Thursday, 9 August 2012

Cake!

We've been busy, busy busy! So I'll post a recipe my sister sent me yesterday. She said it's absolutely delicious.


French Yogurt Cake


Ingredients

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
3/4 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

***

8 1/2 x 4 1/4-inch loaf pan

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°. Coat pan with vegetable oil spray. Dust with flour; tap out excess.

Whisk 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and kosher salt in a medium bowl.

Using your fingers, rub sugar with lemon zest in a large bowl until sugar is moist. Add yogurt, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract; whisk to blend. Fold in dry ingredients just to blend.

Pour batter into prepared pan; smooth top. Bake until top of cake is golden brown and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, 50–55 minutes.

Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert onto rack; let it cool completely.

The recipe came from Bon Appetit.

Wednesday, 8 August 2012

Two is a crowd

MD sent me a collection of unusual photos, including this one:


I did a bit of searching and found out the population has doubled recently.

Buford was founded in 1866, during the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in Wyoming. At its peak, the town boasted a population of 2000.

Don Sammons moved to Buford in 1980 with his wife and son. In 1992, he purchased the town. His wife died in 1995, and his son moved away around 2007, making him Buford's only resident.

The town, consisting of a convenience store, gas station, and modular home on 4 hectares (9.9 acres) of land, was put up for sale after Sammons decided to move closer to his son.

The town was put up for auction on April 5, 2012, with the highest bid of $900,000 by two unidentified Vietnamese men.


I focused on just one of the pictures because I can't imagine living in a place like this by myself or with just one other person!

I'll publish the other photos another time. Thank you, MD.

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Excited about the garden

I'm late again! We have been incredibly busy today, but it turned out to be a very good day.

We picked up the rest of the concrete blocks, then our neighbour offered to go with us to collect the timber in his van, so all the materials for the steps are now on site.

It's been very hot today, so after all the shifting of heavy stuff we went to a "vide grenier," which is like a yard sale, but communal. People display their bits and bobs around the village centre, etc. We picked up seven different containers which we're going to use for planting some pretty things. They include a handwash basin, some conventional pots, an old colander and a chamber pot!

I took this picture and I'm so sorry it's out of focus, but you'll get the idea.



Monday, 6 August 2012

Quick joke

I'm late with today's post... We bought the concrete blocks and have been busy carrying them to the garden. All is well, no injured backs, but we have worked up an appetite and should sleep very soundly tonight.

Here's a short and sweet from Mrsgunka:

The wife left a note on the fridge:

"It's not working. Can't take it anymore!!! Gone to stay with my mother."


I opened the fridge, the light came on and the beer was cold....... "What the hell is she talking about?"


Thank you, MrsG.