Another Blast of Winter

Yesterday we had a few snow flurries in the area. I was in a few of them, either walking the dogs, driving, or waiting it out so I could ride my horses. The flurries spread themselves around the area over a course of several hours but didn't amount to anything. Although we have had snow in March in the past, its not common.

This morning was another story. The snow was falling pretty good and sticking to the streets. The way the news channel showed it was like a massive snow storm. In reality we only got one or two inches, but it was enough to create havoc and slippery streets.

Kerry wasn't feeling well today and his truck was scheduled for a brake job. Our mechanic is a mile away and I was OK driving but not pulling the work trailer in the snow. The shop is in a tight area where I wouldn't want to tow a trailer and then try to back it into a spot in the snow. Not to mention it would be a little tough for the mechanic to put it up on a hoist with the trailer still attached. Kerry got up long enough to disconnect the trailer and I took our dog Lacy for the drive, and ultimate mile hike home. The first thing I see as I drive down a street is an SUV swerving all over the place after he turned onto the street. Hmm, ever hear of not tromping the accelerator when the streets are icy? I made it there safely and Lacy and I walked home in the blowing snow. Of course, she loved it. The snow was sticking to her black coat and she was prancing along like a young pup instead of the 12 year old senior dog that she is.

So we enjoyed a rare walk together in the snow on March 9, 2009. All too soon it ended and the sun came out by late morning.

But oh joy, we are in for well below freezing temperatures for the rest of the week. However no precipitation in the forecast. I guess we'll see. Won't be the first time the forecasters are wrong...

Lemon Meringue Pie, just like Mom used to make. Not.

My mother frequently baked lemon meringue pie while I was growing up. I loved the meringue part. I don't remember if I ever watched her make the pie. I'd come home from school and the pie would be cooling in the fridge. I think she might have used that lemon curd that can be bought at the grocery store, Robertsons, the jam company sells them. A British institution for more than 100 years, they're discontinuing the line, but that's another story.

I'm not positive if Mother used that lemon curd. But she was from Scotland and the British like this sort of stuff. I just remember we always had a jar of it in the fridge and I don't remember what else it was used for.

Its been around 20 years since I last had some of Mother's lemon meringue pie, and she didn't keep the recipe around so I'll never be able to duplicate it.

A couple of years ago we took my father out to the Home Restaurant in Maple Ridge. As the name suggests it is home cooked meals, or at least inspired just like home meals. They have great homemade pies. In the summer they often have great tarts too. They have a great lemon meringue pie with heaps of meringue on the top. As we came in I pointed out the lemon meringue pie to Father and he was quite happy to see it, commenting he hadn't had one in years. He had soup for dinner and that was it, leaving plenty of room for the huge piece of lemon meringue pie that he enjoyed for dessert.

Today I made my first lemon meringue pie from a recipe I found on the Internet. The thing takes a good hour of preparation time, mostly the cooking of the lemon filling. I wondered if my pie crust was a little thick, but I left it alone. When it came time to whipping the egg whites and sugar it took forever for the little peaks to form. After 10 minutes at high speed on the mixer I left it running and dealt with taking my laundry from the dryer and folding it. 5 minutes later I decided it was maybe going to be as peaky as it would get and I spooned out my lemon filling into the pie crust and topped it with the meringue. Now I managed to get peaks, but no way was my meringue the huge topping like the one at the Home Restaurant. In fact it was about the same height as the meringue on the pies Mother used to bake. It takes 15 minutes in the oven and then about 4 hours to cool down in the fridge before it can be eaten. So there's a big time committment here.

And then it was time for me to try a piece. I cut into it and served it on a plate. Yes, it looked exactly like the pie Mother used to make except the crust was a little thicker. But even with a thick crust, my crust tasted better than Mother's. My secret to a good pie crust has always been to use Crisco golden shortening. The pie itself was OK. It was not like how Mom used to make.

I'm going to try another recipe, maybe next week, maybe in a couple of weeks. I kind of want to get this lemon meringue pie down.

Tomorrow I think I'll bring a slice of pie over to my Father.

Cloverdale Clay

Growing up in Cloverdale back when there were woods, pastures, and swamplands I was familiar with a local byproduct called Cloverdale clay. This stuff is nasty, sticks to everything and is hard to get off again once its stuck to your shoes. Going barefoot was usually and easier option and then washing the clay off.

An RCMP detachment was built in Cloverdale in 1972 on the #10 Highway and 176A Street. However built on Cloverdale clay it started sinking into the ground. I remember hearing it sunk 6 inches but I don't recall if that was the final stop. That building was taken down about 15 years later due to the sinking and relocated to another part of Surrey.

I sold my first short story to the Western Producer magazine called "The Cloverdale Clay Girl" about a university student who earned her tuition by catching unsuspecting drivers in the cloverdale clay.

The catch up Cloverdale clay is it never looks wet.

The area around Cloverdale has been hugely developed, new houses, condos, and businesses. We don't see much Cloverdale clay around anymore. But if we have to dig a hole in the yard and go down several inches we do find the clay.

Yesterday I was walking my dogs in a new housing devlopment area. We started off on a paved path that turned to a dirt and stone path. It had rained the night before and was lightly raining on our walk. As we went down the hill and got to a flatter area I realized my feet were about a pound heavier than they should be and looked down. My running shoes were coated in Cloverdale clay! I used my old childhood trick and used a stick to push it off my shoes. But that only worked as far as my next step. Stubbornly I continued on because it didn't look muddy at all, but I had enough after two minutes and turned back. When I got home I used the boot scraper we have near our front door to try to get more of it off, but left my shoes downstairs on the mat when I got in. Today the Cloverdale clay is a dried mess on my sneakers.

Ah, childhood memories.....

Skating rinks on the highways

On Wednesday February 25 around noon it started snowing. A couple of hours later huge, fluffy flakes were coming down. Nice snow that it was, it wasn't sticking to the streets. When we went out at 5pm it was still snowing and the roads were wet and bare. But what a difference a few hours make. Due to the wet, sloppy snow on the streets and the freezing temperatures the streets were very icy.

As we neared home we got stopped at a red light at the bottom of a hill. We watched a pick up truck a little ways up the hill in the bus stop pullout. His back up lights came on and off. Clearly he was spinning on ice. The light turned green and our Pontiac Vibe, front wheel drive, made a slow journey up the icy hill. No momentum at all, but at least we kept moving. On the down side of the hill, near the bottom there was a car in the curb lane, sideways, with its front wheels up over the sidewalk, obviously skidded out of control. We got around him safely and I hope nobody coming down that hill T-boned him.

This morning I went to work, on the same 2 lane highway, but in the opposite direction. The snow had stopped overnight but the streets were skating rinks. Both lanes of cars were moving slowly. I spun a bit on the ice, but at least I continued safely in the direction I wanted. I got stuck at the bottom of the hill at a red light again. Once again my car didn't want to go up the hill too fast, but it went. And I dodged around several cars who were stopped on the hill, just spinning their wheels. Has anyone ever heard of putting on winter tires? What are they going to do? Wait for the sun to come out and thaw out the streets and hope they don't get hit.

My 10 minute commute took me 25 minutes this morning. Roads that are ice skating rinks suck.

Lap top on the fritz

A few weeks ago I started having a little trouble with my lap top. Nothing too serious but getting some error messages about a software he'd recently installed for a web camera.

Then 2 weeks ago the lap top had trouble starting up. Half an hour, a couple of hours, sometimes I'd turn it on before going to work and by the time I got home 9 hours later it would be on. We took it in to be repaired and after 4 days the technician couldn't figure out what the problem is. Eventually the lap top would come on, usually faster if it was cold. He asked if it was still under warranty. Sadly its 2 years old and the warranty ran out about a year ago. $42 for them to look at it and still not know what's wrong. So I've left the lap top running for the past week I've had it back. I backed up my computer about 3 weeks ago so I knew if they had to reformat it I wouldn't lose anything other than some emails. But since I got the lap top back I went through the emails and saved anything necessary.

Now its a case of contacting HP and couriering the lap top back to them for repairs.

I'll be lost without it. I enjoy sitting in bed with it. I have a nice breakfast tray it sits on. I have my websites I view daily and surf them while watching TV. And my writing. I can't work on anything while the lpa top is out of commission.

But its getting close. Time to shut down and send it to HP.

Ah technology to make our lives simpler and we become slaves to it instead.

Tea

My mother came from Scotland and was a big tea drinker. While growing up I was constantly putting a kettle on for her or pouring the boiling water into her old metal tea pot. We didn't have a meal called tea like they do in Britain. But during the times I visited my relatives in England I always enjoyed the later afternoon tea. Not that I liked drinking the hot tea, I just liked all the cakes, cookies, and other snacks that came with the drink. I especially liked going to a restaurant for a cream tea. That snack was crumpets, clotted cream, and strawberries.

Even when iced tea drink crystals came out in the late 60's, early 70's I never was a big fan. We had it in the house but I rarely drank it. By the late 70's and 80's I was buying and drinking iced tea made from the drink crystals on a regular basis, but I rarely drank hot tea. When we went out to restaurants I often ordered iced tea to drink, and that was the presweetened drink that usually came out of the same dispensers as the soda pop.

In the late 80's when I began travelling more often to California and Nevada and ordered iced tea with my meal, it came differently than what I was used to in Canada. It was real brewed tea and it was unsweetened. When it arrived at the table I could add sweetener or sugar to it. I began to prefer this over the pre-sweetened tea I got back home.

In 1994 we were in Arizona one winter and wandered into a shop. I saw an iced tea machine and called Kerry to come over and take a look. "Can you believe people would pay money for this" I asked. "All they have to do is boil water in their kettle, make tea, and then put ice cubes in it or put it in the fridge."

But a few years later I remembered that machine. Because now I'm thinking its a real pain to go through the hassle of making tea and then cooling it down so I can have iced tea. but I could find no such appliance in any of the stores I looked at in the Greater Vancouver Area. So I looked on Ebay and bought a used Mr Coffee Iced Tea machine. And then I was hooked. The machine brews the tea and then spits it out into the pitcher which we've filled with ice cubes. So that's the big secret! We made a lot of iced tea. We tried all kinds of different flavored herbal teas. But after all the use the handle came off the pitcher. Crazy Glue fixed that problem but to be cautious after the tea brewed into iced tea we poured it into a second pitcher.

In 2005 we were down in Washington one weekend and had dinner at Red Lobster. I asked for iced tea and the waiter asked if I wanted regular iced tea or Boston iced tea. I asked what the Boston iced tea is and he said it has cranberry juice. I ordered that and I was hooked. While down on that trip we bought a new Mr Coffee Iced Tea machine. And ever since then I've been stocking up on cranberry-raspberry juice that I add to the iced tea as sweetener. We make iced tea a lot, even through the winter months.

But an odd thing has happened. I've started drinking hot tea too. Not a lot and usually just when I have a sore throat. But maybe that's because its winter and old age is catching up to me....

ABC Country Restaurant review

In mid-April 2004 we moved to Pitt Meadows. During the week we were moving in we went to lunch at a nearby restaurant on the Pitt Meadows/Maple Ridge border called ABC Country Restaurant. We started with zuchinni strips that took a long time to arrive. When the waitress brought them over with 2 plates, the plate on the bottom was covered in wet ketchup. She quickly removed it and brought a clean plate. When lunch arrived, mine a shrimp sandwich with fries, there was brown grease on the plate. Kerry, who was eating a burger and fries, had the same brown grease on the plate. The general appearance of the sandwich was not good. Too much sauce and it was soggy. I don't believe any management was on premises. We heard a very loud and interesting conversation coming from the kitchen which is in the centre of the restaurant, about a party. Several staff were involved in the conversation, mostly male, at least one female. We were seated at a window, on the perimeter of the restaurant, so that gives you an idea of how loud the kitchen conversation was. When we returned to our car, we saw a man arrive who looked to be a manager, carrying several items into the restaurant, so hopefully things in the restaurant settled down after his arrival. He couldn't park worth a darn though, taking two spots near the entrance door to park his truck.

We were horrified with the experience. We prefer to dine in cleaner, quieter premises and said we'd never be back.

The ABC in Maple Ridge is not to be confused with good experiences we've had dining at the chains in Langley and the White Rock/South Surrey restaurant. Good food and quiet respectful atmosphere.

On February 4 we were over in Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge and decided to give the ABC Country Restaurant another try because they were having a special for $22 - 2 entrees and a dessert.

We both ordered fish and chips. The waiter was a young man, probably in his late teens very quiet and unsure of himself. He took our order and stopped by several times to check on things even though we still hadn't received our food. There was another young man, a busboy, also appeared to be in training and hoping to be promoted to waiter who stopped by several times checking on us. Our food arrived. I ate a couple of chips and went to the fish. The batter was runny, not crisp. I asked Kerry to try his because he was still eating his chips. He also took a bite and declared the batter not cooked on his too. The assistant manager was near and we let her know it wasn't cooked enough. She was very apologetic and whisked both plates back to the kitchen. She returned a few moments later and told us we were getting two more fresh meals. And sure enough when the plates returned everything was fine.

The only other mishap was with the dessert. Our waiter put our order in but one of his co-workers swiped our dessert and took it to another table.

Now nothing that happened was the young waiter's fault. And the staff were good and resolved the issue immediately and thanked us for being so understanding.

I really think we won't be back. We should have learned from the first time.

And on the original complaint back in 2004, we advised the head office but didn't receive a response.