December Days - board games!

Tough decisions are about to be made...

I grew up playing board games. It was always a special treat when our whole family sat down to play a game. Things usually got a little bit silly and a lot of great memories were created. Even as teenagers we loved to take time to play a game of Wizard or Monopoly (although we were sure our brother was cheating because he won so often).
Since  Mike and I married we have discovered German board games and love the different style and unique game play. Christmas always includes a new German board game to try. The first year we discovered German board games we both went out and bought a copy of Carcassone for each other. Since then we've chosen our new Christmas game together to avoid having to return one!
Our anniversary and Mike's birthday usually include a couple of hours playing one of our favourite games while enjoying special snacks and each other's company. We always have a hard time choosing which games we will take on our houseboat trip and end up taking more than we could ever play.

She can hardly wait to say "Boo" and scare me when she gets to the top.

This past year it has been a lot of fun to see our little Sweet Pea learning to play board games. Last Christmas she received quite a few great games and we've had so much fun playing them with her.
A Hello Kitty Trouble-style game was left on a houseboat this summer. If it was yours, thank you! Our little girl and Grandma have enjoyed popping the die and making their way around the board  quite a bit over the last few months.

Will we be able to beat Daddy?

For her birthday Mike found her first German board game called Spooky Stairs, chosen because you get to say 'Boo!' when you get to the top of the stairs.
 We've already created so many fun memories and now that the houseboats aren't keeping us busy December has been the beginning of several months to enjoy playing a lot more board games together.
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December Days - Snow

For the past twenty years or so snow has not been a certainty in December. In fact a few years ago we joked about putting one of the houseboats back in the water for a spin on Christmas day just to say we'd done it. This year has been a totally different story. The snow came early and even piled up enough to play in. Lake Temagami is frozen over and we've been skiing on it while others have been sledding and ice fishing. And the snow just keeps on coming.

There's just something about snow. Yes, it's miserable to drive in sometimes and it can be an unwelcome make work project when you need to go somewhere. But it's beautiful. Whether the trees are covered in a heavy blanket of snow or lightly frosted the whole world becomes a new place, a wonderland that can take your breath away. Winter is probably my favourite season (although by the time April comes I will agree that it is time for a change).

Yes, it's cold and it's a bit more work to get ready to go outside. But it's so much fun especially with a three year old. There's sliding, rolling, burying, skiing, and fort building to be done. There are snow angels and snow men to be made. It's soft to lay in and look up at the clear blue sky or watch the clouds float by. While most people are groaning with each successive dumping of snow I'm marveling at it's beauty and looking forward to all the fun we'll have in it. There's just something about snow...

December Days - Skiing!

One of my most memorable Christmas gifts as a child was the year we received cross country skis. I had done some skiing on my Grandpa's big old wooden skis but now I had skis that were my size. Our whole family received skis and now we could go together. Our family spent many happy Saturdays enjoying fresh air, trails, white birch trees against brilliant blue skies and laughs over my little brother's escapades as he tried to outdo us all.

Last winter our little girl started talking about wanting to ski but I thought she was too young. Finally at the end of the season we went to a nearby ski club which offered free rentals of sleds I could pull behind me so Sweet Pea could experience skiing. The whole time she kept asking where her skis were. When we returned to the chalet I discovered that they also offered free ski rentals to anyone under six so we borrowed a pair and were off to ski around the chalet a couple of times. She was so excited. The whole time she kept exclaiming, "I'm doing it! I'm skiing!"

We haven't had enough snow to do a lot of skiing in December the last few years but winter has certainly set in early. We've been practicing our skiing since the beginning of the month which makes Mommy happy.
This winter I am looking forward to doing a lot more skiing, especially since it's one of my favourite winter past times. Our toy library actually had skis we could borrow and we've been practicing first in the driveway and now on the frozen lake. Today Sweet Pea wanted to go in the forest but I said we would try that next time.
I think she might be ready to try a short ski at Finlayson Point Provincial Park. If the weather warms up a bit over the next couple of days I think we'll give it a try.

December Days - bird watching

Crisp cold air. 

Snow covered branches everywhere. 

The call of the chickadee, the nuthatch, the Canada jay and the bluejay. 

I love watching the birds out our big front window. They are an entertaining part of our day as they come and go taking turns and deciding who will be first at the feeder this time. 

Abby loves to get as close to the feeder as she can, hoping to catch one of those little birds. I think we've convinced her that she'll be more likely to have one in her hand if she stands still and waits for them to come to her. She's a patient little girl and more than once she has sat in the garden for 20 minutes enjoying the birds flying and landing so close to her she could almost touch them. 

Maybe one day she'll actually have one land on her hand.

December days - Christmas baking

Sweet Pea using the mixer for the first time - the noise used to frighten her.

mmmm... licking beaters is one of the best things about baking cookies

Everyone loves something different about Christmas. For me one of the big highlights has always been baking special cookies. My Grandma was the cookie queen. She always had cookies on hand and always had us come to cut out spicy gingerbread and melt in your mouth shortbread cookies. Mike's favourite christmas baking includes peanut butter balls, Annemarie's Christmas cakes cherry surprises. Christmas baking is a little bit different now that Abby and I are gluten free and I have to be careful how much sugar I eat. Cookies are definitely my weakness and I find it so hard to not devour them all that I don't do nearly as much baking as I used to. But Annemarie found a good gingerbread cookie recipe that we enjoyed making last week. It uses only half the sugar but still tastes great and little Sweet Pea got to use some of our cookie cutters for something other than playdough. We started with bigger cookies but our girl loves little things and the smallest cutters were her favourite. Really it's a good thing I guess because now we can eat three and tell ourselves it's the same as eating only one!

December Days -snow angels

I can't say that I remember snow angels being a huge deal. I remember making them but I was always disappointed that I ended up with footprints in them and a simply unrecognizable something in the snow. Somehow I just couldn't get the hang of it.

But our little Sweet Pea, now that's another story. Snow angels are exciting, glorious even. As soon as there is a dusting of snow she can't wait to get outside to make snow angels wherever she can. We had to bundle up before breakfast one morning because we just couldn't wait to lay down in that beautiful white snow and create a whole new series of angels.
She's renewed my joy in stretching out in the soft white snow and creating flowing garments for my angels while enjoying the bright blue sky or catching snowflakes on my bare face. Don't worry, I've figured out how to get up without destroying my creations and I help our little girl to her feet so she can enjoy and admire their beauty.

It really wouldn't be winter without snow angels.

The beginning of another houseboating adventure and a new shrimp recipe

Delicious shrimp and apples just waiting to be eaten

This year’s houseboating adventures didn’t begin exactly as planned but this time I’m actually okay with it. We had hoped to leave home later in the afternoon on Saturday but the wind began to blow and we were tired. I was even thankful when Mike said maybe we wouldn’t leave until the next morning. By evening there was a severe storm watch for just north of us that would possible include Temagami with predictions of winds up to 90km/h! Yes, I was definitely thankful to still be at home.

The only awkward thing about not leaving as planned was that all of our clothes and food were already loaded up. So we had supper on the houseboat while it was parked at the dock and pretended that we were already at our first stop.

My menu for the week includes a few new things to try on the barbecue. We all love cooking and trying new things. Abby especially loves to measure and mix. 

A delicious meal that we all agreed we'd eat again!

My first supper consisted of something that could be made very quickly on the barbecue since we probably wouldn’t arrive at our first campsite until it was really past suppertime. I was originally going to fry shrimp to go with rice and asparagus but then I came across this recipe in a gluten free e-mailing that I get and I had to try it. We all agreed that it was a make again recipe and I wished I had more apples to go with the shrimp that were still in the freezer at home. It was fast. It was easy. It was delicious. And who doesn’t love shrimp? I didn’t use jumbo shrimp but I always pick up the biggish sized shrimp when they go on sale so we have them on hand. Since we were still at home I cooked the rice in our rice cooker. I just can’t seem to get the hang of cooking good rice in a pot. Besides it’s so nice to just turn it on and forget about it.

After supper we pretended we didn’t have anything else to do and just went swimming for a bit. Much to Abby’s dismay we decided to sleep in our house just in case the weather network's predictions were correct and the winds decided to get up even higher and loads of hail decided to fall. In the end the weather network was wrong once again and the storm didn’t happen at all. We woke up to a beautifully calm, cool morning with the wind behind us as we set out for our houseboat vacation.

Grilled Shrimp and Apple Skewers

3 TB honey
3 TB olive oil
1 TB fresh basil
1 TB strawberry jam
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, minced
2 TB red wine vinegar
1 TB lemon juice
2 tsp. white sugar
2 gala apples
16 jumbo shrimp
Refrigerate the shrimp in marinade 30 minutes. Skewer shrimp and apples alternately. Barbecue 5 minutes per side on medium-high, basting with remaining marinade.

Making a collection

Zebra rocks, polkadot rocks, tiger rocks and more!

Two is such a wonderful age. It takes so little to be amused. The whole world is waiting to be discovered and everything is an adventure. At home Abby's favourite adventure is a walk up the hill beside Grandma and Grandpa's house to sit on a big rock that overlooks the houseboats and the lake. She would go on that adventure several times a day if someone would take her. I was looking forward to seeing what adventures would be her favourites while we were on our houseboat vacation.

We had a lovely ride to our first campsite on the houseboat. Abby has a sticker book she’s been working through that kept her busy for a long time. There was a lot to see on the way out: green and red buoys had to be watched for; boats had to be waved at as they passed by. She helped Daddy drive and enjoyed a few snacks along the way.

'Stonehenge'

Our first stop was Sand Point. Abby was so excited to have arrived she was taking her clothes off to put her swimming suit on before we were even tied up. We spent a fun couple of hours digging in the sand and exploring the shoreline. We began by digging for treasure and finding lots of interesting rocks in the sand. Mike came out to play while I got my swimming suit on and he showed her how to make 'Stonehenges' with her treasure rocks.

Then we began to make collections. Abby was collecting orange rocks and I was collecting white rocks. There were a lot more orange rocks to be found than white as we wandered up and down the shore. Abby’s bucket was quickly filled and emptied into a pile at the water’s edge. She soon turned to collecting interesting rocks as she sang about her collection. We found zebra rocks, tiger rocks, polka dot rocks and just plain cool rocks. There were also lots of big pine cones to add to the collection.

Rocks, exploring, swimming, pine cones... Sometimes we feel the need to plan a multitude of activities that must happen before our family vacation can be complete. But two years old doesn't require every moment of the day to be organized. It only requires some water, some rocks and someone to share it with.

Another great rock for the collection

Maybe my favourite lake trout recipe ever...

My adventures in cooking on our third night houseboating were going to include beer can chicken but the chicken wasn’t quite thawed and Mike caught a beautiful lake trout just after lunch. We had been hoping to cook some trout on a cedar plank on the barbecue so I happily saved the chicken for the next day.

It was my first time cooking with the cedar plank and I learned a few things. The plank really needs to be on the barbecue for a while before you start cooking the fish. The instructions with the plank I bought said nothing about this but I don’t really feel that we got a lot of that cedar smoke taste into the fish. The other thing about cooking on a plank is that it needs to soak for two hours before you start so I needed to plan this part of supper ahead a bit more. I soaked it in one of our water pails while we were moving which worked okay but soaking it in the lake would have been better as the plank was a bit too long for the pail.

We had some leftover baby potatoes that I fried up with garlic and onion and cooked one of Abby’s favourites, parsnips. If I hadn’t had so many other things going on on the barbecue I would have roasted them in foil with a bit of oil and honey. Roasting really brings out the parsnip flavour. We also had individual garden salads topped with the things we each like best. 

I had hoped to have fresh bread ready for Mike to have with supper but in the end, it made a great dessert with homemade strawberry jam.

Here’s the trout recipe. Mike and I both agreed that it was a make-again recipe. It has a nice sweet, mild flavour that still lets you taste the fish.

Maple-Soy Glazed Trout

A filet and steak of lake trout looking delicious.

2 1/2 lb fish (I think you could make more than this with this amount of glaze.)

1 tsp. coarse salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/4 c. maple syrup
2 TB soy sauce

2 TB melted butter (I omitted this)

2 TB. lime juice

1/2 tsp. lime zest - this will take at least two limes. I didn’t quite have enough.

2 TB fresh chives

lemon wedges

I marinated the trout in this mixture for about an hour but the recipe says just to glaze it as it cooks. 

Preheat the barbecue to 350. Place the cedar plank on the barbecue as it heats. Place the trout on the plank skin side down. Baste the trout throughout the cooking time. The recipe says this should only take 10 minutes to cook but I found that it took quite a bit longer, probably closer to 20 minutes. That may be because the plank wasn’t heated enough ahead of time. I’m not sure. You’ll know it’s done when the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Serve trout with chives and lemon wedges. I cut the lemon but forgot to bring chives. We found it tasted great as is and didn’t even use the lemon.

Steak and potatoes

Honestly, I don’t think this meal is all that interesting. In fact I think it’s quite common but Mike asked if I wanted pictures taken because he was so excited to enjoy it. 
Now we don’t have steak every day. That’s not why I think it’s common. It’s just that there’s no recipe. Anyone could make it. Lots of people do make it. But apparently steak, foil potatoes with bacon, onion and Italian seasoning and skewered mushrooms are worth writing about. This spring beef loins were on sale for less than half price so I picked one up and cut it into steaks and froze them. Every time we have steak Mike tells me I should have bought more. But I’m still learning how to buy meat and can never remember what is tender and what isn’t. Growing up on a farm has lots of advantages and eating the meat you raise is certainly one of them. The disadvantage is that you eat what’s in the freezer. You don’t think about what kind of steak it is. You don’t check to see if you’re buying one that’s nicely marbled. It’s just there. You thaw it and you eat it. This is not a complaint. I am so thankful to have been raised on a farm. It’s just that now I need to buy meat and it always seems so expensive and I’m still learning how to choose a good cut.

The more interesting part of this meal is that we baked cookies on the barbecue to finish it off. We don’t eat a lot of dessert but I want to try a few different things on the barbecue while we’re on vacation so we will be eating dessert most nights much to everyone’s excitement. Before I got pregnant with Abby I pretty much cut sugar out of my diet and I felt sooo much better. I’m careful about how much sugar Abby has too. What this means is that my choice of cookie may not be terribly appealing to anyone who eats Oreos on a regular basis. There is a recipe called healthy cookies going around Facebook and Pinterest. I tried one version that called for mashed banana, oats and chocolate chips and it was surprisingly good. I used quinoa flakes in that recipe and the substitution worked very well.

Today’s recipe has a bit more to it but still has no oil, gluten, sugar, eggs or raising agents. I bought some gluten free oats to try. Abby and I had lots of fun mixing them up. Abby had even more fun ‘having a good taste’.

My cookie sheet is really a bit big for this barbecue so I turned it halfway through cooking and they didn’t seem to get burnt. I preheated the barbecue to 350 using the burner on only one side. I lined the sheet with parchment paper instead of oil because I thought oil might make the cookies more likely to burn. Everyone seemed to think they turned out very well and quite a few of them disappeared before the night was over. I found this was a very forgiving recipe to make on the barbecue. It handled some variation in the temperature without burning or drying out. I had hoped to use my insulated cookie sheet but it ended up being much too big for the houseboat barbecue.

Healthy Cookie

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup apple sauce

1 tsp. vanilla

3 cups of rolled oats

1/4 cup almond milk

1/2 cup raisins

1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients together and drop them by tablespoonful onto greased or parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Beer can chicken and other yummy things

Tonight’s meal consisted of beer can chicken, barbecued cabbage with bacon, squash and bean salad. I always love squash with my roasted chicken and tonight was no exception. I didn’t do as well at having everything ready at the same time and Abby and I were both feeling very tired and a bit grumpy so we ate things as they were cooked since Mike was out fishing and had said not to wait for him.

Carefully measuring the spices.

The beer can chicken turned out great. We borrowed a chicken roaster and a can of beer from Mike’s parents. This is not your traditional roasting pan but something that props the chicken up in a ‘standing’ position. It has a tray for catching the drips and holds a beer can. I had one little problem in cooking with it - the chicken was too tall for the barbecue. Being tired and not having my problem solving husband here to help me I put a metal bowl in the barbecue to prop the lid up a bit and tried a couple of things to keep the heat from escaping but none of them worked well. The chicken roaster's instructions actually say to make sure the lid on the barbecue is fully closed. As best as I can tell the only side effect was that it took extra propane to cook supper. I asked Mike about it when he came in and he thought he had taken the rack out of the barbecue on one side and set the chicken directly on the flavour wave plate when he'd done it before. I'm sure that would have worked perfectly.

Beer Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken 2-4 lbs

1 can of beer

2-3 cloves of fresh garlic

poultry seasoning, fresh or dried rosemary, salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the grill on medium heat.

Rub the outside of the skin with poultry seasoning, lightly covering the entire bird. Add pepper and salt to taste.

Empty 1/2 of the can of beer into a glass or measuring cup.

Place 2-3 small cloves of garlic in beer can along with 2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary.

Place the beer can on the base and assemble the large holders around the can of beer.

Place the chicken on the assembled roaster and if desired add the leftover beer and any additional garlic and rosemary to suit to the pan of the roaster.

Place the roaster on the grill. Cook the bird 18-20 minutes per pound or until the breast meat has reached an internal temperature of 170C.

The chicken turned out very moist and tender with lots of great flavour. Definitely another make again recipe.

Dinner time!

I cooked the squash in a metal bowl covered with foil but next time I would just wrap it in foil. The bowl seemed to make it take a lot longer to cook. It was the last thing ready to be eaten.

I have made this cabbage recipe once before but with a larger cabbage. The flavour is great and this time it was more thoroughly cooked.

Barbecued Cabbage

1 head cabbage

4 slices bacon

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp. pepper

4 tsp. butter (I didn’t bother with this - there’s enough fat in the bacon in my opinion)

Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage. Divide into four sections, removing the core. Place each on a piece of foil big enough to wrap them in. Add 1 slice of bacon, 1/4 of seasoning mix and 1 tsp. butter if desired.

Preheat oven to medium heat and bake 40 minutes, turning twice.

I let Abby have a real treat and we made S’mores on the barbecue. I know you’re supposed to have a campfire to do that but we just never seem to get around to making one. She loves all of the ingredients and was excited to watch the marshmallows puff up on the barbecue. I set the crackers directly on the grill but it would probably be better if they were on a tray or foil as we almost lost Abby’s marshmallows on the grill and some of my chocolate melted onto the grill. It seemed like such a shame to not be able to lick it off.

Mmmm... chocolatey, marshmallowy goodness.

A rainy day isn't always a bad thing

Aaah, a rainy day on the houseboat. A good book and a long nap with the sound of the rain pittering on the water and pattering on the roof. It sounds like the perfect relaxing day. Maybe I could put a fishing line with a bobber out at the back of the houseboat and catch some supper without getting wet. Maybe I'll get to play a German board game with my sweetie. I'm almost sure to get beaten but it really doesn't matter it's so much fun to have time together doing something relaxing...
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Playdough fun

Aaah, a rainy day on a houseboat with a two and a half year old... Time to scrap the book and the quiet nap.

I had often wondered what we would do with Abby on the houseboat on a rainy day but it had been a busy week and I was tired. A quiet day doing quiet things on the houseboat actually sounded like a lot of fun. I had brought a lot of Abby's favourite things that we hadn't played with yet so we got them out and had a great time. Abby played with playdough and we read all the stories we'd brought. She did some of her puzzles. We don't watch a lot of TV but Mike set Abby up with a smurf cartoon on the laptop. It was a nice treat for her on a wet day and let us have a bit of down time too. The rain slowed down to a drizzle and we let her try some bobber fishing at the back of the houseboat. I had no idea she would get so excited about catching a fish! Each time the bobber went under the water she would start jumping up and down shouting, "It means there's a fish! I've got a fish!" After supper the rain stopped and we were able to go swimming together.

For anyone planning to go houseboating with young children I recommend bringing some different things along for a rainy day. Make them special things that they don't get to do all the time. Plan for it to be some together time that you spend creating moments they'll remember. A rainy day may not be a good day to read a book or take a nap yourself but it's a great day to string necklaces or make a special craft or read some books together. You probably won't get to play the game you'd like to play but you can have some good laughs and make some great memories around a game your little ones enjoy. Abby loves UNO Moo! and any memory game. She's also getting to be quite good at Go Fish and Dominoes for a few fun ideas.
Of course you know your kids and what they love best. Whether it's building towers or painting or stickers or building a fort under the table a rainy day can be a fun day of creating special memories.

My little fisher girl watching for her bobber to go down.

Adventures while Kayaking Eye Lake - July 9/13

Today was a busy day but a fun day. We camped at an unmarked but very well used campsite at the entrance to Eye Lake. Abby was up early so she and I explored our new campsite despite the hordes of mosquitoes. There is a lot of space that has been cleared under the trees and several trails to explore and there's nothing Abby loves more than to go on an adventure. Then I taught her how to play tag and we ran around until 8:30 when I decided we must have some breakfast.

After we had eaten and cleaned up I packed a picnic lunch and some snacks for our kayaking adventure. We had 'camped' here because I was interested in exploring Eye Lake with Abby and more than an hour and a half in the kayak gets to be a bit long for her. I also wanted to hike the portage trail into Devil Bay. My plan was to have our picnic there and I hoped that it might be a nice spot to swim because our campsite had a pretty dirty bottom for wading and splashing in.

We had a nice paddle and I continue to be amazed at how well Abby sits in the kayak. She must really like it since she doesn’t complain at all when she gets the occasional bonk on the head. Of course I can’t see her face either so maybe it bothers her more than I think but she really doesn’t fuss about it all.

Eye Lake isn’t very big and I was surprised to find a cottage hidden on one of the islands. Abby wanted to check out all of the beaver huts along the way to see if there were any minnows at them so that took our adventure to several little bays we might not have explored so closely. There were at least five beaver huts along the way but only one of them seemed to be in use right now.

Some of the giants' stepping stones

Mike wanted us to make sure we saw the giants' stepping stones across the back bay of Eye Lake and they really were quite interesting. The ‘grain’ of the rock is on an angle and it looks as if they were placed in a row by a giant long ago.

We found a bed of white water lilies which was beautiful. They bloom later than the yellow water lilies and these are the first I have seen this year. That may be because the water is warmer in Eye Lake than in the larger, deeper Lake Temagami.

In a sea of water lilies

Abby was fascinated by the wild rice and wanted to paddle through it whenever we could. I saw something unusual flying around as we glided through the rice but didn’t get a good look at it until we were almost back to our houseboat. As we paddled through one last patch of rice I finally saw one at rest on top of a green stalk of rice. It was the most beautiful ruby red dragonfly I’ve ever seen. Once we’d seen one we saw many many more and we spent a while hunting  them down just so we could get a good look at them. Of course Abby wanted to pet them but we were never that close. Unfortunately the Gopro wasn't on anymore when we were dragonfly chasing or I would definitely share pictures of our discovery.

Devil Bay in the background looked beautiful and made me want to explore the lake here too.

Our hike to Devil Bay was nice. It’s a well used trail and the first half of it has no rocks. It’s an easy hike with no steep inclines We saw several groups of canoeists head that way in the short while we camped here. However, I learned a valuable lesson. Don't bring more than can be put into a backpack when hiking with a two year old. I had way too much stuff with me and only a small backpack which contained our long pants in case the bugs tried to carry us away. I also had our small cooler with our picnic in it and a largish waterproof camera case. The portage trail is just over 500 meters long so it wasn’t too long with a two and a half year old Abby except that she had a little tumble early on and was tired and hungry. Soon I was carrying a little girl on my shoulders and had hands full of cases to carry. I will definitely do things differently if we go hiking like that again.

If you just want a trail to hike on to burn some energy this is a nice length for younger kids and not too difficult. Unfortunately there is no clearing at the other end. The bush was hot and buggy and my hopes of swimming once we reached our destination were not realized because the trail ended in a pile of smelly pollen. A bit later in the season or with the wind in a different direction the pollen would not have been an issue and we may have been able to get cooled off a bit. As it was we went just a little way off the trail and had a bit of a picnic lunch because we needed to eat. The bugs knew they were in for a treat as well and feasted on any part of us that wasn’t covered. Abby’s bug jacket worked great. I unzipped it and put it on top of her head so her neck and most of her head were still protected but she could have some food to fill her little tummy . Her ankles and hands didn’t fare so well but she barely complained about her bug bites she was having so much fun.

Getting cooled off!

We had a little splash when we returned to the kayak because we were so hot but there was lots of tree and leaf matter on the bottom that stirred up as soon as you disturbed the water so we didn’t play there long. We had a better swim at our campsite but then needed a ‘bath’ on the back of the houseboat to get really clean. All in all we had a fun day and it was definitely an adventure to remember.

Bread on the barbecue

And now for the taste test.

Because Abby and I are gluten and dairy free most of the things we eat are things we can all enjoy together. However, I really wanted to try baking bread on our houseboat vacation and I’m still more comfortable baking wheat bread than gluten free. Besides I wanted to make something special just for Mike. 

The bread turned out great! I mean it looked fantastic. I was a bit worried when it wasn’t rising very well but that was because I wasn’t sure where to put it. My original plan was to put it on top of the fridge as it’s always hot there. Of course this afternoon when I needed it to be hot it wasn’t. Mike came up with the perfect solution: we put it in the cupboard above the fridge. It was protected from the drafty open window as we traveled down the lake. The fridge eventually kicked in and the heat from the exhaust warmed the cupboard up beautifully.

Beautiful bread baking to perfection.

I chose to make a batter bread instead of the more traditional raised bread simply because it’s less time consuming. There is only one rising of the dough and no kneading. Really, it’s a beautiful thing. Thank you Betty Crocker for another great recipe! We bought the Big Red Betty Crocker cookbook with money from our wedding gifts and we have never regretted it.

So here it is: easy, amazing bread baked on the barbecue:

Oatmeal Molasses Bread

3/4 cup boiling water

1/2 cup old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats

3 TB shortening

1/4 cup mild-flavoured molasses

2 tsp. salt

1 package regular or quick active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)

1/4 cup warm water

1 large egg

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour

Grease the bottom and sides of a 9X5 loaf pan with shortening. Mix boiling water, oats, shortening, molasses and salt in a large bowl; cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add yeast mixture, egg and 1 1/2 cups of the flour to the oat mixture. Beat for 2 minutes with and electric mixer on medium speed, scraping bowl frequently. (I didn’t have an electric mixer but it mixes very easily and I mixed for almost five minutes just to make sure I had combined it enough.) Stir in remaining 1 1/4 cups of flour until completely mixed.

Spread batter evenly in pan and pat into shape with floured hands. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour and 30 minutes or until the batter is 1 inch from the top of the pan.

Heat the barbecue to 375. I’ll be honest. I had a hard time finding the right temperature on the barbecue. Sometimes it was 325. Sometimes it was 450. But the bread seemed to cook fine just the same.
Bake 50-55 minutes or until the loaf is brown and sounds hollow when tapped. If the loaf browns too quickly, cover loosely with aluminum foil during the last 15 mnutes of baking. Remove from pan to wire rack to cool. I started checking the bread early because I knew the temperature had been high but it still took the full 50 minutes and I didn’t find it browned too quickly. Now mind you I had the lid open often to check on other things cooking in there at the same time and to take some pictures so that may be why it needed the full cooking time.