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.

Sleeping and Peeking

I put together two old footstools of varying height to serve as a sort of mini-staircase for Nutmeg who has been having trouble climbing into bed lately. Today I noticed that she's also using them as a perfect spot to catch a few rays.

 Meanwhile, outside the bedroom window I noticed an eye peeking out at me.

A baby red squirrel was playing and eating in the cedars. The cats were interested him for a few moments but soon after, retired for a nap.

Howdy Neighbours

Our tiny town of Dunvegan had a "Come Meet Your Neighbours" event over the weekend. And they asked me to make a cake for the occasion. 

I managed to incorporate the Dunvegan Recreation Association logo plus a few fondant butterflies and ladybugs and buttercream roses and grass.

Here's the executive committee posing with the cake.

I was happy to see the nice tall chocolate swirl in the vanilla cake. The cake didn't last too long!

Summer Position

In the cool weather, Nutmeg usually burrows in near my hip. Or sits right on my hip. Now that the warmer weather has arrived, she shares my pillow with me. 

She's a good little sleeper too and rarely wakes me. A real cat napper who almost always stays on her side of the pillow!

In the Middle of the Night

The phone rang for Richard in the middle of the night, or at least 11:30 p.m. which seemed almost like the middle of the night, saying there was a fire in Hawkesbury and he should get over there quickly.

I decided to join him as he shot some photos for his newspaper and I watched from the sidelines.

Others watched from the sidelines as well and one fellow even had an extra large double double Tim Hortons with him.

In the end, at nearly 20 to 1 a.m., we decided we were so hyped up that we'd head over to Tim's ourselves and have a cup of decaf tea.
Sadly, we found out later, that two seniors perished in the fire. To read more click on this link: https://www.facebook.com/LeCarillonTribuneExpress

BBQ Roast Beef

An unplanned power outage lasting 5 hours last weekend meant my roast beef dinner with potatoes and garden asparagus turned into a barbecue affair...

...with terrific results. Next time I do a prime rib, I'm heading back to the barbecue!

Things Are Just Ducky

Over at Knatolee's World, my namesake duck, Ronna-duck is having her ducklings!

Can you have ducklings? Okay, so Ronna-duck's ducklings are hatching. My grandbaby ducklings.

On the weekend there was only one baby out of its shell.

A little cutie for sure. Very soft and fuzzy!

Gordon and Natalie, keepers of all things duck-like were pretty tickled with the new arrival as well. Keep 'em coming Ronna-duck!