Oct 27, 2020
The following were taken last evening, Monday, October 26th. It took my breath away. But let’s start with more rain chain art.
Looking straight up.
In case you missed my post yesterday you might want to go back and check it out, all about Christmas cake.
Oct 26, 2020
I have always loved fruit cake. I remember helping my grandmother make it. I really can’t recall if my mother ever made it but something tells me she did. Christmas cake or fruit cake is something I have missed over the years once we started traveling in the RV for the winter. So now that we are here for the winter, why not make one? I don’t have any of my mom’s or grandmother’s ( she wanted to be called grandmother ) recipes so I checked out the best Christmas cake on Google. I clicked on just the one and that is the one I went with. Mainly because it was so easy to make. Check out the video here and the recipe can be printed out by clicking on the ‘show more’ just a few inches below the video. I even read the 232 comments and made notes. Everyone loves it because it is rich and moist, not to mention easy to make.
So first thing was to make a list of the ingredients we needed. I also needed to buy a 9 inch springform pan as well as an air tight container to store the cake in. Amazingly I found both as well as parchment paper at a dollar store for less than $10.00 for all three. I also will be making my special Old English short bread and fruit cake cookies.
The cherry brandy is for the Christmas cake while those 4 cups of pecans ($23.05 ) and the maraschino cherries are for the fruit cake cookies.
Rather than buy large containers of spices that I seldom use I went shopping in the bulk food section of Save On Foods. I needed a pinch of coriander ( on the left ) and that cost me 6 cents, the 1/4 teaspoon of allspice cost 14 cents while the very fresh ground ginger on the right cost me 10 cents for 1/2 teaspoon. I even bought 2 cups of icing sugar ( for the shortbread ) for 87 cents. Why spend $2.00 – 3.00 for something I only need a few cups of.
It took 2.5 hours to prep the ingredients and mix, cook, cool, add more ingredients and then place in the parchment lined pan. That last bit took a while to get it right.
Instead of soaking the fruit I simply simmered it for 30 minutes. Yes those are bits of zest of lemon and orange all done by hand.
The cake was in the oven for an hour and three quarters at two different temperatures. First thing we had to do was make a dozen holes in the cake in which 1/2 cup of cherry brandy ( there already was 1/2 cup in the cake ) was slowly poured into the cake. Then cooled for a few hours.
So while the cake was cooling I made us a veggie stir fry with almost the last of our Mazatlan shrimp. We have another 1/2 kilo in the freezer. Had I known I would have certainly brought more back with us. Several of the veggies were from our garden and it was a delicious meal. A special end to the cake making.
We than had to double wrap the Christmas cake in a double layer of parchment paper and then a double layer of foil.
So now every Sunday for the next seven or eight weeks ( until we can no longer stand waiting and just have to have a slice ) we get to feed our creation. Yes we get to feed the cake once per week with 2 tablespoons of cherry brandy. Unwrap it with great care, feed it and then rewrap for another week. You can use rum or whisky instead of the cherry brandy if you prefer. The only cherry brandy we can get here is 24% alcohol so I just may add real brandy or rum for the final few weeks. Between the wrapping and the ‘feeding’ this cake is guaranteed to be very moist. Don’t worry I will be sure to share the first taste with you all.
Oct 25, 2020
The sun tried to appear this morning. It did actually come out for a few hours mid afternoon..
Trying to get the perfect ice / rain chain shot. The sun just isn’t hitting that area as it is low in the sky.
Sunset in the west.
Reflective sunset in the east. I actually went outside to take this one and was rewarded with the moon reflection.
We should have gone for walk today despite the cold but concentrated on other areas of our winter preparation instead. We did do one very special thing today and I will post about that tomorrow. A big first in our lives.
Has this happened to you? Forgetting your mask that is?
Oct 24, 2020
My Apple desktop computer did an update while I was relaxing earlier today which resulted in me being unable to use it. Between us we figured it had something to do with my time machine. Before that I had spent two hours trying to fix the problem. It took close to an hour for the computer to stop whirling and we shut it down. Once we disconnected the time machine, back up system, I was finally able to finally get mail to work. Turns out that perhaps the time machine was the problem as now that it is disabled I appear to be working with a new computer. We will pick up a new back up system in the next few day days. Meanwhile I have run out of time to do a proper post. It is 8:45 PM and we do need to have dinner.
My rain chain is now an ice chain 🙂
I was surprised to see a small sunset this evening.
Oct 23, 2020
Yesterday morning I actually saw a sunrise, actually a sunrise reflection to the south.
The morning started off very cool but by 4PM the sun was out as were these two canoeists. They were bundled up and enjoying a beautiful afternoon @ 44F.
We were up around 7AM this morning and snow was falling. It was not yet sticking to the ground.
Then it began to stick. I was like a little kid running from window to window checking out every snowflake. Today we were supposed to be on day 4 of our 7 day Nile river cruise.
We had geese drop in yesterday and I guess they spent the night. The white on their backs is snow.
At first we were told to expect 4 inches of snow but a few hours later the forecast changed to possibly 6 inches of the white stuff.
It wasn’t long before the snow began to accumulate.
It was at this point that we decided to cancel our chiropractic appointments in Vernon for 11AM. Not a good idea to drive in these conditions not mention that so many still don’t have their snow tires on. Also with the first snow ( very early snow ) drivers can be erratic.
I was happy to just watch the snow fall. Eventually the flakes became larger and larger.
I felt like I was in a snow globe because of all of our windows with the flakes falling all around me. We saw a heron having a bit of difficulty flying during the heaviest snow fall and a female eagle circulating over and over looking for breakfast.
Temps remained around 0C/32F most of the day, although it did rise to 1C/34F mid afternoon.
I was surprised at how fast cars were driving down the road.
I never expected to see a snow plow. This is the parks version and it works.
We went out about 3PM to do a wee shovel and a two block walk.
I tried out my new coat which worked well, this one is good to -15C/5F. My twenty year old boots worked fine as did my ear muffs but I will need heavier pants and warmer gloves ( those I have ).
We are expecting to wake up to -9C/15.8F with the wind-chill in the morning.
Today was like the perfect storm – for me to try out my winter gear.
So are you all getting flu shots? I’m still on the fence. I have never had one before plus with all the sanitizing, mask wearing and social distancing not to mention not planning on having anyone inside our home, we should be safer than ever before.