And now for something completely different!

Ok, I just want to take a miniature break from the immense amount of baked goods (what, this is a food blog of some kind? No. . . ), to share some pretty pictures.

I love this time of year for not only the amazing, fresh, and local produce you can get, but also for the immense amount of burgeoning floral activity in the garden. What with work and exercising a whole lot, I haven't had a lot of time to actually do any gardening, or to really appreciate what has been going on in the garden.

So here are some pictures of the pretty flowers growing like mad in the garden!

I hope you enjoy the pretty flower pictures, Dear Internet. But rest assured, there is much baked goods ogling yet to come!

Also, I went to a vineyard with a friend on my lovely day off this long weekend, so I'll have to share some photos of that with you. Maybe someday I'll actually start talking about music too. . .

This week, in baking. . . part 1

Hello, The Internet!

I said that I'd be posting some more this weekend, and here's one of them. Let's see if I can get all of the posts I wanted up by the end of the weekend - but I'm pretty sure that I'll only get two of the four done by the end of this weekend. I'm working this weekend, and for some reason that takes up a lot of time that I could be spending blogging. Ah well. You'll get them when you get them.

Let's look at the making of. . . Thick, chewy granola bars!! I, of course made a few alterations, as well as two - that's right, two - different flavours. One used dried cherries and blueberries, maple syrup, white chocolate chips, and apple butter. And the other used the same dried fruit, buckwheat honey, hazelnut butter, and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

mmmmm apple butter. . .

mmmmmm hazlenut butter. . .

My only excuse is that I had to try apple butter but I wasn't sure it would work out using that instead of a nut butter. The irony being that the apple butter granola bars ended up working out better than the hazelnut butter ones - though that might have been also due to not cooking them quite long enough to set fully (see note below) . . . Live and learn. I'll just have to make several more batches of granola bars to see how different flavours and ingredients work. It's a hard knock life, isn't it?

Now, a string of photos of creating the bars!

gathering ingredients and preparing the tins

mixing dry ingredients

 Just a quick note - I used a bit less than half a cup of dark brown sugar, instead of the 1/2-3/4 of a cup of white sugar. I dislike overly sweet anythings, and dark brown sugar has so much more character than white that I thought I could get away with less than the required amount of sugar. And the bars were still a little bit too sweet. Though, if I made the bars without chocolate, the amount of sweetness probably would have been perfect.

measuring out the tasties

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon?? Hah! That's a
heaping teaspoon for you

mixing the yumbly stuffs together

pouring out some buckwheat honey

action shot! whisking the wet ingredients

adding the hazelnut butter

squooshing it all into the pan

ready to bake (über-blurry. . . wheee)

I tried something arty. Didn't work

Baked!

A second note - notice the closer square is less evenly golden-brown? The tin I used was slightly smaller than the other, and so the squares were a bit thicker than the first batch. My inner-expert-baker was having a nap and this didn't occur to me as an issue until I was starting to cut the squares. . .

listen to the original recipe - use a
serrated, not sharp, knife

They weren't the prettiest bars - I should have waited to cut them until after they were thoroughly cooled. But they were certainly tasty. After giving some to my friend, and some to the boyfriend, we have very little left today, only a few days after they were made.

Yup. Two left. Oh wait, I ate one. . . So just one left now.

And I have lists of ideas for other flavour combinations. I can't wait! Two more baking projects to share with you, Dear Internet, coming up in the near future. I hope you're having a phenomenal weekend!

My new hiking boots

I decided that I'll work in chronological order, to publish all the things I've been accumulating this past week.

Ever since I bought my new hiking boots (squeee!) I've been raring to go on a hike and start breaking them in, and three weeks later, the opportunity finally presented itself. My schedule and the boyfriend's never seemed to match up, and I generally prefer to go with someone. And very few people I know seem to be as über-excited about hiking as me, or the boyfriend. Also, life is full of stuff to do, so hiking was tossed onto the back-burner for a little while.

But last Sunday, we finally got our hike on. And it was marvelous. The weather cooperated, it was cloudy but no pouring of rain happened, and partway through the day the sun came out. Temperature was perfect as well - just right for a vigorous walk. We might have over-done it, just slightly, as we set out around 1 and got back after 7. . . And boy my legs and feet were tired. Not sore though - those boots I chose were a pretty smart investment. I have to get used to how rigid the sole is, and after 4 hours or so, I started to notice a little bit of chaffing on my left ankle. But how many shoes can you say that about? I think these will work out pretty darn well.

Now, photos!!!

I love how my city has these hidden pocket of semi-wilderness. During the hike, every so often I completely forgot that I was in the middle of a really big city, full of lots and lots of people. We might not have easy access to purple mountain majesty or wild and untamed forest, but a 10 minute walk from the boyfriend's apartment and we were urban hiking. I have no excuses for the quality of the river - there are many beautiful waterways on this continent, and this is not one of them. Though it is apparently a whole lot cleaner than 100 years ago, so that's some progress. I guess :(

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And now that that's done (I really hate the brute force photo uploader you have, Blogger. . . No customization options?? Lame), I'm going to go to sleep - it's been a loooong day, and I never had that nap I wanted.

But now there are four more blog posts soon to be coming your way, with a third completely new baking project coming up this lovely long weekend. Another new recipe from Smitten Kitchen, of course. Awesome!!

Stay beautiful, Mother Nature, and I hope you're having a wonderful long weekend, Dear Internet.