I do mean fog…
It’s like somebody turned off the CGI rendering of the background (cove, boats, rest of island…).
Or, here’s a different perspective of Flaggs Cove, Grand Manan, not in fog:
The fog can also play tricks — fading here, and thickening there. Here, you see a glimpse of Castalia.
But, here it’s all equally fuzzy:
Here’s a fine example of something that should be seen, and not heard:
These pheasants make a noise that sounds something like a car starter being turned after the car is already running.
This guy & his missus have taken over our property, strutting about in full ownership mode.
They might be even better tasted than seen, but that’s not a direction I’m planning to pursue.
988 miles, blue carrier, pink blankie…
Window!
No, really — quite happy:
I’m sensitive to the mutterings I’ve been hearing lately — that for “knitbot”, there sure isn’t much knitting content on this blog. Well, this post is not going to change that situation!
If you happen to find yourself considering making Bon Appetit’s Devil’s Food Layer Cake with Pepperming Frosting, there are a couple of things you should know.
First, if you have a stand mixer with a paddle blade, get yourself one of these silicone self-wiping paddle attachments:
This is a SideSwipe. It seriously removes the need to be constantly scraping down the mixing bowl as you work — which more or less improves the effectiveness by (subjectively) 50%. I fell in love with my KitchenAid all over again…
Second, when they say 2 nine-inch cake pans, 2″ deep. They mean minimum 2″ deep. Otherwise:
Not only is that a “switch oven to self clean mode, do not pass Go, do not collect $200” situation, it is not possible to salvage the cakes in the pans, even if cooked — because they are too delicate to extract from the pan:
Well, those cakes wound up in the freezer, no doubt to reappear for some future dessert (chocolate cake trifle, anyone?).
And, the third thing you should know is that the resulting cake (once you’ve given in and recognized you don’t have 9″x2″ cake tins, and bake the cake batter in 3 9″x1.25″ tins) is really, really tall:
(Yes, I can count. The middle cake is split in two, to make 2 layers of four).
Personally, I thought that height was out of control. Moreover, I could not fathom how I would cut and serve it without making a toppled mess. So, I quickly did a re-distribution:
Worked out okay — though, not surprisingly, there wasn’t quite enough frosting to cover the top of the second cake:
And, you should consider making the cake — because it is very very tasty. Decadently rich, of course, but certainly worth the effort of making the cakes from scratch (yes, much better than box cakes, even if you have to make them twice 🙁 ), the bittersweet chocolate ganache, the white chocolate filling, and the peppermint boiled icing…
When is a (meeting) table not a table?
When it is a Rube Goldberg implementation of a table:
Yes, those are vise grips and hinges you see under there.
And it all looked so innocent with the table clothes!
For Christmas, I received one of these:
It’s an Emile
Henry Flame Top Tagine. Tagine is a North
African pot for producing slow-cooked delicacies, such as one might
experience in Morocco. “Flame top” is Emile Henry’s special
material — a clay vessel that works on the cooktop, in the oven, in
the fridge etc. Deeee-lightful.
Oh, and it is perfect tableware, too — bring this to the table!
“This” is the salmon
tagine I made tonight. It was perfectly cooked, and very
flavourful. I regretted I could not get preserved lemons in time
— I have resolved to preserve some myself for a future effort.
We share an office here, so the rule is that someone who has a
teleconference has to wander off to some other part of the house to
have it. It’s not all bad — the views are pleasant, and watching
the waves (“~~~~~”) is fun:
Sometimes, there are added distractions — the teleconferencee is not
necessarily the only one getting harried:
In particular, in this case, there’s a bald eagle being pursued by
crows (ravens?):
(Photo by CMS)
I perhaps didn’t catch all the
detail on that particular teleconf…
It started innocently enough, with the duck
thing, and slid right along with the roast turkey
challenge.
Then there was the choux done
proper-like:
to accompany the rock cornish hens (stand ins for perdrix this year):
(There is cabbage in there, between the hen-halves & the toast
points: trust me!).
Finally, for good measure, some coq
au vin to round things out. This was done a
la Alton Brown (Good Eats). I had to hold it over a day, so I
brought the components out of the fridge:
and mixed them together, to heat:
Mmm! Purple chicken! Doesn’t get much better than that 😉
. Really, the chicken is cooked in that picture; the 2 bottles of
Pinot Noir (Trapiche) had something to say about the colour, though.
Heated up and served, it was perhaps more appealing:
And, that’s that!
What? What other thing? Oh, that.
A little spot of Doris Greenspan’s “Dressy
Chocolate Loaf Cake” never went amiss.
Best wishes, from Grand Manan.
(Stanley Beach; -12C (-23C with windchill)).
