So silver it's almost blinding

I really did think I was going to be spending a relaxing summer with barbecues as the only item on my agenda and then life handed us a veritable poop sandwich.
All that stuff we waited 10 weeks to have shipped from the UK to Toronto was lost in a flood when the sewers backed up and drowned half of all of our belongings.
We had no choice but to find somewhere else to stay.
For two weeks G and I lived in a hotel, with nothing but a bed to sit on to watch tv and one uncomfortable desk chair that neither of us fought over.
We waited.
Impatiently.
But the damage was so extensive the house needed to be gutted.

So we moved all of our remaining stuff to one safe corner of the dining room and covered everything with sheets to keep the dust off.
We locked up the apartment, unsure when we'd be back.

After two weeks we couldn't take the small space of the hotel room anymore so we moved ourselves to a temporary one bedroom apartment. Despite the ridiculous cost to live there the smell of the couch did not agree with me at all, so I doused it with 3 bottles of Febreeze only to have to start all over again when the smell returned after only a week.
We ate out far too often.
We sighed even more.

Two months into it just when we were hoping to move back home, we found out the workers need another month yet to finish the repairs. Maybe more.
So we decided to jump into the real estate game and look at buying a house.
Seventeen houses later we got lucky and found a house that stole our hearts.
We stressed about it. The timing was off.
But we bought it anyway.
We agreed on a short closing with the sellers and moved in 2 weeks later.
Things were looking up.
And then our realtor connected me with his girlfriend who works for a great company and she got me a great new job.

You might think that losing half of your stuff to 3 feet of sewage water is a pretty horrible thing, and it is, but do I wish it had never happened to me?
Not for a second.
I didn't know that a silver lining could be so freaking silver.
It's so silver it's almost blinding.

So thanks to all of you who left me comments and gave me your support and your sympathy. This will always be remembered by G and I as "the summer that sucked" but the end result was well worth it.

I have to say that I'm happy to be back.

With a big old smile on my face and everything.

Oh dear.

Just when you think your summer is going one way, a record rainfall comes down, the sewer system backs up and you find your house and all your belongings floating in 3 feet of nasty nasty "water".
It's been a week, and G and I are now living in a hotel and though you think the worst part is over the truth is that it is really only just beginning for us.
Between trying to figure out where to live, mourning the loss of a lot of our stuff and dealing with insurance companies-- it's all that much tougher when you are sharing one room and eating out for every meal.
I'm exhausted people.
Really exhausted.
So bear with me and wish us luck that life will get back to normal sometime soon.

Cake mysteries..

Banana Chocolate and Pecan Cake


What is it with me and cake these days? I go years without making one, and suddenly here I am talking about my second cake in less than 3 weeks. I made this on Canada Day not for any particular reason except that I felt like baking. I had all the ingredients at hand and G was this close to throwing out the blackened bananas that had been sitting on the counter. Forever.

But circumstances conspired against this poor little cake and the following day it still sat there, fully intact. Not a crumb had touched either of our lips.
By day 2, there was no choice but to give half of it away and put the rest of it (minus a slice) in the freezer.
Sad, I know. That is no way to treat such a sweet and snuggly looking cake.

I have to say, I liked it just fine, but in my life I've come to the conclusion that "liking something just fine" is not really what I'm aiming for.

I told a good friend how the cake turned out and I think I used the word "meh". I liked the idea of putting a chocolatey, nutty layer in the middle of the batter, and I will use that technique again, but the recipe itself was not quite up to snuff.

Then things got crazy (relatively speaking) when I received a phone call that the cake, the other half that I had given away, was getting rave reviews.

What's a girl to make of that? Logically, I get it--it has all the right ingredients, and there's chocolate not only on top of it but, hold onto your hats, even in the middle of it.
And it looks really good right? I mean, I do like the way it looks all bumpy and lumpy and crumbly. It's like a banana bread/ coffee cake hybrid or something and if that doesn't sound like a winning combination then I don't know what does.


I could snuggle up with it..

So I'm just going to have to leave this one with you guys. Sometimes you make something that you think is just ok only to find out that someone else thinks it's fab. And when you're unlucky, which we all know does happen, you make something you think is to die for only to discover you're the only one who thinks so.
And that latter scenario really sucks.
I'm glad it worked out in my favour this time.


**********
The recipe for Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake comes from Gourmet magazine, February 2008, and is posted on Epicurious.

I followed the recipe exactly except that I substituted pecans for walnuts only because that is what I had in my cupboard.