I do a lot of long walks now as my legs are injured, and on my walk this weekend I came across a ‘free’ table and it had books, toys, random stuff and this beauty: A horse head cake pan by Wilton!
So of course we made a cake!! I love it.
That’s right, thanks to my dear friend Sarah, I was able to try this unique chocolate last week. The packaging is a very attractive rose-pink, in kind of a laminated ‘pocket’, where the chocolate is also wrapped in a plastic sheeting with what I can only guess is ‘chocolate-making supplies’ dotted across it. It’s all very seasonal and Valentine-y looking.
I think Sarah said she got it at Quality Foods, so I can’t comment on price but I do know that dark chocolate is expensive. The scent off the top is intriguing- kind of a chili-forward smell, with a cocoa under layer. It’s not offensive at all, and it goes one really wondering what exactly peppercorn chocolate tastes like??
I’m here to tell you…Eh.
Like, I am a person who does not discriminate on chocolate. Milk, dark, cheap, expensive, I like all of them! (obviously). But I have a real fondness for what I describe as ‘volume eating’ and dark chocolate…Not a good volume eat, at all. Trust me on this. So this chocolate bar, upon first bite, tasted lightly smoky, with a very subtle peppery nose – like wine! However my gripes with this bar that led to my rating of ‘eh’ were as follows: Smells better than it tastes, the peppercorn flavour is more crunch and textural than flavour, and the dark chocolate itself had a weak mouthfeel with none of the richness of say, the Lindt bar that Melissa got me at Christmas.
To sum up, it looks good, smells lovely, and tastes flat. More crunch than flavour. If you are a heathen that likes eating chocolate cold or frozen (I know, I was gasping in horror when I learned that people do that!), then this might be the chocolate for you. For everyone else? Pick a different bar, this one has flash and style but no substance. It kind of reminds me of an item being ‘soulless’- usually described as evil people, bad music, or bad corporations, but in this way, I mean that it lacks depth, integrity and interest.
(or don’t listen to me, I also dropped a piece of a fabulous chocolate chip cookie on the carpet at work this morning, which I KNOW does not get cleaned, and I still ate it…)
Featuring…lots of haze and smoky skies, courtesy of the wildfire situation happening all over B.C. at the moment. In Victoria right now, it’s crazy smoky and the air quality is really poor. I am happy to say it wasn’t that bad in Kelowna- some high haze but still fairly warm and sunny. It got a lot worse when we left actually- they had to shut down the airports! Yikes…
Dirty Laundry winery.
Anyways we went to the interior for a bit of sun and summer warmth (that was only partially thwarted by the wilfires). We visited wineries, went on a run to the 12 trestles trail at the Kettle Valley Railway,. ate at restaurants, bought wine by the case (me), went to breweries and cideries, did some short hikes with Gidget and swimming! (pool, Similkimeen River and Okanagan Lake).
Hot dog! At Dirty Laundry winery.
All in all, it felt really good to get away.
Swimming in the Similkimeen. COLD!Â
Really smoky in Keremeos. View from a winery.
Finished the run at the Kettle Valley Railway. Hot but good!Â
Vice & Virtue Brewery art- Kelowna.
Yes we did a lot of this!!
Ah, yes the old birthday. I found streaks of white hairs this year- wha? I’m too young for this shit!
I had a lovely birthday though and enjoyed it several ways: Riding my horse on Friday night, to come home to a dinner of seafood and cake by my husband. Going for a looong hike on Saturday with great weather, my husband and my dog. Dinner with my in-laws which was delicious and great company! Can’t complain about that 🙂
How Gidget hikes- in a backpack, ha.Â
And on Sunday, I had a dressage lesson with Oats (mixed reviews on how the ride went. Our canter needs help, god! But our trot was super awesome!) and then I zipped out to Greenhawk to buy myself (ok let’s be real here, it was for Oats) new boots and some MSM. And completely forgot WHY I was at Greenhawk to begin with…So I have to go back now. Shit!!
And then I was off to enjoy some ceasars and mini golf with my buddy! A fantastic day and a great way to cap off my holiday – birthday haha.
Had a good ride on Oats yesterday, alternated between riding in the field, to the outdoor, back to the field. It was hot hot hot! I looooove summer weather.
Didn’t ride yesterday as Oats had the day off – much needed for the both of us, honestly. For him, he was worked Sat-Tues, which a quite intensive dressage lesson. For me, I am feeling brain-fried so best to take a day and rest my calf muscle, which is actually feeling fine right now and I think I’ll be back to running again in a day or so.
So, I actually post a lot on Facebook about food (usually junk food) that I love or hate. I want people to share in my obsession (Reese’s!!!) and avoid the real duds- currently anything by Tim Hortons.
A clear winner.
Love it:
Reese’s spreads– OMG. I could eat this all day with a spoon and no regrets. I particularly love it because I often feel shame about how many little Reese’s wrappers are surrounding me after eating them…With this, no millions of wrappers and paper cups, no shame! Just yum yum yum yum.
Pumpkin Scone– Yum! I made these with Kabocha squash puree instead. Delicious! I am a bit allergic to them right now at the same time though, so have to eat carefully (I have uncontrolled hayfever and it triggers many other food allergies at the same time, trying medication #3 at the moment to see if it works in combination with OTC drugs).
Any Halloween chocolate bars– except for Twix, I would eat fist-fulls of these alllll day.
Gummi coke bottles– bought a bucket of these and brought them to work. The bucket is almost gone. A clear winner!
Clif Bars– Love the new flavours, and have coconut-chocolate waiting for me at the barn….
Luna Bars– Tried the lemon flavour yesterday. Yum! A refreshing taste, though kind of a bitter aftertaste (maybe true to the lemon flavour?).
Peanuts– Love the red-skinned variety. Not from Fairway though, ended up with too much peanut skin ‘dust’.
Popcorn and Popcorn Balls- a clear winner! Made these on the weekend and am loooving them.
Pear chips– Just what they sound like. They are soooo delicious, I wish I had more pears to make them in my dehydrator.
Fruit leather- Made it in the dehydrator, with rhubarb and plums cooked and pureed smooth. Tricky to make, a bitch to clean after, but so good!
Nerds- These are still good, though the flavour selection sucks. What exactly are kids eating these days?
Aussie licorice– Any brand will do. Soooo good…
Milk to Go Sport– Delicious, milky goodness. Both the vanilla and the chocolate milk are not too sweet, contain a ton of calories (200) and protein for after races. Love the taste, and I am chronically deficient in calcium/Vit D and potassium, so these are great!
Hate it:
Muscle Mlk– anything by them is SO GROSS. Tastes like aspartame and tears. Gave me a two-day stomachache that i couldn’t shake. Yuck. Have a bottle of the ‘Extreme Vanilla’ in the fridge and can’t work up the courage to drink it…
Tim Horton’s Reese’s, Toffee, and Oreo doughnuts– You think you’re getting a big fancy doughnut splurge and all you’re getting is a shitty Boston Creme doughnut with some mini Reese’s cups stuck on top faking at being a good peanut butter doughnut. Eff you Tim Hortons! Also the Oreo one tastes like diabetes and the Toffee one had gross crunchy chunks of ‘something’ on them. Yuck! And IÂ like sweet things!??!
Recipes that use too much freaking sugar- Yes, I’m looking at you, all dessert recipes ever.  There is just too MUCH sugar in them! I hate it! I love sweet things and these ‘1 cup of white sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar’ is so disgusting. I have been quartering the amount of sugar in recipes and still finding them very sweet! Case in point- I made an apple crumble that had way too much sugar and I found it too sweet with even a quarter of what the recipe called for, and husband made a peach cobble with way less sugar than needed, and it was still very sweet?
Willy Wonka Fun Dip/Lik m Aide– these are now gross. Not tangy, not good, not anything.Yuck.
Any ‘flan’ desserts– No, no thank you. No.
Starbucks– Any drink left full sweet there is icky and served lukewarm, and their bagels suck so hard. Their food in general is terrible actually, though the snack boxes (of apples, crackers, cheese and nuts) are hard to screw up, so I go with those if pressed. Yes Starbucks you can’t screw up pre-packaged apple slices, go you.
Pickles that include olives for some reason- No, I want my olives separate. Now everything tastes like olives. I like olives on their own, not infecting my pickles!
Kraft peanut butter with chocolate– Good, if you like the taste of emulsified oil products. And I eat Kraft peanut butter, so this is saying a lot. It is SO shitty, compared with Reese’s spread even. Gag. Why did you even do this, Kraft? To punish chocolate?
This pains me to write it, but…the chocolate cronut– Tastes like a cheap-ass chocolate pudding mushed inside a hard as fuck layered croissant. Too chewy, pudding goop falls everywhere and it is a total, try-hard mess. I can do this terribly at home, thank you very much, and save myself like $3.75 in the process. I am sad that one of my fav bakeries, ‘Crust’ screws this up like this. Ew.
Cakes from the Dutch Bakery. They look SO good, mouthwatering, delicious, and are not cheap. They taste like Styrofoam and oil, and cheap promises. You know how buttercreme is made with butter? Well, you can taste the difference, and these taste like the frosting is made with hydrogenated oil. Yuck. Don’t waste your money.
The adventures of Mr. Oats 