Wednesday, November 9th - a brief trip to Thailand.

Conditions at 5:30 am: 3' and a few clouds, heading for a high of 10' and a mix of sun and cloud

After a much calmer day at work, I was happy to share my time with our community school students. They are such a great bunch of girls that it's truly a fun way to spend the evening. This week we attemped Thai food.
The recipes we used are as follows:

Gai Tom Ka
(Thai Coconut, Ginger and Chicken Soup)
Everyone loves this unique and flavorful soup. Next to Pad Thai, it’s the most popular menu item in Thai restaurants. For this Canadian version, we’ve used grated lime rind for kaffir lime leaves, grated lemon rind for lemongrass and fresh ginger root for galangal. However, don’t substitute soy sauce for the fish sauce. This version is quite hot. For a milder soup, use less red pepper flakes.
• 1 2/3 cups unsweetened coconut milk (1 can / 398 ml)

• 1 cup chicken stock

• Grated rind from 1 medium lime OR 2 kaffir leaves, torn into pieces, discarding stems

• Grated rind from half medium lemon OR1 stalk lemongrass, lower 1/3 only, sliced diagonally into 1 inch/2 cm pieces

• 1 tbsp grated gingerroot

• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes OR ground chili paste OR 1 small hot red pepper, chopped

• 4 oz boneless skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced and cut into 1 inch lengths

• 1 cup straw. oyster or regular mushrooms, sliced or halved

• ¼ of a sweet red pepper, cut in thin strips

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

• 1 tbsp fresh lime juice, or to taste
1. In saucepan over medium heat, simmer (don’t boil) coconut milk, stock, lime and lemon rinds, ginger and red pepper flakes for 5 minutes.
2. Add chicken, mushrooms, and red pepper; cook stirring often, until chicken is no longer pink inside, about 5 minutes. Stir in fish sauce, coriander and lime juice to taste. Makes 4 servings, about ¾ cup each
Taken from Anne Lindsay’s ‘New Light Cooking’


Pad Thai

In Thailand this noodle dish is eaten at any time or in any place – from restaurants to street stalls. Each cook adds a personal touch. This version is lower in fat and uses easily available ingredients
• 8 oz medium-wide rice noodles

• 3 tbsp fish sauce

• 2 tbsp rice vinegar or cider vinegar

• 2 tbsp granulated sugar

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

• 2 eggs lightly beaten

• 3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes

• 8 oz large shrimp, peeled and deveined

• 4 oz tofu, sliced in thin strips

• 3 cups bean sprouts

• 6 green onions, chopped

• ½ cup coarsely chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

• ¼ cup chopped unsalted peanuts

• 1 lime, cut in wedges
1. Soak noodles in hot water for 20 minutes, drain.
2. In small bowl, mix together fish sauce, rice vinegar and sugar: set aside.
3. In large non-stick wok or skillet, heat 1 tsp of the oil over medium-high heat; cook eggs, stirring, until scrambled. Cut into strips; transfer to side dish.
4. Wipe out pan. Add remaining oil. Stir-fry garlic, red pepper flakes and shrimp for 2 minutes. Add tofu; stir fry for 1 minute or until shrimp are pink and opaque.
5. Add noodles and ½ cup water; cook, stirring for 2 or 3 minutes or until noodles are tender. Stir in fish sauce mixture, bean sprouts and half of the onions; toss to mix well. Transfer to serving dish. Top with eggs, remaining onions, coriander and peanuts. Garnish with lime.

Makes 4 servings
Taken from Anne Lindsay’s ‘New Light Cooking’

In addition to these two recipes, we also attemped soft spring rolls. While they were a bit of a challenge they turned out quite well.Everyone had a different opinion of what they liked best but they were all a success.It's hard to believe there's only two classes left. Next week they want to learn to make Lebanese food. I've never done it but I'm willing to give it a shot. I've got some homework to do!

Tuesday, November 8 - What a great show

Conditions at 5:15 am:  clear bright sky with lots of stars and 8', heading for an expected high of 12' and sunny!

Well yesterday proved to be quite a challenge. First off, I stupidly forgot to re-set the alarm clock. I changed all the clocks on Sunday morning when I got up but totally forgot about the alarm. So when I got up Monday morning, at what I thought was 5:20, I immediately got to work on my blog, made my lunch, etc, etc and then when I thought I had approximately half an hour left to get showered and dressed for work, I noticed on the clock in the kitchen that it was 5:25 - how can that be when I didn't get up until 5:20? Then it dawned on me that I had neglected to change the alarm.So needless to say it was too late for me to go back to sleep as I was now very wide awake. So it was a long day. To add insult to injury, it was the busiest day I've ever seen at Toyota as far as the phone goes. However I'm sure it will be quiet today as I'm almost positive that every person on the island who owns one of our cars, called yesterday so there's no one left to call today! It was insane. We had a few flakes of snow on Saturday and now the whole world has woken up and said to itself - oh my gosh, winter is coming and I need my snow tires put on. So I was really happy to see that part of the day come to an end, as were the folks in service.

After I got home and had a bite to eat, Brenda picked me up and we headed out to the Harmony House theatre in Hunter River. What a lovely venue. It's quite small and intimate and a fabulous little spot. It was once a church and the couple who bought it and revived it, have done an amazing job. We arrived in time to have a glass of wine in the downstairs bar. It's all wood and exposed brick and is very nice. Then back up the stairs with the very unique railings made from bent branches - Richard really needs to see this.

We were in the front row so we were very up close and personal. Too much so as it turns out. At one point Nathan was talking about Stanfest in Canso, N.S. and I whispered to Brenda that it would be a great bike trip but she suggested that the weather is usually really poor that weekend and a car might be more to our liking. Nathan asked if there was something we would like to share with the rest of the crowd. OOOOPS! So we told him we were just making a comment on the weather for that event and he conceded that being surrounded on three sides by water, made it subject to some precipitation. But after that we kept quiet! But it was a great show. He has an amazing voice and if you closed your eyes, you thought for sure you were listening to his father. He's much slimmer, more like his uncle Garnett, but he certainly has the voice. He also kept us entertained by telling little stories in between songs of incidents that would have been related to him throughout the years by people who knew his father. We figure he must have been quite young when his father died.

He doesn't usually sing his father's songs, as he has a music career of his own, but for this tour it was perfect. He really should do it more often, and if this one is any indication, I suspect he may do it more. The crowd loved it and gave him a standing ovation, which I think really pleased him. Hopefully he'll continue and for those who haven't yet had a chance to see this show, you are in for a treat. I think there are a total of 4 shows in this tour and if they are all as successful as this one was, he has something to be very proud of.

Monday, November 7- The cake was a success

Weather at 5:30: 4' and clear skies, heading for a high of 10' and sunny!

If this is November, we'll take it. Saturday was a different story - wet snow and cold. Sunday was sunny and would have been a beautiful day except for the wind that made it much colder. But today will be lovely.
Well, Friday night, I baked the cake part of the project. Then Saturday when I got home, I got into putting it together. I must confess - I did have a bit of assistance. Brenda and Helena came over to supervise. They brought wine and encouragement along with them. It was a great night for me, really nice to have the company. They also washed dishes so that was a bonus as well.

The lemon curd filling was applied

So first step was to split the cake in two layers and fill the inside with the lemon curd. I can't wait to make this for Lloyd, it was SO good. Then it was time to cover with buttercream and put on the fondant. That's the stage I was at then the ladies arrived.

The butter cream went on next and then the fondant

Then I used a tracing wheel from my sewing supplies to put lines on to mark off the squares. A light brushing of pearl dust accented the lines and gave it a nice sheen. Then Brenda and Helena put the silver balls at the intersections of the lines. Meanwhile I worked on the figures. They had begun to sag a bit and while the boy was still usable, the girl really wasn't so I had to re-do that one. Once it was all assembled, we went into the living room with some nacho chips and salsa and watched a couple of programs on TV. When they left I checked the cake again and once more the figures were sagging. I then realized that the weight of the heads was adding to the problem. So I was able to move them off the cake and re-position them so the heads were resting more on the bed and not on the bodies. They weren't perfect but you got the idea. I also made the headboard for the bed, out of chocolate improvising with a mold that I had.

The finished project

Sunday morning I made a little 'book' to rest on the pillows that read "Our bedtime prayer - God bless Mommy and Daddy and the nice people who built our new playground" We completed the project with a little teddy bear lying on the pillows as well.

Sunday morning Brenda came over after church and helped me get it wrapped in basket wrap. Then we re-convened at the hall a little after lunch. No one could remember everything about last year so we had to reinvent some of our procedures. But we had a bigger kitchen and more stoves to work on this year so it was much better. Again the spaghetti supper was a success and there were lots of cakes for the cake auction. Most of the cakes sold for between $20 and $30  so I was thrilled that mine sold for $100. In the end it was Bernie who bought it after outbidding Dave Wakelin, but Bernie had a secret up his sleeve - he had a bidder on the phone who was going to pay for the cake. There was some sort of collusion going on but we won't question! In the end it was a very successful day and quite a bit of fun.

Friday, November 4th - Step one of my cake is finished

  

 

Conditions at 6:00 am: a rainy 6', heading for a rainy high of 7' but we'll be back into the sunshine and double digits again next week

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday contemplating the design of my cake for the cake auction. Since it is a fundraiser for the playground, I thought I might incorporate that into it. It was meant to be a surprise but in reality there are only two people who read this who will be there so it's not like I'm letting out a big secret!
I wanted to use some of the fondant we had left over from Tuesday's class. I had decided to make a rectangular cake and cover it with the fondant and decorate it a bit. I can usually come up with a better idea but it generally takes me a  while. So I've decided to turn the rectangle into a large bed, with the fondant being the bedspread. I'll make a headboard out of white chocolate and two children made out of fondant, kneeling beside the bed saying their prayers - my theme? "Thank you for the playground" - think it will work? I hope so. If nothing else it will spark some conversation.
So, last night when I got home, I formed the figures of the praying children out of fondant. I've never actually done this before but I've watched them do it on TV many, many times. How difficult can it be? Well, it turns out you need some artistic talant at sculpting, which I don't really have, but I think they turned out not too badly. They need a couple of days to dry out a bit as the fondant doesn't dry out as the gum paste does but I think they'll work. I positioned them along side an overturned cake pan so they are in the right position for putting beside the cake. What do you think of step one?

I'm pretty pleased with my first effort even though they aren't quite perfect. Hopefully the rest of the cake will make up for it. Stay tuned for more photos upon completion!

I got a call from Patti and some pretty excited children yesterday. Last week she got a new car, a Dodge Journey. It seems they had the blue tooth installed yesterday and they were trying it out. Now when they're in the car, all they have to do is say "Call Grandma" and it automatically dials my number. How much fun is that? I wonder how sensitive it is? I suspect you may have to activate something or every time one of the kids asks "Can we call Grandma" will it automatically call?  Gotta love technology.
And speaking of technology I finally got my new answering machine sorted out. I'm not sure why, but the pre-programmed message it came with was a man speaking in French. I'm sure that might have been a little confusing for people calling the Denny residence. But I finally got it figured out. I had some difficulty with it as when I followed the instruction it would come up with a message saying "Not available at this time" so I wasn't able to change it, but apparently it worked itself out because I was eventually able to change it.

Well, that's it for now - a pretty quiet news day. I'm off to work. Don't forget to turn your clocks back this weekend!

Thursday, November 3 - yesterday was 'Take your kid to work day'

Conditions at 5:30: clear starry skies and 5', heading for a mix of sun and cloud and 12' !!!

I've never been involved in take your kid to work day as it didn't start until my kid was working at her own job! Wednesday was take your kid to work day so one of the owners brought in his daughter and her friend. Trouble was no one planned in advance so there was nothing for these two girls to do. Not to worry - Sandy will find them something to do. SO they spent the morning sorting work orders and putting them in numerical order. They asked if this was all the orders for the past week and I told them no, it was all the orders for the day before. They were surprised that I had to do this boring sorting job every single day.  It was a bit of  an eye opener for them. I found other sorting and folding type jobs for them to do the rest of the morning then they went for lunch. When I came back from my lunch, they were both working at my desk, answering the phone. Of course they were playing games on the computer and such but they asked if they could stay there a little longer. I told them they could stay there all afternoon if they wanted. So I had a chance to do some filing of my own that I've been trying to get at for a couple of weeks and didn't have to jump every time the phone rang. All in all it was a pretty terrific day for me.

After work, I went over to the grocery store to put in a 4 hour shift there. Needless to say, since Halloween ended, it's now all out Christmas.  The general merchandise isle is filled with decorations, dishes, all sorts of Christmas goodies. It's probably a good thing I don't work in that department - I'd end up owing them money at the end of each week instead of the other way around, especially when things go on sale.

I got home around 10:30 and checked my messages on my phone and there was nothing too urgent. Then about one minute later, there was a new one from my friend in Fergus telling us all that our friend Kelli, who did a cake on a TV show called Cake Walk was on 'right now'. I must have missed the email telling me when and where to find it but I turned on the TV and was able to locate it.  I only caught the last 20 minutes of it but I saw that it's re-broadcast again at 1:00 am so I've taped it to watch later. I did find it interesting that one of the judges was the owner of Lot 30, a prominent restaurant here in PEI. What a small world.

Speaking of cakes, there will be a cake auction at the rec centre spaghetti supper on Sunday and I've got my cake all planned. Hopefully it will be something people will want to bid on. It's going to be a bit out of the ordinary (I hope).

Wednesday, November 1st - It was messy but fun

Conditions at 6:00 am: a clear and frosty 2' but headed for a high of 9' and a mix of sun and cloud

Well, what a hoot our cake decorating class was. It was extremely messy but so much fun. It was one of those classes that we could have held a full day on. There's so much I wanted to share with the girls but we were very limited by time. Because we were only getting cake (and lots of icing) to eat, we decided to break for lunch at 8:45 so we lost a tiny bit of time there. But it was a great night and we had some pretty impressive results, especially for those who had never done this before. I'm really hopeful that they may tackle something like this on their own. I provided the recipe for the buttercream icing and they all agreed that it did indeed taste better than the stuff out of a can. I think we're making progress. (One of the girls had to make a batch of grape jam at home because her kids liked it so much, after we made some a couple of weeks ago.) That's impressive. I'm so proud of each and every one of them.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves about this weeks adventure.

And there we have it ......................

Tuesday, November 1 - It was a quiet Halloween at the Denny's

 

Today's weather: it's a clear 2' at 5:30 am but heading for some sun and 8' later today

This was the first year since I've been here that I've actually been home on Halloween. I didn't really expect I'd get any kids and sure enough, I didn't. But I did buy a box of bags of chips just in case. Better to be safe than sorry.

The whole crew

Patti sent me some photos of the kids and their Halloween costumes and festivities. It looks like a great time was had by all!


I spent the evening making icing and then packing everything up for our cake decorating class tonight. It should be interesting. If nothing else it will be messy, so I've packed enough aprons for everyone.


I was also able to pick up a bucket of rolled fondant at the bulk barn. I didn't know they sold it until one day last week I was in there at lunch and saw it.

Meghan and her jack-o-lantern

I'll be sure to take my camera tonight as it might be a good night to get some interesting photos

Tristen and his-I don't know what. - maybe he can call and fill me in

We have a cake for each one to decorate and take home and then I'll do one in fondant so they can see how it works and how easy it really is to put on. Then we can share that cake so they can have a taste. It's one of those things you either like or don't like, but it does make a nice looking cake.

I also recently discovered that my answering machine doesn't work any more. So I picked up a new one on Friday and finally got around to hooking it up last night. Of course the phone has to charge for 16 hours so I haven't yet been able to program the message but it does come with a pre-programmed one so at least it has something. It's a phone and answering machine all in one so I moved the old phone out to the kitchen. It's actually kind of nice having a phone on the kitchen now because sometimes when I'm busy in the kitchen, I MAY have the stereo on a tad loud and occasionally I would miss a call because I didn't hear the phone. That problem should now be solved.