Day One Hundred and Ninety Seven - Pumpkin Pie

Dear all,

We are on the brink of October and it's Pumpkin season. Pumpkins are everywhere!!

I decided that I would take one step further to becoming a true Canadian and today, I made Pumpkin Pie! I can hear all the Brits in the audience gasping 'wowwww' (you would struggle to find a pumpkin pie in the UK, much like trying to hunt down a bowl of 3-pepper chicken wings. Its a sad loss for the country)

I bought a can of 'pumpkin' from the store and noticed on the can, they directed you to a website where I would apparently find 'the recipe'. When I got home, I adhered to their advice and this is what I found:

http://www.edsmith.com

E.D.SMITH’s Pumpkin Pie

INGREDIENTS:

1 egg
1 can (19 oz/540 mL) E.D.SMITH® PUMPKIN PIE FILLING
1/3 cup (75 mL) evaporated milk
1 9-inch (23 cm) unbaked home-mad or frozen pie shell

PREPARATION:
1. Beat one egg lightly in medium bow. Add the pumpkin pie fill and the evaporated milk. Blend everything together. Pour filling into pie shell.
2. Bake at 425ºF (220ºC) for 15 minutes.
3. Reduce oven temperature to 375ºF (190ºC) and continue baking 35 to 45 minutes longer or until knife inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool.
4. Prep Time: 35 minutes, Cooking Time: 50 to 60 minutes, Yield: 8 servings

So, I got to work. I had bought some 'ready-made' pie crusts from the store [so civilised] and started to mix the ingredients. I looked at some other recipes online that included, brown sugar and a number of herbs including cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and vanilla essence.

I started to get a little 'herb-happy' throwing in a little of this and a little of that and within a blink of an eye and whilst Darren was merrily playing 'Civilisation' in the corner, I had prepared two pies and had popped them in the oven. After about 5 minutes of feeling content with my pie-making, a sudden fear came over me: I had forgot to put in the sugar! As I had bought pure pumpkin, rather than the 'pumpkin mix', it needed sugar or would taste like foam. I quickly retrieved the pies and chucked in some sugar to the mix (very uncool, I know, but you live and learn).

Anyway, the pies survived and they were actually quite delicious! hurray!

And in other news:

1. More fall colours: The Canadian landscape is truly magnificent

Day One Hundred and Ninety Six - Rutting Reindeer

Dear all,

Today, I am back in camp reindeer and this time they have hit the headlines: Gandalf is in rut.

Rut is another way of describing the mating season of ruminant animals such as deer, sheep, elk, moose, caribou, ibex, pronghorn and reindeer! During this period, males rub their antlers or horns on trees, fight with each other, wallow in mud or dust and herd their harem of ladies together.

Gandalf is *shudder* mid-rut' which means that he is generally in quite a bad mood, picks fights with everything (including inanimate objects) and is currently auditioning for a cameo in 'Resident Evil 5'.

Gandalf's velvet is coming away from the rack itself which is a sight, so horrific, I am sure it would scare away small children. According to google, rut is triggered by the shortening of the daylight hours which mean that the subsequent young are born in spring, where the sun is shining, flowers are blooming and the lambs are therefore leaping!

I was trying to appease our friend with dandelions but [as you can see from the photos and footage below], he was beyond counsel. The poor thing is in quite the quandary!

The Dawn of the Dead - Audition 1:

The Dawn of the Dead - Audition 2:

The Dawn of the Dead - Audition 3:

Day One Hundred and Ninety Five - Pressing Apples

Dear all,

At the inn, we have apples galore, they just keep on coming! Despite a very busy season with a hoard of guests constantly passing through to gaze at the phenomenal fall-colours, one of our missions today was to 'make cider'.

I have a great deal of experience with cider, having worked at The Cornish Cyder Farm (http://www.thecornishcyderfarm.co.uk) in my youth, but [as always] we pushed the boundaries a little further at the inn in using a 'medieval' cider press to do the work.

Thor was clearly on edge today as we were experiencing bouts of intense thunder showers, but we battled on. I collected a barrel of apples and Cornelia, Stephan and Lorraine started to press. The apples were initially placed in a smaller 'box' [as pictured below' to chop them in to fine pieces ready for the press.

Here is a mini-video of the initial press:

The chopped fruit was then transferred to the main barrel and the large screw was turned, forcing the block down on the apples and allowing the juice to flow through the funnel at the bottom.

It is hard work but the juice is amazing and Linda dashed off to Meaford to find ingredients for the cider that would then be fermented [for a long time] in a huge carboy ready for drinking.

I will keep everyone posted on the development of the cider but in the meantime, it is apples for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

And in other news:

1. Check out these epic fungi that I found growing adjacent to one of the horse fields (the scale can be seen in the picture below. Fungi growth: bottom right).

Linda is keen to eat the fungi. I am keen to have confirmed classification from a biological institute before ingestion ( I studied biology at University which included a model on 'fungi'. It's a wonder that I ate a mushroom ever again)

Day One Hundred and Ninety Four - The Muskoka Store

Dear all,

Whilst driving back to Collingwood, we decided to take a cheeky stop off at The Muskoka Store, a large monstrosity that hugs the Highway and lures in eager travellers heading for cottage country with cash burning a hole in their pockets.

We popped in on a wim and were flabbergasted by the what The Muskoka Store had to offer: It is incredible!

This store stocks EVERYTHING that you might need as a cheery cottager and there is no tat, this stuff is good.

It is a holiday-makers paradise, with everything from wake boards, surfing equipment, games, toys, furniture, clothes, it has everything! It is a veritable maze with rooms spanning [for what seems like] miles.

Everything is beautifully displayed, with every item whispering 'buy me' as you walk by imagining your perfect cottage with Muskoka Store wears inside.

They even had a line of Lipsy, a boutique fashion label from London, UK! I was [very]tempted to make a [little] purchase of this gorgeous little black dress, but decided that I didn't need another to add to my 40-strong collection!

http://www.lipsy.co.uk/

It is a fabulous store and well worth the visit to experience 'The Essence of Cottaging'

http://www.muskokastore.com/

And in other news:

1. We also stopped into 'Dock in a Box' in Barrie, a superstore totally devoted to docks: We were in heaven! http://www.dockinabox.com/

Day One Hundred and Ninety Three - Finishing the Decking

Dear all,

We are back at The Firehouse for a whistle-stop tour on a mission to finish the dock.

After a dreadful week of rain, we awoke to 'rain' which miraculously turned to sun which we took as a sign to start early as get as much done before the rain decided to do a 360 and come back to say 'hello'.

This time we were on our own and without the wonderful Bob and Mary-Lou but with our new Milwaukee in hand, we set off on the boat ready for a day of action.

Darren had bought an incredible ergonomic saw of Japanese Origin and we used it to cut the last remaining decking boards to lay them down and screw them to the joists.

I volunteered myself again as 'drill-girl' and had to wriggle, on my back, under the deck to screw in the last remaining boards that were the nearest side to land. It was quite awkward at times, with little space to move at all, but we got the job done, and look: Here is the finished dock and pictures of D and I giving it a good test run!

Test run 1:

Test run 2:

Test run 3:

Day One Hundred and Ninety Two - Milwaukee Drill

Dear all,

Darren and I were heading back up to the cottage to finish off the dock but in order to do so, Darren decided to go forth and purchase a new 'Milwaukee' drill to mark the occasion.

I have learnt today, that Milwaukee are the best brand or power tool and Darren got a brilliant bargain at Home Depo whereby he paid half price for the drill set.

The drill set is fabulous and comes with two lithium batteries and a rather snazzy bag that I am convinced in modelled on a Gucci. The http://www.milwaukeetool.com/

Here I am ready for action up and the cottage, of which the climax I am sure will be tomorrow!

And in other news:

1. The monumental fall colours are coming into full effect. (More pictures to follow - we are currently at around 20%)

Day One Hundred and Ninety One - IQ Test

Dear all,

Today was a day devoted purely to admin. I am about to launch myself back into the perilous world of paper work, so am easing myself in with a [hopefully] straightforward, passport renewal.

After the obligatory glide through the best of London fashion week, a google advertisement appeared as if by magic, telling me, my life could not possibly be complete without me knowing my personal IQ. I decided, 'why not': it would be an interesting exercise. So I cracked open my [second] beer of the day and got started - Here ye the website I was [so kindly] directed to, http://www.iqtest.com

Some might say that I didn't take the test as seriously as I should [beer + exam = bad] and as I started the exam, I realized I may have bitten off more than I could chew. They advise that you should try not to spend more than 20 seconds on any one question as this will penalize your final score [again, beer not good influence here]. So I rattled through them thinking there would be 10 but OH NO I have omitted to scroll 'down' the page and there were 50 bloomin questions! agggggg.

To give a feel for the questions, here are a couple of sample questions from the 'practice' test that I failed to initiate before I started the real thing:

1. Two ducks and two dogs have a total of fourteen legs.

True False

2. A pie can be cut into more than seven pieces by making four diameter cuts.

True False

3. Two of the following numbers add up to thirteen.

1, 6, 3, 5, 11

True False

Answers at the end of the post.

Anyway, I battled on with the occasional look at facebook whilst sipping away at my beer. These three contributing factors are [hilariously] reflected in the end result.

So.. I finished the test and pressed 'submit'. Within 5 minutes, I had received a 3 page document giving me a complete analysis of my intelligence and breakdown of my score. The majority of my scores I was very pleased with particularly as I had not taken it with the seriousness that I maybe should have [I think the 'beer' had an impact on 'short term memory' and 'computational speed'.

This is an amusing section from the IQ dossier I received:

You scored higher than your General IQ Score in 6 individual ability categories. 4 of these better scores could be called statistically significant and may indicate special abilities, or that you were distracted on those parts of the IQ Test that counted more heavily in the other ability categories.

Lewis Terman developed the original notion of IQ ( Intelligence Quotient) and proposed the scale for classifying the scores:

• Over 140 - Genius or near genius

• 120 - 140 - Very superior intelligence

• 110 - 119 - Superior intelligence

• 90 - 109 - Normal or average intelligence

• 80 - 89 - Dullness

• 70 - 79 - Borderline deficiency

• Under 70 - Definite feeble-mindedness

  
  

  Well, at least I am not 'dull'. Below is my certificate sent by carrier pigeon to my gmail account.

Despite the erroneous 'beer'-related results, it was a very interesting exercise and I would recommend it if you have 20 minutes and are feeling alert!

Answers to the test questions are:

1. False

2. True

3. False

Day One Hundred and Ninety - Quinoa

Dear all
After a few days of lovely meals and jalapeno poppers at The Firehouse, I decided to cleanse the system and cook up a meal of Quinoa ( pronounced, Keeenoi) for Darren and I. Quinoa is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds and is closely related [bizarrely] to beets and tumbleweed.


Quinoa has been used for centuries, most prominently in the Pre-Colombian, Andean civilisations. In contemporary times, this crop has become highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as it has an extremely high protein content at around 12%-18%. It is also full of fibre, phosphorus, iron and magnesium. One might say it is a 'super food'. I also heard along the grapevine that NASA are considering considering quinoa as a crop for their Controlled Ecological Life Support System beyond the stratosphere.

Anyway, I was merely interested in an unusual yet healthy snack, so bought a box from Metro and decided to give it a go.

I must say, in its raw form it doesn't look much. Just a bag of small, hard, tawny seeds that scream out 'Health Food'.

I was instructed to 'thoroughly rinse' the grains in a fine mesh sieve. Well, that got me thwarted at the first hurdle as I was unable to find even a 'large' mesh sieve in our cupboards so I plumped for a strange contraption with moving arms, that resembled Darth Vadar's sleeping quarters.

I then boiled the quinoa in 3 cups of vegetable stock for around 15 minutes as by that time it had quadrupled in size and each little nodule resembled a small sprout.

I chucked in a load of tomato, pepper, coriander, peas, garlic, oil and cider vinegar, mixed it all together and there it was: My Quinoa Salad.

When Darren got home, he immediately noted the smell of cooking which had enveloped his condo however when introduced to the dish he exclaimed, 'That looks healthy'. To be honest, that is essentially what the dish was, healthy, nutritious but odd in texture and ever so slightly, slimy. Not my favorite to date but I am sure will be very good for us!