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Sunday, October 25, 2009

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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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I had to taste test of course.

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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…

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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Of course I had company.

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I am amazed by the size of this catnip plant.

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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.

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

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I got my containers emptied…

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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.

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

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

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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.

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While watching the show.

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

7 comments:

Sagan said...

Boots, Bulk Barn, baking... that's my kind of weekend.

Blog said...

Wow! So many of my favourite things: peanut butter, quinoa - love to mix the red and yellow - and KITTIES!!! Adorable! :)

Joanna@BooneDocksWilcox said...

can't ya fix cream-cheese frosting and call it vanilla frosting to husband? :-)

JavaChick said...

Sagan - It was a pretty good weekend, I gotta say.

Haley - Glad you enjoyed!

Joanna - Husband can tell. I once made this Cookies & Cream Brownie dessert thing and the "cream" had cream cheese and ground up oreo cookies. I figured there were enough things in there, he might not notice the cream cheese...But he did.

Shhh said...

Would it change compeletly to use beet juice instead of water in the recipe? Would that make it red without having to add food colouring?

JavaChick said...

Shhh - Beet juice would work if I had it. Which I don't. Because I don't like beets. But I imagine beet juice would create a lovely color.

Jackie said...

Love the boots! Your kids are too cute. I can't get mine to walk on a leash at all. They just won't move.