Music of the Night

Last night we were watching a show with Chet Atkins and a bunch of other musicians (Mark Knopfler, the Everly Brothers, Emmy Lou Harris, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, etc.) (Chet & Mark play “in your dreams”). They were all older musicians who have done their time on stage and in the studio. They must have played some of these songs thousands of times, yet you could see the joy and passion that they still had for playing. It was lovely to see - they are so lucky to have been blessed with a talent but even more so for their love and passion. I felt a little wistful and wished that I had that same sort of passion for something. 

I also watched "The Long, Long Trailer", a 1953 movie with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez. It is a pretty funny romp featuring a giant trailer that they are pulling through the mountains, with a car. There was one scene in particular that made me laugh. Dezi had to back the trailer into a narrow laneway, flanked by landscaping. There was a bunch of people all shouting different directions to him and of course he got flustered and ended up backing it into all manner of things. It reminded me of our third time out with our first trailer. At that point Carm had backed into our laneway (a tricky backup at that), but never at a campground. Well, we got to our site at UC Campground to find trees flanking the site - gulp. A group of people converged on the truck, everyone with different ideas about how to turn the wheel, etc. It was starting to be a remake of the Long, Long Trailer! Thankfully one guy whooshed them all away and helped Carm manoeuvre into the site. It was a bit of a trick getting in so Carm stressed the whole weekend about getting back out. As it turns out driving forward is much easier than driving backwards ;-)

The campground was a pretty funny place - we called it Hillbilly Land. There were mostly seasonal campers around us with all manner of "stuff" decorating their sites. And there were a million kids driving around on their bikes. It was a zoo! We even saw someone with a bloodhound - the perfect hillbilly accompaniment! On the campground map the bit of woods across from us was called the "Enchanted Forest". We laughed and laughed over that one - it was basically a swamp with some trees growing in it. But all that aside we were happy, we were camping!

Yesterday and today I worked on our closet - more organizing! It was stuffed to the gills with clothes and so disorganized. It is still stuffed but is now more organized. Carm was really good about getting rid of old stuff  (and shirts that were brand new but never worn), but I wasn't so good at it. I have tons of logowear t-shirts that I could get rid of, after all how many slouching around the house clothes does one really need, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I packed a bunch into a bag to store till later (where else but in the basement). And I still have tons of stuff. But strangely I never have anything to wear when we go out. Most of my clothes are t-shirts. I never was a fashion plate. One suggestion I read said to take a paper and inventory what bits go together to make complete outfits and then use that chart to buy new things. I just may try it.

I read an article today about how heart disease is caused by  inflammation, and inflammation is caused by what we eat - namely sugar, flour and omega 6 fats. So what did I have for lunch? Hotdogs on white buns, with chocolate milk on the side. All bad for me foods. Why is it that even when we KNOW something is bad for us we still indulge? On the menu for tonight though? Sautéed mushrooms, spinach & red pepper over a bed of brown rice & lentils - all good for me foods. Does that balance it out. Probably not :-(

What to Do?

1 pm and nothing to do... I can see why people get addicted to shopping. It is a sunny day but cool and windy, I feel like doing something, but what? It is too cold to go for a walk down at the St. Lawrence - I already got an earache just walking around the property. So what then? We could go for a drive, but where to? We could drive down to Morrisburg to the Basket Case for a club sandwich, but we do want to limit the off diet food. I'm not crazy about going shopping, plus the last thing we need is more stuff... I'm trying to organize and tidy all the stuff (junk) we do have. It's Saturday so museums and what not will be crowded. I'm just antsy! Oh, maybe I could clean the house... nah... skip that idea.

We are back from our outing now - we decided to take the truck for a drive to get gas, and maybe drive past one of Carm's old coworkers house, if we saw him outside we'd stop and say hello. We drove down some roads that we don't normally travel and there was something about the area that reminded me of riding when I was a kid. Maybe it was the little ravines, or perhaps the wide open fields. It could have been the colours. Whatever it was I was transported back to the winter and spring of 1975. My Mom had found this place called "Rainbow Ridge" in the small town of Grunthal, Manitoba, about an hour from Winnipeg. The old gentleman that owned the place lived in Winnipeg and went out there every Sunday with a load of kids in the back of his van. We'd have the day to ride and then he'd drive us home in time for supper. Oh what fun we had those Sundays. We'd all pile into the back of the van, sometimes with  his St. Bernard puppy, and with music playing on the radio (one of my time warp songs is "you are so beautiful, to me, can't you see..."). After the long drive we'd bundle up (it was in the winter) and run back to the field to get our ponies. Mine was a dark brown little pony named Fudge. We rode bareback so I was happy to have one where I wasn't so far from the ground when I fell. Some of the kids also had ponies, and some had bigger horses.

Once we caught them we'd brush and curry their coats till they shone. Then away we'd go. We'd ride over a wide creek and then up the side of a huge ravine. We'd have to hang onto their manes or we'd slide off their backs. At the top we'd all break into a gallop across the rolling field. From there we'd disburse into little groups - I wish I could remember the name of my friends (I went with some of them to Phantom of the Paradise). We'd hack around the countryside, sometimes on the roads, but often in fields and woods. At lunchtime we'd go back to the farm, down that same steep slope that we had gone up earlier - this wasn't my favourite part of the ride - it was hard to stay on! There was a building for us to warm up and eat our lunches in - we'd  be starving! The owner would have hotdogs and french fries that we could buy to augment our packed lunches.

Our afternoons would be more of the same. Races down the roads - my pony was fast for his size and sometimes even beat the big horses. I can close my eyes and recall that exhilarating feeling. We found an abandoned barn and dragged out bales of straw to be used for jumps. Fudge and I could jump two stacked - bareback! One of the girls was from Grunthal and introduced us to some boys from the area. My boyfriend was Jeff Broesky - I still have love letters from him (feel free to laugh, we were 12 or 13) - he wanted to be a figure skater.  He had a big golden palamino and would ride over in the morning to join us for the day. Oh - this is funny. One day a bunch of us decided to have a contest to see who could kiss the longest - so kiss we did - puckered lip to puckered lip, barely touching - I remember thinking "I could do this for a long time, but it's really boring."!  Isn't it funny the things we remember.

At the end of the day we'd groom our ponies and set them free for another week. Then we'd pile back into the van, sitting on the floor, exhausted from our day. The drive home was always pretty quiet.

Winter turned to spring and then one day we got there and my little pony was gone. In his place I'd be riding Dusty, a big pinto with the biggest withers you can imagine (remember we were riding bareback - ouch!). It turned out that the owner was selling his farm and moving to another location. He wouldn't be transporting us every weekend anymore, and some of our ponies would be sold. I begged and cried but had no luck with my parents, they wouldn't buy Fudge for me. Anyway, it was a really cool way to spend a winter, a dream come true in a way. If only when I finally got my own ponies I had the same braveness, instead of a chicken bone...

Back to now and our drive to Jim's... as luck would have it Jim was outside fixing the pasture fence by the road so we stopped for a little visit. As he and Carm caught up I looked across the wide brown fields and remembered... I felt a little melancholy. As we were driving back home Carm voice it well when he said "I wish we still had the horses". But there is a time for everything and that time isn't now.

Burnt Sugar Cake

This is Carm’s favourite cake so I make it for him every year for his birthday. Not more often than that though – between it and the icing there are 4 1/2 cups of sugar! That’s more sugar than we’d use in 2 years – Yikes! It’s a bit of a tricky cake to make, not only is it time consuming, but getting it out of the oven at the right time is a challenge for me. Yesterday I burnt the first one and had to start over…

Make sure to make the icing that goes with it. It is basically a caramel fudge – very, very yummy. It helps to have 2 people at the icing stage as when it sets, it sets FAST. It doesn’t leave you much time to work it. My cakes always come out looking a bit wreaky because of that, but I haven’t had one person complain once they’ve had a bite!

The recipe makes 2 layers, but instead of stacking them I iced them separately – one to go to my parents house for the birthday dinner, and the other for the freezer (for that day that we are absolutely dying for something sweet).

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Burnt-Sugar Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup Sugar
2/3 cup Boiling water
2 cups Cake flour sifted
3/4 teaspoon Baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Butter softened
1 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
2/3 cup Milk

Instructions
1. Make caramel syrup: Melt 1/2 cup sugar in 8-inch heavy skillet over medium heat. Shake pan slightly as sugar melts and turns golden. Continue heating until it turns dark amber colour. Remove from heat.
2. Gradually add boiling water, stirring constantly. Return to heat; boil rapidly, uncovered, 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Pour into 1 cup measure. Set aside to cool completely.
3. Preheat oven to 375F (350 in my oven). Grease well and flour two 8-inch round layer-cake pans. On waxed paper, sift flour with baking powder, salt and soda. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, with electric mixer at medium speed, cream butter until soft. Gradually beat in sugar; continue beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. At medium speed, beat in cooled Caramel Syrup and vanilla. Then beat in flour mixture (in fourths) alternately with milk (in thirds), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Pour into prepared pans.
6. Bake at 25 to 30 minutes (20 to 25 minutes in my oven), or until top springs back when gently pressed with fingertip.
7. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.
8. Spread half of Caramel Frosting between layers. Spread rest on top, letting it run unevenly down side.

Notes: Oven temperature is too high. Cake burns at 25 min in our oven. Reduce heat to 350 and check at 20 min (usually takes about 25 min). Watch carefully as it is a bit tricky to not burn it. (Use paddle attachment and not whisk.)

Burnt-Sugar Cake Caramel Frosting

Yields: Makes enough to frost tops of 2 (8 inch) cake layers

Ingredients

2 cups Light-brown sugar firmly packed
1/2 cup Butter
5 tablespoon Light cream
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon Baking powder

Instructions
1. In medium saucepan, combine sugar, butter and cream; bring to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil gently, stirring, 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Add vanilla and baking powder. With electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 5 minutes. When it is ready work fast!

Enjoy!