Rainy Day Tapioca Pudding With Garden-Fresh Mint

I don't know about you, but in my book, rainy days are good days for comfort foods. Megan and I prepared a delicious Tapioca Pudding for dessert this evening. We've never made it before, but after a good spat in the kitchen between sisters and some frustration, my Mom declared it to be the best Tapioca pudding she has ever tasted! Not bad for a first time recipe.

We chose to put the pudding in individual ramekins to chill in the fridge. To serve, we garnished them with a spoon of whipped cream, cinnamon, and a sprig of mint.

Here is the link to the recipe on allrecipes.com which we followed:

allrecipes.com/Recipe/Classic-Tapioca-Pudding/Detail.aspx

Instead of using quick-cooking tapioca pearls as listed in the recipe, we used regular tapioca pearls which we pre-cooked. We also doubled the recipe, but found that using six cups of milk would be too much, so we used only four cups of the doubled amount.

A Summery Afternoon Tea

My sister and I being twenty-year-old Tea Granny's decided to take up the English tradition of afternoon tea on one of our somewhat boring summer days off. We made these fantastic little cupcakes which are so pink and girly, but have a summery touch with a fresh raspberry or blueberry on top. They tasted divine!

The recipe comes from Christine Cushing Live on the Food Network. Here's the link to the recipe on the Food Network website:

http//www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=4546

Hillside Festival 2009

I went to the Hillside Festival in Guelph with my mom, sister, and grandmother on July 24th and all I can say is that it was fantastic!! My sister and I are both avid fans of Loreena Mckennitt and were extremely interested in seeing her perform, but we saw a few others as well.

Xavier Rudd is an Australian born multi-instrumentalist who is described in the Hillside info-book as showcasing the "mysticism of the didgeridoo", an Aboriginal intrument of Australia. I feel incredibly privileged to have seen such an accomplished instrumentalist as himself perform. When he played, people were dancing up by the stage and were especially excited when Xavier Rudd's bassist went into a bass solo.

We also watched Kae Sun, a musician who can be described a blend of hip-hop, folk, and reggae. Being of Ghanaian descent this should not come as a surprise. His music was rhythmically complex, soulful, and slightly reminiscent of Bob Marley.

Loreena Mckennitt to my understanding was the only musician at Hillside offered a full-set of approximately 90 minutes. She didn't play until 9:30 pm so sitting out in the night made her performance even more magical. She opened with her song "the Stolen Child" which was fitting because Loreena looked like a fairy herself sitting at her harp, strawberry blonde hair around her. I was extremely happy when she played "Marco Polo", because she had neglected to play it when I had previously seen her at Massey Hall in Toronto.

Here is a video of Xavier Rudd to finish this post off!!

First Post

Welcome to my Blog!! Let me just start off by saying that I never thought I would have a blog, yet here I am and excited as ever to start writing. This Blog will hopefully be a good mixture of music, travel, literature, and recipes, all of which are great interests of mine. I will leave you now with a video by the lovely Loreena Mckennitt.