A mild day in store today

Conditions at 6:00 am -
Expected later -

The mild weather expected today is a wonderful thing for the last week of October.  So much so that I didn't put any wood in the stove yesterday or today. Partly because none was needed and also because I need to empty the ashes so it's great timing on Mother Nature's part.

The equipment has arrived for the playground and is wrapped in tarps and located at the back of the park. We need 150 tons of pea gravel, and last night Brenda and I went up to the park on our way home from class, to watch 33 tons being dropped off  a huge dump truck.  One more load will apparently do it.
We hope the weather cooperates on Saturday as right now they are calling for rain, but hopefully it will change by that.

We had our pastry class last night and it went well.  We did three recipes - the one on the tenderflake lard package, the one on the fluffo shortening package and another one that was so far untried.

The third one was very simple and we really liked it. We baked a piece of each one separately on a baking sheet so we could try them all.  The recipe went like this:

5 cups cake and pastry flour
1 lb lard
1 can of 7 up

Cut the lard into the flour.
Add the 7 up and mix. Refrigerate for one hour.

We didn't have time to refrigerate it for an hour but we did put it into the freezer for a little while. It was quite wet when we put it in and it was a bit better but we did add a little more flour to it and it was fine. It was quite flakey and it also browned faster than the others. I am going to give it another try here at home.
We made a vegetarian quiche and butter tarts. Everyone loved the quiche and the tarts were also very well received. We had leftovers and everyone had something to take home. 

I'm really enjoying the class and I think the students are also getting something from it but I will also be glad when it's done - Tuesdays are such a rush. Hopefully the weather continues to cooperate until the end on November 30th.  I'm also very appreciative of Brenda's help. With such a short period of time available to us, it's great to have another person to help out.