Rainy Days and Sundays – Weekend Recap

Settle in for a long one folks.

Out and About on Saturday Morning

We woke up to a rainy Saturday. Time for a quick breakfast before heading out.

Dreary mornings = lack of natural light for photos, unfortunately.

I had an appointment at 10:30 to get my hair cut. Then I did some shopping.

Among other things…

Shoes!

Or boots I suppose. They both feed the same addiction.

I also went to Bulk Barn in search of unprocessed cocoa, and while I was there I found Organic Red Quinoa. I had to laugh at the things I get excited about – Red Quinoa! Cool! I am also out of regular Quinoa, so I picked up some of both.

I finished my shopping and got home around 2 pm starving. I was very happy to see that Husband had not eaten the pasta leftover from Thursday night. It went straight into a pot on the stove while I put away groceries.

Then it went into a bowl and got topped with cheese.

 

Then it went into my tummy!

Then after some cleaning up in the kitchen I started baking.

Adventures in Baking, Part 1

Don’t ask me why, but I decided I wanted to try making Red Velvet Cupcakes for a Halloween party next weekend. On top of that I found a recipe that said the original/authentic way to make them red is to use unprocessed cocoa powder (though most of the recipes I looked at do use red food coloring). I did some research and there are some brands available but none that were available at my grocery store – of course.

So I went to Bulk Barn thinking maybe they would have some. They had two kinds – one labelled as alkalized (which is Dutch Processed like most of the cocoa on the market) and the other was labelled “pure cocoa powder, no additives” so I thought maybe that would be the right stuff.

Since this was a test run and I didn’t want too many cupcakes around the house, I halved the recipe. The recipe came together with no problems, but not red so I guess I will have to resort to food coloring.

Once I cleaned up from baking we made a Shrimp Stir-Fry for supper.

There are rice noodles under there, but it’s mostly veggies.  :)

Adventures in Baking, Part 2

After supper I started on experiment #2 – Boiled Icing for the cupcakes which was apparently the traditional icing for Red Velvet Cake, though now Cream Cheese frosting is used more often. Husband won’t eat cream cheese, so I decided to give the Boiled Icing a try.

Again, I halved it. Unfortunately I didn’t have the candy thermometer sitting in the pot properly while cooking the sugar and water and I burned it. So I threw together a quick buttercream instead. Two cupcakes disappeared before I’d even finished frosting them, so I don’t think I need to worry about them getting eaten.

I had to taste test of course.

 

I ended up eating two, with a cup of Chai. But I can’t honestly say I was blown away by this recipe. To me they don’t have much flavour, so I will probably look at a few more recipes.

Sunday Morning

This morning I slept in until around 9 am. Breakfast looks familiar…

I had some relaxation time on the couch with my coffee and PVR, then my Mom called and we had a chat. By this time, the sun had come out and it was looking beautiful outside, so I decided I should seize the sunny day to get out and do some garden cleanup.

When I got off the phone, I hit the treadmill for an interval session, then had some

Bolthouse Mocha Cappuccino.

I was thinking I should probably eat something else, but by the time I had a shower, got dressed, threw in some laundry, I forgot. Oops.

I took Frankie for a little stroll.

Then I went out to start tidying the garden away for the winter.

I went through pulling out plant supports and dead plants.

I had 4 planters to empty. Last year I hauled all the dirt, bit by bit, all the way around the cat fence and dumped it in the empty lot next to us. It was a lot of trips carrying heavy loads and I only had 2 planters. This year I decided to dump the dirt on my garden, after I had pulled out all the plants.

I found 3 carrots that I missed the first time around.

Of course I had company.

I am amazed by the size of this catnip plant.

I don’t know how well you can see this, but you can see where the cats have chewed leaves and stems off the plant.

A short time later, I looked over and saw Zappa in the catnip.

I got my containers emptied…

Then I took my tired self inside. It was really warm – I was wearing a t-shirt, no sweater or jacket while I was working outside. When I came in I was really warm and Husband was walking around in shorts. Not complaining though – very happy to have a nice day!

For supper, we tried a recipe for Savoury Corn Cakes with Chipotle cream.

Since I forgot lunch I was pretty hungry by this point, so I had a snack while I was cooking.

We also cooked a Chipotle Pork Tenderloin, and I had some red bell pepper strips on the side.

The corn cakes were good, and not hard to make, I would definitely make them again (any excuse to eat pancakes really).

And dessert. Times 2.

While watching the show.

Now I am feeling all worn out. Still some laundry to finish up, but I’m just about ready to call it a night.