Broken bones, oh no!

On Good Friday, my mom fell and tumbled. The next morning she was hobbling around with an ice pack under a tensor bandage on her foot. She was sore everywhere. When I called her on my way home from work, I asked how her foot was. She said it actually hurt more than earlier in the day. I suggested that she should get it checked out. So my mom and dad went to Centenary Hospital saturday night. In typical long weekend fashion, the wait in the emergency room was crazy. After 5 hours, she came home with some crutches declaring that she had a cracked bone on the top of her foot. Yikes! There was no one on staff at the time to put a cast on, so she has to go back today at 4pm and see a specialist on Wednesday. It looks like her golf season will be on hold until she's back on her feet 100%. (Right now she's trying to convince me that she doesn't need the cast...I'm trying to tell her that her foot will heal faster if it's immobilized in a cast. The next 6 weeks are going to be hell...)

Crab and Sweet Corn Soup

During our lunch at Wah Sing, I did not eat any "meat" dishes. It was Good Friday. During Lent, I didn't eat meat on fridays and every week made a batch of Crab and Sweet Corn soup from a recipe I found online. The first time I made it, I was eating it by myself. My brother hadn't been too interested in the prospect, so I made him a pizza instead. As I was eating the soup, my brother, asked what I was eating. The smell was getting to him. I offered him a bowl. As he was eating it, he commented that he had no idea how good the soup would be. He had a second bowl. The next week, when I mentioned the soup, he automatically said yes.

So I mentioned to my cousins about the soup. They wanted me to give them the recipe, so I thought I would post it.

Meredith, you can substitute little chunks of chicken breast. (Probably 1 large breast) I would mix it with the ginger uncooked then add it to the chicken broth to cook for a couple of minutes(3 1/2 cups), then add the corn. By the time everything comes to a boil, it should be all cooked. Just keep the chicken chunks small. Enjoy!

Sweet Corn Soup with Crabmeat

3/4 tsp finely grated fresh ginger (I use a rasp)

3/4 cup drained canned crabmeat (I use a 120gr can of President's Choice Chunk Crab Meat)

2 tsp cornstarch

4 tsp water

3 cups chicken broth

1 14 fl oz can creamed corn

1 12 fl oz can corn niblets, drained

1 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp granulated sugar

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste (4 turns of the pepper mill, 1 pinch?)

In a small bowl, stir the chopped ginger into the crabmeat. In a separate small bowl, stir together the cornstarch and water.In a medium saucepan, bring chicken broth, creamed corn, corn niblets, soy sauce, sugar, and pepper to a boil, stirring occasionally.Add the crabmeat and return to a boil. Re-stir the corn starch and water and pour it into the soup, stirring quickly to thicken. Bring back to a boil.
Remove the soup from heat and enjoy! The soup reheats very nicely. We always add a squirt of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce...Mmm!

Good Friday with the Cousins

A little blurry, but you can get a sense of the yummy cuteness!

There were no festivities planned for the parents, so the "kids" decided to arrange a gathering for the cousins alone. After much debate and emails going back and forth, we decided to go to Wah Sing for lunch then dessert and games at Sooky's afterward.

Wah Sing was Jenny's idea of limiting the work for everyone, since we would normally do a pot luck...;P

In honour of Jenny's upcoming 25th birthday I made cupcakes. White Chocolate and Lemon cupcakes. I made lemon curd for the first time and white chocolate lemon cupcakes from my new Heavenly Cakes book. Then topped it with a Cream Cheese, white chocolate and lemon frosting from Epicurious.

Although I didn't take a picture of Jenny enjoying her cupcake, I did take one of Hanny enjoying her second one. Diana had 3!

At Sooky's house, we played an energetic game of Taboo, played with the babies, Charlotte and Samara had an Easter Egg hunt and I got to play Angry birds on Sooky's new iPad.

It's nice to know that even if our parents are not organizing our family gatherings, everyone else is enthusiastic about celebrating the holidays together. Fantastic family.

Talia

During my visit for Mark's birthday, I snapped these pictures of Talia...so cute. Mer asked me not to post them, but how could I not? At 4 months, she's already a bit of a ham. Obviously the apple didn't fall too far from the tree...Marky...I'm not pointing any fingers. :P

I know what you're thinking...but not to worry. I gave plenty of kisses to those cheeks. In fact...I think she likes having her cheeks peppered with kisses, making slurping noises. I could have nibbled on those cheeks all night. Such a cutie pie.

Here are your damn cupcakes!...(with a little bit of history)

My cousin Mark's birthday was monday. (He's Cat and Mad's younger brother) He's the same age as my brother and growing up it was like I had 3 brother's instead of one (Including Sooky's brother Eunho) He's a chocoholic and a Star Wars lover...so how could I resist baking him some dark chocolate cupcakes? Intentions were good, obviously, but the course did not run smooth... (A little back story) A few years ago, (probably a dozen) I wanted to make my brother a huge fancy bakery style birthday cake. A 3 or 4 layer monstrosity of chocolate and more chocolate. I had decided to make the cake part from a Duncan Hines Devil's food mix, since we loved the flavour, and make the chocolate ganache frosting from scratch. I had purchased all the ingredients from a nearby baking specialty shop. I baked the 3 layers from 2 cake mixes no problem, but the frosting...not so easy. As I was taking the chocolate off of the water bath, I could see it split. The chocolate fat and solid separated right before my eyes. I didn't know what to do. I frantically tried to salvage it but it was no use. I tossed the chocolate out. I had luckily purchase enough for a second batch. This time, the chocolate melted fine, but would not thicken...I added whipped cream to try and change it to something lighter and spreadable but...my baking skills were a little underdeveloped...and the frosting was this sloppy, soupy mess. So around midnight, I was off to Sobey's to buy Betty Crooker frosting. The next day, I went to work at my parent's coffee shop and assembled the cake there. 3 tiers, including dowels to hold it in place. It was massive. We were having dinner at my cousin Sooky's parent's place for Korean Thanksgiving... on the way there, a car in front of me turned without signalling and I slammed on the brakes, quickly grabbing my purse before it flew onto the cake sitting in front of the passenger seat. By the time I arrived at my cousins' place, I called the house, heart thumping from the close call and asked Hanna to come out and take the cake in...with my luck, I would have tripped on my way to the front door. Suffice it to say, it was a "huge" hit...but it was the most expensive boxed cake in history.

I haven't attempted a ganache/frosting since. Not out of fear :P but no real occasion for a big cake like that. I usually use buttercreams. But, buttercreams are not big on chocolate flavour and I wanted to max on flavour, so I scoured recipes on Epicurious and Food network. I baked cupcakes that came out perfectly. Lovely bump and nice fluffy texture. (A little light on the chocolate flavour...will have to look into that) The frosting is a ganache/buttercream hybrid from Michael Smith. I follow the directions. Without thinking I added the whipping cream straight from the fridge...I could totally see the chocolate split and this oily curdled looking sludge. UGHHHH! All I could think to myself is "I'm a pretty competent baker...yet there are people less competent who can seem to make beautiful frosting...why not me?" Instantly my mind is reminded of that birthday cake all those years ago. I actually felt a little pitiful, and I realized I don't have enough whipping cream to try this again, UGH! Frantically I searched on google all the ways to possibly "fix" the split. I added a little vegetable oil...I heated then chilled, then whipped on high speed in the mixer. As if by magic, the goop turns sticky...I see it sticking to the sides of the bowl...the texture looks less oily and curdled...the texture looks smooth and silky...I stick my finger in the bowl... WOW!!! It's FROSTING! Wasting no time I immediately pipe them on my perfect looking bases. I let them dry for a few minutes and put them in airtight glass containers for transport. I packed a bag with the StarWars cupcake liners and left it by the door. I had to be at work early. It was supposed to rain all day. So I left them in the car. It was 6C in the morning so I thought they should be fine. It was going to warm up but it would be rainy and dreary so I wasn't too worried. While at work, I heard thunder and the whole mall seemed dark from the clouds outside. I knew they were safe. Then around noon, the sun came out. It stayed sunny all afternoon...I asked everyone about the weather. Ron said it was sunny but cool. Susie confirmed it was warming up. At 4:30 I raced outside to find the front half of the car bathed in sunshine and toasty...Luckily I had left the cupcakes in the back seat. I felt the containers and they were still cool to the touch. (Yeah!) So I delivered my Dark Chocolate cupcakes...they looked absolutely perfect. Just don't ask me to make them again...my heart can't take it. Well, at least wait a little before you ask. (What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment.:) Oh, and Happy Birthday Marky! I hope you liked them.

A little catch up...

I realized I had so many pictures of Pip and Sabrina from their last visit, that I hadn't posted yet(they were here for 3 weeks and left last weekend). Sabrina was so funny. In three short months, she went from a baby, not quite able to walk, to a toddler, constantly curious and on the move. While out shopping, she would look at clothing or jewelry as if she was a seasoned shopper. She would just hold, turn over, touch the texture of things, never pulling down or picking up. Just browsing. I wonder where she picked up that technique? :)

My favourite Spicy Dragon roll...I could eat at least 12 pieces...24 if I wasn't eating anything else...

Except they have the lightest, crispiest Shrimp Tempura...

We didn't get to try any of the new restaurants that I wanted to introduce her to, but we did get to at least go to our favourite all you can eat sushi place. So yummy and never disappoints.

My Parents are finally home!

My parents left Orlando early Thursday morning. While going through West Virginia, they had problems with their transmission and couldn't steer. After having the car checked by a dealer and a transmission specialist for 5 hours, they were back on the road. Because of the unexpected detour, they didn't make it to Cat's place in Maryland to spend the night. (The fact that Cat and the kids were sick with Strep throat and a virus, rendering their house disease central, I'm sure had nothing to do with it...:o) Not knowing about the unexpected delay, I was expecting them on Friday night. I had dinner ready for them. John and I patiently waited, wondering where they could be. At 11:35pm I got a call from my mom letting me know that they were again forced to stop 50 miles south of Buffalo. The car steering was locked again and the battery seemed dead. They stopped at a Comfort inn. The next day, now Saturday, they went to get the car checked. The mechanic told them that they would need a new water pump and new transmission. They would have to stay until Wednesday waiting for the transmission to be ordered. They got a second opinion. The water pump would be fine until they got back to Toronto. The transmission was leaking fluid. A tube was leaking. They patched it up and got them back on the road. I was working until 7pm. I called home expecting them to get home during the day. I called the Comfort Inn to find out they had checked out at 12:30pm. John and I were getting worried. Their cell phone was off. Finally at 10:30pm my mom called to say they were on the DVP, almost home. After being stuck with an accident on the DVP, they finally got home at 11:10pm. They looked exhausted and glad to be home and out of the car. After 3 months in Orlando, they've realized how great it was to be a Snow bird but how they are now too old to drive down. We have 8 months to figure out what they'll do next winter. Since they love the convenience of having their own vehicle, I suspect I'll be the one driving.