I haven't had much to post about lately so I'm posting my Algonquin trip journal from this past Civic Holiday weekend. I wrote it up a couple weeks ago and was just waiting to receive the last set of photos from one of the people on the trip. Unfortunately that set seems to have gotten lost in the mail or something. Anyway, I'm posting with the photos I do have and if the missing ones ever show up I'll add them in.
Yesterday was Rib-o-Rama X at John's house and guests were encouraged to bring salads and/or desserts to augment the piles of delicious smoked meats that are always served. Inspired by Janet, I decided I would attempt to make baklava to bring as my contribution.
Baklava is extremely time-consuming to make as it requires you to lay out ~40 sheets of phyllo pastry one at a time, brushing each with clarified butter as you go. I messed up the syrup a bit so the baklava wasn't as moist as I would have liked it, but it still tasted just fine. The nice thing about Janet's recipe is that it is much less sweet than baklava you might pick up at a bakery or wherever which means it's easier to eat lots all at once.
Also yesterday the thermostat in our apartment decided to finally die (it seemed like it was about to die when we moved in, but then it clung to life for almost three more years). Generally I would call the landlord to get it fixed, but he has a new baby and I thought it would be good practice to try to replace it myself. So I picked one up from Canadian Tire that looked similar to the old one and installed it this afternoon in about 30 minutes. It was super easy and our apartment is nice and air conditioned again.
I've been totally sucking at blogging lately, not too much has been happening beyond the usual climbing, house searching, and general life stuff. There is some exciting news though as of today, Chris and John got engaged! Good times!!
Also tonight we talked with Patrick and Toni on Skype for the first time in a while which was fantastic. Finally, I made a tart for supper tonight with fresh Ontario zucchini and it was amazing.
I'm back from our annual canoe trip in Algonquin and it was friggin' awesome as usual. We had 20 people this time in total and everyone was great. I'll be writing up a proper journal with photos and even cliff-jumping videos soon.
