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January 23, 2016

Don’t wait for your ship to come in…swim out to it

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This one is good too…

IMG_1656I’m leaping ahead to the end of a story more than three years in the making. If all goes well (there are a fair number of elements to the “all”), in six months time, me and five mates will be making our own graffiti on the walls of the White Horse in Dover, England.

IMG_1654Successful solo and relay team swimmers of the English Channel come to celebrate their achievement with a pint and pen at this landmark pub. Team Crazy Canucks hopes to swim from Dover to Point Gris Nez in France and spend the next day or maybe a few days celebrating. With more than 135 years of history since Captain Webb made the first crossing, the basic elements of the challenge remain precisely the same. “Whatever the era, a Channel swim is and always will be a battle of one small lone swimmer against the sometimes savage vastness of the open sea,” says former Channel Swimming Association President Cmdr. Gerald Forsberg.

IMG_1652Forsberg goes on to say, “It is quite possible to be ten miles from shore on a pitch-black, cold night, with a cresting sea, a three-knot tidal stream, and thirty metres of depth underneath…In such conditions, the Channel is no place for a physical weakling.” We laugh at cresting seas and three-knot tidal streams…IMG_1655Looks like our biggest challenge will finding some real estate to make our mark at the White Horse.

IMG_1662In the background is the names of a team from a city at the other end of our lake in Kelowna. Well done guys. Can’t wait to join you on the walls.

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Leaving no scone unturned

I am the queen of breakfast. When guests come all the stops are pulled out. The Handyman likes visitors more because of the breakfasts. When it’s just us though, it’s cereal or toast and a book. As a way of bringing light into our grey winter we now have the visitors’ breakfast ourselves on Sunday. Carpe Diem breakfast is now a thing. The menu varies but bacon and champagne are staples.

My mum’s Limoges, Waterford and prized Birks’ silver happily risk breakage to host an increasingly elaborate feast for two.

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My SECRET waffle recipe:

  • 1 3/4 cups     all-pupose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 3 eggs, separated
  • 5 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into large bowl. Combine egg yolks, melted butter, milk and vanilla in a separate bowl. Add wet ingredients into dry and gently fold together until just moistened. Do not overwork. Beat 3 egg whites until stiff and lightly fold into the batter. Pour 3/4 cup of batter into a preheated waffle iron and cook until steam stops, about 4 or 5 minutes.

Makes 4…add a side of bacon and serve with champagne and orange juice

(The key to these light and fluffy waffles is separating the eggs and beating the whites.)

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