Making the Most of Summer

Now that we've arrived in September, I can say that we have made the most out of Lacey's first summer. I know this technically wasn't her first summer, but last year, she was only 3-5 months old, and she wasn't really able to do anything on her own to enjoy the summer. I would lay her on a blanket outside in a green space outside our condo and she could watch the wind in the leaves-- but that was about it. This year was an entirely different experience for her. Being outside was a whole new world to Lacey, and she loved it.

What did we get up to this summer? Let's recap.

We ate pancakes and sausage at a Stampede Breakfast.

We watched Grandma line dance.

We went to the zoo.

We ate ice cream!

We went swimming in a backyard pool!

We went to Barrier Lake for a family picnic

We went to Waterton National Park.

We chased a ball!

We played in a lake with cousins!

Like I said, not too shabby of a "first" summer!

All Hail the Queen of Pickling!

I have always loved  pickles-- of the dill variety!  Sorry gherkin lovers, gherkins are not real pickles and are Gross with a capital "G". 

Due to the warm summer and diligent tending by yours truly, we grew an amazing crop of yellow wax beans in our garden. I'm not sure why we grew yellow wax beans (I'm looking at you, Tom, purchaser of the seeds), because neither of us really like beans that much. And it turns out fresh yellow wax beans are not really that good, and cooking them only makes them marginally better. Even drowning those things in copious amount of garlic and butter only made them mildly palatable. 

BUT, I'm getting ahead of myself. 

The bean plants were literally the first thing that germinated in our garden. The last time I grew bean plants was in grade four science class when we were learning that plants need water, sun and soil to grow. So I made sure they had sun, water and soil, and these seeds sprouted like you wouldn't believe! 

First bean begins to sprout. 

A whole row of beans takes root. 

There was something very exciting about watching the bean plants grow. The leaves took over the back row of the garden, and they sent tentacle runners in all directions, looking for support and the best way to grow. Interestingly, the leaves of the beans shaded and protected the legumes once they started to sprout. I didn't even realize the beans were growing until they were already quite large. All you can see is a wall of leaves. 

Full grown bean plant vines. 

A wall of leaves. 

But when you pull back the leaves to take a look... 

Boom! Beans, beans and more beans! 

All the beans! 

My first harvest resulted in a huge crop of beans. I basically had to stop collecting them because my bowl was overflowing. 

First harvest. 

And these suckers were huge! They almost compared in length to a full sized butter knife! 

So very, very long. 

The beans came in all shapes and sizes. Some were long and straight, some were skinny and warped. Sometimes some very strange shapes would form if the beans grew near the intersection of vine runners. I would have to untangle them from the plant as I was picking them. So this meant I had all shapes and sizes to work with for my first EVER attempt at pickling. 

Washed, trimmed and stuffed with seasoning. 

The recipe I found here was fairly simple. It called for a vinegar, water and salt brine, dill, garlic and a chili pepper for a dash of heat. I washed and trimmed the beans, and then stuffed them into their appropriate sized jars. I filled 2.5L worth of jars with beans and seasoning!

After some heating and sanitizing, I added the brine to the beans, put lids on the jars, and boiled them in a hot were bath. After taking them out, it was fairly late, and I went to get ready for bed. The recipe had said not to touch the jars until they had returned to room temperature, and I tried not to get too anxious about checking if the jars had sealed (no one wants an unsealed jar of botulism-- am I right!?).  Sure enough, while I was getting ready for bed, I heard the very distinct (and incredibly satisfying)  "pop" of two of the jars sealing. I heard a third one as I fell asleep and in the morning the remaining jars were sealed as well. 

Round 1 - Pickling Success!

In light of my success, I deem myself the (very modest) title of, Pickling Queen! A week later we tested the beans by cracking a jar open. Not bad. They probably need more time to marinate, and future batches (which I already pickled when our second bean harvest was ready) could use more garlic and dill. 

Our next crops will be carrots and turnips. Will they be as fruitful as our zucchini and beans!?

Stay tuned!

Muffin Nostalgia

Tom's grandma, Ethel, passed away in January of 2016. I did not write about it at the time because I wasn't sure what to say. I was seven months pregnant, and feeling very emotional that Ethel would never get to meet Lacey, and Lacey would never get to meet her. But Ethel got to feel Lacey kick many times, and she loved that. And Lacey also got a little piece of Ethel when we decided she would share her middle name, Frances.

When Ethel's kids (Tom's mom, aunts and uncle) cleaned out Ethel's home, I kept her muffin tins.

Now whenever I bake and use them (which is often), I think of Ethel. She always marveled at my cupcakes, and told me I was in the wrong profession!

I think Ethel would like that something of hers is helping to nourish her great granddaughter. Lacey has muffins at least once a day, and she gobbles them up like a little muffin monster.

Ethel would have been 97 today. Happy Birthday!

Grow, My Pretties!

There is something incredibly satisfying about growing your own food. We had a thriving raspberry bush when I was a kid, but my dad didn't start his vegetable garden until I had long moved out and he had retired. When we were in our condo there was no opportunity for a garden either, so now that we are in our house, a garden seemed like a grand idea.

We planted yellow wax beans, turnips and carrots. A late addition,  with six remaining seeds from my dad's garden, was zucchini.

I love zucchini!  I have a great recipes for zucchini fries, and zucchini also goes well in baking,  so I sneak it in to muffins for Lacey.

The zucchini plants were some of the first in our garden to germinate. Five of the six seeds made it! 

Zucchini seedlings.

I didn't have the foresight to take any mid-growth photos, but it really seemed like this plant turned into a monster over night! 

Monster zucchini plant

The blossoms exploded on this plant. I was a bit worried, because there didn't seem to be any bees around. How would we get zucchinis if there were no flowers? 

Zucchini blossoms.

At one point, there were probably 40 blossoms on the plant. They were everywhere! 

And seriously, who knew that zucchini flowers were so beautiful? Not this girl!

And then one day, a zucchini appeared.

The start of a zucchini.

Just the thickening of a stem! But you could see it forming. And within a week, it was almost a full-blown squash.

Almost full-grown zucchini.

And then another formed, and another, and another. Overall, we've gotten about nine good-sized zucchinis from the plant. We've grilled them, and including them in baking.

I made sure to take a photo of our first full-grown zucchini. It's a beauty!

Our first zucchini.

We will definitely include zucchini in our garden next year, it was a definite success!

Recent Memories of Being a Couple

Since Lacey entered our lives 16 months ago, our old lifestyle went out the window. Getting Lacey through her infancy meant we didn't often stray far from home. And since Lacey was born, I have literally seen her every day of her life. Our last trip as a childless couple was in November of 2015. So finally, for the first time in 20 months, Tom and I went on a weekend getaway, just the two of us! Lacey stayed at home with her grandma and grandpa (and apparently didn't miss us at all!), while Tom and I headed to Moraine Lake Lodge.

Moraine Lake.

So this post is --shockingly-- not about Lacey!

What did we get up to at Moraine Lake?

Moraine Lake Lodge

Moraine Lake Lodge could not be situated in a more beautiful location. I read once that Moraine Lake is the most photographed lake in Canada, and from the photo above, it's not hard to see why. The Lodge itself is about 20 years old, and there are separate cabins along the water edge, or a main lodge with a more hotel-style setup. Tom and I stayed in a separate cabin.

There were three things we wanted to do on this getaway.

1) Sleep

2) Eat 

3) Hike

And most importantly, we wanted to do those three things on our own schedule. No worrying about nap times, no carrying around a change of clothes, diapers, wipes, sippy cups... No singing Old McDonald in the car, no squeeze pouches of food...We just wanted to think about ourselves, and nothing else.

Of course, that didn't really happen. We probably spent half of our time talking about Lacey and how much we missed her! But we still got through our list of things to do, anyway.

Sleep! Our first night, went to sleep at 11pm, and woke up at a glorious 8:40am! There was a time when 8:40am would have seemed early to me, but now it seems like a glorious luxury. Can you image, NINE continuous hours of sleep!? That never happens any more!

We ate breakfast at the hotel, and then we headed out to Lake Louise to hike the Plain of Six Glaciers trail, to the teahouse. The Plain of Six Glaciers hike is about 12km round trip-- a perfect distance!

It's been a really long time since we've hiked, and it was good to be active. The trailhead was a hive of activity. So much so that we couldn't find a parking spot at Lake Louise, and had to drive 10km to the overflow parking lot and then take a shuttle to the trailhead. THAT added an extra hour round trip on our day-- but without a toddler  with us, it was no big deal.

Chateau Lake Louise.

The trail starts along the lakeshore of Lake Louise. This was packed with tourists, but once we reached the end of the lake, the crowds started to thin out. We headed away from the lake, and up into the valley.

We did see a helicopter while we were making our way up the valley, but we weren't exactly sure what was going on. We heard some people saying that a rock climber fell off a cliff, and they were med-evacuating them. But someone else also told us they thought they were moving produce up to the teahouse. A medical evacuation certainly seems more exciting than moving groceries, but we're not sure!

Up in the valley, there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground. There was one sketchy section of trail that was very slushy and slippery.

It eventually afforded us some very nice glacier views. 

And after one final tranche of switchbacks, we finally made it to the teahouse. The teahouse was crawling with people! At first we didn't think we'd be able to get a table, but it turned out a lot of people had brought their own food with us, and we were able to find a seat without any problem. Tom had a hummus sandwich, and I had vegetarian chili. We both had some refreshing lemonade, and Tom had some apple cake for dessert. 

Apparently the staff at the teahouse hikes in and out in one week shifts. They live on-site on and off during the summer-- what an interesting summer job to have on your resume!

While Tom and I were enjoying our lunch, we heard a couple small avalanches in the distance. I read online that during the early summer months, sometimes the staff will hear avalanches every hour in the surrounding valley!

Tom and I headed back down after lunch, and went back to the hotel to relax. We walked up the "rock pile" beside Moraine Lake so we could take some photos.

A view from the Rock Pile.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal at the hotel, and then another lovely, uninterrupted sleep. 

Yes, I definitely recommend being a couple every once in a while. It was a nice chance for us to recharge!

Thanks again, Mom and Dad, for watching Lacey for us!

Happy Wedding Day to You!

For my long-time friend Jeff, the May long weekend was a long time coming. Wedding day! While he and his bride-to-be were decorating their venue, organizing table arrangements and picking up flowers, I was at home, figuring out how to time the construction of their wedding cake with Lacey's naps. Luckily Lacey's naps are a bit more predictable now, so I baked the cake during her morning nap, and made the icing and decorated during her afternoon nap.

I've said before that usually I feel pretty stressed out about making cakes-- one mistake, and you ruin the whole thing! However, I was looking forward to making their cake because I knew it was more of a formality for them (for a photo or two), rather than the centerpiece of their wedding. At one point they weren't even sure if they wanted a cake. So, in other words, if I seriously messed it up, I knew they wouldn't be heartbroken.

Gwen and Jeff sent me several photos to give me some ideas of what they were thinking for cake designs. They knew what their cake toppers were going to look like (Lego people), so that was a no-brainer.

And the cake that stood out to me the most was this one:

It was simple and fun, and just a little bit quirky-- adjectives I would use to describe Gwen and Jeff. It seemed like a good fit.

Technically, I started the cake months in advance-- that is, if you count order the SPRINKLES!

Lavender, lemon yellow, mint green, coral and teal! All the colours of spring, wrapped up in to one cheerful little bundle!

I started by adding a tablespoon of each of the sprinkles into a dish, and giving them a good mix. Then I whipped up the ingredients for a white cake, and separated them into three six inch cake pans.

At this point, I searched on You Tube for, "How to make a naked cake", and was not disappointed by the plethora of instructive videos that came to my aid.

Initially I was a bit worried, because the video I watched said the best cake to use was dense and moist cake. "Don't use light and crumbly cake" it said.... Whoops... My cake was light and crumbly...

However, this turned out to not be an issue, because instead of regular butter cream, I made swiss meringue butter cream, which is lighter, fluffier, and MUCH easier to frost and smooth a cake with.

I stacked up the cake layers, frosting evenly in between, and then used an angled spatula to smooth out the frosting on top. You might ask, why can't I just use a knife to  smooth out the icing on the top? The answer is, you can. 

Next, I added small amounts of frosting to the sides of the cake, and used the angled spatula to scrape off any excess frosting. At this point, if I had been using regular butter cream frosting, I probably would have shaved off half of my crumbly cake. But the smoothness of the swiss meringue butter cream allowed me to smooth the edges of the cake down nicely.

The part that was the most fun was applying sprinkles. Basically, I held the cake platter at an angle over the sink, and threw sprinkles at it. They stuck to the frosting without any issue, and it allowed for me to get a more event coating of sprinkles. The only dicey part was when I held the cake at too high of an angle, and it started separating from the plate! But never fear, disaster was averted!

The important thing to note here, is that the Lego people LOOK like Gwen and Jeff. It's fantastic. And it makes me happy just looking at them!

Now came transportation. I held the cake in my lap for over an hour while we drove to the wedding.

  

When I arrived, I added the topper and banner, and BAM! Wedding cake complete. It fit in perfectly with the rest of Jeff and Gwen's decor.

Jeff, Gwen, I am more happy for you than words can express. I'm honoured that you asked me to make your wedding cake. You two are a wonderful couple, and I hope your future together is full of love, laughter and just a teensy bit of lunacy, to keep things interesting.

Congratulations!

Crashing a Bachelor Party

As many of you know, I have had the same group of friends since the year 2000... 17 years! We have now known each other for more than half of our lives. We met in our awkward teenage years, we went through University together, we travelled together, we entered the workforce together, and we've met each other's girlfriends, boyfriends and significant others over the passing years.

We finally, FINALLY had another wedding to look forward to! Woot-woot!

Now, you can't have a wedding without a bachelor party. And you can't have a bachelor party without your BFF's. So, here's where Ashley and I crashed Jeff's bachelor party. And by crash, I mean we were totally invited. Or invited ourselves. Or, heavily implied that we should be invited. I don't know how it exactly went down. But I was there, and it was fun. End of story.

Not really. Let's take this from the top!

First, we started at Canada Olympic Park, where we rode the chair lift up to the top of the hill so we could do the Skyline Luge. Somehow, we managed to be heading towards the only major storm cloud in the area. It was cold and blustery at the top.

Ashley and I saw some sun, Ashley with her child-sized helmet, and me with my adult-large sized helmet!

Then we got a lesson from the staff at the top of the hill (mainly, how to brake). And they let us go! It was a bumpy ride, but it felt a bit like a real-life Mario cart as you wound your way down the hill. I insisted on going last, because I am irrationally cautious, and didn't want to slow anyone down. We did two runs of the Skyline Luge, before heading off to our next destination.

AXE THROWING!

Yes! There were axes, we threw them, and none of us were very good at it-- except for maybe Gwen's little brother Jonny.  We played a small round-robin tournament of axe throwing. I can't remember who won (it definitely wasn't me), but it was good times. As an aside-- they let you drink while you are throwing axes. This seems like a TERRIBLE idea. But we had no incidents to report, so that was good.

Actually, that's not completely true. During the round robin matches, I played against Steve. Our round ended up coming to a tie, so we had to put down the small, hatchet-sized axes, and throw "the big axe" as a tie breaker. I emasculated Steve, by scoring points with the large axe. Steve threw his axe into the floor. Repeatedly. Check out my throw in this awesome slow-mo video!

Axe throwing would not be complete without some cheesy axe pictures. So.. See below.

Our next stop was a Locked Room. We escaped from a Mayan Temple, and we even made the leader board! We also literally broke the room while we were in it, and had to ask for someone to come and fix it... I guess pushing on the wall can cause lasers to be misaligned (what a bizarre sentence to be writing). But, we made it out and escaped being eaten alive by locals!

Our next stop was for drinks and dinner. The rest of the group headed off to go to Laser Quest, but I headed home, knowing Lacey would be up and ready to go at 6am the following morning.

We all had a blast, and it was great getting to know Gwen's brothers a little better before the wedding. As far as bachelor parties go, it seemed like a great one to me!