Amazing Sunday Meal

 On Sunday we were invited to a meal along with 20 or so other folks.

 Grilled asparagus and homemade chocolate and red pepper bread.

 Squash soup made with last summer's squash.

 Warm baby spinach with feta.

 Arctic char flown in from Iqaluit, cooked on the wood cookstove.

 Roasted potatoes...

 Check out that char!

 Roasted colour carrots.

 Setting up the plates before send off...

The final plate. Gorgeous.

 Richard and Alissia in a deep conversation.

Great conversation and of course, a cat was on my lap. Now how'd that happen?

Happy St. Valentine's Day

Every year I make a valentine for Richard that I frame. Here's this year's offering. Meow!

Buttercream Roses

 Over the years, I've made hundreds upon hundreds of buttercream roses. They look so nice and they taste great too!

I was making some roses for an upcoming project when I came upon a giant rose tip I bought last year and had totally forgotten about. So...I made two huge cabbage rose-topped cupcakes for Valentine's Day. Kinda cute, eh?

Woodsy Weekend

 The weather was perfect this weekend and so we spent most of it outside in the woods.

 We wore our snowshoes and so did this rabbit!

 I found some dead trees for Richard to cut and he got at it. This one he dropped right beside the newly installed picnic table...

 ...but, as Richard pointed out, he neglected to account for one 

big branch that knocked it over.

With the next tree, he dropped it dead centre onto a pair of stacked, plastic chairs that were supposed to be our picnic chairs. Oh well, I'm now in the market 

for a few butt-sized stumps!

Cactus and Gecko cake

 I made this cake for friends Gordon and Natalie who share January birthdays. I especially wanted to immortalize Kartini, the gecko, who passed away at the ripe age of 19. We had intended to celebrate her birthday with great fanfare, but sadly it never came to be.

I decided instead to recreated this little creature out of fondant. 

Here's the real critter in Gordon's hands, a photo I downloaded from Nat's blog.

 At any rate, they kept the sugar gecko and we dug into the red velvet cactus.

When I walked out with the cake, Nat thought I was giving her a cactus as a gift! 

What fun. 

Happy birthday you two!

Cold Day, Soup's ON!

It was darn cold today! A high of -20C with -30C over night. Time to dig around in the freezer and cook up my garden's squash from last summer. Ahhh summer. Ginger-apple-squash soup is pretty perfect at this time of year! The fruits of my labour.

Out With the Old...

 My late father's picnic table finally gave up the ghost. It's been out in the bush for about 20 years and the site of our annual winter picnic for the past five or so years...

The new and improved version is part of a double cedar wall behind the house, that was discovered this past year when my gas range was installed. I figured it would be a perfect, rustic tabletop for a new picnic table. Richard cut down two dead trees as the supports and voila! Chairs will be old plastic outdoor garden chairs that my late mother bought eons ago.
I'll post pix when it warms up a tad and we can have a picnic out in the woods.

Jack's Back Home

 In 2004, Jack and his little sister Jill showed up at my place. Luckily my friends in Montreal adopted them. Sadly, Jill died a few years back but Jack comes back to stay with me for a few weeks every Christmas when his parents vacation down south.

 Jack always had the run of the house with the three girl cats pretty much leaving him alone. But autumn's new addition of Matzo Man made me nervous.
Interestingly enough, they got along pretty well.

Jack mostly stuck to his bedroom but kept opening the door to make sure he could see what was going on in the house. And when guests stayed in the bedroom next door, Jack not only opened his door, he pushed open their door too and hopped into bed with them. See ya next year Jack. Always a pleasure.

Deer beds

 Walking in the woods we can upon a series of deer beds under the cedars.
You could see the outline of the deer's body where the snow melted around him.

 I decided to get into it and see what the view was like.

And when I looked down I saw a bit of deer fur that froze into the snow.
Sleep well my furry friends.

Birdie cupcakes

I love making cupcakes for a bird lover. Particularly when it's -27C outside and these lemony goodies remind me of spring!

Yule Stump cake

Instead of a buche noel or yule log cake, this Christmas I made a stump noel or yule stump. Three-tiered lemon cake with lemon curd filling covered in 

chocolate icing with meringue mushrooms. Merry Christmas!

Winter Solstice 2013

Our friends down the road hosted a winter solstice party to welcome back the sun. It had been rescheduled from Dec. 21 because we got a big snowstorm. Luckily for us, we didn't get very much freezing rain, like they did west and north of us, but instead over 2 days we got 40 cm of snow. Lucky? I guess...

 One of the traditions at Winter Solstice is to have a bonfire and, if you like, you can burn something you want to get rid of in your life. 

On our way to the fire there was a snow dog.

 I didn't really have anything to burn this year but it was fun to have a glass of wine in the great outdoors and keep warm by the fire. 

It was fairly "balmy" out with a temperature of -8C.

Looking back at the house, I love the way the light reflected on the trees in the backyard. Here's wishing all my bloggy friends and readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and hoping you don't have anything to burn at winter solstice 2014!

Gingerbread cookie time

 Love making gingerbread cookies when the snow's flying.

Classic gingerbread men and women are the best!

Hockey cake

 My friend Sean loves the Toronto Maple Leafs and since it was his birthday, what a perfect time for a hockey cake.

He's also the sports editor at The Glengarry News (I work there too) so the cake was perfect for him I think.