Monday, February 17th - Happy Islander/Family/whatever your province is calling it - day!

It's currently a relatively clear, fairly calm morning at -10'. Such was not the case yesterday. It snowed overnight (more on that later) and the winds were starting to pick up but by morning it wasn't a bad day. It had stopped snowing and everyone was going about their business of clearing up from the night before. Neighbour Frank came over with his tractor and blew out the snow for us and the patio was shoveled off and it was all good. Then I happened to check email and there was one notification advising that if you lived anywhere west of Charlottetown to please stay off the roads. There was another notification that the bridge was closed - completely - to all traffic - not something that happens very often. But wait for it - sure enough a little while later, it arrived here. It wasn't so much the snow as the wind - pretty much hurricane strength I'm guessing, and it kept up pretty much all day. I heard this morning that the winds in the straights were up to 140 km per hour! Finally after supper, I had some fresh bread that needed to be taken out to the freezer in the garage, so Lloyd went out but it had settled down quite a bit. It was a 'stay indoors and watch TV' kind of day for sure.

On Saturday evening there was a benefit in town at the legion for our neighbour, Robert. It didn't start until 9:00 so we went down the road to the golf course to have some supper. Lloyd's back had been bothering him all day. He wasn't so bad if he kept moving around a bit, but once he sat down, it was a struggle to get back up again. Finally he made the decision to stay home, so it was just me and Brenda to go to the event.

 I had spent the better part of the day baking for the cake auction. I made a layer cake, some cupcakes and for the first time, I tried some cake pops. Now that was an interesting experience. I've seen several TV programs where they were making these things and located several recipes and they were all the same:

1) Bake a cake and let it cool

2) Thoroughly crumble the cake until it's just that - a bowl full of crumbs
3) Add some icing
4) Mix thoroughly until you get a  mixture that holds together when squeezed in your hand
5) Take small amounts and roll into a ball
6) Insert a stick and chill for at least 3 hours
7) Dip in melted chocolate

I baked a white cake, then added some orange icing and some freshly grated orange zest. After I dipped them in chocolate, I added some decor with melted orange 'chocolate' wafers.  They turned out okay for those who really relish the orange and chocolate combination - two people come to mind.

The second thing I baked were some chocolate cupcakes. I also wanted to try making some 'faces' to put on them. Again it was something I came across on line and since I just happened to have some chocolate fondant as well as some bits of other colours left from previous projects, I  set about making puppies. Once I figured one out, it was easy to just cut out and assemble 11 more. I had found a great display box at the bulk barn which prompted the  making of cupcakes in the first place.




The third thing I made was supposed to be a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. I wasn't pleased with the layers as they didn't rise as much as I would have liked, so I made a white cake and when I assembled my layer cake I put a white layer in between the two red velvet layers. Then I had to change the
name to a "Red and White Velvet Cake". It's true what they say - necessity IS the mother of invention. It turned out not so bad either. 


When I was almost done, Brenda dropped by for a cup of tea. Bless her little heart and her fabulous timing. My kitchen was a huge mess, with dishes everywhere because my plan was to completely finish everything and then clean up. So, she set about washing dishes and we were done in no time. So a big thanks to Brenda for her help in the cake process. Dish washers are so highly underrated!

So after packing everything up and putting into the car I headed off to pick up Brenda and we made our way to the Legion. There was a silent auction in a room on the main floor and then a dance upstairs in the main hall. The place was packed with people - testament to  the number of people that Robert has had an impact on. It's amazing to see the way islanders pull together to help one of their own who needs it. I think I saw just about every person I've ever met on the island there. Not quite, but a large number of them. Because of the numbers of people, there was really no where to put the cakes on display so people had to bid on them pretty much sight unseen.

It does pay to have friends - Brenda bought both the layer cake and the cake pops and our friend Raymond bought the cupcakes, but he had no idea what he was buying. As Brenda said, if she didn't buy something the money was just going into the donation box anyway so she might as well get something for her money. Needless to say they are set for sweets for a little while. She sent me this photo of Bernie drooling over his choices:
I'm pleased to have been a part of it and I know the evening was a huge success.The most successful part of the evening was the drive home. It had started snowing and was getting quite windy by the time we left. We just took our time and made it home safely. Fortunately for me, when I was at Brenda's dropping her off, our next door neighbours passed by on their way home from the benefit. As I was driving down our road, I caught up with them so they broke the trail for me.