Ugly Mould

The Dreaded Mould

Likely every home has mould somewhere if there is moisture.

Living in a Canadian community by the sea, I have moisture all the time.

Mould tends to always live around the windows in our climate.

This window is in my unheated mudroom and the space is currently being renovated.

I'm at the final painting stages and now is the time to tackle the mould, so back to the trusty Google search to find something that will work long term.

Of course I have tried all the regulars each year; vinegar, tea tree oil, bleach and mould specific paint but the mould always comes back. 

This article from the Toronto Star delivers a wealth of knowledge on mould.

In short, most standard cleaning methods only wash away the surface mould but does nothing to kill the root of the spore, which has dug down into it's food source, in my case wood.  

So the mould is not only unsightly but it is also damaging the wood around my windows, not good.

Like a tulip in winter, the root remains in the food source until conditions are right and it grows.

The article suggests products for mould made by a Canadian company, Concrobium, which can be purchased at any big box store.

Wish me luck and good luck if you too have mould.

Remember, large amounts of mould should be handled by a professional.

Be safe.

The Carrot

I love carrots.  

I love their colour how they taste raw and how they compliment a good meal.

Have you ever purchased a bunch of carrots at the farm market, 

stored them in your fridge crisper, only to discover two days later they are limp?  

So I would only buy carrots and cook them same day so they would always be fresh. 

But it's winter now and I bought a plastic bag full of organic carrots at the grocery store. 

I punched a whole in the bag to get a carrot out for my morning juice and 

two came out by accident so I left the single carrot in the crisper on the bag.  

Two days later I went back to get carrots to make with dinner and "What"!

The carrot on top of the bag is curled, wilted and smaller in size but the rest of the carrots in the plastic bag are just fine.  

Who knew?  

Things I learn by accident.  

So a Google search was in order and I found this wonderful explanation at the Carrot Museum about storing carrots and this great list of veggie storage tips at the Washington Green Grocer.

Now maybe my fridge is more dry then others, I don't know, 

but this is the new solution for my beloved carrots.

I know plastic is not the best idea so I have started looking a cellophane replacement

and will update this post once I have found one.

Single Serving Pancakes

Dining for One

Living alone is always a challenge for cooking.  

Whether it be finding the receipes to create single servings, (I'm not a huge fan of left-overs) finding 

small portions at the market or just missing the pleasure of cooking and eating with others, cooking for one is a constant learning curve.

The good ole world wide web does offer a repository of wonderful ideas 

on just about every subject you could hope to google.  

After finding recipes I like, I start to adjust ingredients according to my taste 

and so it seemed prudent to include give these works in progress a home for others to enjoy.

Today I had a craving for pancakes.  Not sure why; a memory of Pancake Saturday's with friends or just a craving for something that included flour.  So I start where millions of other women start, Pinterest and started with this recipe, which I will turn into my own.  It makes two nice size pancakes, just enough to be filling with no left over batter.  I will continue to adjust this recipe as I experiment with different flours and will try to keep notes on how things turned out.

Single Serving Pancakes

Ingredients

1/3 cup  flour (I used Speerville Mill Unbleached White Flour)

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

1 egg, large

1/4 cup milk (I used blend)

1 tsp melted butter

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and powder and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together egg, milk, butter.

Using a fork, stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix. Batter will be a bit lumpy.
Let the batter settle for 5-10 minutes, there should be some bubbles happening.
You can also add some thinly sliced bananas to the batter, or blueberries.

Preheat a fry pan over low-medium heat, add small piece of butter to melt.

Scoop 1/3 cup of batter onto hot pan and shake pan gently to even out batter.
Cook until bubbles form on surface. Watch temperature of pan, cakes can burn quickly before done.
To finish off, I like to drizzle lemon juice and then of course pure maple syrup.