The Photo Project (and What Precipitated It)

On March 25, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Retirement, Move to Dragonfly Cottage73 Comments

It ain’t easy being the family matriarch, I have realized. When my mother passed in 2015 I took on the role (willingly, I might add) of being the keeper of my parents’ photo albums, slides, and home movies. I had always meant to go through all of this media methodically and judiciously, at some point. To carefully – and with as much information as possible – get them into a digital format, so as to preserve them for sharing with my siblings as well as future generations. I had planned this to be a nice, leisurely retirement project.

I suppose you may have guessed by now that I had to box up all of the photo albums, slide boxes, and reels of film and haul them along with me, to my new home on Vancouver Island. Because – despite being retired for almost 6 months prior to my move – I had yet to begin the process. Oh, how wonderful it would have been to just have all of this stuff whittled down to a couple of photo boxes, some DVDs, and a home on the cloud somewhere! Alas, I had to sacrifice the shelf in the spare room closet of my new space for all of this stuff. That remained untouched as I approach my second anniversary here…until just this past week.

So what finally ~~kicked my lazy ass into gear~~ spurred me to action, you may well ask? Another move, of course! This summer I will be moving to a new abode, after my daughter and son-in-law take possession of the property that they have signed a deal to purchase. They are currently living in the home I will be moving into, which is on the property they are purchasing from their landlords. They will be moving into the landlord’s home (right next to where they are living now), and I’ll be moving into their space. We’ll be together on the same 1/2 acre property, but in completely separate dwellings.

This new dwelling-to-be of mine is even smaller than the apartment I’m living in now and quite dated, but I am looking forward to the challenge of updating it and making it work for me. To have a yard (and future garden!) and the potential to have a dog again (!!!), as well as being even closer to family…well, these are things that fill me with anticipatory joy, even though it will be a summer filled with packing/unpacking and renovation work. I’m looking forward to updating Ye Olde Blogge with all the Befores and Afters!

OK, back to the Photo Project: I’ll be damned if I am going to haul these photo albums to my new place, I have decided. This past week I finally dove into it. I have set myself a restriction of only 1 photo album (two if they are not too big – emotionally OR physically-speaking) per day. This work is hard let me tell you…so many memories are being revived as I go through the pages of the albums, and not all of them are good. And if they are good memories, for the most part the persons in the photos are long gone…and that brings up a renewed sense of grief and loss.

But – I am putting on my big girl pants everyday, and gettin’ to it! Yay me! So far I have managed to condense this:

To this:

I did start out with some of the easier albums – the ones full of pictures of the various cruises my parents went on. Plenty of bad shots of scenery (neither of my parents could take a picture worth a damn) and other cruise guests they met onboard. Meaningless except to my parents, both of whom have left this world…thus easy to ~~ruthlessly~~ cull. One album was full of pictures of my first wedding…I managed to get through that in one go and kept most of the shots. I was so young ~~and delusional~~ back then….sigh.

I can’t rest on my laurels though, because I still have all of this to contend with:

And this:

So many boxes and albums that they couldn’t all fit into one photo!

Phase 2 of this project will be digitizing as much as possible. I’ve been looking into my technological options, and so far this appears to have the most favourable reviews online (and not just on Amazon):

In the past I’ve used an app on my phone (Photoscan, by Google) to take the odd snap of an old photo and digitize it…but it would be incredibly tedious to do so for all the photos I have in my possession. I need a better solution. The Epson might be it, but I want to ask you – Dear Readers – for your advice. Have you digitized your old photos? What worked and what didn’t? What was your strategy or what would you do differently if you had a do-over? Please do share if you can, in the Comments.

Rock on,

The WB

Because You Asked: A Snack Trip to France

On March 5, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, Because You Asked58 Comments

While waiting for the next snack box in my gift subscription to arrive, I received an email from the giver of such deliciousness advising me that the upcoming box would be from Russia and that Universal Yums was offering to switch that out for another country instead. I didn’t feel comfortable receiving and blogging about a Russian box given the current situation with Ukraine so I said yes please to the switch. Barely 2 days later my box arrived and I was a bit apprehensive that there hadn’t been enough time to sub in another box. Luckily though:

Once again, I enlisted the snack-judging prowess of my blogging partner-in-crime Donna, and a date was set. Then I had a thought and texted her to see if she had a French beret or two hanging around her place. I thought it would be funny to dress stereotypically “French”, while we sampled the goods. Of course Donna being Donna 😉 , she had to take it much further including a soundtrack while we “worked”.

I have to admit, it did really add to the *ambience*.

Yeah, yeah. I know these aren’t actual berets. They are “beret-ish”, and all we had to work with. And we don’t have actual Breton sweaters on either, but hey, we have a very limited budget here at Chez Badass and Chez Retirement Reflections. P. S. I wanted to draw on a *Hercule Poirot* moustache with eyeliner, but Donna ~~wisely~~ talked me out of it.

Here’s what was included in the box, besides the guidebook:

Map of Deliciousness on back of scorecard

First up, a bag of French strawberry chews. According to the book, we have France to thank for strawberries, and these particular candies were the top-voted Yum in the last two French snack boxes.

We were immediately put off by the labeling of “artificially flavoured” (*France, how could you???*) but the taste was really good. We both thought they tasted like something we ate in childhood. ~~Ahhhh, that sweet nostalgic time of artificial everything and cancer-causing red dyes…~~ Donna was reminded of a candy called a Mojo. I don’t remember those, but do any of you?

Next up was a bag of French Cheese tubes. The book advised us that French cheeses are better and so are their cheese snacks. We both agreed. So far, two winners!

Think of a really good cheesy Bugle-type snack.

We left “Savoury Town” and headed back to “Sweetsville” with the next offering: Pure Butter Sablés. The book explained that the name “sablé” (French for sand) came from how these cookies are made: by rubbing cold butter into flour and sugar to form tiny particles that look like sand.

Yet another winner! How long can this go on????

After the cookies, it was time to try the other savoury snack in this box: Garlic Aioli Potato Chips. “Yes, you will get garlic breath. And yes, it will be worth it” the brochure opines. We have to agree. These were amazing. (Apologies to my hairdresser, who I met later on in the day. Thank goodness for masks, non?)

Salted butter caramels were next in order. Confectioner Henri Le Roux created the first salted caramel in 1977. Sir, we salute you. Hopefully in Brittany they have erected a statue of this god amongst men.

Donna and I both agreed on the flavour but Donna found them “too chewy”. I like to make them last as long as possible so that means very little chewing is involved – full marks from me!

Donna took this artful picture of me hard at work. 😉

After waiting forever for me to finish my ~~damn~~ caramel, it was time for truffles. Apparently truffles were a happy little accident (RIP Bob Ross!). In the 1920s Paris Confectioner Auguste Escoffier mistakenly dumped hot cream into the wrong bowl, which contained chocolate. Rather than waste it, he rolled the paste into balls and coated them with cocoa powder, and named them of what they reminded him of: mushroom truffles.

Last (and probably least) were French Fruit Chews. I had the raspberry and Donna selected the orange one. Made by Confiserie du Nord, this family-owned company has been making bon-bons since 1912. These French “Starbursts” are supposed to be bigger, chewier and juicer than the American candy. It’s probably been decades since I had a Starburst so I can’t compare but I have to say my raspberry chew was excellent.

And here are the results:

Just two French chicks, hanging out in front of the fire. Not to brag or anything, but *someone* has perfected the French tuck. *N’est-ce pas?*

France, you are a snacker’s paradise and we salute you!

Le Rock On,

The WB

What’s On Your Plate Blog Challenge – Late To The Party Edition

On March 2, 2022March 1, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, What's On Your Plate83 Comments

After resisting the urge to get one of these for – uhh – at least two years now, it finally happened. An air fryer has appeared at Chez Badass. My reasons for hesitating included (not limited to): having to surrender even more precious counter space to yet another small kitchen appliance; pondering if it was all that and a bag of (air-fried) chips i.e. being not entirely convinced it would be better than roasting things in my convection toaster oven; not liking most fried foods anyways; telling myself to “get a ~~fucking~~ grip” on most of my random thoughts on the daily. Meantime, I was studying air fryers…at times, intensely.

OK, I finally caved. My internet “research” led me to this particular make and model.

Pretty small footprint, all things considered.

The first thing I made in my new ~~toy~~ kitchen appliance was sweet potato fries.

Next up – I found a package of chicken wings on sale at the grocery store (and it was the time of the Superbowl – not that I pay attention to sports – but in keeping with the situation…):

Seasoned wings waiting for the air fryer

I also tried my hand at “regular” fries, learning in the process that russet potatoes make the best ones.

A russet potato tossed in a teaspoon of peanut oil and a dusting of salt

Alas, my success with my new ~~toy~~ appliance just couldn’t last. In keeping with Widow Badass tradition, I will let you in on my kitchen failure. I attempted to make a recipe with tofu. Not just any tofu but puffed tofu (something new to moi). My daughter and I had tried a delicious tofu appetizer from Shed, when we were in Tofino earlier last month, and I was hoping to recreate it at home. I found this video, which is a close contender to Shed’s version:

Now I just had to find the elusive tofu puffs.

I also found the mini size, and brought home both kinds.

I tried the mini-puffs first.

Definitely crispy-looking. (I put a piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the air fryer, to make an already easy cleanup even easier.)

Unfortunately I had let them go a bit too long in the air fryer. I was left with candied air, basically. So, let’s try this again…this time with the regular sized puffs:

Assembling the 3 ingredients – well, 4 counting the green onions

Lesson learned. When the YouTuber says to check every 4 minutes while cooking, do as he instructs!

Since I brought the air fryer home, I have used it almost every single day. In addition to the foods featured above, I have also used it to roast asparagus (delish), kabocha squash (delightful), and chicken thighs (crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside). Dare I say it: this could be my new favourite thing in the kitchen. (Sorry, pressure-cooker!) I love how quick it is to add a roasted vegetable to a meal. And using this little guy instead of heating up an oven (even my toaster oven) is much faster and therefore less wasteful of electricity, methinks. Consider me a convert!

That’s what’s on my plate for this month: anything I can cook in my new air fryer!

Please let my co-host Donna or myself know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments section of either of our WOYPBC posts (or both, if you are so inclined!). If you are feeling extra chatty 🙂 and have the time, please let me know if you have an air fryer, and what are your favourite tips/tricks/things to cook in one. I’d love to learn more about this wonder appliance and what it can do! Please check out Donna’s delicious March post, here.

Rock on,

The WB

Because You Asked: How I Journal

On February 27, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Because You Asked, Home Improvement, Retirement, WOTY54 Comments

In my post on my WOTY (Limber – in case you were wondering and didn’t have time to click on the link), I posted a photo of the January habit tracker page I created in my 2022 journal. This sparked a few comments as to the process I use when I journal. I use a dotted journal because ~~I can’t stay between the lines~~ ~~my handwriting is abysmal~~ I find it more freeing. I use a very simple method of journalling, based very loosely on a system called Bullet Journalling, created by a designer named Ryder Carroll. So many people love this system and you can go down a YouTube rabbit hole for days watching how people create and personalize their BuJos, not that I would know anything about that. 😉 It is supposed to be a very good system for personal productivity. I am so damn relieved and happy to be able to put personal productivity in the rear-view mirror of my current life so I don’t use my BuJo for that purpose but instead for habit-tracking and as a diary.

Prior to my current way of journalling, I was using a very fancy (to me, anyways) Japanese journal system – called a Hobonichi – that I really loved. But once I retired I found the format and size a bit limiting, and wanted something I could customize.

Last entries in my beloved 2021 Hobonichi journal…

Some people turn their bullet journals into literal works of art. They are gorgeous but I would never be able to maintain something like that. My journal is so basic, I don’t even use a ruler to create my lines. I freehand it. And I use purchased silicone stamps for the dates because ~~my life span is too short to write out the days of the month over and over again~~ it looks better that way.

It’s almost March 2022 as I write this, so it is time to create my March spread. I create only a month at a time, because ~~I am fickle~~ I am constantly refining my process. Follow along, if you like!

Step 1 – gather the goods.

Assemble the tools: journal, pens, highlighters, stamps, ink pad.

Step 2 – pick a highlighter pen colour for the month.

Green is very spring-like and perfect for March.

Step 3 – Pick a stamp for the month. (Snap-together set ordered from Amazon)

Step 4 – start the spread.

Open the journal to a fresh 2 page spread and stamp the month. I then freehand a line at the top of the page.

Step 5 – put together the date stamp for the month.

I purchased this set from Michaels; also available on Amazon.

Affix the silicone stamps to an acrylic block, and you are ready to stamp your heart out. Pro tip: practice on scrap paper to get the technique perfect before you attempt it in your journal.

Step 6 – continue to fill in the spread for March with whatever you feel like tracking that month.

You will see that I added a couple of extra *days of the month* stamps, in case I dream up other stuff I want to track as I progress throughout the month.

The system I am using now is to have the left hand side of the spread for noting things like when I last watered the plants, flipped the mattress, vaccuumed underneath the sofa cushions, etc. In other words, my haus-frauing. I live alone and stuff doesn’t get dirty very fast so I like to keep track of when it was last done ~~because my memory is faulty especially for stuff that doesn’t really interest me like housework~~. My mom had a rigid daily routine for housekeeping that my rebel heart has just never accepted as the way to do things. I like to work my cleaning schedule around the phases of the moon and when I damn well am in the mood to do so or I can’t stand the dust anymore or it’s raining or company is coming, whatever comes first. Take that, all my Dutch female forebears!

The right hand side of the spread is for the fun stuff I want to keep track of, and good habits I want to keep going or to build on. Under my habit tracker for this month, I am checking off (approximately) how many steps I have logged on my Apple watch, had I eaten at least 3 fruits and vegetables that day (F/V), and did I do my oil-pulling mouth hygiene routine (O/P). I am also including a space to record my occasional blood pressure readings because my nurse practitioner ALWAYS asks for this info. (I haven’t had a mini-stroke since 2016 – hoorah!!!!) On the calendar side, I mark off with highlighter the days that I have achieved those particular activities as I work towards certain goals.

As for birthdays, special events, appointments, etc., I keep those on my electronic calendar (Google) so that they are always in the palm on my hand (i.e. in my phone).

Step 7 – start of daily journal pages.

After I have completed the March spread, I turn the page and line the top and add the words “Daily Journal”. I make a journal entry for each day of the month, noting all the banalities, rants and musings of my day…sometimes it is only a few lines…sometimes it is more than half a page. Sometimes I dress the pages up with stickers, washi tape or To-Do lists, and sometimes not. It is my journal and there are no real rules (rebel heart-approved). Towards the end of the month, I guesstimate how many blank pages are yet required for daily journal entries, and flip the next page over and start to work on the following month’s spread of things I want to keep track of. And so on, and so forth…

That is my journalling method…at least what it looks like for March of 2022. Next month – who knows where my rebel heart will take me… 🙂

Do you journal? Do you track habits? Do tell please, in the comments. I would love to know what others do.

Rock (and record) on,

The WB

Because You Asked: A Snack Trip to Poland

On February 14, 2022February 17, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, Because You Asked, Good Times59 Comments

A lot of readers were interested in knowing what was in the next (and any subsequent) snack boxes I received with my gift of a subscription to Universal Yums (original post here). I ~~could~~ couldn’t just sample the snacks on my own so I enlisted the help of esteemed snack judge Donna once again, and off we went to Poland (snack-aphorically speaking).

Contents of Poland box, artfully arranged by Donna

First up on the scorecard was Poland’s iconic dark chocolate-covered marshmallow bar. According to the brochure, this is Poland’s most famous confection and the name translates to “an unobtainable delicacy”. We’ll see!

That tasted exactly like you would expect. Maybe it was “unobtainable” and a “delicacy” back in 1936 when it was first created, but it seems pretty average now.

Marshmallow bar sampling. Photo by Donna.

Next, we were guided to a salty snack. Pretzels are Poland’s favourite salty snack, according to the writeup on this one:

Now you’re talking! (Donna and I are both salty snack fans.) Cheese and onion flavoured aka pierogi-flavoured, apparently.

Back to sweet, for taste test #3:

Chocolate-covered gingerbread sticks. I didn’t think this would be such a good pairing.

But I am happy to report that they were quite good! Poles love gingerbread – especially at Christmas time – and their favourite holiday film is *Home Alone*, according to the brochure. KEVIN!!!!!

Next was something that intrigued both Donna and myself:

Too cute to eat…almost! These are considered a national treasure in potato and salty-snack loving Poland.

The next item came from the “yum bag” included in the box: a hard candy – fruit yogurt flavoured.

The bag contained 4 wrapped candies. Two of each variety. Jogusie tasted good but neither of us are hard candy fans (caramels excepted, of course). Seventy three percent of Polish people list yogurt as their go-to dairy snack, and Jogusie yogurt candies were created to “get a yogurt fix on the go”, apparently.

The next sampling I hoped would be good, since I liked the chocolate-covered gingerbread sticks so much:

However, neither of us found anything delicious about this particular snack. Frederic Chopin, however, sang the praises of gingerbread, as described in the brochure. ~~Maybe he should have kept his opinions to music only.~~

Again, I had high hopes for the next offering – it even had a cute wrapper.

It was a disappointment, to say the least. Kinda crispy on the outside and blah on the inside. We’ve both had better caramels and better fudge. Apparently this is Poland’s most popular candy. ~~Can I introduce you to a little thing called “Werther’s”?~~

Last but not least was a milk chocolate bar with a peanut cocoa filling.

I thought it had a nice nutty flavour but Donna was kinda “meh” about this. Manufactured by the company run by Jan Wedel, the “Willy Wonka” of Poland, who also created “the unobtainable delicacy”, seen previously. Jan Wedel was also famous for being a humanitarian by producing food for hungry citizens when the Nazis seized control of Poland’s food for themselves.

Donna, in her ~~snacking~~ judging glory.

Here’s what the finished scorecard looked like:

And here are the Poland box snacks ranked by us, from favourite snack to least favourite snack (LEFT TO RIGHT):

And the winners are…..

Us! Because we got to have a bunch of laughs and spend time together sampling exotic snacks! Photo by Donna

Where in the world will we go next (in terms of snack boxes)? Stay tuned!

Rock (and snack) on,

The WB

What’s On Your Plate Blog Challenge – Subscription Box Edition

On February 2, 2022February 1, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, What's On Your Plate76 Comments

At the beginning of January, I received an unexpected delivery of a mysterious package. The outside was decorated with cute symbols of food in red and white and it proclaimed it was from a company called Universal Yums. Curious, I opened it up and looked for some kind of note or explanation as to who sent it but there was nothing to be found inside except some packages of snacks, a score card and a booklet. So I looked at the outside of the package again and there it was, partially obscured by the shipping label.

What a lovely gift, from my good friends back in Ontario: Jonathan and Kenn!!! Clearly the package was supposed to arrive in December, but what with all the weather difficulties and highway closures it couldn’t make it to my door until early January.

Snack contents of the box: popcorn from Taiwan, truffles from France, candies from the UK, “plum” cake from Argentina, baklava from Jordan, and potato chips from another region of France.

As you can see, the December box is a collection of snacks from around the world. The regular monthly boxes contain snacks from one country, only.

Of course, you know I couldn’t just snack (and score) all by myself…so I called someone whose food judgement I trust implicitly.

Donna is clearly taking this project as seriously as I am. 😉 What concentration! What focus!

And so we began. One by one, we carefully sampled each snack and wrote our thoughts down on the scorecard.

I forgot to take a picture of the “plum” cake. Probably because I was pretty pissed it didn’t contain any plums. Imagine a twinkie stuffed with caramel, in lieu of a photo.

And here are the results of our scoring:

Your happy ~~judgy McJudgersons~~ judging panel (photo by Donna).

This was a whole lotta fun. And I get to do it every month for a whole year! Don’t worry, I won’t post it on WOYPBC each month…just this first time. While I was waiting to get together with Donna to do the scoring, my January box arrived:

Hmmm….what country am I going on a snack holiday to, next?

It’s Poland! (Which has bison, apparently…who knew???)

I am so tickled by this subscription. I really love the scoring aspect of it. Something fun to do with friends and family. I think it is both a great idea for a gift to give, and also a joy to receive!

Once again, my co-host Donna and I are using a linkup for people to share their posts on. Please find it here:

Not sure why InLinkz hates me. What have I ever done to it??? If the button doesn’t want to work, you can always join up at Retirement Reflections or try this link HERE.

Of course, you are still more than welcome to let Donna or myself know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post (or both, if you are so inclined!). Please check out Donna’s mouth-watering February post, here!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Rock on,

The WB

Silent Sunday – Pipers Lagoon Park

On January 30, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Good Times, See the Beauty, The Great Outdoors47 Comments

Please enjoy these photos taken at Friday’s hike. It was the first time the sun had broken through the fog in about a week!

We weren’t the only people enjoying this foggy early morning.

Fog is lifting and the sun is peeking through! (And rejoicing was heard throughout the island 🙂 )

Blue skies to the north and east, and fog to the south and west

Donna on the lagoon side, with Salish Sea also in background…and the welcomed sun!

It’s good for people to rest at this time too.

Distant islands viewed from a rocky outcropping

Still foggy when looking to the south. There were 3 river otters swimming in the sea below us, but unfortunately they were hard to capture effectively in a photo.

What a glorious morning to be at Pipers Lagoon Park!

Rock on,

The WB

2022 Word of the Year

On January 27, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Goals & Dreams, Health Transformation, Mindfulness, WOTY77 Comments

Having a word to guide me and align my thoughts, goals, and dreams for an entire year has been good for me, for a few years already now. (In fact, my 2020 WOTY was Alignment and it really helped me to remember to make decisions both big and small that aligned with my values in that critical first year of retirement). I find having a single word to focus on works better for me than a list of goals or dare-I-say-it: resolutions. So I was excited to learn of Donna and her circle of Australian bloggie friends coming up with a WOTY Link Party. I’m in! I may not post on this topic every month but for sure I am joining the party this month.

My 2022 Word of the Year is Limber.

Inside cover of my 2022 journal with WOTY and sigil. Doesn’t it look like a figure flexing and balancing? Creating a sigil or symbol for your word or goal is another mental trick to help embed it and keep it in the forefront of your noggin.

I created a sigil from the phrase “I am lean, limber and strong”. Spoiler alert: I am none of those things…currently. Our brains can’t tell reality from fantasy, apparently…so if you say it is so, your trusting little brain believes you! This explains a lot, really. OK, OK, I am not going there even though I feel a huge rant about anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers et al coming on.

A-hem. Anyways, if you want to make something a reality you are supposed to speak and think of it as already being a fact. Hence the phrase. Which I have distilled down to one word: LIMBER. And for me, it is just as important to be limber in mind as it is in body. Especially in these trying times of lockdowns, shutdowns, and cancelled plans in general.

One of the things I do to help me with my LIMBER attitude is a daily practice of Qigong. My massage therapist introduced me to this practice, and I fell in love with what is does for my body and mind. I follow a practitioner on YouTube and am now at the point that my body craves a session every morning.

I track my progress in my journal.

From my January habit tracking spread in my 2022 journal.

I am also incorporating strength workouts in my routine, as evidenced in the above photo. My living room has become my Badass Anytime Fitness franchise, and I am loving it. I’ve also decided that this year I want to be able to do a primal or resting squat at some point….you know the one where you squat as far down as you can, and yet your feet are planted entirely on the ground.

At this point I can’t do it without my heels coming up but I have hopes that I can work on my…uh…limberosity (is that a word? lol) enough to achieve this in due time.

Got my February habit tracker spread already set up and ready to go!

And I am already busy working on increasing my hip mobility (one of the many mobilities I need to work on if I want to achieve this squat…sigh):

Look at me being all mentally limber and learning how to insert a photo gallery into Ye Olde Blogge!

Happy 2022 and end of January, fellow Badassians! Stay strong. Stay flexible. Be LIMBER. Off to join the Link Party!

Rock on,

The WB

Wordless Wednesday – Pheasant Glen Loop

On January 19, 2022January 18, 2022 By Widow BadassIn See the Beauty, The Great Outdoors49 Comments

Tuesday’s hike:

Screen shot from the AllTrails app on my phone

Tuesday’s hikers:

Obligatory selfie, with Donna of Retirement Reflections

This might be a moss called *Stairstep* (according to iNaturalist)

The trail featured many wooden paths over boggy areas

Looks a bit rickety but quite safe to walk on

This could be Cat’s Tail Moss or Witches’ Hair (according to iNaturalist) *and I am here for either name!*

Could be smoky polypore or turkey tail fungus. Take your pick!

Water droplets on rosehips (no need to consult iNaturalist for this one!)

The last of the snow from the late December/early January storms

Apres hike chow-down! Tofu stir fry with noodles at Saigon Kitchen in Parksville. (Pardon the blurry shot, please)

Hope your January is going well!

Rock on,

The WB

What’s On Your Plate Blog Challenge – Bringing the Sexy Back to Fruitcake Edition

On January 5, 2022January 4, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, What's On Your Plate89 Comments

Ah, yes! That butt of a lot of Yuletide-themed jokes…the long suffering fruitcake. Gentle readers, you might have suspected that when Donna gifted me with the Canadian Living Christmas Book and I found the bonus mystery recipe stuck within its pages, that a seed had been planted within my wee brain. You see, I am one of those weirdos that actually likes fruitcake…IF it is well-made and aged. Don’t get me started on the ~~crap~~ fruitcake you can purchase at ye olde grocery emporium. It’s dry as dust and made with cheap ingredients – no wonder people don’t like fruitcake if that is what is being served!

I hadn’t made a fruitcake in probably…uh…decades. I haven’t let fear or rusty skills stop me in the kitchen thus far, so shortly after that blog post (and even before my poll closed) I was assembling my ingredients to make not one but two versions of fruitcake for the upcoming festive season – Violet Burke’s and the Canadian Living Christmas Book Light Orange Almond one.

Oh, and thanks for voting on my poll! 52% of you said I should GO FOR IT, when it came to attempting Violet’s recipe. Another 20% said make the Orange Almond; another 23% wanted further investigation into piecaken. And I think 100% were pissed that Black Forest Trifle was not a choice, amiright? 😉

Orange Almond fruit (and nuts) assembled, and ready to be soaked in Grand Marnier overnight prior to baking.

Violet Burke’s fruit mixed and ready to marinate in sherry overnight, prior to baking. (Violet’s recipe did not specify any booze but I FIXED THAT!)

Orange Almond fruitcakes out of the oven.

Violet Burke’s cakes out of the oven. Can I just say that my house smelled amazing for more than a day?

Since late November, I had been giving the cheesecloth-wrapped cakes generous lashings of the same booze I had soaked the fruit with, every couple of weeks. The results speak for themselves:

Violet Burke recipe on the left, and Orange Almond on the right – ready for testing (and voting!) *I’d like to publicly thank the holly bush outside my balcony for contributing to the table decor.*

Closeup of the Light Orange Almond fruitcake

New Year’s Day “judging panel”, including Donna (renowned fruitcake ~~hater~~ critic) behind the camera. Once again, I am rocking the *Canadian cashmere*, just like Christmas Day (different plaid, though). Hmmmm, am I in a (lack of) fashion rut?

More festively-dressed Donna trying the Orange Almond cake. She liked it! After enjoying the New Year’s spread my daughter and I had laid out though, there was absolutely no room for a piece – no matter how small – of Violet’s cake. However…

…Donna was kind enough to send me this photo the next morning – proof she tried (and liked!) Violet’s cake too.

I thought both recipes turned out beautifully – moist and flavourful. However my favourite (and the favourite of the Esteemed Judging Panel) was the Light Orange Almond Cake. (Sorry, Violet!)

The orange almond cake is non-traditional in its citrusy flavour and light colour. The inclusion of the slivered almonds and almond extract in the batter adds a lovely nuttiness that I really appreciated. I think this makes it a great cake for “fruitcake haters and nonbelievers” to try. Both Donna and Richard liked it and said they would definitely eat it again if given the chance, and they also both profess not to like fruitcake. The rest of us already liked fruitcake in general, and we also preferred the light cake.

Violet’s cake was leaning more towards the traditional fruitcake/plum pudding in richness and the addition of the sherry certainly lent it that old-time English fruitcake taste, in my opinion. Definitely a great fruitcake, and definitely head and shoulders above anything store-bought. I think next time I would make it with brandy instead of sherry, and play around with some of the ingredients and add chopped nuts…maybe pecans?

Or maybe I will make Suzanne’s mother’s fruitcake recipe next year instead. Suzanne wrote a lovely blog post recently, in defense of the much maligned fruitcake.

I had so much fun reading your comments about my finding of the Violet Burke recipe. You are so imaginative and creative and some of you really should go into the sleuthing business! Who knew a fruitcake recipe found in a thrifted cookbook would generate such wonderful responses? Certainly, not I.

Blogger and real-life friend Janis was even inspired to write another one of her beautiful short stories; this time about Violet Burke and how her recipe ended up in the pages of the cookbook. You can find it on her blog here. I highly recommend reading it. You might want to have a tissue handy. 😉

Thank you, everyone – for making this ol’ blogger’s heart so happy!

Speaking of Violet’s recipe – here’s what it looks like, now (like a real recipe should):

Donna and I are trying something new this month, for WOYPBC, a linkup!

Fingers (and toes) crossed that it works well, and that people like this way of checking out each others’ WOYPBC posts. (If you don’t like it, it was Donna’s idea. If you do like it, it was our idea. Bwahahahaha!)

Of course, you are still more than welcome to let my co-host Donna or myself know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post (or both, if you are so inclined!). Please check out Donna’s January post, here!

Hope you all had a lovely holiday, if you celebrated. And all the best for a happy, healthy 2022!

Rock on,

The WB