The Leaf in a Page

War Cake Big Raisins The first time I ever heard of War Cake was when dating David. His mom was making it around the holidays and it was Dec 1977. I asked why they called it war cake and his mom Edie, told me it was an easy, affordable cake with no dairy or eggs that people could send off to the men at war during war times. Edie also said the spices provide a way to preserve the cake so it will last for a while. I found more information at http://www.bcfoodhistory.ca/canadian-war-cake/ which has a very good write up about the history of war cake which agrees with Edie’s explanation.   Edie MacPherson circa 1978 The recipe I am sharing came from a cookbook she gave me so I could recreate the war cake for David. She changed it a bit and I made that version a few times but after reading a few others I noticed one with baking powder, whilst most of the originals have 1 or 2 tsp of baking soda only depending on the amount of flour the recipe called for. T...

Salt – Why we knead it in Bread. Hey we need it too! Salt is one of those ingredients we need for seasoning food and enhancing flavours. It is known to reduce bitterness while increasing the flavours of savoury, sweet and sour. This is why salt is added to most dishes. It is interesting to learn the role salt has in bread and I wanted to share the important reasons it is required in bread making. Put simply, it conditions the gluten in the bread to make it stronger and more elastic which allows the stretch needed for the little or bigger air bubbles to form cells and give a home to the gas released when yeast is munching on the starches and sugars. Funny how it reminds me that we need salt/sodium for our muscles to work properly. It plays an important role as part of the process that transmits nerve impulses sending messages to our muscles to contract and relax. This includes the muscles we are not always aware of such as heart smooth muscles that contract and relax a...

It is true, I applied for a program at the Nova Scotia Community College before retirement, on a whim. The Boulanger and Baking Art program. It is a one year college course focusing on bread making and other baked goods. Last November (2017) my friends were going to the schools bake sale and I went along. The students stood behind their tables full of beautiful baked products with their clean crisp chef outfits on and  huge smiles on their faces. Before long I had researched the program and applied. I was accepted and decided I would retire and go back to school at age 60. Now it is February and we are almost finished the third rotation with one more rotation to go and a work term for 5 weeks. Afterwards I will graduate with the class, the most senior student in the class. One of the first breads we learned to make was Brioche. A rich bread with egg and butter added after the gluten has time to form. Here is a photo of the finished product going to the school cafe for sale. ...

Stress Freer and Healthier This spring I decided enough was enough. My workload had been too much for 3 plus years. Each time I looked for support from management it seemed I was handed 1/2 of a bandaid to work with. I really wanted to end with 30 years but 29 years of nursing would have to do. Far too many days of overtime and missed lunches. I could not have felt better. I started cycling again. Blood started moving to places forgotten. People asked how does it feel to be retired? Still not sure how to answer that. Time will tell. Three weeks after stopping work I had to have a wack of blood work done. For the past few years my liver enzymes were slightly elevated. Nothing drastic just a bit up. My family physician sent me to the liver specialist because there were elevated a couple of times in a row. She follows guidelines and that is why I love my GP. The liver specialist reviewed the blood work with me and everything was completely normal. Huh! They told me not to come back....

Boy oh boy it is hard to find time to write a post. I had wanted to write about the fun I had with birch bark a couple of winters ago. Of course it was a dog walking day when I noticed all sorts of birch bark on the floor of the forest. It was such a contrast in colour to the rest of the dead fall, moss and autumn leaves. I gathered some on a few walks and brought home to make something. All sorts of ideas popped in my head like wrapping a candle, making a little canoe, and even making a small lamp shade to incorporate the natural holes in some of the bark. Alas, none of these ideas formed into anything. Instead little Christmas ornament cutouts and a birch bark tree morphed from my mind from inspiration of colouring books and Pinterest. The first thing I did was put the prized birch bark in a tub of water with a 1/2 cup of bleach. I wanted to make sure it was free of unwanted guests. The kind you see and don't see. It soaked for about 20 mins. They were quite curly so whi...

We have a a bench that sat on the deck for the past 10 plus years. It is made from teak wood but is looking worn and mossy. I have been wanting to give it a face-lift for some time. We also have an ol' wooden spool that has been sitting behind our shed for at least the same amount of time. I wonder how it has survived the Nova Scotia weather all this time. I wanted to do something with it as well. Many ideas crossed my mind, (all from perusing Pinterest) but decided on a table because other than the store bought furniture on the patio there is nothing else to use as a table. I got both of these items and hauled them into the front of the house and near the garage so we could store them in between working sessions. David (my husband and re-purposing partner, has all the supplies to get started. He dug out from the dredges of the garage 100 gauge sandpaper, his means 100 grains of sand per sq inch. We also found some clean paint brushes and filler for the deep holes in the spo...

Making a Wool Sweater Blanket This morning I am taking time to write another post. It isn't easy to sit and do this until you, let's say are forced to relax. I was out biking with friends yesterday on a beautiful trail in Cole Harbour called the Shearwater Flyer. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByaUOi1-_rN6ZGZmMDM5ZTUtOGVjYS00YjBiLWJmZTUtNmM1ZTk4YzgyMGQ0/view?hl=en  Here is the link. It is a well used trail. We started at Bissett Rd and were 4 kilometers in when the first rider fell off her bike, which lead to me stopping quickly and falling then the third friend went down. It was funny in a way. We were all ok but I was quite sore so we turned the bikes around and rode back to the truck at the entrance of the trail. My left thigh was starting to bruise and swell. In a couple of hours I could not put pressure on my left leg. The swelling is between my knee and hip. The other two were ok and kept going. They found another rider and went most of the afternoon. They then...