Google celebrates 50th anniversary of the Lego block

Google celebrates 50th anniversary of the Lego block with their logo today! Insert rambling reminiscing about childhood Lego memories here. Thanks Google!

X-C skiing at Cap St-Jacques

Saturday afternoon we had a wonderful father-daughter-friends outing cross-country skiing at Cap St-Jacques Nature Park.

We had a great time. The weather was beautiful; Lindsay never fussed about the goggles I put on her face; Stephane was crepe powered; and JF and Chloe led us all to the cool Chateau Goyer for a hot chocolate (and a peek at their Griffindor room).

The full-sized photos are available at my online album; and JF's blog about the afternoon is also available online.

Light-O-Rama. Control lights, music, and special effects.

Check-out Light-O-Rama!!! Next christmas this what is going up in front of the house! Never mind those dinky little LED lights, we've got cheap electricity in Quebec and I'm going to make the most of it! Maybe not as crazy as these guys, but give me a couple years.

Movie night at Ada's

This was supposed to be Movie Night at Ada's (we did watch a movie, Nanny Diaries, not bad - even for a chick flick), but I think the star of the show was Ada's new pet hedgehog Harriet. A strange little creature with a rapidly changing temperament and a prehensile tongue.

We also had some really delicious home-made caramel corn. The full-sized photos are online.

Goat Cheese and Zucchini Aperitif Cake

Serves 8

Ingredients

Standard meause	Ingredient	Metric measure
1/2 cup	Whole milk	125 ml
2 tbsp	Olive oil	30 ml
1	Zucchini thinly sliced	1
3	Eggs	3
1 cup + 1 tbsp	Flour	265 ml
3 tsp	Baking powder	15 ml
1/2 tsp	Salt	2 ml
1/2 tsp	Freshly ground pepper	2 ml
1/3 cup	Vegetable oil	75 ml
1 1/4 cup	Grated gruyere cheese	100 grams
3 oz	Chevre en buche goat cheese, diced	100 grams
3 tbsp	Chopped chervil, tarragon, or parsley	45 ml

Note: for a milder taste use less Chevre en buche, or use a milder goat cheese - such as the creamed goat cheese that comes in a plastic tube with metal crimps at each end.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 Celsius).
2. Butter a 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch loaf pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, and butter the paper.
   
3. In a small saucepan scald the milk and set aside.
4. Head the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and saute the zucchini slices until lightly browned (about 10 minutes). Let drain on paper towels.
5. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and pepper.
6. Gradually whisk in the vegetable oil and warm milk.
7. Fold in the gruyere, the zucchini, the goat's cheese, and the herbs.
8. Pour into the prepared loaf pan.
9. Bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted inot the centre comes out clean.
10. Let cool slightly before un-moulding, the let cool completely before slicing.
    

You can probably get three small loaves out of this recipe instead of one large loaf.

Lindsay's first birthday

I can't believe it's already been one whole year!!! Our little daughter is a year old, the last 12 months have just flown by. Of course we celebrated in style, we had four parties for our little girl - just the three of us; with all "her" friends; with all our friends; and of course with the families.

First Storm Of 2008

Well, mother nature did it again, and followed our latest dusting with a beautiful winter day! Full sized photos are available in the online album.