Tuesday, August 8, 2017

I was up early but I had lots to do today. I had several packages that needed to be sent in the mail and I had a lot of errands to run. The parcels didn’t take long to get ready and then I had to sit and wait until the shops opened.

I stopped at the Post Office and then made a Cranberry Hall deposit. I should have known better than to attempt the Credit Union on the Tuesday after a long weekend; the line up was long but I think I’ll be able to get a card that will allow me to use the ATM for most of my deposits. From there it was a short trip across the street to Dollarama where I got plate covers for the weekend (with the doors open there are bound to be flies) and a frame for our City’s Proclamation.

Then I made a stop at one of the Thrift Shops and picked up eight vases/containers of various shapes and sizes that I’ll use on the tables as donation jars. I also picked up more than a dozen glasses; we don’t have a lot of drinking glasses at the Hall and since I’m serving up Cranberry Coolers I thought we’d need extras. Even with the ones of my own that I will add I think we’ll be doing a lot of dishes to keep up.

I made it to the bee a little after eleven. I didn’t plan to sew but I took my knitting along in case I finished with the Library early. I managed to finish sorting all the books and getting them arranged but once that was done I took a few photos for the blog and I left. I stopped at Walmart hoping to find another bundt cake pan but I didn’t have any luck. From there I picked up a few things I needed for my Cranberry Tarts and a few gluten-free snacks. I was surprised that I was able to find a bundt pan at Safeway; I’m not even going to look at what it cost me though!

My latest test for Cranberry Tarts has been approved so all my recipes are good-to-go. I have the first (of six) bundt cakes in the oven. Pat will plug in the fridge at the Hall tonight and I’ll store as much of my baking as possible there rather than in my own already-overcrowded fridge. I’ll do the cakes first, then the cookies, and then the tarts, although the tart filling can be made ahead of time.

I can smell my cake so I’d better go check on it.

Monday, August 7, 2017

I’ve been in the kitchen almost all day testing my recipes. First up were my Cranberry Almond cookies. They were quick to make and I got almost three dozen from the batter. I played around a bit with the cooking time and temperature. The recipe called for the cookies to bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes. Since I know I always have to cook things a bit longer in our oven I baked them for the full 12 minutes. They were good but seemed a bit undone in the centre. For the next sheet I added a couple more minutes to the baking time, and for the third sheet I upped the temperature to 375° and baked them for 14 minutes. The batch at 350° for 14 minutes were the winner. My cookie sheets are relatively large so I can only fit one in the oven at a time; with the quantity I’m making it would take forever so Pat went out this afternoon and bought a couple more sheets. I’ll be able to fit three sheets in the oven at a time now so that will speed things up, although I’ll still have to stop in between batches to fill the sheets.

When the cookies were done I headed out to do a bit of shopping. There were still a few things that we needed for the celebration that didn’t involve the concession but that I said I would pick up. After that was done I headed to the grocery store for my baking supplies.

Next on the test board were my Cranberry Tarts. The frozen cranberries were to be cooked, put through a colander and then cooked again. This was a lot of work for about 15 tarts; the colour wasn’t that great (it reminded me of play dough as it was cooking) but they taste quite good. But I thought there should be an easier way. Pat didn’t think putting the cranberries through the blender would work so I tried changing the lemon juice in my lemon curd  recipe to cranberry juice – the rest of the ingredients and quantities were the same as the recipe I was using. The colour is even worse (brownish, and not even a golden brown) and I don’t think it is going set the way the lemon curd did; I guess the cranberry juice doesn’t have as much pectin as the lemon juice does.

I refuse to give up though as the tarts have gone into some of the promotional material, so I’ve found another recipe that uses canned cranberry sauce and marshmallows – that sounds like my kind of recipe. So I’ll go out to the store and buy a can of cranberry sauce (hopefully I can find some) and give it another go.

Sunday, August 6, 2017

It took me most of the morning to finish yesterday’s tasks. The show we are watching on Netflix is subtitled so I can’t stitch and watch at the same time. I intended to only watch one, maybe two, shows but the story was nearing its conclusion and it left you hanging after each show so we ended up finishing off the series. I read a bit before turning the light out but my book still wasn’t finished.

So this morning I got up and finished the hand stitching for the binding, the sleeve and the label on my O Canada project. I was on my way upstairs but decided to sit out on the back deck and finish my book first. When that was done I came upstairs with the intention of working on a card before my trip to the library.

But when I saw the mess my desk was in I decided I needed to do some computer and office work. Cranberry Hall papers are sorted, filed and/or shredded. I have a deposit ready for the bank on Tuesday and a pile started for things I will need on the weekend. Then I did some pre-posts for my website and documented my latest project in my project book. It was past lunchtime by the time I finished so we sat on the deck and had lunch.

By the time I came back in after lunch, I had decided that getting another card done was more important than the trip to the Library. But first there were just a few e-mails that needed my attention. I’ve just now left an impromptu Cranberry Hall meeting to discuss volunteers and programming for the two event sights; I was only needed to get in my request for volunteers to help with the concession.

Pat has had ribs cooking in the oven since noon and there is no chance of starting any of my baking today so I’m finally going to start that sewing. I think we are off to the movies tonight.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

I’m working again today, but it feels more like fun. I’m busy quilting my O Canada project. In fact, the quilting is done and I’m going to start cutting the binding. I’m hoping for a finish tonight, regardless of how late I need to stay up. I have other things to do tomorrow and I want this one off my list (and off my mind).

I also hoped for another finished today but I don’t know if I’ll get there. I have a hundred or so pages left in my book and, if I get it done, I plan to return it to the library tomorrow afternoon and sit and enjoy the space a bit more.

But for now, it’s back to O Canada.