Everything is a Photo Opportunity #33

William over at Ottawa Daily Photo got me thinking about the big ice storm from 1998 after he posted some photos about it. Even 17 years later I still remember the storm and the impact it had. We lived on a farm north of Barrie, Ontario at the time, and our power/water was out for three days, the school buses were cancelled, and some trees were damaged. The storm caused tremendous damage and massive power outages in eastern Ontario and Quebec.

With school cancelled, I remember walking around outside with Dad taking photos (he was the photographer, I was his little buddy). We got some great photos, and shown below is one of a fence covered in icicles. The trees behind it are also covered in a thick layer of ice. Dad says the ice stayed on the trees like that for nine days. It was one hell of a storm.

Chocolate Pudding Pie #FoodPicFriday

I usually buy the 4L bag of milk as it is cheaper than buying cartons (the bag makes it $1/L, the carton is about $2/L or more depending on the size of the carton). The only problem with the 4L bag (16 cups of milk) is that we sometimes don't get through it before the expiry date. The main problem over the past month is that I've cut back on cereal (I was eating it multiple times a day) and I haven't been in the mood for smoothies. This past week I had to use up over a liter of milk so it didn't go to waste. I even drank it (on its own) which I never really do (unless it's chocolate), but I kinda liked it (especially when served with pie!).

To use up 3 cups of milk, I made a chocolate pudding pie, with a recipe from Hershey's website. This pie is egg free and uses corn starch as the thickener. The pie was served with individual helpings of whipped cream and was really delicious.

Peanut Butter Cup Fudge

I love making fudge with sweetened condensed milk, and have made several varieties over the past few years. One of the first flavours I tried was Reese's Fudge and I wanted to make it again, but I kept forgetting to pick up Reese's peanut butter cups. At some point I got the bright idea that I could make the peanut butter cups instead of buying them and that is exactly what I did. My sister-in-law has an awesome peanut butter cup recipe and I used it to make peanut butter patties for this recipe. I worked out the difference, and I saved over $3 in peanut butter cups by just making the patties at home. Win!

For the Peanut Butter Patties:
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 tbs + 2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbs margarine
1/3 cup icing sugar

Mix all ingredients together and roll into balls (makes approx. 25 balls). Chill them in the fridge for 3 hours. Remove from fridge and slightly flatten to form patties.

For the Fudge:
3 cups milk chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk (300 ml)
1 cup chopped peanuts
1 tsp vanilla
25 homemade peanut butter patties

Add chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk to saucepan over medium heat.

Heat until melted together. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Pour about a 1/4 of the mixture into a prepared 8x8 baking dish. Ensure the bottom is completely covered.

Place peanut butter patties onto the already poured fudge. Then cover them with the rest of the chocolate mixture.

Top with chopped peanuts, pressing gently to adhere to chocolate. Chill in the refrigerator. I always chill my fudge overnight for best results.

Once chilled, cut fudge into pieces for eating and sharing. This one is pretty great for both!

Grandma's Yarn Stash

On a recent visit to my Grandma's she gave me a giant bag of yarn. A life long knitter, she told me she hasn't been knitting much lately, and the one project she has on the needles (a blanket) has been on them for over a year. She says she eventually wants to complete the blanket, but after that, she doesn't think she will start many more projects.

Grandma kept her yarn stash is a storage closet and she let me know that some of it had been there "a long time." Because of this, the yarn smelled like a mixture between Grandma's perfume (a good smell), and storage (a kind of stale smell). Anything I knitted from the yarn could be laundered, but I was sure I would get a headache if I knitted with it.

So I did some research and decided to air the yarn out. It would have been a little easier to air them out in the summer (less cold, anyway!) but the air was super fresh and there was a good breeze blowing all through the yarn. I did fall on my ass at one point while I out there (I'm clumsy), but it was totally worth it, and the snow was pretty soft to land in. The yarn stayed outside for about four hours and they smell way better now.

Swiss Chalet Family Pak #FoodPicFriday

We don't eat a lot of take out in our house, so when we do it is a real treat. One of our favourite meals (and deals) is the Swiss Chalet Family Pak. Over the years it has gone up in price (I think it was $25.99 when we first started ordering it - now it's $27.99), but still a great deal for Swiss. For that price you get a whole chicken (quartered), four sides, four rolls, and a giant chalet sauce (the reason I order Swiss Chalet in the first place).

This is enough food for four, but could also serve three, and sometimes only two. When John and I order it just for us, I order a garden salad as one of the sides, save a quarter of the chicken, and have a chicken salad for lunch the next day. Yum.

Our Swiss is located in a Harvey's so we don't get the authentic Chalet fries, but I have to say the Harvey's fries are pretty good too.