For the Monkey Board Girls

It's the building on the right (although I think they are more or less the same).

Pam

Antarctica and South America

My husband and I just returned from an amazing trip to South America and Argentina. We started by flying to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where we spend two nights before flying to Ushuaia, at the south end of the country (Tierra Del Fuego).  From there we took a nine-day cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula and nearby islands.  We were on the French cruise ship, Le Diamant, and made landings on shore by means of Zodiacs.  After returning to Ushuaia, we flew back to Buenos Aires and the next day flew north to spend two days at Iguazu Falls, which are amazing and way bigger than Niagara Falls. Here are a very few of our pictures from the trip.

From the top: Marcel and I at the"end of the earth" ( the end of the road in Tierra del Fuego National Park); each of us on the ship with tabular icebergs in the distance, wearing our Antarctic Expedition parkas; several Zodiac landing craft in pursuit of a humpback whale; a cute Adelie penguin; Marcel taking pictures as penguins cross the path; a couple of Antarctic views from the ship; landing on a beach with the Zodiac;  Gentoo penguins; swimming in Antarctica (there were hot springs just under the water); in Iguazu: the view from our hotel balcony; a toucan near the hotel; three views of Iguazu Falls.

New layouts

Will wonders never cease?  There are 3 new layouts in "My Layouts" (see link to the right).

New Blog

I have set up a new blog specifically to track my progress in Project 365 for 2009.  Please see it at: http://project3652009.blogspot.com or click the link to the right.

Pam

Project 365

With so much "buzz" about this project this year due to the new kit being offered by Creating Keepsakes, I thought I'd put up a few pictures of how I did it for 2008.  Basically I had a photo album from Wal-Mart that had "PHOTOS" printed on it and I used rub ons to make the rest of the title.  I bought extra refill pages.  I didn't do it on a weekly basis as the new kit has, but I could have done as there were enough pages.  I just started January 1 and kept going.  I managed to only have about 5 or 6 days with no pictures.  To label them I bought a photo marker and just wrote on the pictures or used a label if the whole photo was too dark.  So here are a few random pages and a couple pictures of the cover.  For those of you who don't want to get the kit, this is another possibility.

Fruited Brazil Nut Loaves

I had a couple requests for this recipe, so here it is.  It comes originally from the magazine Canadian Living.

1 1/2 cup dried figs

1 1/2 cup dried apricots

1 cup candied pineapple chunks

1/2 cup red and/or green glace cherries

1/2 coarsely chopped preserved ginger

3 cups whole shelled Brazil nuts

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

(Note: I have successfully doubled this recipe to make 4 loaves.  The above amounts make 2.)

Line 2 8x4 inch loaf pans with foil, grease well, and set aside.  Pour boiling water over the figs and apricots and let stand for 5 minutes.  Drain and chop into large pieces.  Halve cherries.

In a large bowl combine figs, apricots, pineapple, cherries, ginger and Brazil nuts.  Stir together flour, sugar and baking powder in another bowl; add to fruit mixture and toss to mix.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs well; stir in vanilla.  Add to fruit mixture and mix well.  Spoon into prepared pans.  Bake at 350F for 1 hour or until firm and brown and cake tester inserted into center comes out clean.  Let cool in pans for 10 minutes then remove to racks and cool completely.  Wrap well in foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.  Serve in little slices.

Pam

Lobster

At least once every summer we have some lobster. I'm not a big fan of it. I like the taste but I don't really like the mess of eating it. Anyway, as daughter Alix is getting ready to move to Toronto for university, we decided to treat her to some lobster before she goes. So last night, Marcel picked up some cold cooked lobster from the fish market (that's how people eat it here generally, cold) and pre-cut it for us. It was very tasty!

Preserving summer

I used to make a lot of jams and relishes at one point but I hadn't done any for a few years. My garden was starting to yield some zucchini so I decided to make some relish and a few other things too. Here is what I made yesterday. From the top: Red pepper orange and lemon marmalade, zuccini relish, and apple- sage jelly.