Glorious Sun!

It's actually sunny here today! This past weekend I may have been complaining to one of our guests about the fact that it was snowing yet again, and he told me about how they still have so much snow in New Brunswick that you can't see the numbers on people's houses - all you see are roof tops! He said their snow might be gone in June! So here's to not complaining! But I am definitely celebrating the sunshine today!

Delia squinting.
A haircut is on the list of things to do for Delia before Carla's wedding next week!

Joshua playing outside in short sleeves. I still found it cold, though!

Jason fixing our ghetto mini van (276,000 km and counting). In recent history Jason has replaced a windshield wiper motor - a definite necessity in Nova Scotia, the ball joints, and now a heater hose - that one was kind of scary when it went bad, smoke everywhere! The things you get to learn when you have more free time than money!

This was a science experiment that Jason and Joshua did yesterday. Jason called it a homemade lava lamp. Joshua liked it, but not as much as the baking soda volcanoes they did the day before! Here's a link that shows instructions and why it works if you want to try it at home - make your own lava lamp

And I made squash soup twice this week, the recipe was that good! Here's the link(Curried Squash Soup), I think you should make it too!

Have a lovely Spring Day!

Yummy Cookies!

I made these mint chocolate cookies yesterday, they were so good. If you eat them without the glaze they reminded me of double chocolate cookies from Ben's Cookies. And if you like mint the glaze is perfect!

I also made Pea and Pesto soup yesterday, from Nigella's Express cookbook that took five minutes to make if you are looking for St. Paddy ideas - it was delicious! I love Nigella!

Cakes

I've been busy making cakes this week.

Happy Birthday to Grandma Ellen who turned 55 yesterday. We had everyone over to the B&B for Chinese Food (provided by Grandpa Bill) and we supplied the cake. Grandpa said carrot cake was Grandma's favorite, so that's what we made. The cake was really good, if you like carrot cake. I'm more partial to chocolate myself!

Here's the recipe of you want to try it, Carrot Cake Supreme from the Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook (one of our favorite cookbooks):
Cake:
2 Cups all-purpose flour
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
2 t. ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
2 C. sugar
3/4 C. vegetable oil
3/4 C. buttermilk
2 t. vanilla extract
2 C. grated carrots
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 C. flaked coconut
1 small package of chopped pecans
Buttermilk Glaze (see recipe at bottom)
Deluxe Cream Cheese Frosting (see recipe at bottom)

Grease three 9 inch round cakepans (I only used two).

Cut circles of wax paper or parchment paper to line on bottom of cake pans.

Grease and flour wax paper. Set aside.

Stir together first four ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and next 4 ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture to batter, beating at low speed until blended.

Stir in carrots, pineapple, and coconut. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Drizzle warm Buttermilk Glaze (see below) over cake layers and allow to cool on wire racks for 15 minutes.

Place first layer on your cake plate. Spread a layer of Deluxe Cream Cheese Frosting (see below) on top of bottom layer. Place second layer on top of bottom layer (repeat previous steps if making a triple layer cake). Frost sides and top of cake.

Buttermilk Glaze:

1 C. sugar
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 C. buttermilk
1/2 C. (one stick) unsalted butter
1 T. light corn syrup
1 t. vanilla extract

Bring first five ingredients to a boil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Boil four minutes stirring constantly until glaze is golden. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool slightly.

Deluxe Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/2 (12 ounces) blocks of cream cheese, softened
3/4 C. butter (a stick and a half), softened
1 (16 ounce) package of powdered sugar
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

Beat cream cheese and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla.


And this is the cake I made today. Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake (I doubled the recipe and made it two layers). You know it has to be good when it contains nearly two pounds of butter! We love this cake, but make sure you have a group of people to share it with. It's definitely addictive! We made it once when I had my brother over for lunch and we ate half of the cake for dessert. And between Mr. Innkeeper and I we had polished off the other half by lunch the next day! Enjoy!

What's for Breakfast

We headed to the library yesterday after the 4th straight day of rain. I brought back a few cookbooks, including Feast by Nigella Lawson (which is my new favorite cookbook). I started with her fishcakes for dinner (baked, not fried), I made this granola last night and I made her banana buttermilk pancakes for our family breakfast this morning (sometimes I do make breakfast twice, Joshua always asks for pancakes)! We also had potato and onion hash for dinner. All delicious. I had been making a granola recipe that I found on allrecipes.com but I haven't been able to find good quality coconut lately. So I thought I would try this one. Enjoy!
Andy's Fairfield Granola
from Nigella Lawson's Feast

4.5 cups rolled oats
1 cup sunflower seeds
¾ cup sesame seeds
¾ cup apple sauce
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
⅓ cup brown rice syrup
¼ cup honey
¾ cup light brown sugar
2 cups whole almonds
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tbsp. sunflower oil
2 cups raisins
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2.Mix everything (except the raisins) together.

3. Spread on baking sheets and bake for 40-60 minutes (till evenly golden, after one turning).

4. Cool and add raisins.

Notes:
One variation: replace almonds with raw peanuts and add 1/4 cup cocoa powder to seeds and oats at the outset. Skip the raisins.