Father's Day

 Yesterday was Father's Day and it reminds me to look at old photos of my dad who passed away in 2000.

Dad was a funny guy, a good writer who had a fantastic sense of humour and saw the ridiculous in things. I guess that's where I get that from. (He was a worrier too and I know I got that from him as well!)

And he was an animal lover and always had conversations with each of the cats. Here he is with Cinnamon. I miss my dad every day but I feel so blessed having had him around for as long as I did.

Mug Cake

I saw this package at the grocery store and I couldn't resist. A mug cake? Cake in 5 minutes? I had to give it a try.

 First you butter a mug. The package comes with two packets inside so you can make two mug cakes.

 Then you dump in one of the packets.

 Next you pour in a measure of milk...

 ...and stir like crazy.

 And then you microwave it for a couple of minutes.

Not exactly the best chocolate cake in the world, but it was warm (we let it cool a bit after cooking) and moist and not bad. Nice to sample but I don't think I'd want to try it again.

Flowering Time

 June is such a lovely month and especially lovely because of all the flowers.

 I have wonderful irises running along an old wooden fence.

 They have such wonderful colours and I love their shape.

 My crazy lupins. Every year they take over more and more of my lawn.

It's hard to believe this patch started with just two packages of lupin seeds I bought in Oregon about 10 years ago.

And then there are my salmon pink poppies, this year blooming on my birthday. Ten glorious blossoms, all opened in unison and now 10 more to follow.

 I love this time of year when the sun shines and the flowers blossom. Ahhhhh!

100 Things To Eat Before You Die #12

I love olives of all kinds, black and green. I love olives stuffed with pimentos or garlic or almonds or even blue cheese. But these olives, stuffed with anchovies are the bomb. They are especially lovely paired with hard cooked eggs.

Knox Fine Dining

For my birthday, Richard and I headed to Knox Fine Dining, a restaurant in Moose Creek, Ontario, about a 15 minute drive from home.

 It's housed in an old Knox church, hence the name.

 The interior still has some its original stained glass windows. Cool.

 Kinda looks like I have a halo over my head, eh? Nah. I was just pondering good food.

 So was Richard. He and I sat on the old church pews, deciding what to eat.

While we waited for our food, we enjoyed our wine with a warm loaf of bread and green olive tapenade.

For appetizers, I had the scallops and shrimp in a chipotle-maple glaze. Wowza. Hot and sweet at the same time.

 Richard had the duck quesadilla with guacamole and fresh salsa.

For mains, Richard chose the chicken entree, stuffed with sundried tomatoes and Oka cheese on a bed of gnocchi and mixed veggies.

 I had the braised lamb shank, in a garlic, tomato, basil sauce on a bed of quinoa and veggies.

For dessert, Richard had the fruit creme brulee.

For dessert, I had a float! Maple ice cream sitting on cold coffee with maple syrup at the bottom. Oh my!

We were stuffed to the gills and loved every second of it. Can't wait to go back and try other things on the menu! It was a very happy birthday!

That Dam Cake!

My friend Michelle's father is 90 years young this week! In his younger days, he was a concrete specialist --the first dam he worked on was on the northern section of the Ottawa River, the Des Joachims Dam also known as Swisha Dam in the late 1940s. As Michelle said, "Those bridges, dams, tunnels, highways -- in Canada, Algeria, Sri Lanka, India, China -- were and still are his passion." I hope he liked this dam cake!


The reviews are in. Here's the report I got this a.m. from Michelle and the birthday party. "Hey Ronna - "Who made the Dam cake!!???" - that was the big question last night. Dad really enjoyed it. And just before 'busting the dam' - he recounted a story of how the first water entering the spillway of that particular dam created a huge deep hole - and at this juncture he was using the tip of the knife to dig through the 'water' to demonstrate for us how wide and deep the hole was... It was great. Thanks very much!"
 

Outdoor Bouquet

I have so many lupins and decided to make a large bouquet of them and enjoy it on my front walkway. Why not?

Weird or What?

 Over the weekend, Richard and I headed to L'Orignal to the old jail.

It's no longer a working prison, but a museum. And guess what? They were hosting an art show.

 And not just any art show! A show of old masters.

 Old masters in a jail? Couldn't be.

But indeed it was. Students in a local art class were asked to copy a fine work of art for the show.

Who needs to go to Europe? The Musee d'Orsay? Nah. The Louvre? Uh uh.

 And here's our intrepid reporter, posing with/as the Mona Lisa. Love the reflection.

While out back in the exercise yard, the gallows are still hanging around, perhaps waiting for someone who gives them a bad review. I loved the show, right?

Safety First

Two of my three cats, Oreo and Cookie, are pretty adventuresome and really want to be in the great outdoors. Unfortunately, it's just too wild around here with fishers and other critters. Plus I live pretty close to a very busy road.

So safety first and the sisters spend their day in the cat run, which is about 6 ft. high by 5 feet wide by 10-12 feet long. There are wooden boxes to play in, and greenery to eat. They really like it out there. And I have peace of mind.

Drying Fondant Butterflies

I cut out butterflies from rolled fondant and decorated them with food colouring and then wanted them to dry as if they were flying. Problem was it was hot and humid out and there was no way those butterflies would dry.

I decided that since the back sides of the butterflies were against waxed paper, they would never dry so I needed to come up with something to let the air pass through the fondant. I found a piece of hardware cloth or weasel wire.

It's basically heavy gauged wire, almost like a giant screen but heavier. It holds its shape if you bend it, so I bent it into a "v".

 Then I placed the butterflies onto it.

Even with this drying technique, the fondant butterflies stayed somewhat moist and never hardened completely. (Apparently they tasted pretty good!)

Still, they worked very well on the cake and had a three dimensional quality to them.

Buzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sam, who collected my wild bee swarm last year (click here to see them!), was back again this year but this time he put a bait hive up on a tree in the backyard.

It didn't take long for another bunch of bees to jump right in and get a gang together. Sam is coming tonight to collect them and take care of them. Well done Sam! Hope they make lots of honey for you.