Beauty and the Beast

I took a walk around the block to see what was happening with respect to all the ice.  As I walked down by where the creek runs behind the homes on Clearbrooke Circle I heard many tree's cracking and then you would hear a crash as the branch came down.  There was a lot of tree's that have lost branches.  In some cases, small branches, in other cases larger branches.  From what I have seen, no one has sustained any damage to their homes or vehicles which is a blessing.  We have a large branch on our front tree that has cracked, but not enough to come down yet. I'm sure with a bit of wind or more freezing it will make it's way down. If not, Ralph will have to find a way to bring it down because it's right over the driveway and we don't want to risk a car being struck by it when it releases.

It really is quite pretty with all the ice, but sad that so many tree's are being damaged by this ice storm.  It brings back memories of another ice storm that raged through Kingston, Ottawa right up through Quebec. So many homes were damaged and power lines down.  I'm thankful that our neighborhood has not sustained that kind of damage.  I saw 3 power lines down, but these seem to be lines for individual homes and not for the neighbourhood.  The fire department has been monitoring the neighbourhood and taping up those areas that are not safe.

So many people are without power.  We enjoyed company from John and Grace and Ron and Anne yesterday.  Ron and Anne slept over.  We enjoyed a nice breakfast early this morning all together before Anne left to be at work for 6:00 a.m. 

This was a branch in our tree.  Three large branches came down last night.  Thankfully they missed the house and no cars were damaged.

Icy wonderland

I woke up this morning to the sound of a fine crackling noise.  I knew it was the ice that  must have formed during the night.  It didn't get cold last night as the temperature was sitting at -1c but it was cold enough for the ice to form on the tree's and sidewalks.  As a result, we received a phone call advising that church was cancelled this morning.  I can understand why, since I went outside and saw how slick the roads were.  It's really beautiful though and spooky at the same time.  While taking pictures, I could hear the tree's cracking and saw big branches on the ground.  A small wind was blowing and this could cause a lot of damage to the tree's.  I hope that this isn't the case today.   

 

 

My ricotta cheese journey

I have always had a fascination with cheese.  I love to read books on  how it is made and have often said to Ralph that I would like to try to make some.  I've dabbled with making  cream based cheeses
with yogurt with some success and yesterday I thought I would try to make Ricotta cheese.  I have this recipe which laid out the instructions very well.  This is a flavoured cheese recipe that can be used as an appetizer.  It has basil and garlic and lemon mixed throughout.

I started with a gallon of milk and a teaspoon of salt which was boiled on the stove until it reached a temperature of 185F.  It takes about 20 minutes.  Once at temperature, you add 1/4 cup of lemon juice and let the cheese curds separate from the whey.  This is interesting to watch as the white milk becomes clear and the cheese curds sink to the bottom of the pan.  You have to leave this undisturbed for 20 minutes.  Once it has had a chance to rest, you then gently transfer the cheese curds to a cheesecloth lined collander which sits in your sink.  You let the whey drain away for 15-25 minutes (until it stops freely dripping).  At this point, the cheese is now considered ricotta.  There is all kinds of ricotta (creamy, dry etc). Having no real idea of how much liquid to keep in the cheese, I opted to drain it more by gently squeezing the cheese cloth.  The result is a nice dry curd.  After letting the cheese rest for the night, I added my seasonings which included some lemon rind, pepper,  garlic and basil.  It nows needs to rest for another 6 hours and then it's ready for serving. I did try a nibble, and I think it tastes pretty good for a first attempt. I can't wait to try it again later this afternoon.

This winter I plan to make Mozzerella cheese.  I have all the ingredients, but want to have a quiet day to do this slowly.  It really is an interesting art and one that I'm looking forward to trying.

Pretty icicles

Well the rain came and the day itself stayed quite mild.. It's not as bad as we thought, but we will see how the day progresses.  It always amazes me how beautiful the ice can be.  These were taken out of my back door.

Christmas dinner

It's been a while since I have posted.  It's not because I haven't wanted to, but the simple fact is, it's busy. I don't know exactly what I'm busy doing, but I don't seem to find the time to sit quietly at my computer and write about the things that I have been enjoying.

Last night, we went out for our traditional Christmas dinner.  It's nothing fancy.  We go to Our Tai which is a small Tai restaurant in Vaughan. We all enjoy it there and always have a nice evening together. 

After dinner, we had dessert at Harry and Marian's house.  We brought the dessert, since we have decided not to go to Laura's this weekend.  The weather is too unpredictable right now with the forecast calling for freezing rain for most of the weekend.  We're very disappointed that we won't be there, but have promised that we'll be there next weekend.  The desserts were made at Whole Foods and we thought the the kids would love them.  Little snowmen and Christmas tree's made out of butter cream icing.  They were so delicious and fun.  I guess I'll be ordering a few more for next week.

A day at Caledonia

Our final day was spent golfing at Caledonia.  This is a beautiful course to golf on and it was in amazing condition.  We enjoyed our last round all together.  The sun was shining throughout the morning and it got quite warm.  Our afternoon was spent relaxing at the hotel.  The boys went for a swim in the ocean while I went looking for shells.  Teresa enjoyed a relaxing hot tub.  We had an amzing dinner at a small restaurant called "The Library".  I have never tasted She Crab soup like this and the grouper was outstanding.  It's one restaurant that we'll be sure to return to.

We're all packed now and ready to leave.  The plan is to be on the road by 9:30.  Half the truck is packed already.  We just want to enjoy a leisurely breakfast and then we plan to leave.

 

Long Bay Golf Club

We played today at Long Bay Golf Club - this is a Jack Nicholas designed course. It is very challenging with many waste bunkers up and down the fairway.  The day was beautiful with the temperature in the low 70's today.  We enjoyed our round.  We spent time on our balcony enjoying the last days of sunny and warm weather before winter comes. On Saturday we are golfing at Caledonia and this will be our last round of the season.

I think we wore them out