Christmas cake

One of the things that got dropped in our disorganised Christmas was the Christmas cake... I was going to make it on the evening of the 24th, but realised that our planned substitution of baking dishes (large corning ware instead of 10" round tin, anyone?) wasn't going to work. So we ordered a 10" pan on Amazon :) and I made the Christmas cake now, as a practise for next year (and to feed to our family biblestudy, who are coming to our place this week).
While being a fair bit more complicated than most things I have cooked, and full of substitutions, it turned out surprisingly well, although we have yet to taste it.

First proper snow for Annapolis

The forecast was 1-3 inches. I reckon we got the full three. Our school bus had an accident (before reaching our stop), so we had our own little personal 'snow day' with another family nearby, and went sledding down a handy slope. The thing with kids is, you don't need some special huge ski run, just a clear slope, that doesn't end in a freezing creek or 30 ft drop. Friends and some halloween chocolate bars is bonus.
the other thing about Mr 5, is that he enjoys sledding, but I truly think his heart is in shovelling. The little plastic shovels we got them for Christmas (thanks to an aunt and uncle) got a real workout, starting with a rather enthusiastic shovel from our place to the slope (if anyone had an issue about how we left the pristine sidewalk, they could just follow the digging back to our place...).

Big meal

Every so often, there is a meal...
This night, we had meat pies and sausage rolls bought from The English Pork Pie Shop in Buffalo, and our neighbour also dropped in some marinated venison. The venison looked like liver - not very inviting at all, but was surprisingly tasty (marinade, I guess!), and tender. It did not taste like beef, pork or chicken (perhaps a touch like turkey!!).
The meat pies were awesome. The sausage rolls were pork based, which was surprising, but no less tasty. We also had a Cornish pasty, which looked like pastry around pork and potato, which was good, but not what I expected (I think what I expected was a vegetable turnover, so possibly the expectations were a bit out).
I am feeling encouraged to have a go at a sausage roll one of these days (we found big squares of puff pastry in the freezer aisle of Trader Joes)

Snow!!

We got up to a light dusting of snow the morning after visiting Niagra Falls, and thankfully, it was enough that the sleds worked without us pulling them down the hill. We have learned that the kids can only really concentrate on sledding for about half an hour, then they need hot chocolate and a break.

The next day there was a fresh fall in the morning (see photo above), and the sledding got so fast that we put a parent at the bottom of the hill to ensure the kids didn't end up in the ditch (with icy water/ice in it). After initially feeling a touch frightened, the baby was very enthusiastic, which shows how much a year changes things. Mr 5 was the perfect age, and really enjoyed himself, but we both got the impression he would have been happier with a pile of snow to shovel with his Christmas snow shovel. 

Very happy that we got some snow - promise (hopefully) of a winter that will come further south!

British Chippy

There is this company, recommended to me by an English man, called The English Pork Pie Company - and it turns out their shop is in Buffalo, NY, which was on the way home from Niagra Falls. They have a shed in an industrial unit, and they make and ship pies and cornish pasties, and a a fair few other things British to Canada and USA. They recently opened a shop front in their unit (called British Chippy - Proper Fish and Chips) and they sell a few of their hot pies, as well as fish and chips. We got fish and chips as well as a really nice chicken and mushroom pie for dinner, and ordered a whole heap of pies and sausage rolls to take home for later.
The fish and chips was specifically battered Cod with some chips, a huge serving of cod. It was reasonably expensive, and I'm not sure why, seeing as cod is available in the US for not very much, but it might be the cost of actually paying decent wages for labour (the wife of the husband and wife team works the cash register). I wouldn't recommend it as a cheap takeaway, however, it was a nice stop, and I do miss fish and chips.
Buffalo looks like it was really set up for manufacturing - right on Lake Erie (other end of lake from Detroit), very industrialised, with confusing but flowing road systems where you could end up somewhere wrong very fast. We suspect it is on the edge of what is termed the 'rust belt' in USA (Detroit's population fell by 25% since 2000. In the city, there has been a 60% drop from the 1950s. I think it is officially broke now, I assume mostly from the collapse of manufacturing industries).

Niagra Falls

After a day to recover, we sallied forth and travelled for four hours, to view Niagra Falls in the winter time. We wore all our snow pants and snow boots and beanies and jackets, and walked around in swirling snow, and froze in cold spray, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We walked one way and then got a trolley bus ride back, which greatly impressed the children. The building works to upgrade the facilities, including a concrete pour, a little digger and all sorts of construction also were admired!

Our Cabin

Our cabin is nothing special (by this, I mean, not 5 stars with pristine linen and chocolates on your pillow), but it has a fire pit, and a grassy hill that we discovered you could use a sled on, if mum or dad pulls...We have investigated a tree house in the woods up the hill, which turned out to be a hunting platform complete with some empty shell casings, and we think there are tappings for maple syrup on what must be maple trees (can't tell, although hubby says the leaves look like the Canadian flag). There is also a little shallow creek at the end of our drive that we investigated, and more exciting, a dam with ice on it (so you can throw rocks on the ice and they'll sit there!).It is near where Hammond Lake and Tioga Lake join, so we went for a drive and looked at the dam wall and stuff.
We have had two picnic dinners at the table near the fire so far, with roasting of marshmallows afterwards.
It is decorated in extreme 'bear' theme - we have not counted, but there are bears everywhere - statues, pictures, lamp stands, chopping boards, linen, crockery, curtains, etc etc. Personally, I find it a touch over-bearing (pun intended), but I assume the owner must like bears. When there are not bears, there is a 'woodsy' theme - unfinished pine, rustic furniture, and a whole bit of vine, brought inside and cable tied to a column and along the ceiling.  Not so sure about why.