Chef Sandy attempts one of Gramma's recipes

 Hullo! Today we are in the kitchen attempting to bake one of Gramma's cakes. Well, really, it's one of Great-Gramma's cake!! It's a flour-less Nußkuchen (nut cake)

We have the ground hazelnuts (250 grams). We used the Moulinex julienne hand grinder... great fun and strong forearms in the humans...

Most Moulinex come with only 5 blades but we have a different blade... one just for Nußkuchen!

We also need 1 cup of sugar...

And we have the Bitter-mandel aroma (bitter-almond aroma). 

You can also use rum aroma, but we have bitter-mandel soooo... that's what we use!

Now... we have tried this cake in the past with Rose's Mom and it's been an epic failure. The first step is to beat the eggs schaumig (frothy) and add the sugar bit by bit... It's always been a flop for us. But ChatGPT suggested warming the eggs for a bit in warm water. Apparently cold eggs do not like to get frothy... Chef Ben probably knows this already...

The other kicker for us has been the hand mixer... Gramma swore that most hand mixers have goofy blades that will not beat eggs into submission (or frothiness)... But then she found a hand mixer at Canadian Tire that worked... so we kept her hand mixer after she passed...

Alright... bowl is clean and ready to go!

Wish me luck!!

Right... 4 eggs... The recipe calls for 5 but that's for the round spring-form pan version, which looks like this...  It was always a birthday cake when Mama was growing up... we will try it once we work the kinks out!

Today, we are doing Gramma's short-cut version... in a loaf pan. Rightho... eggs are waiting for us... let's get started...

Is that froth I see forming????

Oh my goodness... I think it is!!!!

ChatGPT said it would froth up and get lighter in colour!

Oh my goodness... well, it has increased in volume... so that is much better than previous attempts! We added the few drops of bitter almond flavour... and a dash of salt and...

We are calling that... good enough!

Then we fold in the ground hazelnuts...

Wow... that... actually looks excellent!

We have parchment paper lining the loaf pan... and we poured the batter in and baked at 350 for 40-45 minutes.

Um. Well. Wow...

This is actually quite good!!!

Now getting it off the parchment paper was not easy... but more nibbles for the chef to sample. All agreed it was most excellent!! Nice and light and fluffy and moist... not heavy and moist!

A Long Overdue Garden Update

 Hullo... I know... you might wonder if we even "have" a garden anymore... I haven't posted about it in forever... but we do!!!

We planted broccoli and cauliflower... this one is a bit of an early bird, we'll have to eat it!

But these are coming along nicely...

 We have some potatoes as well. These were "volunteer" potatoes that were popping up in weird places, so we dug them out and got them organized.

But the weird one this year is..

An artichoke plant!!!! Our neighbour gave us one last year and while it didn't do much last year... this year... we have artichokes!

There are two big heads a three small heads... We left one big one to see what the flowers will look like, and then ate the other ones. They were yummy!

The other creature who loves the garden is...

Koby the Cat!

He loves to roll around on the hot pavers and get covered in detritus...

Seee... he always needs a zoom-groom before he comes inside.

Honestly... some people's cats!!!

We also have a lot of garlic growing! Which are going to scapes... which need to be picked. No rest for this garden supervisor!

A Wander around Milner Gardens

 Hullo!! Today we are going to a place that has been on our bucket list for a while... Milner Gardens!

First we start with a forest walk...

Which is beary nice. They have even laid wood chips down on the path.

It's a bit of a cloudy day, but that's OK, because the woods always smell better on a cloudy or rainy day!

We are here!

Oooh fancy! Milner Gardens belonged to the... Milner family and they donated it to VIU (I think) to become a teaching garden.

This used to be their swimming pool! And now it's an aquatic garden. Beary nice.

There are a lot of trees here which makes for a nice setting for...

 .... rhododendrons!!! 

They are in fully bloom and so pretty!!!

This Douglas Fir is a beary large tree.

Like... beary large... you don't get a good sense of it from photos!

They even have a labyrinth although we did not walk it because we other places to go!

These are Dutch Irises... we have some in our garden now, and they are beary lovely.

There's a nice view of the ocean from here. We didn't see any whales but you never know...

There's the main house!

It must have been something to live here back then.

We want tea... We want tea... We want tea... We want tea!!!

And look at that... we are getting tea!!! They used to have Afternoon Tea here but it got too complicated for them... so they just serve tea, scones and soup...

And the tea pots even have tea cosies!!

This one is a fruity tea...

First up... soup and a bit of foccacia bread!

And now... the scone... it looks beary yummy... and it is warm...

But the question is the cream... what's the verdict? Is it "real" clotted cream??

We've been to places where they serve you whipping cream instead of clotted cream!!! 

But this stuff is the real deal... maybe not from Devonshire but... it'll do!!

That's an azalea bush... possibly even more pretty than the rhodos!

Although it's kind of a toss-up sometimes...

Well, that was an excellent adventure!!! And the scone was scrumptious!