January 18, 2010 by dalairunner
Let me begin by saying I am not a huge fan of Playdough. The girls have been playing with it for many many years. The problem I find is that it dries out so quickly, Little C loves to eat it and I was replacing it constantly. The amount of waste and plastic containers would drive me crazy. I know I could have very easily made playdough – I just never did! I was too busy baking things to eat instead. The exciting news is that the girls each received a plasticine kit for Christmas with many beautiful colours. Their hands now seem strong enough to soften the clay and shape it into their desired forms. This wasn’t possible before. This past wet weekend was spent making some fun creations…
Big C in the process of creating...
...an owl mask
It was so neat to watch the process of creation taking place before my very eyes! Big C wanted to please me by making an owl which is her mama’s favourite creature and Little C wanted to present me with a flower! How sweet…
A flower for me!
close up
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January 16, 2010 by dalairunner
Ah here we go wtih the birthday party invitations again. It seems like between Big C and Little C we’re always going to one birthday party or another. Usually Big C brings her own cupcake to these celebrations because of her significant food allergies – it simply makes life that much easier. The only problem is she is getting sick and tired of the Crazy Chocolate Cake kind – she requested Vanilla this time. So the girls and I embarked upon some kitchen adventures this morning. I found a great recipe online for Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes from www.Epicurious.com – the recipe required indgrediants that were readily available in my cupboards and I have to say they came out tasting pretty yummy!! One of my favourite online vegan websites for recipes and handy information is www.postpunkkitchen.com .
Big C was the leader of making the cupcakes today and she was responisble for measuring out all of the ingrediants. It was a great way to teach her about the principles of measurement and the whole fraction thing – she seemed to get it! There’s nothing like bringing math to real life experience.
Important baking lessons
Good teamwork between sisters
Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes:
- 1 cup soy milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 3/4 cup unbleached flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin tin with with either oil or cupcake papers. Mix the soy milk and vinegar together and set aside for a few minutes. Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and soda in one bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, vanilla and oil. Add the dry ingrediants and soy milk to the sugar mix. Blend until smooth and then transfer to muffin tins, 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden on top. Makes approximately 10 medium sized cupcakes.
I make my own vanilla icing which is rather yummy and old-fashioned tasting. I measure 1 cup of icing sugar and add 1 tablespoon of vegan margarine, 1 tablespoon or so of vanilla soy milk and mix until smooth and desirable thickness. Delicious!
Yummy Vanilla Vegan Cupcakes!
Flour face!
Posted in Baking, Kitchen Adventures | 2 Comments »
January 13, 2010 by dalairunner
Well I think we are finally back into our normal routine post-Christmas. Unfortunately we all seem to have the stomach flu at the moment so things have been interesting around here. The girls have been enjoying quiet down time navel gazing so to speak…
just navel gazing
Mexican bobble heads
The other day, big C and I went to a nice grocery store in town here and we found the most interesting piece of exotic fruit – it’s call “Buddha’s hand”. What attracted me to this piece of fruit was it’s unusual finger-like extensions and its citrus-like scent. It reminded me of the smell of the beautiful orange groves in Florida that I had the priviledge of experiencing as a child. I always remember my mom commenting on how much she loved that smell. Here’s what the Buddha’s hand looks like…
Buddha's hand
a view from underneath
Big C was very keen to get on the computer and read all about the Buddha’s hand. We were very curious if there was enough flesh to eat really. So Big C learned that it is a fragrant citron whose fruit is segmented into finger-like sections; it is juiceless and is very fragrant; it is predominantly used by Chinese and Japanese for perfuming rooms and clothing; Big C obtained this information from Wikipedia ofcourse! We look forward to going back to Thrifty’s to find some more exotic fruit!
Posted in Hodge Podge | 3 Comments »
January 1, 2010 by dalairunner
Peace Buddha
PEACE. LOVE. JOY. ALL THE BEST IN 2010!!
Posted in Special Occasions | Leave a Comment »
December 28, 2009 by dalairunner
Clay Concretions
The girls and I have sorted through our latest treasures and we’ve determined that our concretions fall into one of three catergories: round, oval and oblong/irregular! What we’re going to do with our massive collection of rock is yet to be determined. Perhaps build a stone wall??
Round ones
Oval ones
Irregular ones
Big C wins the prize for finding the biggest round concretion that I have ever seen! Little C found a neat little one that looked like the sole of a foot but we seem to have lost it.
Hockey puck sized
And the latest addition to my book collection is my fav Lloyd Kahn and his book “Home Work”. It is another very inspiring book! He would approve of these rocks for building something of a shelter.
Lloyd Kahn's second book titled "Home Work"
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December 28, 2009 by dalairunner
We had a lovely few days of Christmas spent mainly indoors. The evenings have been very crisp and cool and we’ve been waking up to a frosty roof and ground. But it has definitely been a green Christmas. Today was the perfect day to climb into the van and go to the beach to collect one of our favourite local rocks – CLAY CONCRETIONS! I cannot disclose the exact location of the source of these rocks as I have been sworn to secrecy. They can only be found in two areas – our secret location on the east side of Vancouver Island and somewhere on Texada Island located in the Georgia Straight. To my knowledge, these neat rocks cannot be found anywhere else!! That`s what makes them so special.
Rock collecting in action!
Clay concretion round and beautiful and so easy to spot!
The majority of clay concretions that we find are typically round and smooth or some can be shaped like barbells or footprints. The secret beach that we were on today has huge cliff walls made of clay were these beauties morph from…
Base of clay embankment where concretions evolve
We had a great afternoon of walking on the beach and enjoying each other`s company while collecting rocks!
Big C resting on some drift wood
Little C posing
Self portrait
Some amazing drift wood
The girls fell asleep early this evening probably because of all the fresh air. We will be sure to post some close up photos of our clay concretions once we wash them up and take a careful look at what we found. This upcoming New Year’s week, the girls and I look forward to doing some of the projects we did not get done before Christmas. We’re going to make dream pillows filled with lavender and organic candy canes (the girls decided ‘wands’) for our New Year’s celebration. I love this last photo as you can see the Whistler or Blackcomb Mountains across the Georgia Straight. The clouds make for an interesting effect…
“Be the change you wish to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi
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December 23, 2009 by dalairunner
This has certainly been a busy week in preparing for the holidays and all the other things like birthday parties and company dinners. And thank you Robyn for such a nice party this afternoon! Anyway Big C has been up to some intereting things including a fun piano lesson, lots of felting and writing a letter to Santa sort of. Here’s a look…
Dear Santa...
Big C has also become something of a good felter. Anytime I pull out my basket of felting supplies, she is by my side thinking of new things to create. Big C’s latest clever creation is a jellyfish, I’m sure inspired by our recent visit to the aquarium.
Jell-y-fish
I love this mermaid lady creature thing Big C made. She looks as though she could sing opera or something.
Mermaid creature
Big C has certainly been enjoying her piano lessons. During the last class of this year, she played so beautifully – I was so proud of her!
Big C and Madame J
And I saved the best for last. Ofcourse it’s the Amaryllis – it bloomed for Christmas and there are four more waiting to burst into flowers!!
So beautiful
Happy Winter Solstice!!
Posted in Arts & Crafts, Hodge Podge | 2 Comments »
December 14, 2009 by dalairunner
After our second night of 12 hours of sleep, my girls were very excited about visiting Santa on this Sunday morning. Quite the opposite to how they were feeling the other day. Here’s a look at how things went…
Santa photo - ho ho ho
Then I decided to take some photos of the girls on the beach just because it was a relatively clear day and I’ve been wanting to do this for some time. I didn’t want to get the traditional Christmas photos this year. Unfortunatley this wasn’t the beach I had hoped to take their photos but we had fun nonetheless…
West Coast girls
Well the day got rather interesting after what might appear like a functional family going about their Christmas activities. Once we returned home, the girls wouldn’t stop fighting which seems to happen at a regular rate these days and I kept snapping and I couldn’t focus on a damn thing. So I went out for a much needed run in the cold. And what a wonderful run it was – I experienced that so-called “mindfulness” people talk about. Just me and my thoughts. What a treat. I’ve officially started training for the Comox Valley 1/2 marathon slated for March 22nd 2010! Anyway when I returned from my run, Big C was chomping at the bit to go play with her friend up the road. I think she and Little C have spent far too much time together so the timing was great. Ofcourse when I asked Little C what she would like to do, her response was “make banana bread”. So I’m going to include our usual Vegan recipe that comes out well time and time again and makes a smaller batch perfect for a family of four…
I have no idea where this recipe came from – perhaps the internet or my mother in law. There are few ingrediants and they are simple. I’m just not sure about the canola oil thing anymore. So I would substitute for safflower or vegan magarine next time. I’ve jsut read that canola oil is one of the worst oils to use! Anyway here’s Little C doing what she loves the most…baking!
Little C making Vegan banana bread
We also added a sprinkling of brown sugar and cinnamon on top to make it taste extra yummy…
Banana bread heading into the oven
Whilst the banana bread was baking in the oven, Little C and I decided to make some applesauce with the bag of bruised organic apples that I bought. We simply peeled and cut the apples into small chunks, added maybe 1/4 cup of water, a titch of brown sugar and cinnamon and mashed everything together over medium heat on the stovetop. The combo of the banana bread and warm applesauce made for nice dessert tonight
Delicious organic applesauce
Posted in Baking, Special Occasions | 2 Comments »
December 12, 2009 by dalairunner
Today is my sister’s last full day with us here on the Cold Coast. The end of such family visits can be so bitter sweet. We’ve had such a nice visit with Auntie Laura and with Christmas only 2 weeks away there is a lot of excitement in our household! We did many interesting things on this day including some last minute shopping at the big mall, a failed attempt to visit with Santa (although my kids loath the thought of visiting Santa, we thought it would be a fun photo op), Big C’s piano recital at home to family over skype, Chinese food dinner (and a bottle of wine which might explain my typing errors) and a nice exchange of Christmas pressies. And the most exciting thing for me is my new laptop which I am very proud of for some reason. Thanks to my generous parents for their proceeds from my big 40th birthday!! I’m still trying to get used to the built in mouse – I just caught myself reaching out for the mouse with my right hand! Ha it’s like learning a new fine motor skill which I’m not entirely thrilled about but I know I’ll adapt – I’m an OT for the love of Buddha. Alright here are some photos which really seem like hodge podge to me but nonetheless…
Auntie Laura and the groovy girls and my new laptop!
Big C playing her piano
Our gingerbread house - a favourite Christmas tradition
I forgot to mention that we also assembled our store bought gingerbread house today. The girls and I have been doing this for the last couple of years and we really enjoy it. However, after seeing a gingerbread barn in the most recent issue o Mary Janes Farm – the Everyday Organic Lifestyle magazine, I swear I’m going to make it from scratch next year. I also saw a great recipe for Organic Candy Canes in the very same issue! And my sis got me a Silpat Mat for Christmas which is great for making candy and baking. So many great ideas so little time I’m afraid.
The end product - the groovy girls were pretty pleased
A nice exchange of Christmas pressies
Some sensory exploration of each others' vests
Some sugary sweets to eat!
One of my favourite Christmas cakes is Yule Log for some reason. We picked one up today from one of our local bakeriers – I believe it is a German bakery – this is another food item that I need to learn how to make!
Yummy Yule Log
Lastly, I must insert a picture of the Amaryllis bulb that Little C and I planted. Well is has shot up at least 12 inches in the last week – it’s freaking me out a bit - I swear it’ll touch the ceiling before it blooms. Here’s a look at the silly thing…
Out of control Amaryllis
Well thanks big sis for such a nice visit. The girls have really loved having you at our place. And Chirstmas is exactly 2 weeks away. Merry Early Christmas!!
Posted in Special Occasions | 2 Comments »
December 9, 2009 by dalairunner
Nothing coud be more touristy than coming to Vancouver Island and visiting Coombs Country Market. Yahoo. I love this market for its interesting assortment of imported foods, yummy baked goods and bread section and ofcourse the wooden toy area. This is what we were up to yesterday…
Combs off season - just my kids in the foreground
Rub the Buddha's belly and make a wish!
A lovely display of wooden owls
The most troll dolls I have ever seen in a single display - scarey!
It was so cold on this day you could actually see a few icicles hanging on the windows. We enjoyed a lovely snack from the bakery. And we managed to find eggless/milkless blueberry bread for Big C which she thoroughly enjoyed – this doesn’t happen often on our outings.
note the icicles to the right of Big C's head
Sneaky Little C
That’s all. Typical for the nutty west coast
Posted in VI Outings | 1 Comment »
