Jan-chan’s Tidbits

I haven’t baked for the longest time because most of my baking stuff had been packed away and stored at the house we’re going to move in later this summer (or so my parents said). However I still want to make a cake for Al and after doing some research for ideas, I’ve “baked” this special cake with chocolate ganache and topped with strawberries.

Here's Al with the "magic" cake (it's magical because you can never finish it...)

Making the felt cake took about 10-12 hours. I didn’t have any templates to work with so had to use some imaginations for making the seeds of the strawberries and the ganache. I bought a cake box from Daiso to put the cake in. The only thing I would  have done differently was to add some weight to it. Since it felt so light when you hold the box with the felt cake inside.

Here are some pictures of the individual pieces.

(click to enlarge thumbnail)

I wish I can sew better because some parts of the white (cake base) were showing on the edge. I think I’ll try to make a mini cake magnet next.

The menu cover.

To celebrate a pair of birthdays we went to A Kettle of Fish for dinner. Its our first time there and I heard from several people that the food there is pretty good. They had a special three course menu that night but since I’m more of a shellfish person I got jumbo prawns for mains with pulled pork as my appetizer.

Kurobuta Pulled Pork Rillettes

Wild Jumbo Prawn Pappardelle

Before the start of our meals they offered us a little treat. It was a shrimp ravioli in shrimp broth. It was so good that we were tempted to ask if it could be our main dish. Here are more pictures of the food. I ordered cheesecake since I haven’t had any in ages.

Last weekend Al and I went up to Mt. Seymour on a snowshoeing & chocolate fondue tour. I haven’t been to snowshoeing since elementary school so I was really looking forward to it. We got up there well ahead of time so we got to walk around a bit and took some pictures.

Check out his ears *giggles*

Ok fine...I got them too...=p

At 7 our tour guide gathered our group around and lead us into the woods. He has a very cool backpack and special lantern for Valentine’s Day.

The area in the woods were too dark for me to take photos. We walked for about 45 mins into this area surrounded by trees. The area was also dug out to form an oval with a flat slab of snow in the centre like a table. Everyone sat around while our guide took out a number of items from his backpack: hand sanitizers, forks, napkins, plastic wine glasses, 2 bottles of sparkling apple juice, little plastic containers of fruits, equipments for 3 fondue sets and chocolate kept inside a thermos. I can’t believe he was carrying all those stuff while hiking with us the whole time.

We had a lot of fun standing around the eating chocolate fondue while sharing stories and playing games. There were a variety of fruits to dip into the chocolate, such as kiwi, banana, strawberry, pineapple, grapes, oranges….etc. The setting and the effort to set it up make it really special. After we polished off the fruits we each got a heart shape cookie before heading off to the lake for a beautiful view of the sky. Too bad it was cloudy or it would have been much prettier with stars above our heads.

At the lake, the guide told us the two type of birds found in the area: bald eagle and grey owl. He also told us that the grey owl’s mating call is “hoo hoo” (or was it “hoot hoot”?). He was making us try the mating call and to make it easier to remember, he made us say “who hoots for you” (try stretching the “o” sound … lol). We were all cracking up. Then he split the guys and the girls into 2 groups and told us to close our eyes. We then have to find our partners by identifying them from their “mating calls”.

At the end of the journey, when we are back at the lodge to return the snowshoes, each couple were given a little goodie bag with chocolates, a candle with a heart on top and a book of love (filled with coupons for favors). You can see more pictures from the tour on my Picasa Album.

Thanks Al for the trip and the kitty ears toque. Before I end here, let me show you this funny picture I took of us:

I think Al's head looks like the shadow for Cat Woman....

Ok I’ve been getting a bit crafty lately. I’ve gotten my hands on some felt, fiber fill and some needles and now I end up with a pig, a cat and a dog.

I haven’t done felt craft since I was like 12/13 years old. I remembered I made a green bean with felt and some of the peas were hanging from the bean (hard to imagine…I know, but it was cute! I gave the peas smilie faces…) I’ve stumbled up on several websites that had felt food on it and I wanted to try and make some. But first I decided to make another piggy for Al (I made him one like the first year I met him). I don’t have a picture of it because I don’t think it look nice but here’s a picture of the cat and dog I made:

Meow~!

Arff~!

I think I could’ve made the dog a bit better. I’m going to see if I can get started on the felt food now. It seems a bit complicated to make since my sewing isn’t all that great (sometimes I get holes here and there…lol).

Nel came up just before CNY and we hooked up for dinner on. We had planned to go to Burgoo but it was packed so we ended up moving to Crave on Main. However the wait was just as long! We got there around 8:10 and didn’t sit down at the table till around 9:00pm. The food was pretty good and I liked my shorty poutine. The amount of cheese was just right and it was not drowning in gravy.

That night's special, steak with two jumbo prawns. I liked the sauce.

Chipotle bbq lacquered baby back ribs

Braised lamb shank - photo credit: Nel

Shorty poutine - photo credit: Nel

We were also fooling around with our cameras, check out Nel’s camera and his giant lens. It makes mine look so tiny…

Me & my tiny camera...

...vs...Nel and his "fat" lens

While we were waiting for the food, Nel and I were fooling around with our cameras and took some random shots…

Oh ya, Nel gave us a bag of peanut candies he brought back from his trip to Japan/HK/Macau. They were pretty addictive…chewy and just the right sweetness. I couldn’t stop chomping on them >”< Thanks Nel for bringing them for us.

Yummy peanut candies

Here's another shot.