Monday Mellow Yellow

I'm posting at Monday Mellow Yellow today.

August 2012 - Giverny France

At Monet's Garden on a spectacular sunny morning when the gardens were in full bloom.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I'm joining the Scavenger Hunt Sunday sponsored by Ashley.

The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate.
2. You’re encouraged to take five new photos this week for the challenge. Creativity is also encouraged!
3. If you get stumped, you may use one photo from your archive (although I’m not too strict about it – I do my best to take fresh shots).
4. Link up here on Sunday (or Tuesday at the latest) – you can use the button above.
5. Leave comments for at least five entries around yours (with so many new participants each week, it’s the only way I know to be inclusive
6. Have fun!

1. Three
2. Hand(s)
3. Fence
4. Cuddly
5. Sign

THREE - skulls with attitude above the bar at County General

HANDS - hands on the clock I bought this week. You can also see my hand in the reflection!

FENCE - along the Queensway taken from our condo

CUDDLY - Oban, an elephant holding her baby.

SIGN - bar shop on Queen St W.

Weekly Top Shot

I'm posting at The View From Here this week.

May 2013 - Toronto On

A spot for dog owners to tie up their pets while they shop.

52 Photos Project

This week's theme is CROP IT.



May 2013 - Toronto On



Original

Cropped

Saturday Photo Hunting

Keyhole Pictures theme this week is HANDS.


Maurice, one of our servers with a tray in his HANDS. Made by my husband.

My Recipe Box - Spanakopitas

I have made Greek meat pies also known as spanakopitas many times and eaten spinach pies in Greek restaurants. We had a large frozen bag of kale from Costco so I decided to make pies with the kale instead. This recipe is very easy even though it says intermediate.

Dinner Spanakopitas
2008, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, All Rights Reserved

Prep Time:20 minute active Prep Time: -- Cook Time:1 hr 0 min
Level:
Intermediate this was easy to make
Serves:
12 strudels

Ingredients
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion
3 scallions, white and green parts, chopped I omitted
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, defrosted I used kale
4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Plain dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg Could be increased if you wish
I would also add some oregano and thyme2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups small-diced feta cheese (12 ounces)
3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts I omitted
24 sheets frozen phyllo dough, defrosted
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Flaked sea salt, such as Maldon, for sprinkling wouldn't do this again, was too salty for us. I did however, sprinkle them with Parmesan.

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Heat the olive oil in a medium saute pan, add the onion, and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat. Add the scallions, and cook for another 2 minutes until the scallions are wilted but still green. Meanwhile, gently squeeze most of the water out of the spinach and place it in a large bowl.

When the onion and scallions are done, add them to the spinach. Mix in the eggs, Parmesan cheese, 3 tablespoons bread crumbs, the nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Gently fold in the feta and pine nuts.

Place 1 sheet of phyllo dough flat on a work surface with the long end in front of you. Brush the dough lightly with butter and sprinkle it with a teaspoon of bread crumbs. Working quickly, slide another sheet of phyllo dough on top of the first, brush it with butter, and sprinkle lightly with bread crumbs. (Use just enough bread crumbs so the layers of phyllo don't stick together.) Pile 4 layers total on top of each other this way, brushing each with butter and sprinkling with bread crumbs. Cut the sheets of phyllo in half lengthwise. Place 1/3 cup spinach filling on the shorter end and roll the phyllo up diagonally as if folding a flag. Then fold the triangle of phyllo over straight and then diagonally again. Continue folding first diagonally and then straight until you reach the end of the sheet. The filling should be totally enclosed. Continue assembling phyllo layers and folding the filling until all of the filling is used. Place on a sheet pan, seam sides down. Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with flaked salt, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the phyllo is browned and crisp. Serve hot.

Sepia Saturday

Challenge and image source from Sepia Saturday.

These Madrid street kids are upside down, the wrong way up, and all over the place. That's what happens when you place kids next to the slightest excuse for a piece of acrobatic equipment. So for Sepia Saturday 177 - post your posts on or around Saturday 18th May 2013 - we want you to search out your old photos of kids, or acrobats, or people who are upside down or the wrong way around .... or whatever. This 1908 photograph comes from the George Eastman Collection which has been made available by the wonderful Flickr Commons initiative.

My sister, cousin and myself on the swings in Van Horne Park in Montreal around 1960. That is my pregnant aunt sitting on the bench partially obscured by the tree. Love the car!!

We were living on de la Peltrie at the time, the street behind the swings. The house number would have been around 5100. These are typical Montreal duplexes defined as 4 1/2 or 51/2 rooms, the half being the bathroom. This is very different than the way properties are described in Toronto. Nowadays a lower apartment would rent for $850 a month!!

Construction of the Decarie Autoroute was not begun until 1964 and is a sunken highway which caused the collapse of many businesses along the original Decarie Blvd. a story for another day.

Saturday Snapshot

 

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books.

Athens Greece 2010

Weekend Reflections

Posting at Weekend Reflections.

May 2013 - Toronto On

Taken last weekend as I walked along the lake.

My Recipe Box - Breadmaker Jam

ON

I am reposting from 2010 as this week's topic at Carole's Chatter is jam.

The photo makes me smile as it is our old kitchen and I hadn't got my Kitchen-aid mixer yet.

Just came across this recipe for raspberry cream cheese muffins.

It sounded so good that I immediately looked in the freezer to see if I had any raspberries and only found strawberries. Since the recipe called for raspberry preserves (and we never have jam in the house) I remembered that a few years ago our neighbour C had so many apricots we didn't know what to do.
I found a recipe for jam made in the breadmaker  and we used up all the apricots.

 I didn't find any raspberries but did have strawberries so I thought I would make the buns and substitute strawberry preserves for raspberries. The strawberries are defrosting and I will make this tonight in preparation for making the buns in the morning got up early and made the jam not realizing that it took an hour and a half in the breadmaker.

So we are finally eating these at 10am. I also realized I didn't have enough strawberry jam. Necessity is the Mother of Invention so I took some frozen blueberries out of the freezer, microwaved them, mashed them and swirled them through half the muffins.
I used my medium muffin pan that makes 12 and then had enough dough to make 7 more.

Strawberry Jam (Bread Machine) 
This came in my bread machine's user book Black and Decker All in One Deluxe Horizontal.  You can also substitute any other berries for this jam. 

3 cups strawberries(fresh or frozen thawed)  I used frozen and only had 1 cup
3/4 cups sugar I used 1/4 cup
1 tablespoon lemon

If frozen, thaw completely. 
Put berries and sugar into pan of machine. 


Follow the directions for your machine for the jam cycle. And DO follow their direction to prevent splatter, form a 2" wide collar out of foil to put around the upper rim of baking pan to keep centre section open. I didn't and now will have to use a lot of elbow grease to clean up the splatters which have dried throughtout the machine.

Muffins on my grandmother's plate. They were good but not the best ever.