Salmon-Pt 3

So many fish...

A lot of brush and logs have washed up along the stream-

Some logs are just perfect for sitting and resting a bit...but not for long...we got to get going...

Salmon-Pt 2

Hey, how did you guys get way down there...I'm coming down...

I'm coming too...

Wow, look at that!

Vedder River on Thanksgiving Day-Pt1

We had heard that a trip down to the south end of Lickman Road near Chilliwack would result in a spectacular display of salmon at the end of their life cycle. So Jenn and her family were raring to go and we piled into the van with Carlton driving, Mommy Jenn shooting pictures like crazy* and Jared, Daniel and Gramma and Grampa in the back.

It was great. within 20 minutes or so we had reached our destination and this is what we saw:

Many people walking along the trail, even more fishers catching and releasing-

One of thousands and more-salmon finishing their 4-5 year life cycle right here along this stream where they likely hatched some years earlier. Pacific salmon like these, die once they've laid their eggs:

*All photos courtesy of Jennifer-thanks Jenn!
http://www.goldseal.ca/wildsalmon/life_cycle.asp

Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread

The classic children's book Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin prompted a colleague and me, many years ago by now, to collaborate and so got our classes involved in a baking project. We guadrupled the recipe to satisfy all the eager participants and so an annual ritual evolved for my class. The students and my colleagues all enjoyed the results. So to keep in step with the season I pulled out my well-used yellow zeroxed copy of Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread and baked a loaf for old time's sake. It was still warm when I sliced it to take this picture:

I had forgotten the authors' names so I googled the title and got not only their names but also a great synopsis of the book which is still very popular today:

Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin was published in 1971 by Parents’ Magazine Press. It is the story of a young girl named Maggie who lives with her Grandmother near a cranberry bog in New England. Each year they each invite a guest to Thanksgiving dinner which always includes Grandmother’s famous cranberry bread made with a very secret recipe.

Grandmother invites the dashing Mr. Horace while Maggie invites Mr. Whiskers. Grandmother cannot stand Mr. Whiskers and is sure he is out to steal her recipe. The story takes some interesting twists and ends up demonstrating that looks can be deceiving.

Cranberry Thanksgiving is a colorful book with fun illustrations and interesting characters. Perhaps most fun is the inclusion of Grandmother’s Famous Cranberry Bread recipe at the end of the book. Making this recipe each year for Thanksgiving often becomes a beloved tradition for those who meet Maggie, Grandmother, Mr. Horace and Mr. Whiskers.

Recipe
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
3/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
1 1/2 cups light raisins

Mix the dry ingredients.
Add butter and blend as for pie pastry.

.chop cranberries in food processer
.add orange peel and juice
.add egg
whirl to blend
Add wet mixture to flour mixture and stir until blended adding the raisins.

Spoon into a greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.

Bake at 350o for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

If you choose, you may substitute cranberries for the raisins to have an all cranberry bread (that is what I did). Also a great extra is to sprinkle sugar on top of the loaf before baking. This adds a shiny, crusty surface to this loaf.

Thanksgiving

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving... Psalm 95:1-2a

A kaleidoscope of colors - what a feast for the eyes! At this time of the year I like to take a trip out to Whisbey farms near Yarrow. The large orange barn near the freeway signals the turnoff. Here you can find bins of freshly grown local cabbages, beets, carrots, potatoes, squash of every shape and variety and fields of pumpkins. The huge cabbages sell for $1.29 -up from $1.00 a few years ago and are perfect for cabbage rolls and borscht. When I cut in to a super large one yesterday the ripping sound was just as I remembered it from years gone by in my Mother's house. But the gourds and squash really caught my eye for all the color. Here the larger orange one was simply called a gourd, there is a butternut, a couple of acorn squash, turban squash in the forefront,the spaghetti squash I had already started so it didn't make it into the display. I purchased four small cooking pumpkins, one of which was already in the oven when I set this up. We love pumpkin pie and pumpkin pudding. I took so many shots and had great difficulty deciding which, if any, was better than the other. Finally I decided I would take Blogger up on the offer and collaged them like this-

Willms' Deluxe Raisin Squares - gluten-free

 

Since Al has become increasingly more sensitive to gluten and dairy products, along with a number of other foods, I've been trying to figure out how to use my regular recipes to meet his dietary restrictions. I was surprised and hopeful when he said we should try to make a raisin pie with a ground almond crust. Now raisin pie is his very favorite treat which he hasn't enjoyed for a very long time. So there I was remembering walnut slices of times past and my Raisin Tarts recipe (I always use the recipe from an old Five Roses cookbook). Mulling through these I got Al busy grinding two coffee grinders full of slivered almonds. He measured and soaked the raisins and found our 9x9 square pan. We were set.
Crust:
Blend together
1 3/4 cups ground almonds
1/4 cup celimix flour
1/3 cup softened butter

Press into a 9x9 pan and bake at 350o for 10 minutes.

Filling:
Mix together
.2 eggs
.1 1/2 brown sugar
.1/4 cup melted butter
.pinch of salt
.4 tablespoons Almond Breeze (milk substitute)
.1 teaspoon vanilla
.1 1/2 cups raisins
.1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Spread over hot crust and return to oven for 20-25 minutes or until filling is set.

 

We only cooled it for a few minutes before we just had to see what it was like. It was delicious! By now it has set nicely and cuts into perfect squares. I had mine with just a bit of ice cream. Very tasty-rich, buttery and sweet!

Mill Lake Pt 3

So glad Kariton House was open today exhibiting the paintings of local artists. My neighbor Lyn has a beautiful water color on display there. I spent some time in this lovely gallery located right along the trail and then continued down the winding path.

There are many benches located all around the park - benches dedicated to the memory of loved ones. This beautiful new bench trimmed in pink caught my attention immediately. I had not seen it before. As I walked over to read the inscription on the plaque I remembered the tragic story of the little 4 1/2 year old girl who had been killed in a farming accident a few years ago - I believe it was the same little girl whose name was inscribed on the shiny pink plaque.

Feeding the ducks. This young girl invited me to feed the ducks from her small stash of grain. Instead, I asked if I could take a picture.

Serenely basking in the warmth of the afternoon sunshine this little lady in her wheelchair, with her companion on the bench next to her, caught my eye. We smiled and exchanged greetings and I asked if they'd like me to take their picture. I've never done that before but somehow I felt compelled to do this. Our son Andrew* who works relentlessly at improving his skills in photography gave me the idea through his pictures. He likes to take photos of people, catching their expressions and then presenting them with a hard copy at a later date. This must have spurred me on. Although they demured momentarily they readily agreed to have their picture taken. I've already sent off an electronic copy. It was fun.**
*http://thewillmsphotogblog.blogspot.com/
**Checking my blog after posting yesterday, I didn't feel right about a few things. I suffered from "shoppers regret" and returned the last picture of Part 3 to Picasa, cropped only the dear old lady, who I later learned had just turned 90 years old and is in a care facility, since it was she I really wanted to focus on. She had such a sweet gentle spirit about her. I think she reminded me of my dear mother who also lived to be 90+ years old! Now that is all well and good but alas alack...those comments from two dear readers are now not attached. So lest you think I deleted them because I didn't like what you said, wrong...I was tickled to read your comments. Your words encourage me. Thank you so much. Now maybe eventually I'll be able to figure out how to do this all differently withour having to redo the whole post. It seems to me that Blogger or My Pictures doesn't recognize the new version i.e.cropped picture that was done by Picasa. Any ideas out there on this matter? If I had been able to do that I could simply have imported the cropped picture and deleted the old one, which is what I tried over and over to do. I had to choose between the two...get the cropped picture which I really wanted or keep the comments. Well I've kept the comments in my heart.