Categories
baking

Another Birthday Cake…

Chocolate was the request for this birthday, so I obliged with a fudge chocolate cake, chocolate cream cheese icing, chocolate flowers (from Chocolate Arts)  and a little bit of fresh local strawberry compote.

Here are the two cake halves, the strawberry filling and the chocolate cream cheese icing, which, I must admit, I (heavily) sampled.

All the cake (above) needs now is birthday candles and a little bit of vanilla ice cream…

YUM!  There are still 2 pieces left in the refrigerator… let’s see how long that lasts!

Categories
gardening

Bad Breath Pepper Garlic Spray

Tomorrow I will puree this bad boy and the flea beetles plaguing the tomatoes will flee in terror…. FLEE in TERROR…. Muah… ha… ha!!!!  As a side note, I doubt it would work on zombies, but vampires, now they would absolutely loathe it!

Err, yes.  The recipe can be found on page 117 in Gayla Trail’s first book You Grow Girl. BTW, I love, LOVE this book.

Categories
webseries

Online interview about SiftingRealities

Check out this fun online interview with me about the origins of SiftingRealities in my Creator’s Corner by SciFinal.

Categories
gardening

Garden update: all the baby plants

A bunch of little seedlings made their transitions out into the big wide world of the garden this weekend, and I thought, as a collection, they made a sweet, though photo heavy, blog post (I think there are too many commas in that last sentence…).

I requested a cool three-tier wooden pot to house another new round of strawberries this year and Michael built it for me this past Saturday.  I raised these little ones indoors from seed (planted in Jiffy Pellets at the end of February and beginning of March). Baby Strawberries:

We planted three 2-year-old raspberry canes in a container this year and I almost pulled this little guy thinking he was a weed, but no!  This seedling will grow tall and bear fruit next year!  Baby raspberry:

  • Plant: Chemainus Raspberry. *Summer fruiting variety.
  • Canes purchased at: Family Farm in Aldergrove, sourced through Craigslist
  • First planted in: March 2010 (2 year old canes)

We also invested in two 3-year-old blueberry bushes at the same time as we bought the raspberry canes.  I also tried out a mail order gardening service this year and bought this little blueberry:

  • Plant: Top Hat Blueberry
  • Purchased online at: Spring Gardens.  I can’t say I recommend buying online.  It took them over 2 months to ship and the plant cost $18 plus shipping which was way too much for a plant that will most likely need another 3 years to bear fruit (IMHO).
  • First planted in: May 2010

Another first for this year’s garden: artichokes!  We were late getting this out and don’t expect it to flower this year, but you never know!

Last, but not least (seeing as we use frozen rhubarb in our smoothies every morning) and, hopefully, we will be harvesting from this seedling early next Spring! Baby Rhubarb:

So that’s  little glimpse of all our baby plants this Spring!  I am looking forward to getting the remainder of the seedlings (tomatoes, basil, peppers, and multi-squashes) and direct seedings (green beans, mini cucumbers, more carrots and lettuce) out over the next few weeks, if the temperature agrees and, sooner than you think, it will be time to HARVEST!!

Categories
baking webseries writing

SiftingRealities: Episode Five: ALL THE WRONG PEOPLE

This is the sixth episode of my web series SiftingRealities.  At the end of episode 4, Belinda seems to think she’s got this whole “sifting” thing under control, but does she?



Oh, those are shortbread cookies she is making and eating in the final scene… I’ll post the recipe later on today.

Categories
baking recipe webseries

Fudge Yogurt Cookies

These cookies are featured in SiftingRealities Episode Four: NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE (more info in post below).  They are super easy.  No mixmaster needed.  Just mix everything in the pot that you use to melt the butter.

Melt the butter, remove pan from heat, and mix all the ingredients straight into the pot by hand – easy!

Batter.  Mixed?  Check!

Fresh from the oven (note the parchment paper covered cookie sheet).  These are soft, chewy cookies – YUM!

Categories
baking webseries writing

Sifting Realities: Episode Four: NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE

In our fifth episode of SiftingRealities, Belinda attempts to exert some sort of control over the craziness she thinks her brain is projecting… if the pills won’t work perhaps she can find away to stop the other realities from bleeding into her own…

“I’m not as judgemental as you always make me seem.”  Ah, Marie (played by Valerie McNicol), you rock though you alone are enough to keep Belinda tiptoeing the edge of sanity!

Cookies: Fudge Yogurt Cookies

Categories
Knitting

Knitting Update…

So I finally got a knitting project off the needles… Roger Socks by Anne Hansen for Michael.  I’ve been feeling guilty because two sets of Michael’s handmade socks have recently (mysteriously!?) been felted in the dryer and his remaining pair has developed holes (as hand knit socks often do, especially when there are nails popping out of 75-year-old hardwood floors all round the house).  The yarn is casbah, colour pewter, by Handmaiden and is, so far as I have tested, my absolute favourite sock yarn.  I spotted this skien at Urban Yarns (blog) and, as I was reaching for it, Michael called dibs and well… seeing as I was dragging him to the yarn store in the first place and seeing as all his socks were currently ruined (and I still have 2 wearable pairs) I felt he deserved a new pair of socks.

LOVE the colour/pattern combination!!

Here is the sock against jeans (in an attempt to capture the colour).  I adore how the pattern appears to be woven when, in fact, it is just strategically placed horizontal and vertical ribs (clever designer!!).  The pattern is well written and very accessible.  This is third pattern I have done from Anne Hansen (KnitSpot) and I have a bunch more queued at Ravelry.

Once the camera was in play, Parker had to get involved in the sock modelling… of course!

In other knitting news, I have two current works in progress:

This is the front side of the Kelmscott cardigan by Carol Sunday knit with mirasol qina yarn in the deep red colour way.  I am gong to LOVE this sweater (I think) once I manage to get it off the needles (I am currently working on the collar), but this pattern has definitely been a challenge and I am not looking forward to the crocheted edges, as I actually have no idea how to crochet!

I am using four strands, 3 yellow and 1 beige, of reclaimed cashmere yarn for this cabled baby blanket (pattern found in this book).  I found the cashmere sweaters at ValueVillage and harvested the yarn.  The blanket is going to be so pretty and soft!

So that’s my knitting update!  Oh, you can find me on Ravelry (if you are so inclined) as mdoidge.

Categories
baking recipe webseries

Gingerbread (Zombie?) People (Cookies)

As seen in SiftingRealities: Episode Three: ZOMBIE IN THE GARDEN (see post below for more info) Belinda, not knowing what to do with Annie once she has rescued her from the back yard, defaults to her comfort zone: baking, specifically, she bakes gingerbread cookies.  Here is the recipe I (therefore she) uses:

The dough (ready to be plastic wrapped and chilled) and a traditionally shaped (not the one I used for the episode) gingerbread man cookie cutter:

Naked gingerbread people cooling and getting ready for decoration:

Decorated cookies (still from Sifting Realities, Ep. 3):

**Note: it took an entire bottle of red food colouring (and a couple of drops of blue) to make the icing “blood” THAT red.  The yellow noose (middle top) is made out of string licorice.  The cookies on the right are decorated with the more “traditional” look I usually use.

These cookies are “soft” gingerbread and super tasty… the crew eyed them all day while we were shooting and eagerly gobbled them up after we’d wrapped.  There was some disbelief that they were whole wheat, which I take as a compliment to the cookies.  Eliza, who plays Annie, preferred the licorice “guts”, of course.

Categories
webseries writing

SiftingRealities: Episode Three: ZOMBIE IN THE GARDEN

This episode was my favourite on the page, a worry in the casting (boy, was I silly, because the cast additions: Eliza Faria, who plays Annie and Sebastian Kroon, who plays Courier/Zombie Stan totally rock), and took the longest to cut/tweak/colour but, through all that, I STILL think it is my all round favourite episode.  I have written a number of feature films that are based in the zombie or creature genre, but this was my first time shooting/directing a zombie piece and, I must reflect, the actors did all the great work and I just directed the camera and cut it all together.

Synopsis: Belinda (CARMEN BENNETT) is disturbed to find someone other than Lise at her back door to pick up cookies.  After a confrontation with this new courier (SEBASTIAN KROON), Belinda discovers a zombie in the backyard.  Issue: the child Annie (ELIZA FARIA) is hiding in a playhouse. Also featured is JESSE SCARF as D.

Cookies: (ZOMBIE) GINGERBREAD.  Recipe & pictures to come!