This year's light show at the Wildlife park has shifted to online and is accessible to everyone everywhere, with a donation to the park.
If you're able, consider making a donation to the park and enjoying a trip through the park to see the animals and the show.
I follow BBC Food on Instagram and after clicking to a link on their website one morning I spent some time searching through recipes and discovered a delicious sounding caramel cupcake recipe.
I haven't made caramel from scratch in a long time, and I was worried how it would go, but it went just fine. Yay me.
Recipe: caramel button cupcakes
chocolate chips, pasta, apple juice, peanuts, potato chips galore, ginger ale, chow mien noodles, icing sugar, crackers, clamato, kraft dinner, ichiban, cornstarch, tea, butter, sour cream, milk, red bell peppers, cauliflower, carrots, green beans, baby carrots, grapes, potatos, garlic, snap peas
$ 113
2020 -33
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Do you understand what it's like for people who don't have your money, and your protection, and your privilege?
I spent some time on the smitten kitchen website recently, bookmarking delicious recipes, and Sunday morning I headed into the kitchen to do some cooking:
What a lovely cake! Everyone enjoyed it, especially The Grandpa, who requested I make another just for him. And I did.
Then I made some also very delicious whole wheat chocolate oat cookies.
When you put wheat germ and whole wheat flour in a chocolate chip cookie, they are automatically healthy. It's science.
Next, for breakfast we made a batch of blueberry yogurt multigrain pancakes
but without the blueberries. They have rye flour in them, which you don't often see in pancake recipes.
The grownups made pancake sandwiches, with sausage and cheese and hot sauce, and a drizzle of syrup.
Book 19 is one I got this summer - Over Easy by Joy The Baker.
As soon as I started reading the book, I loved it and started cooking right away.
Breakfast foods are definitely one of my favorite foods - eggs, bacon, waffles...oooh!
This book has it all - granola! Breakfast quesadillas! Biscuits! Waaafffffllllleeeessssss!
We started off with the mango smoothie and sour cream waffles and it was a delicious breakfast.
The Mister and I have always loved Ceasars and Bloody Mary's, so he was very intrigued by her dill pickle vodka and Bloody Mary made with the dill pickle vodka. I can't vouch for the vodka, BUT a virgin Bloody Mary made with a shot of pickle juice in it is FREAKING delicious. And also The Mister said the dill pickle vodka was really good.
I was very excited to try the Mashed Potato Skillet Scones which were.....fine.
We were also not super excited by the Pumpkin Cake Bread. It was good, but not as flavorful as I would have expected.
We rebounded to full on happiness with 2 pancake recipes - Banana Fritters - very delicious and a hit with the kids - and the Sweet Bacon Pancakes but without the bacon in the pancakes because the kids freaked out and ordered me to NOT put the bacon in the pancakes. But they were very good pancakes.
Next on my list is the Green Goddess Sandwich and the Sausage Pretzel Rolls, which I hope to make soon.
If you like breakfast food, you will like this book! A new favorite around here.
Cookbook Cleanup results so far - Back on the bookshelf - 11 Donated - 8
Sometimes - only sometimes! - this town has nice things, and right now we are on a bit of a roll. We got an Old Navy. We've got a new fancy grocery store. And we've got more than one option for korean fried chicken. And I've eaten from two of them so far.
First we tried Tongdak which is downtown on Victoria St.
We tried the Gan Jang - garlic and soy, and the Cheese Prinkle, with homemade cheese powder.
They were both delicious.
We also tried the newer Jay's Sushi and Tempura House, up on Summit Drive in Sahali.
From there we tried some original KFC, as well as some sushi and tempura and noodles and loved it all.
Yay Kamloops!
2020-32
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Lucie glanced covertly at the people seated around her. She loved checking people out and making up stories in her mind about them.
2020-31
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"But name calling is for the weak. Actions are for the strong. Got it?"
Being responsible for her own happiness, she has realized, is a lonely proposition.
She squeezes Jessie's hand, and for the first time ever in her life, Jessie understands that her mother is real. It is a revelation. Her mother is a human being who feels pain - sadness, loneliness, confusion. Jessie thought all grown-ups lived in a different atmosphere, one that was like a cool, clear gel.
I've watched a few episodes of Selena and Chef on Crave, and it's a pretty fun show. The premise if you haven't seen it is that professional chefs teach a non chef how to cook - over video chat. Truly a made for a pandemic tv show.
I've had a couple of favorite episodes, but the episode with Chef Ludo Lefebvre was the top for me, because now I know how to make a real omelette.
When I was a kid my mom had one of those omelette pans that was 2 separate sides and hinged in the middle. I don't think it really gave her the results she wanted, because I don't remember her using it a ton, but I do remember not being very excited about omelette breakfasts because the outside of the omelettes were always browned, and I HATE eggs that are cooked so long they brown. Hate hate hate. And because of that I never made them at home or ordered them at restaurants.
But! The recipe he showed Selena cooked quickly and didn't brown and I was so interested to try it, so I did, the very next morning.
You guys, making an omelette is so easy. So easy!!!!! I made 3 practically perfect omelettes in almost no time at all.
My favorite part might have been the filling - boursin cheese, which we happened to have in the fridge, yay, a cheese that the chef called something like "the velveeta of France."
I've made them a few times now and they turn out lovely every time.
If you've never tried to make one before you should!
2020-30
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"Men are weak, but women are not. We aren't afforded that luxury."
I was never a religious person, although I hoped the afterlife existed; all those artists and warriors and thinkers and lovers seemed awfully wasted if their only point was to kiss the earth once and leave.
"It's unrealistic to expect to find peace in the arms of someone else if you can't find it within yourself."
"A person is always the hero in their own story, and thus an unreliable narrator."
Did I have any true favorites in October? No. But I'll take this opportunity to share some photos and stuff.
First - a bunch of stuff I listened to/watched on my phone while I worked. I'm still working from home, and working weekends, and it gets lonely in the basement. Sometimes it's nice to hear talking, although I'm sure when I go back to the office I'll be inwardly furious each time someone talks near me.
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Some baking and cooking that happened -
Tomato Relish, to use up some of the tomatos ripening in the basement with me while I work
Buns!
Rice Krsipy Treats made with Mars Bars instead of marshmallows and then topped with chocolate
CLT bagels for breakfast
Apple Muffins
Thanksgiving dinner, including broccoli rice casserole from Pioneer Woman
And Thanksgiving dessert! Pumpkin Roll cake and David Lebovitz's chocolate mousse
New tea, which came with a pretty little scoop that made me happy
2020-29
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"There are people on this earth," Annie says, "that have no business walking it."
