Hosta Revival

Before 

After

Clearing burdock and dandelions from the 'propane' garden bed today. The  hosta that were transplanted into this bed last year will (hopefully) thrive now that they have full access to the partially shaded sun. It was a rainy morning so the damp soil made it easier to do the work. The job took 45 minutes with gloves and a shovel. 

A good week

Meet my friend Dana's new Clydesdale! Isn't she a beaut? Dana is a lover of all animals, especially horses, especially Clydesdale horses. I was so happy to share the moment that Dana finally got her own horse after years and years of waiting.


The as of now unnamed horse, has a lovely new home and new friends. This llama's got my heart!

Marzipan

I've been wanting to try my hand at marzipan for a while now, so with help from Martha Stewart I made these cute-as-a-button carrots for my carrot walnut with orange zest cream frosting cupcakes. The big lesson? Marzipan doesn't last at room temperature. By the next day these little carrots were runny orange blobs.

Taste the Rainbow

The world of blogs seems to be all about rainbow coloured food lately. Swissmiss posted about these pancakes and despite the negative blow back about the evils of food colouring and sugar, I thought I'd try my hand at them with my new Winton food colouring gels.

Ta-da! How evil can they be when they make me feel so happy?

Raisin Bread

We are currently experiencing an unimaginable raisin bread overdose at the house. We've eaten as much as we can handle and still have a 3-day old loaf that hasn't been touched yet. Blaspheme!


I've been loving the Cinnamon Raisin Bread recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I baked a loaf to give to the couple that lives just north of us. We walked over the other night and had a nice chat with Lois and Don who have lived in the area for at least 7 decades. Their oldest son now runs the farm which has been in the family for six generations!



Lois even called a few days later to get the recipe, saying she had never had better raisin bread. She absolutely made my day; I've been full of baking pride for days!

Winter Days

I've never enjoyed a winter as much as I'm enjoying this one. Blame it on the snow covered drumlins that I can see from my kitchen window, the gang of blue jays that visit my bird feeder, my new cross-country skis, or this recipe for spicy carrot and lentil soup!


Apparently yesterday was National Homemade Soup Day in the states, which was all the incentive I needed to whip up a batch of healthy, delicious, warm spicy carrot and lentil soup. I prefer to thicken it with cornstarch and eat it with rice and naan bread, but it's yummy either way.

Lemon

I've been seeing tons of lemon related posts in my Google Reader this week. I guess the juicy, sunshiney yellow helps keeps the winter blahs at bay.

I'm dying to try out this Lemon Curd Tart with Olive Oil




I don't have fancy French olive oil, as the recipe calls for, but I don't think my tastebuds will notice. Mmmm, I just noticed how delicious that coffee looks too!