It snowed and we had a white Christmas. Apparently, the first one on this island since 2009!
Holly bush outside my balcony.I made this Christmas tree for my mother many years ago. (Remember when ceramics was all the rage?) It’s mine now. I am happy I took a lot of care when painting it. Always give your parents well-made things because they will become yours eventually. 😉
My daughter and son-in-law came over for an early Christmas dinner. We looked at each other and thought we had accidentally coordinated well, in black, red and plaid. We thought it would be good opportunity to take a Christmas photo. Clearly I am we are not good at this.
Photo fail #1. Do not show the remote shutter in the photo. Also (another note to self), do not take photos when hair is still wet and unbrushed.Photo fail #2 The one holding the remote shutter is not sure it is working.Photo fail #3 And then we decided we really needed to try to get more of the snowy background, well…in the background.Photo fail #4 Someone is distracted and not looking at the camera. Someone else is looking oddly and excitedly cheery. No, I was not drinking yet.Photo fail #5 We decided to move out onto the balcony. Daughter decided husband’s hair needed some attention.Photo fail #6 OK, this is really not working. Get it together, people.Photo fail #7 We give up, almost.Photo #8 Not a fail. Let’s quit while we are ahead, and eat!Roasted Brussel sprouts with bacon and balsamic glaze. Mmmmmmmmmmm.The glorious turkey of 2021. Soon to be expertly carved by the son-in-law.
A tiramisu was requested, which I had assembled a couple of days before.I decided to finish it with a Dutch twist, instead of cocoa powder: dark chocolate hail. The tagline (in red above the words Jumbo Hagelslag) translates to “a party on your sandwich”. Yes, Dutch people put chocolate on their sandwiches. What a country! 😉The final verdict was that it was no Widow Badass trifle, but it was tasty. Ignore the bloom on the hagelslag. Being a non-chocoholic, I can’t go through a box fast enough so why did I think it was a good idea to buy such a big box of the stuff? Beats me.Postprandial food coma relaxation.
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas celebration, if you celebrate. I know I did.
Unexpectedly beautiful day. Waiting for the Brentwood Bay ferry to take us across to the Saanich peninsula.Nice views while passing the time.Our tickets were for 3:45 so we explored the gift shop etc., until it got a little darker. This is me and Sarah (friend of my daughter’s – now also a friend of mine!) – under a beautiful tree. Pic of said tree in full dark coming a bit later on…Immediately we were impressed by the sheer number of lights and the quality of the displays.The theme was the 12 days of Christmas…and we saw the partridge in the pear tree first, natch.Gorgeous projection on these trees.Looking down into sunken garden.Of course we brought along the trippy special viewing glasses from Milner Gardens. This is what the displays looked like with the Christmas Star ones. In sunken garden. My son-in-law looking like a demon…LOL. Thanks, Sarah! 😉Now, in his human form. With cute wife (I made her!) and the lovely Sarah. 🙂And here is the lovely Sarah revealing revelling in her true form. Sigh…there’s always gotta be that one in every group…. 😉5 golden ringsWe were lucky not only with the weather, but that it was also the night of the full moon! Expect a lotta full moon photobombs…Gorgeous lights AND the full moon!Per the sign: clap or sing loudly to brighten/change the colours on this treeThat’s a lotta maids for milking only 1 animated cow!I don’t remember “1 dragon spitting” in the song but I am sure it is in there somewhere 😉Giant Christmas bauble topped by the moon.The Italian gardenLast full moon photobomb, I promise!Wire-framed trees and icicle tree, now in full dark.Back where we started. Tree from beginning, now in full darkWe couldn’t figure out where the 12 drummers drumming were at, until we exited the gardens and saw them overhead. Pardon the blurriness. Taken by me in the back seat of my car as my daughter drove us home.Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us to all of you!
Dinner at the White Elephant first, in Parksville. Thai food, yum! With my daughter and son-in-law, and Donna and Richard.Milner Gardens & Woodland– offering a festival of lights as a fundraiserStarBrowsing doeGingerbread manReflections in the pool beside the gift shopSnowflakesThis way to Santa!Swans in the pondSnowmanDonna and I, having a good ol’ time!The former residence, now a tea roomPeeking in the windows to see the decorated roomsA teddy bear ChristmasPictures of some famous visitors, including Princess Di and that dude she married 😉Santa’s sleighWearing our trippy glassesDonna gifted me a pair. I had never heard of these.This is what my balcony lights look like normally.This is what they look like on drugs with the glasses on. Like I said, trippy!
Next weekend I am heading (with the fam) to check out the light display at Butchart Gardens, strictly for comparison/research purposes only 😉 . My daughter and I will be packing the trippy eye wear, for sure!
A while ago now, Donna and her hubs Richard, and myself went a walkin’…along the Great Trail (aka Trans Canada Trail) down to the pretty town of Chemainus. It was a dark and stormy night…er…light and rainy day but we didn’t let that dampen our spirits. It also didn’t dampen our appetites. In fact it enhanced them. We were so hungry by the time we arrived that we promptly fell into the first restaurant we came across, that – so fortunately for us! – was also the most excellent Indian eatery.
Near the beginning of the hike, and soaked already.
As for myself? Well…
Somebody thought to bring an umbrella 😉 Photo by DonnaPhoto taken by our gracious waiter, at Invitation Indian Cuisine. Closeup of our food. Clockwise from top left: palak paneer, butter chicken, naan, eggplant bartha. Photo by Donna.
I hadn’t had Indian food at a restaurant for over a year (not since I left Ontario) so this was especially delicious to me. And inspiring! I bought a new cookbook, determined to add some easy-to-make dishes to my repertoire.
The Amazon ratings and reviews sold me on this book.
The first thing I needed to do was to buy the spices necessary to make the garam masala spice blend recommended to use for the dishes in this cookbook. Thankfully it was almost Diwali, and everything was on sale!
Spices ready to go in the coffee grinder (which thankfully made the cut for the move!). Note THE BAY LEAVES.Finished garam masala. Smells delicious around here already!
I started with the book’s recipe for palak paneer. Which was simple and easy to make. Here is similar recipe, found online. Does not require a pressure cooker (although I recommend the pressure cooker version and the cookbook I bought – definitely faster and easier!).
Frying the onions and spices right in my Instant Pot-type pressure cooker. Adding the spinach, under His Eye. 😉Blending after cooking. (I don’t mean for Seashell Jesus to photobomb my cooking adventures always, but I do have a very small kitchen. It’s more of a hallway than a kitchen, really – so He will inevitably pop up in some shots.) Next step: add the cubed paneer.Closeup of palak paneer, over basmati rice. Tasted almost as good as at the restaurant!
The next dish I attempted to recreate was the eggplant bartha. There was a similar recipe in the cookbook, but it asked for liquid smoke (which I didn’t have) and I didn’t want to do another smoky dish like last month’s. So I went searching online, and found this one. It also called for a smoky addition (in fact all the ones I looked at did so I just gave up) but at least I had the smoked paprika it called for and that is the one I ended up using.
Ingredients for the eggplant curry, including my homemade garam masala in a repurposed condiment jar.Tomatoes and spices frying on the stove.Simmering curry, with roasted eggplant and coconut milk added. Smells heavenly.Finished! And delicious with reheated store-bought naan. (I could not detect any overt smokiness in this dish. Yay!)
This eggplant curry was really delicious! I made a few changes to the recipe I used. I added cumin instead of the chili powder and I used 1 tablespoon of my garam masala instead of the cardamom and coriander. Next time I would cut the coconut oil and olive oil back to a couple of tablespoons each instead of a 1/4 cup each. It was just a tad too oily for my taste.
As always: please feel free 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 post, here. She has written about her adventures with a guilt-free hot drink mix!
Remember: if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tags #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge or #woypbc so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!
You know, I really should have predicted this would happen. I’ve been going on almost-weekly adventures with this woman, and by now I should know by now not to open my mouth around her. Case in point: we were idly browsing a favourite thrift store prior to embarking on a soggy beach walk, and I happened to notice a cook book that I used to own, placed on a table right at the front of the store. This book DID NOT – I repeat – DID NOT make the cut when I was packing for my move to the island. Seeing it in the thrift store, I had a momentary failingweakness flood of nostalgia as I gazed upon its cover – recalling flipping through it during many a Christmas Past. I remember looking for inspiration or maybe it was just an escape from the chaos that was that season at my house what with 2 young children, no money, an insufferable monster-in-law, and an unsupportive spouse. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget rampant consumerism and commercialization spoiling the season too...
Is it any surprise that my formerly insane love of this holiday got permanently squashed like a creepy bug on the bathroom floor?
Anywho…there I go digressing AGAIN. The point of my story (and this post) is that I resisted re-buying this book even though the store clerk was helpfully pointing out that it was ONLY A DOLLAR and YET somehow, someway I ended up leaving the store with this book…thanks to Donna sneakily adding it to her purchase and immediately thrusting it into my hands! I pretended to be exasperated with her (how can anyone be pissed at Donna though, really?) but secretly I was looking forward to paging through the book once more…
From 1993. A gorgeous book, truly.
The book was just as wonderful and aspirational/inspirational as I remembered it. Here is the only recipe that I recall actually trying.
The kids and I made these ornaments. I remember them smelling wonderful; even the following year when they were brought out again and rehung on the tree!
As I was flipping through the book, I kept finding pieces of paper stuck between the pages. Like these: not 1, but 2 printed copies of some woman’s fruitcake recipe.
Gosh! Two copies. Is this a sign that I should try this one?! I’m a bit suspish, as the pages are too clean. (A clear sign the recipe has not actually been attempted, in my view 😉 ).
One copy of the recipe was stuck between these 2 pages, see photo below. This recipe looks good too.
Orange? Almond? Say no more…
And then I found this piece of paper: a couple of recipes cut out from a newspaper.
No indication of date or what newspaper it came from.
But the most surprising find of all? Not a piece of paper but this recipe:
WHAT?!
Can we take a moment to remember last Christmas’s Black Forest Trifle kerfuffle? Here is the link. Now I have the source recipe once again, it seems.
But I don’t want to attempt it again this year. The wounds are yet too fresh. However, I have been thinking about making a fruit cake (again). Those wounds have healed over, apparently. Remember this near-disaster, also from last year?
Readers, I need your help (and your votes). The poll will close on November 30th. Help a badass out, will ya?
Thank you, Donna! I may curse your name later but for now I am really happy you ignored my babblings about how I was not going to buy this damn book again, and instead bought it for me.
I have known for some time now that we were approaching the magical event of having 500 posts published. And I had promised myself that I would make a big deal about it. And I was counting it down, from about #493 until, well NOW.
So imagine my surprise when I realized – only AFTER yesterday’s post went live – that it was indeed post #500. And that I had completely missed it.
Well, fear not my faithful long-suffering blogge friend….It is Not. Too. Late.
Inspired and informed by fellow blogger Rivergirl, may I present to you and all my readers: a piecaken (dessert’s answer to the turducken) that I had made just for this wondrous occasion! 😉
From the Food Network. My teeth ache just looking at it. Not going to appear as a #WOYPBC post anytime soon.
Here’s what a piecaken (Thanksgiving version) is comprised of:
In other words, a fat and sugar bomb. A conglomeration of pie and cake what, no pudding?. Not that anything is wrong with that! Why take multiple trips to the dessert bar when you can put a slice of this beauty on your buffet plate instead?
Anywhoodle, I digress as usual.
Back to you, Dear Bloggie…I apologize for having missed this momentous…uh…moment. (But only by one day, so can you give me a break?). I also apologize for having taken so long to get here. Despite you being in existence for over 12 years now (yup, missed that one too), it has taken me until now to get to this milestone.
I spent a lotta years in Crazytown (as the Mayor, no less) and the lack of blogging during that time is the proof in the pudding piecaken of that.
So please accept this piecaken as my sweet attempt to make up for all the lost years and forgotten milestones. Enjoy! And don’t come crying to me when your teeth hurt.
Today the sun came out. Why is that exciting, you may well ask. Since Saturday afternoon, here on Vancouver Island we have been experiencing what meteorologists have dubbed an “atmospheric river”. If you can picture a river flowing overhead and leaking river water dropping rain all along the way non-stop, well…that’s been exactly it. Leading to rainfall records being broken for the province, people being trapped in their cars on washed out or flooded out roads, and mass evacuations.
It has been quite the weather-event year for British Columbians – a heat dome, a summer-long drought, forest fires, and now flooding and mudslides.
I have been lucky where I live, having escaped the worst of the effects on the land. And lucky enough to get out today and enjoy the sun at Neck Point Park. Here are some photos.
Can you spot the heron?Here they are. (Using “they” as I do not know the gender).The land is still draining, and created this pixie-scaled waterfall, seemingly coming from a cavern within the tree.
More rain is in the forecast. This is supposed to be our only completely dry and sunny day this week. What is the weather like where you live?
It was a dark and stormy night. The weather approaching Halloween had turned cold, dark and rainy. That means one thing and one thing only at Chez Badass Kitchen…it’s time for comfort foods! And I had developed a hankering for a good ol’ fashioned beef stew in the slow cooker. That I don’t really use a recipe for, as I generally throw things in the pot and hope for the best. I didn’t want to do that this time, so I found this recipe on Ye Olde Interwebs and gave it a whirl with some great veggies that I had picked up at a farmers’ market.
Look at these cool heritage carrots.They look even cooler, peeled and chopped.These are German Butter Potatoes.They look kinda Yukon Gold-ish to me, when sliced open.
The recipe called for some unusual spices for a beef stew, in my opinion. Including smoked paprika, mustard and mynemesis a bay leaf. I tried to remember what I hated so much about bay leaves but I’ve been avoiding them for so long that I kinda forget. I got to thinking this after my last WOYP post, where I dissed this ingredient. I thought it was time to revisit my nemesis the bay leaf.
ATTENTION: A bay leaf has entered the slow cooker. I repeat: A BAY LEAF HAS ENTERED THE SLOW COOKER.Seashell Jesus says “Gurl, you sure about this?” Bettie Page the Kitchen Aid says “No Comment”. Ditto for Alexa (far left). All are crowded around to witness this strange event.
Fast forward to 8 hours later (on low). The stew turned out quite nice, actually. Although I am not sure about the smoked paprika. I think next time I will just add regular paprika. Turns out smoky beef stew is not my jam. And as for my nemesis the bay leaf? I couldn’t pick out what it had contributed to the stew’s flavour so I guess bay leaves are back on the menu (and in the spice cabinet). Who knew?!?!
“I’m ready for my closeup, Ms. Badass.”
As always: please feel free 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 post, here. It’s a winner!
Remember: if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tags #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge or #woypbc so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!
It is a beautiful day so I walked down to the beach. Across the street I saw the grounds maintenance crew hard at work. 😉The sea is very calm today.I had brought some local (from the community of Cedar) honey, to leave as an offering for the spirits of the ancestors of this land. Tis the season, after all. I left a similar offering for the spirits of the land itself. I was also looking for a hag stone (stone with a naturally occurring hole). No luck. Does a hag oyster shell count? 😉There was most of a dead Pacific octopus on the shore.Closeup of suckers on tentacle.As to be expected, there were people both in and on the water. It is another great day to be alive.However you choose to celebrate this time, I hope it is wonderful. Happy Halloween!
WARNING: Please click away if your nerves are far too delicate to read about bathrooms and associated functions.
Remember back at the beginning of the pandemic when everyone was losing their minds and all sorts of craziness was happening? We were all so scared and unsure of what was going to happen next. And some scoundrels tried to buy up all the essentials, leading to shortages of everything and the people were going on Facebook to beg for toilet paper AS THERE WAS NONE TO BE HAD IN ALL THE LAND? Yeah, thanks a lot hoarders! Gone through your stockpile(s) yet, jerkwads?
Scene at my local grocery store in March 2020.
Well, around that time I began chatting regularly online with a bunch of blogger friends via Zoom and the topic of bidets came up during one session, and how great they were to use and – especially – how you didn’t need all that much toilet paper if you used one. I remember researching bidets at that time – along with the rest of the universe, apparently – and although I could find information on them, there were none to be had as demand has far outstripped supply. Go figure. Sigh. Turns out I had just enough TP to get me through until the shelves were restocked, so I promptly forgot all about bidets once the GREAT TP SHORTAGE OF 2020 was over.
Fast forward to present day: I somehow severely fucked up strained my back muscles last week. I could hardly move and when I absolutely had to move it was groan-out-loud painful (sorry, neighbours!). We are talking A STRUGGLE to put on socks and underwear, and to get from lying down to sitting to standing and vice versa.
And did you know how much you need to involve your back muscles in order to thoroughly wipe your nether regions clean after using the toilet? Let me elucidate you, in case you didn’t already know: IT’S A LOT, ACTUALLY. IT’S QUITE A LOT.
I was bitchingcomplaining chatting about this very thing with my massage therapist this past week when she said those 3 magic words that sent me running back to Amazon: GET A BIDET.
This baby arrived yesterday. Amazon’s Choice, with thousands of great ratings. Thousands upon thousands of happy butts!What’s in the box.
I bravely started to do the install after reading the instructions and putting my talented son-in-law on speed dial, just in case.
So far so good. Seat is off.T-valve attached.
And then, dear Badassians, it all went to shit wrong. Trying to affix the t-valve to the toilet tank….water leaking everywhere once I turned it back on! So I undid everything and tried to put the toilet back together as it was before I started messing with it. No good. Still spraying water everywhere. I shut the water valve off yet again and frantically called the SIL, who came right over and diagnosed the problem!
First – as I suspected – it was partly the blame of the shitty plastic wrench included in the kit. AlthoughI thought I was behaving like a pretty poor workman blaming the tool and all that, but whatevs. Second – and completely related to the first – when I was tightening the t-valve I was loosening the fitting coming from the toilet at the same time. Thankfully SIL came prepared with a REAL wrench and his big man hands and a less sore back than mine, and soon there was this:
Ta-daaaa!
After thanking SIL profusely and seeing him out the door, it was time to take Ye Olde Bidet for its (and my) maiden voyage. I want to say it was a dry run, as I didn’t actually need to use the facilities, but “dry” is not the right word when describing how a bidet is supposed to work.
With great trepidation, I reached down to the dial at my side.Oh my, that’s…um… refreshing!Note to self: be careful not to dial it up too fast, lest it get downright invasive!
It has taken some finessing (one must develop a technique; some skill, as it were), but overall I am quite happy with this upgrade to Ye Olde Water Closet. In the succinct words word of someone named Brad (see quote on box, above), this bidet addition is:
