Salmon-Pt 4

I caught you, Daniel...

Just want to keep movin' along...

We take one more long look at this phenom and head back to the van...

...after all...we're going out for donuts!

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!