Marlene

A cocktail sounds good right about now. What should we have?

making cakes was the first thing I ever learned to do. I don't eat a lot of desserts so i don't make them as much anymore. Cali, the recipe I used for the buttercream comes from the William Sonoma Cake book. I was thrilled that it actually worked!

I spoke too soon. The sky is darkening as I type and there are severe thunderstorm watches for the London-Windsor area. While those might miss us, we'll get the fall out wind and rain shortly. Good thing steak doesn't take that long to grill, and that Don will be home in time to be the one getting wet.

Susan, congrats on the successful Weber surgery! Looks like the weather is holding for the moment here, although it's rather windy. Don has requested a gratin for the broccoli, so I'd best get to grating and blanching. This evening, we will go through the rig and see what we need to stock. Once we get the fridge and staples stocked for the first trip of the year, the rest of the season's trips are easy. Just load up whatever we're going to cook for dinner, a few clothes and we're good to go at a moment's notice.

Operation Buttercream. This is NOT the recipe from Fine Cooking. First, I need to slice the cakes in half: Beat butter until pale and creamy. Set aside, if you have two mixing bowls, otherwise tranfer the butter to another bowl and clean the mixing bowl: In the meantime, melt chocolate, and heat milk and sugar to just boiling: Beat egg yolks and sugar in mixer until pale and thick, then add the hot milk mixture to the egg mixture: Transfer the mixture back to the pan the milk was heated in and whisk till the temp comes to 170: Then back to the mixer, whisking until it's cool. When it's cool, add the chocolate: And then the butter in small parts each time: Houston, we have buttercream! I use a cake lifter to put the layers of cakes together and make a crumb coating then chill. I'm not a great cake decorator. I don't have a decorating comb so I just used my vegetable holder to make a few waves and added some shaved chocolate on top: You'll have to wait for the slice picture until after dinner.

Operation Buttercream was (surprisingly) a success. I've got the crumb coat on now and the cake is in the fridge for half an hour to set that up, then I'll finish frosting it. It has turned into a lovely day here, so I think a book and some lemonade is in order out on the deck.

Because I treat them the same way, just oil, kosher salt and pepper, there isn't a lot of difference, other than using the rotisserie, the crust does get a little crispier and it doesn't take quite as long. As well, doing it on the rotisserie usually means finding another option for sauce or gravy and I don't usually bother with yorkies when I do roasts on the grill.

The cake is baked and is now cooling. To make my cake, here are the steps: Prepare the pans, greased and lined with parchment paper. I use 9 inch cake pans: Sift flour, baking soda and salt together onto wax paper. The OXO sifter I use has a top and bottom lid which allows you to put the dry ingredients together in the sifter before sifting: In the meantime, whisk cocoa powder and hot water together, and when it cools, add buttermilk and vanilla and set aside: Beat butter in the mixture until creamy and pale: Then add sugar, brown and white: Once this has been incorporated, add eggs that have been beaten slightly, a little bit at a time, making sure each addition has been fully incorporated. Then add the dry ingredients and the cocoa mixture, alternating. Then pour into cake pans and smooth the tops. I always, always use magic strips. Cool the cakes on racks until completely cool. Next, we'll get ready to try a buttercream.

Mike posted a link to the recipe here. It's very good. I've taken eggs and butter out and am thinking that a devil's food cake should make an appearance today.

Good morning all. Right now, the sun is shining, although the forecast is calling for anoher 10-15 mm of rain by the end of the day so we shall see. It's also not very warm and the forecast for the end of the week when we are camping sounds very chilly. Fortunately, the rig has a furnance It is quiet here this morning. Don has gone to work and Ry is at his Dad's so I don't have the usual rush of getting people fed and out the door. I can have my coffee and contemplate whether I want breakfast or not. My waffle maker is staring at me and I've got some fresh strawberries in the fridge, so maybe a waffle wih a strawberry topping is in order!

We love mustards. There were a few flavours we didn't pick up this time around. But then again, we'll be back there soon enough! I'm thinking the horseradish or garlic mustard would work well with carpaccio! We are finishing off the evening with a nice Grahams Tawny Port. I think early to bed for this girl tonight, knowing I am blessed with my boys and how well they treat me. Not just today, but really every day.!

Dinner tonight, a spit roasted prime rib, ready for the rotisserie: Garlic Roasted potatoes ready to roll: I started the red wine reduction and oiled the asparagus The roast on the spit, ready to come off: Garlic roasted potatoes: Roasted asparagus with drizzled balsamic and shaved parmesan: Plated. End cut for me. Mother's choice!

Unlike Susan, I had a fairly relaxing Mother's Day. We dropped Ry off at his Dad's at noon and his dad and I spent some time organizing our summer schedule. During the school year, we switch off a week at a time, with change over normally on a Sunday. Summers tend to be at least two weeks at a time and occassionally, including this year, a month each. Then we took off to do some shopping. We found our lanscaping lights at Canadian Tire and while we were there we bought one of these Kevlar (s?)gloves. Don tried it tonight while working with a hot bbq and this thing rocks.: Off to Whole Foods, where my butcher friend took a whole dry aged rib eye roast and cut it into steaks for us. We also got a couple of kick ass butts, a brisket and some flank steaks. While we were there, we happened on this collection of mustards and finishing sauces. The mustards include, a horseradish mustard, a garlic mustard, a triple crunch mustard and and extra extra hot mustard: Don found a couple of hot sauces for him: Before we tackled operation BBQ Clean Up, Don made me a mimosa.: Now, our BBQ hasn't been cleaned in quite a while. Before we started, it looked like this: When we were done, it looked much better: Time to switch to CC and coke and think about dinner. But first, I need to kick my baby cat, Shadow, off my chair.

Ok Susan, the little booklet that came with my cedar plank has a couple of recipes for planked salmon. it says place the salmon skin side down on the plank,. It wont' take long 10-12 minutes. But then what the hell do i know about cooking fish?! It's got a marinade recipe for the salmon too and says to marinade for 20 minutes.

Operation Grill Clean Up was a success. pics on that later as well as everything else. Dinner prep is well underway here. The roast is on the rotisserie, the asparagus oiled and waiting for roasting, the potatoes ready to go in and I'm making a port wine reduction to go with the beef. I think I need a drink now.

Definately soak the plank, otherwise, it will just burn. I soaked my cedar plank yesterday for 20 minutes. The salmon i think goes on the plank over low heat

we've just returned from running several errands. Got some lovely dry aged rib eyes, some of which may make an apperance for dinner tomorrow night. Asparagus for tonight, and broc for tomorrow. (See, green veggies!) Don has just made me a Mother's Day mimosa, which I am about to take out to the back deck and sip on! It's quite breezy here, but the sun has come out and our back yard is pretty sheltered.

Which KA dishwasher to you have Mike? We've been looking at them to replace the rather small Miele we currently have.

We do have three cats, but it's really hard to get them to sit still long enough to photograph them! This is our second cat, Miss Muffin, who is, like me, a princess. So far, I haven't gotten the baby, Shadow, to stand still yet. We didn't use all the tenderloin last night for carpaccio, so this morning, Don offered to make steak and eggs for breakfast. Originally this was for the two of us, but Ryan woke up and decided he wanted some too. Not only did Don make breakfast, he is now doing the dishes! What a guy.

A question about countertop convection ovens. Does the bottom get really hot? On a normal granite countertop that might not be a problem but the counters and table in the rig are not exactly hardy construction. I do have a really sturdy resin table that sits just outside the rig under the awning where my toaster lives usually, but I would hate to melt it using the oven!

The making of the Mile High Pie! A graham cracker crust is used here and baked for 15 minutes. Graham crackers, butter and dark brown sugar. Then make a ganache to spread over the crust: Make the butterscotch pudding and pour it over the ganache and crust; Make a chocolate moussse and spread that on top of the pudding: Chill this for at least six hours. When you're ready to serve, whip heavy cream and brandy together, spread on top, and dust with chocolate curls. Carefully remove the springform collar!

I will post the step by step process in a bit then! Mike is right, it's time consuming, but really easy. Good morning all! It's a little cooler today, but so far the sun peeks out every now and then. The forecast is still calling for showers later. Happy Mother's Day everyone. Ryan of course is still in bed, but Don is up early and is emptying the dishwashwer for me before he goes off on his morning run. We want to take the grill apart today to clean it, so hopefully the weather will hold for us to that. We'll be making a trip to Home Depot as I mentioned and I've got my eye on This for the rig. Also a trip to Whole Foods is in order to re stock our freezer with dry aged rib eyes! But first coffee. I'd really like one of those latte's, Mike!

I am shortly off to dreamland. What a great day. Tomorrow is Mother's Day so I'm fully expecting to languish in bed, with coffee and croissants. Perhaps I'll surface around noon or so. Well that was a nice fantasy. The reality is I will be up long before my boys, enjoying the peace and quiet only a Sunday morning can bring. Coffee and newspaper. Birds singing. The lad will return to his father tomorrow. We'll make a trip to Home Depot for landscape lighting. And then, we'll fire up the grill and make a wonderful Mother's day dinner together.

Since I've only smoked two butts in my life, I can't answer that. The first butt I smoked, stalled at 174. but it was bigger and bone in. I have no idea why mine stalled so low this time, but I have to say that this butt was way better than the first butt we smoked.

My guests loved the butt. They took some home. The rest has gone into the freezer for another day. I've got three days of grilling left, then a birthday party at the school, and then we are off for a 4 day camping trip, so it won't get eaten in the near future!