Choices

At work about mid-afternoon my stomach tells me that it needs more input.  I bring snacks and put them in the Company fridge.  I also have a drawer full of sustenance filled with mostly junk food which do not need refrigeration.  Chips, granola bars, canned soup & chocolate. It is like a grocery store in there, thank goodness you didn't ask for a photo of my drawer, I would be embarrassed.   It is time for me to go to the Company kitchen

I usually put my stuff on the 2nd shelf.  I have a Gala Apple and a box of Chocolate coated Girl Guide mint cookies.   They taste better when they are chilled a bit.  So which to choose

should I choose the apple or the cookies.   I decided to take the more healthy option

and chose the Gala Apple

I find that apples always taste better when they are cut into segments.  I take them back to my desk

and started to munch on them as I continued to "work".   I was proud of myself for making the right decision of eating more fruit

Soon thereafter I had finished all the apple segments and my stomach was asking for more . . .

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so I had no other choice but to dig into my cookies too

but since I have tremendous will power I managed to stop at two

No, I didn't forget

about the Chocolate Angel Food Cake.  I thought that I had baked a dud Bundt Cake until I discovered that Bundt cakes were supposed to be heavy and substantial.  I wrote about it HERE .  After all those comments I decided that my Bundt cake wasn't a dud after all and Richard wanted me to post up the recipe, which I finally did.  So I thought that was the end of it until I received a couple of comments from BeemerGirl/Lori and BikerBaby

so here we are, a proven recipe which I have used many times

 

Chocolate Angel Food Cake

A)  Melt, in a small pot:

4 oz  bakers semi-sweet chocolate in 1 cup milk

Cool the chocolate mixture

B)  In a separate container

Beat  4 egg yolks creamed with 2 cups icing sugar

          Then add: 1 tsp vanilla

Add part B to Part A to form the liquid ingredients,

Then stir in the dry ingredients (c) as follows

C) in a separate container add

1-1/4 cup cake flour, sifted

½  tsp      salt

2-1/2 tsp  baking powder

Beat until stiff,   4 egg whites and

Gently fold the beaten whites into the mixture

and bake @ 350°F for about 50 minutes

in an Angel Food Cake  or 9" square pan

(check with a toothpick should come out clear)

This cake is very light because of the Baking Powder which adds air,

the use of the finer cake flour and the air included by the beaten, and stiff

egg whites.  Be careful to just fold in the egg whites and bake immediately.

There is no vegan equivalent for Angel Food cake as I am discovering,

as only egg whites can incorporate the air needed.  Ener-G or corn starch

will not beat up the same way

for a topping I suggest a European type chocolate drizzle.  You can figure out

your own proportions

Melt: 1 oz chocolate semi-sweet, butter, whipping (heavy) cream and Icing Sugar

until you get the sweetness and consistency you want.  I use this combination as a 

topping for my cream puffs

Grandpa, do you have any more

of those carob cookies you gave me last time ?" chirped our Granddaughter .  She was referring to those Vegan Gluten free Carob chip cookies I wrote about here.   Our Daughter was feeling sad for us and brought over a BBQ chicken and visited for a while.  They didn't want us to starve.

Also it just happened that our son-in-law twisted his right foot playing ice hockey and had to use crutches.  What a sad family we are with so many injuries.  Luckily my foot just got a bit better so I am nearly walking normally

Tomorrow is also our Granddaughter's 9th birthday and we were expected to come for dinner so I just knew I had to get my mixer ready

I sifted the flour and started to mix the sugar and butter

Added the dry mixture and it wasn't long before the cookies were ready to come out of the oven.  I won't bore you with the details . . .

I prepared them a bit differently this time.  Instead of small cookies I rolled them up into larger balls and pressed them a bit so they were much thicker than I usually make them, so instead of 350°F for 8-10 minutes I had to leave them in OUR  oven for nearly 15 minutes

I waited a few minutes before I moved them onto my cooling racks using my metal spatula

The batter was much dryer than normal as I used butter instead of margarine this time and I thought they would fall apart after baking, but they didn't

Just as the cookies were cooled down enough to transport we put them into a small container and were on our way to dinner.  They are a mixture of carobs and semi-sweet chocolate chips as I am getting low on baking supplies

Here is the "Birthday Girl",   9 years old today

along with a photo of her Grandmother (Mrs Skoot), both still sporting their casts


Recipe:  Chocolate Chip Cookies    (vegan in brackets)

Dry Ingredients:
2-3/4 cup     sifted flour
1 tsp             salt
1 tsp             baking soda

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup           margarine (or vegan margarine)
3/4 cup        white sugar  (I used 1/2 cup)
3/4 cup        brown sugar
1 tsp            vanilla
1 ea             egg   (or sub ener-G)
1  cup          semi-sweet chocolate chips (or carobs)

Mix wet ingredients in order listed, fold in dry ingredients and then the chocolate chips

bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes

My most valuable Asset is broken

Mrs Skoot went into surgery for her broken wrist on Friday and after a few hours of recovery the Hospital phoned to say she was ready to be transported home

She was still drowsy from being sedated and it was my job to "get her dressed" .  You should try this sometime, you know, dressing someone else.  First the underwear, socks, top, pants, then the Bra .    Some things you just can't do with only one arm.  Most males can detach one easily using only two fingers and a thumb, but it takes two hands to manipulate the hooks.   I had a terrible time.

I had to go downstairs to fetch a wheelchair to make things easier

Before I drove to the Hospital I had to change cars and bring Mrs Skoot's new Crosstrek as the seats in my car are lower and harder to crawl out for someone with a cast.

At this stage there is still a bit of pain and swelling.  She has to keep her arm at least level in height with her heart and use ice packs to keep the swelling down

We have a workable supply of Tylenol-3 and morphine tablets (pictured above).   They are much smaller than I thought they would be and I had to jump hurdles at the Pharmacy before they would release them to me.

Since it was raining I thought the best thing to do was to stay home and keep her company

It was recommended for her to eat light meals, not too much protein and stick to things like soup for a few days so eventually I had to go out and purchase more provisions

I brought out OUR small cleaver and went to the business of making something wholesome

I diced up 4-5 stalks of celery

Then I peeled 3-4 carrot sticks, and diced them up too

I brought out a soup pot, drizzled in some olive oil and started to saute them for a while and then added a spoon of flour.  After the flour was cooked I added a 28oz tin of diced tomatoes (including the water in the tin) and started to bring the mixture to a boil.   Then I used OUR  CuisinArt to chop up a head of broccoli and added it to my creation.   I am not following a recipe but rather just adding things in and I thought my soup had too many vegetables in it (too thick) so I then added a Liter of Vegetable Broth to thin it out and have more liquid.

Up until this point all you need to do is to simmer this soup for about half an hour and this Vegetable Soup will be ready to eat.   We don't use a lot of spices but we did add some Garlic and Ginger.

I decided to add a bit of protein

I bought a package of shrimp

and I sauteed them a bit in a small sauce pan

then I diced up a filet of Basa (white fish) .  The shrimps and Basa were added after it had simmered for about half an hour and I let them simmer for another 10-15 minutes to ensure they were cooked

It is finished and now it's time for a light Seafood Soup Dinner, cooked in Vegetable soup.   Good medicine for a cool, chilly, rainy day

Excuses for non riding

We had a great summer.  Then during mid September I bought my Nu2Me  R1200R Hexhead Beemer.

I was planning a last multi day ride on my Nu2me bike and I farkled it up with RAM mounts for my GPS, a new topcase rack and basically it was ready for the highway.  I booked my vacation days and during this time the weather was gloriously beautiful.  I had plans to visit my Uncle towards northern Vancouver Island and I had also made arrangements to meet another blogger in Victoria.   The reason I waited too long was because Mrs Skoot was going to Las Vegas with "the girls" and I wouldn't feel guilty taking the time to be away by myself.   Even up to the week before my planned days off the weather was looking good.

But at the last minute I got rained out.  I managed to salvage another vacation day which I booked for another Monday a couple of weeks later, hoping for the weather to co-operate, but it also got rained out.   We were getting waves of torrential wind and rains for weeks.

Then when I got access to my garage to move my "vette, I was also moving my bikes around and stressed my bad foot.  I could barely walk.  It took a couple of weeks before I was healed enough to walk nearly normal.  It was only last week when I felt normal again.  The rain still hadn't stopped but last Saturday I thought about taking my bike for a ride, rain or no rain.

I don't like to ride when the temperatures are 7°c or lower because that is the threshold for good traction on summer tires.  I worry about "Grip" on our wet roads.  Also in the City we have very aggressive drivers and you may have to do an emergency maneuver.

Friday morning we had a horrific accident on Burrard Street which claimed the lives of a rider and passenger.   The pillion was a 22 year old female who was also pregnant.  You can read about it HERE
Yes, the rider may have been speeding.  The BMW may have not seen them and pulled in front of them and they couldn't stop but the fact is that they are dead

There has since been a lot of discussion about it HERE   To make a long story short, I decided not to ride last weekend.  I worry about grip and traction control.  I told myself a long time ago that if I got bad vibes I would just take my car and be safe.  Saving a few dollars for fuel but putting yourself in harms way is not the best choice. 

I nearly forgot to mention that I also stressed my left wrist.  It hurts when I flex it a certain way, like a lightning bolt up my arm.  I do not know what I did, perhaps slept the wrong way or something like that

Then the Fog came

I prefer to keep away from fog as it is difficult to see my small taillights.  Plus the week after daylight savings time is when there is an increase of accidents.  You probably noticed that I think too much.  I worry about safety and I believe there is a time to ride and a time to NOT ride

When it is only 2°c , the fog can also deposit on the roadway and turn into ice.  We have humid air on the Wet Coast, not the dry air you find in the East where it may get cold but the roads are dry

Then that fateful day nearly two weeks ago Mrs Skoot broke her right wrist (rotator bone).  I told her not to go to work but she is a workaholic and she was advised NOT TO DRIVE, during the healing time which may span 8 weeks or more.  So now I am also her chauffeur.   I leave work in Coquitlam and drive to downtown Vancouver to pick her up and bring her home.   I did think about riding my bike to work, BUT then I would have to come home first to get the car.  This would take extra time and effort and just didn't make sense as I can swing pass her work on the way, so now the commuting option is out of the question.  I have been waiting to ride on the weekends but there has been rain forecast for every weekend for as long as I can remember.

Broken Wrist UPdate:   It has been nearly 2 weeks since Mrs Skoot had her mishap and cast put on.  Today was her followup checkup and it didn't go well.   It seems that the cast did not keep her bones in alignment and she now has to go in for surgery tomorrow to have it "pinned".  I imagine this would be for day surgery and she will be able to come home later in the day.   It would seem that my domesticated duties will continue for the foreseeable future, but that's okay as the weather forecast is for rain again (sigh).

Barefoot & Pregnant *** edited to include recipe

I knew that would get your attention.  I don't think I'm pregnant but perhaps it looks that way because I eat too much.  Last week I spent a whole day in the kitchen baking and getting a bit frustrated.  It started out happy as I went to the store to buy some zucchini and a container of vegetable oil to make a proven recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread/loaf , from an accomplished baker .  I checked my cupboard and could not find a bundt pan.  I thought I had one.

So off to the store again to buy one and wouldn't you know, there was a recipe for a chocolate bundt cake on the packaging.  I have found that when a manufacturer puts a recipe on their packaging it is usually a proven, time tested and good tasting recipe so I changed my plan and decided to use this newly found recipe instead.  It was also Vegan as it used no eggs or dairy products

I more or less followed the directions and mixed up my batter and filled my new bundt pan.  I also bought a can of PAM to make it easier to release the cake from the pan.  I cut down the sugar content by about 30%

The hardest part about baking is having to clean up after yourself.

The easiest part is watching the batter rise while it bakes.

Soon it is done and cooled enough to put on OUR cooling rack.  I did add a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

When it was cool enough I decided to give the topping a quick dusting of icing sugar.  Remember, this was on Saturday afternoon.   We were invited out for dinner on Sunday and I needed to bring something.

Of course if you make cookies, you have a chance to sample one before you give the rest away.  That way you can ensure that it meets your standards and tastes good.   It is hard to taste any cake as you have to slice the first piece and remove it before you are able to sample your creation.   I can't imagine bringing a cake with a slice removed, so the plan was to have a piece for dessert, after we had our dinner, and then make another bundt cake on Sunday morning.

Well, the magic moment of reckoning arrived and it was a bit heavy.  Definitely not something that I would be proud of, so into the garbage it went.  I looked at the recipe again and decided that the mixing order was wrong because the flour was over mixed "in my opinion" .  It needed more air bubbles.  So on Sunday morning I used the same recipe and got all of OUR appliances out again to make another one and this time I used my wire whisks

I attached the whisk hoping to create more air bubbles

Then when the batter (liquid ingredients) was done I folded in the flour at the end, manually using another wire whisk.  This way the flour does not get beaten at all

I cleaned up as my 2nd bundt was in the oven

The 2nd one was not much better than the first one.  I like light and fluffy cakes, not heavy ones so I have come to the conclusion that this particular recipe is NO GOOD, it gets TWO THUMBS DOWN .  Don't believe everything you read on labels.

I still had enough time to make a 3rd cake to bring to dinner which was only 2 hours away.  I used my tried and proven recipe for Chocolate Angel Food cake which is very light but I usually use a rectangular loaf pan.  This time I used my new Bundt Pan but forgot to spray it with PAM so when it was ready I could not  remove it from the pan to put on a topping.   While things didn't work out as planned at least I didn't arrive empty handed


Edited *****************************

As per Richard's request, I am including the recipe for the Chocolate Bundt Cake.  I am now convinced that this cake was supposed to be a bit heavier/dense than what I am used to.

In an effort to minimize beating the flour I have changed the mixing order.  Add ingredients in the order listed


Bowl ONE:  dry ingredients

3    cups   Sugar   ( I reduced to 2-1/4 cups to make it less sweet )
1/2 cup    Cocoa Powder  (I used Frys)
1  tsp       baking soda
3/4 tsp     salt

Bowl TWO:  wet ingredients

1 cup      Vegetable Oil
1 tsp        vinegar
1 tsp        vanilla
3 cups      water

Bowl  THREE: dry ingredient

4-1/2 cups  sifted flour ( I used general purpose )

I think this qualifies as Vegan.   I don't see any animals in these lists
add ingredients in order listed

Mix Bowl One
Mix Bowl Two

Combine Bowl One and Bowl Two (together)
then FOLD IN the flour from Bowl Three (best by hand with wire whisk)

2nd EDIT *******************************************************

OPTIONAL:  If you have a sweet tooth like Richard , you can add 1 cup of semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

***************************************************************

Bake @ 350°F for  45-55 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean

leave in pan for 15 minutes, then remove from pan and put on cooling rack
when cool, dust with icing sugar

It's been about a week

since Mrs Skoot broke her wrist and I have (by necessity) taken over the domestic duties.  Luckily we eat simply

Tonight for vegetables it was corn on the cob and broccoli

When I go to the supermarket the menu is determined by what is on sale.   When I went to the store I picked up two packages of pork steaks.   To save a bit of energy we usually make two meals at once.   We will have a normal portion and have enough for another day, and sometimes a lunch too

The pork fillets are sitting on a bed of onions, a drizzle of olive oil and topped with sliced lemons, more onions and a can of soup concentrate, this time it was cream of celery.   Into the oven at 350°F for about an hour

The corn on the cob is husked and steamed in a pot along with the broccoli

It only takes about 20 minutes so we wait a bit so they are ready when the meat is ready

It seems that we are now ready to "plate up" our meal

We don't add any liquid but there is enough generated to have some gravy and the onions are generally caramelized a bit.

We try to have a balanced meal

Since Mrs Skoot can only use one hand for the next 6-7 weeks, I have to do all the cutting (or anything that requires two hands)   I also found out today that even though it is possible for her to drive, we were advised for her not to.  If there were an accident, she would be in a bad situation.

We usually don't use our oven during the Summer when we rely more on our BBQ .  This is our comfort food for cold winter days.  We have had to scrape windshields twice this week, and this morning it was only 1°C.

I only had one casualty.  I had blood all over my finger.  It did look worse than this but I licked the blood off.  I didn't even feel it, must have been when I was cutting the onions with our cleaver