cookbook worth the price.

Cookbooks

Last week I stumbled on the blog 101 Cookbooks.  I have seen this blog before but have never really looked at it closely.  Essentially the focus of the blog is that the author had a cookbook buying problem and decided to start cooking from the books she owns rather than buying new ones.  Since I have somewhere in excess of 101 Cookbooks, I recently started taking ones that interested me out of the library and spending some time with them before buying.  This strategy has resulted in a nosedive in the number of cookbooks purchased in the last year or so.

One of the cookbooks I took out of the library and fell in love with is Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi.  After trying a couple of recipes during the loan period, I realized this is one that I had to own.  I made a few recipes from it immediately after buying and loved all of them but the book has been on the shelf for a couple of months.  I pulled it out yesterday and have started exploring it again.  The first recipe in that exploration used one of the heads of red cabbage waiting for me in the garden.  It is called Sweet Winter Slaw and combines the cabbage with sweet elements from maple syrup and mango with asian ingredients of soy sauce, sesame oil, coriander and chilies.  It was absolutely delicious.  I modified it a bit to sub peanuts for the macadamia nuts in the recipe.  I also left out the papaya which would have added a nice touch but the store only had huge ones and since I'm not a big fan knew some would have gone to waste.

For lunch it will be Puy Lentil Galettes.

October 9th and we're wearing shorts!!!

It's Thanksgiving weekend and I'm going to talk about the weather.  It is around 27 degrees and sunny as apparent from these very shiny pumpkins we saw on yet another Southern Ontario food tour.  It seems like quite a few people are doing the same this weekend as all of the farms that we went to were also being visited.  The busiest, of course, was Springridge Farm in Milton because it is so kid friendly.  No more time to write.  Have to get outside!

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Internet Distraction

I exercise regularly.  I hate it but I firmly believe in all of the positive reasons to do it.  One of the things that helps me through most workouts is music.  I have a small shuffle and a workout playlist with more to choose from on the computer.  But, despite the large selection of songs in my workout file, I was getting a bit tired of the same old songs.

Just in time, I read about the Jog.fm website in a copy of Real Simple I picked up at Philadelphia airport a couple of weeks ago.  It is great.  So now I don't have to scroll through my thousands of songs looking for some that might be good for a workout.  I can look up songs with beats per minute similar to songs that get me jazzed during a workout, I can look up good cycling songs for the stationary bike or good running songs based on my speed.  I have actually given up running but that is a whole other story.

What does all this have to do with the beer bottle clock picture?  Nothing really, except this was taken in the Philadelphia airport with my iPod.  Art pops up everywhere in Philadelphia, including near duty free in the International portion of the terminal.

The other photos were taken during a previous trip to Philly a couple of years ago.  They are all from random strolls around the city which is one of our favourite ways to explore a new place.  Above is a sampling of decoration that was covering the walls of an alley we walked by while searching for Loop, a really nice knitting store and its next door neighbour, Spool, a fabric shop.

The stained glass is actually the side of a bus shelter.  So much nicer than the ads the plaster bus shelters in Toronto.

And the cat, another random find. Isn't he great?