Wednesday, May 27, 2009
I have to eat my pancakes at the airport?
Hmm. So I randomly came across a European import store somewhere down on Terminal Ave. the other day when I was out shopping for hula hoop supplies. I found fun things like a nutella equivalent in a tube! I also found some german pancakey mixes, including this one for "Apfel-Pufferchen":
So anyhow, tonight I decided to take a closer look at what is involved in preparing my pufferchen. It looks to me like all I do is add 150mL of milk and 1 egg, mix it together, and cook like mini pancakes. I guess there are already apfels in there. But just for the heck of it, I decided to type the instructions (which are only and entirely in German) into google's translator (without including any of the umlauts because they're too much work to type and not including them makes the results so much more interesting). Here is what came out:
1. 150ml milk into a ruhrschussel type. 1 egg and add and mix with a whisk to a smooth dough verruhren.
2. in a large pan coated clarified butter or margarine over medium heat erwarmen. for each buffer chen essloffel a batter and give it over medium heat on both sides until golden brown bake.
3. apple-chen buffer on a plate and at the airport with powdered sugar or cinnamon-sugar and serve.
Ok, all was well until step three. "AT THE AIRPORT"?? Where did that come from?
-kat
ps. would anyone like to join me at the airport for some pancakes?
So anyhow, tonight I decided to take a closer look at what is involved in preparing my pufferchen. It looks to me like all I do is add 150mL of milk and 1 egg, mix it together, and cook like mini pancakes. I guess there are already apfels in there. But just for the heck of it, I decided to type the instructions (which are only and entirely in German) into google's translator (without including any of the umlauts because they're too much work to type and not including them makes the results so much more interesting). Here is what came out:
1. 150ml milk into a ruhrschussel type. 1 egg and add and mix with a whisk to a smooth dough verruhren.
2. in a large pan coated clarified butter or margarine over medium heat erwarmen. for each buffer chen essloffel a batter and give it over medium heat on both sides until golden brown bake.
3. apple-chen buffer on a plate and at the airport with powdered sugar or cinnamon-sugar and serve.
Ok, all was well until step three. "AT THE AIRPORT"?? Where did that come from?
-kat
ps. would anyone like to join me at the airport for some pancakes?
Friday, May 22, 2009
Collapsible Hoop!
So, I know how to make regular hoops, water-filled hoops. Today I decided it was time I tried making a travel hoop. After all, it is a little annoying to bike around with my regular hoops, and they even tend to get a little scrunched in the trunks of cars.
First step was to find the proper tubing and connectors. I found an excellent source here in Vancouver on Venables St not far from Casa Gelato: Vancouver Irrigation Supply. It was not as unwieldy as I had imagined to rollerblade home carrying 100ft of 3/4" tubing and 12 connectors.
Next step was to grab a few accessories including colourful tape (Home Depot) and bulk bungee cord (I picked up 12' of 3/16" cord from Canadian Tire). Oh, and sandpaper.
Finally, assembly. I basically followed Jason's instructions (found at the bottom of the page). I didn't use the hanger wire for joining the ends of the elastic though - I just tied a couple of knots. I did not have a power sander, so I followed the path of patience and getting quite a few blisters on my hands. For the sanding, I used a tip from another site to cut a chunk of sandpaper that just fit around the end of the coupling so I could just use a rotating motion to sand down one end. Like I mentioned, I got blisters, and it did take a little while. And the fit of the ends is still quite tight, so taking apart the hoop takes a little effort. But I imagine it will get easier over time.
Last step was to tape it up to make it pretty and a little less slippery. Here are some pictures of the finished hoop:
Whee! Me and my hoop are now ready for travel!
-kat
First step was to find the proper tubing and connectors. I found an excellent source here in Vancouver on Venables St not far from Casa Gelato: Vancouver Irrigation Supply. It was not as unwieldy as I had imagined to rollerblade home carrying 100ft of 3/4" tubing and 12 connectors.
Next step was to grab a few accessories including colourful tape (Home Depot) and bulk bungee cord (I picked up 12' of 3/16" cord from Canadian Tire). Oh, and sandpaper.
Finally, assembly. I basically followed Jason's instructions (found at the bottom of the page). I didn't use the hanger wire for joining the ends of the elastic though - I just tied a couple of knots. I did not have a power sander, so I followed the path of patience and getting quite a few blisters on my hands. For the sanding, I used a tip from another site to cut a chunk of sandpaper that just fit around the end of the coupling so I could just use a rotating motion to sand down one end. Like I mentioned, I got blisters, and it did take a little while. And the fit of the ends is still quite tight, so taking apart the hoop takes a little effort. But I imagine it will get easier over time.
Last step was to tape it up to make it pretty and a little less slippery. Here are some pictures of the finished hoop:
Whee! Me and my hoop are now ready for travel!
-kat
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
JdF Craziness
If you guessed that the Juan de Fuca trail would be busy on the May long weekend, you guessed right. If you guessed that Sombrio Beach would be absolute insanity (ala dirt bikes, amplifiers, fireworks all night long, hundreds of people), then you got that one right too! Well, we also knew it would be pretty busy, but really it was a little more than expected. Still, me and 10 dear friends managed to have a super duper time hiking, face painting, eating cakes, collecting mussels, etc.
It all started Thursday for "Team Whole Trail" - they hiked through mud and muck from Botanical Beach to Sombrio Beach, where they arrived at some reasonable time on friday evening.
Then there was team cycle (Darren and I), who left Vancouver thursday evening, had to catch a bus instead of biking to Horseshoe Bay in order to make the 7pm ferry to Nanaimo, since we then had to drive down to Matt's place in Victoria that night. Friday morning we baked cakes and set off, after a delicious breakfast at "Took's on Cook"... we biked via the Galloping Goose to Sooke. In Sooke, Darren had a wee pedal catastrophe wherein his bike cleat came loose from his shoe (eeks! Something to remember to beware of from now on)... luckily he escaped with minor scrapes and there was a bike shop only a block and a half away. We stopped to get some provisions and then took a deep breath before diving in to the remaining 78km-or-so ride to Botanical Beach. It proved to be an awfully long ride. We decided to hitch hike instead of bike back to Sombrio after shuttling Greg's car south to China Beach. Sigh.. if only it hadn't taken an hour to get a ride. We eventually made it to Sombrio after dark, where we walked up and down the packed beach calling "Greg! Taryn! Tudor! Calvin!" until we got a response. Amazingly, we eventually found whole trail, and furthermore, they had recently received a call from Team Halfway, who had just arrived at the parking lot.
Team Halfway, by the way, had driven out from Victoria that evening.
So there we were: 11 people, 1 small car parked at Sombrio, 1 large car parked at China Beach, and 2 bikes hidden in the woods at the China Beach parking lot. Time for cake #1!
Saturday, after cake #2, we did the muddy trek from Sombrio south to Chin Beach. What can I say about it? It was sunny, beautiful, and fun. We harvested and ate a couple of batches of mussels that evening. Not to mention eating cake #3. (Food is important!). Oh, and in the morning, we completed a collaborative painting featuring many fabulous creatures such as the floating spaghetti monster, the wiener dog-toting eagle, and the tasty crab!
Sunday: another beautiful day, another beautiful hike. This time with extra ups and downs. Though we managed to cut off a bunch of these by hiking the beach for the last stretch leading up to Bear Beach (a great way to go, if the tide is very low!). This detour also brought us through enormous California Mussel land, which Andre and I revisited for a grand shellfish harvest later on. This time we forewent(?) our usual campfire on the beach since the wind was up and the gray sky threatened rain (though never delivered). Instead we amused ourselves with our feasting and our stern visit to a group of flare-setter-offers camped a little further down the beach.
Monday Calvin, Matt and I zoomed out of camp early to deal with transportation. Me to get a head start on biking back towards town, and Calvin and Matt to pick up the second car back at Sombrio. Sadly, we were in such a rush that we skipped playing on the enormous swing that had been erected at the southern end of Mystic Beach - it looked like a lot of fun! As it worked out, we timed things just perfectly with the weather. I had a pleasant and speedy bike ride to the 17 Mile Pub, where I met up with a carload for burgers, and by the time it started pouring halfway through lunch, we had worked out a plan that involved me not biking the rest of the way (and therefore staying dry!).
All in all, it was a fantabulous trip, and well worth revisiting the Juan de Fuca, even though my trip with Bruno in March still seemed so fresh in my mind.
It all started Thursday for "Team Whole Trail" - they hiked through mud and muck from Botanical Beach to Sombrio Beach, where they arrived at some reasonable time on friday evening.
Then there was team cycle (Darren and I), who left Vancouver thursday evening, had to catch a bus instead of biking to Horseshoe Bay in order to make the 7pm ferry to Nanaimo, since we then had to drive down to Matt's place in Victoria that night. Friday morning we baked cakes and set off, after a delicious breakfast at "Took's on Cook"... we biked via the Galloping Goose to Sooke. In Sooke, Darren had a wee pedal catastrophe wherein his bike cleat came loose from his shoe (eeks! Something to remember to beware of from now on)... luckily he escaped with minor scrapes and there was a bike shop only a block and a half away. We stopped to get some provisions and then took a deep breath before diving in to the remaining 78km-or-so ride to Botanical Beach. It proved to be an awfully long ride. We decided to hitch hike instead of bike back to Sombrio after shuttling Greg's car south to China Beach. Sigh.. if only it hadn't taken an hour to get a ride. We eventually made it to Sombrio after dark, where we walked up and down the packed beach calling "Greg! Taryn! Tudor! Calvin!" until we got a response. Amazingly, we eventually found whole trail, and furthermore, they had recently received a call from Team Halfway, who had just arrived at the parking lot.
Team Halfway, by the way, had driven out from Victoria that evening.
So there we were: 11 people, 1 small car parked at Sombrio, 1 large car parked at China Beach, and 2 bikes hidden in the woods at the China Beach parking lot. Time for cake #1!
Saturday, after cake #2, we did the muddy trek from Sombrio south to Chin Beach. What can I say about it? It was sunny, beautiful, and fun. We harvested and ate a couple of batches of mussels that evening. Not to mention eating cake #3. (Food is important!). Oh, and in the morning, we completed a collaborative painting featuring many fabulous creatures such as the floating spaghetti monster, the wiener dog-toting eagle, and the tasty crab!
Sunday: another beautiful day, another beautiful hike. This time with extra ups and downs. Though we managed to cut off a bunch of these by hiking the beach for the last stretch leading up to Bear Beach (a great way to go, if the tide is very low!). This detour also brought us through enormous California Mussel land, which Andre and I revisited for a grand shellfish harvest later on. This time we forewent(?) our usual campfire on the beach since the wind was up and the gray sky threatened rain (though never delivered). Instead we amused ourselves with our feasting and our stern visit to a group of flare-setter-offers camped a little further down the beach.
Monday Calvin, Matt and I zoomed out of camp early to deal with transportation. Me to get a head start on biking back towards town, and Calvin and Matt to pick up the second car back at Sombrio. Sadly, we were in such a rush that we skipped playing on the enormous swing that had been erected at the southern end of Mystic Beach - it looked like a lot of fun! As it worked out, we timed things just perfectly with the weather. I had a pleasant and speedy bike ride to the 17 Mile Pub, where I met up with a carload for burgers, and by the time it started pouring halfway through lunch, we had worked out a plan that involved me not biking the rest of the way (and therefore staying dry!).
All in all, it was a fantabulous trip, and well worth revisiting the Juan de Fuca, even though my trip with Bruno in March still seemed so fresh in my mind.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
A Magical Hike
We left town at about 6:30pm friday night, drove up to Squamish, and at about 7:30pm, as the sun was sinking in the sky, started off on the trail up to Elfin lakes with our snowshoes. Given that summer is approaching, we in fact had quite a long stretch of daylight left, and were able to see a beautiful sunset over the mountains from up in the subalpine.
Just as the daytime sky was starting to fade, the nearly-full moon rose on the horizon on the other side of the ridge and started to cast our moonshadows on the hillside. We then hiked up to the top of the ridge and continued along with views of the rainbow-coloured fading sunset to the west and a bright moon large on the horizon to the east.
It was a clear and starry night (well, starry as possible, given the brightness of the moon), and we hiked without headlamps. When we got to the Elfin Hut, Vince cooked dinner and we reenergized ourselves to get ready for the next part of the adventure.
That consisted of hiking "[across] unmarked snow" up to a saddle above the hut, then along a couple of ridges to Little Diamond Head - a small summit at the intersection of three strikingly steep ridges perched in the midst of Garibaldi Park. It was really incredible to hike by moonlight up a snowy peak - it looked like we were hiking up into the stars.
We had some tea and Delicious cheesecake for dessert up on the summit but quickly started to get chilled, so we soon descended again. The moon was still large in the sky to our right but as we left the peak, we noticed that a glow was forming on the horizon to the east. By the time we got back to the saddle above Elfin lakes, it was clear that sunrise was imminent, so we decided to climb the eastern side of the saddle, from which we watched the pink moon setting, closely followed by pink rays hitting the mountains around us, and soon the point we were sitting on - the sun rising on a new day.
By the light of the dawn, we hiked back to our tent, set up next to the hut, and settled in for a morning slumber. It felt so luxurious to sleep the morning away, knowing that we had earned it. We hiked out to the car on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Now the question is: what to do with Sunday?
-kat
ps. Unfortunately I left my camera behind for the whole hike up to the peak/sunrise/moonset part of the trip, so I was not able to even attempt to capture those amazing scenes. Here is a small glimpse of a couple of moments on the trip, however:
melty spring snow makes pretty bands
looking for a bite to eat
feeding the wildlife (tsk, tsk)
hikers
Just as the daytime sky was starting to fade, the nearly-full moon rose on the horizon on the other side of the ridge and started to cast our moonshadows on the hillside. We then hiked up to the top of the ridge and continued along with views of the rainbow-coloured fading sunset to the west and a bright moon large on the horizon to the east.
It was a clear and starry night (well, starry as possible, given the brightness of the moon), and we hiked without headlamps. When we got to the Elfin Hut, Vince cooked dinner and we reenergized ourselves to get ready for the next part of the adventure.
That consisted of hiking "[across] unmarked snow" up to a saddle above the hut, then along a couple of ridges to Little Diamond Head - a small summit at the intersection of three strikingly steep ridges perched in the midst of Garibaldi Park. It was really incredible to hike by moonlight up a snowy peak - it looked like we were hiking up into the stars.
We had some tea and Delicious cheesecake for dessert up on the summit but quickly started to get chilled, so we soon descended again. The moon was still large in the sky to our right but as we left the peak, we noticed that a glow was forming on the horizon to the east. By the time we got back to the saddle above Elfin lakes, it was clear that sunrise was imminent, so we decided to climb the eastern side of the saddle, from which we watched the pink moon setting, closely followed by pink rays hitting the mountains around us, and soon the point we were sitting on - the sun rising on a new day.
By the light of the dawn, we hiked back to our tent, set up next to the hut, and settled in for a morning slumber. It felt so luxurious to sleep the morning away, knowing that we had earned it. We hiked out to the car on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Now the question is: what to do with Sunday?
-kat
ps. Unfortunately I left my camera behind for the whole hike up to the peak/sunrise/moonset part of the trip, so I was not able to even attempt to capture those amazing scenes. Here is a small glimpse of a couple of moments on the trip, however:
melty spring snow makes pretty bands
looking for a bite to eat
feeding the wildlife (tsk, tsk)
hikersLabels: adventure
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Things I Learned Last Week #2
- Spatz is pretty open to adventure, even by bicycle, as long as there is a cozy place to sleep at the other end of the trip.
- A picnic in a tree is a lot of fun, but it is a good idea to have lids to keep tree debris out of your food. It is more challenging to keep tree debris out of your clothes.
- Portabello mushroom cap nests stuffed with herby ground chicken and surrounded by broccoli trees makes a good tree dinner, and mango-papaya-lime fruit salad makes a great tree dessert!
- Hula hooping on your feet while lying on your back in the sun looks like a fun thing to try.
- The Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver was first settled in the Victorian era (early 1900's), before electricty and the automobile.
- Jane Jacobs has some pretty darned good ideas about making people-friendly living places.
- There are lots of eateries I should revisit/try in Mount Pleasant, including "Nice Cafe", "Rhizome Cafe", and "The Whip"
- The waterfalls at Widgeon Creek are always pretty, but would be super in summer with a swimsuit!
- French Sorrel is a very tasty green!
- Green and black tomato varieties supposedly have a smoky flavour?
- Teaching in a high school is not my strong suit (and yet I'm signed up for a full week of it starting tomorrow, so maybe it will get better.. I hope!)
- Google has a tool called SketchUp that looks rather interesting.
- My current backyard is pretty good for camping out in.
- I really must go hiking in The Enchantments in Washington!
- It IS possible to make it from my house to Grounds for Coffee within 40 mins before closing time and still get cinnamon buns (via bike/rollerblades + bus).
- http://uqevents.com/ looks like like a great source to see what's going on in Vancouver.
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