You mean to frighten me, Mr. Darcy: P&P #25 & 26

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now With Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!, by Jane Austen and Seth Graham-Smith, read by Katherine Kellgren; Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange

Happy Hallowe'en, all! I am currently under siege from neighbourhood monsters who want to take my candy from me. Ah, the joys of living in a third-floor walk-up with the only lit doorbell and a downstairs neighbour who insists on putting a pumpkin on the porch and then leaving for the evening. I'm not grumpy, really I'm not.

Anyway, as I sit here guarding my chocolate-covered caramels and trying to keep the cat from freaking out, I thought it would be an appropriate time to review some P&P adaptations of a more supernatural nature.^*

Pancake of the month, take one: Apple puff pancakes

I completely dropped the ball on this challenge in September. The last weekend of the month rolled around and I realized I hadn't made my pancakes yet. Unfortunately, we had plans to be in Peterborough for a wedding, so that left Monday. Which meant that it was time for me to get sick, naturally. So no new pancakes in September.

To make up for it, I will try two different recipes this month. Woo! I couldn't find canned pumpkin on Thanksgiving weekend (wut?) when I wanted to make pumpkin pancakes, but I have since found some and I hope to make them on Hallowe'en.

First up is September's apple pancake recipe that I hoped would make up for last year's disappointment. I'm not sure where this recipe came from, but it's been in my binder for years. It's pretty similar to the puffed cherry pancakes I foolishly made with jam in May, except it has 5 eggs and one cup each of flour and milk. By the way, I tried that recipe again with real cherries later in the year, with results similar to what I got this time.

And what was the result?

Yuck. I mean, it tasted okay, but it was not very pancake-like. Maybe last May I didn't notice the texture in all that jam, but today, despite it being fairly puffy when it came out of the oven, it seemed more like... slightly sweet solid egg and flour mass.

Maybe I didn't leave it in the oven long enough? But I had the same problem with the puffed cherry redux.


I might give this type of recipe one more shot, but I suspect it's just not for me.

So I am still on the hunt for a good apple pancake. I might be stuck with pouring fried apple goodness over regular pancakes, though.

Of architcture and art: Coffeeneuring #2

Monday was Thanksgiving, and since my family usually celebrates on the Sunday, I had the day free to get some marking done and test one of the routes for the Tweed Rally (Come! It will be fun!).

First I biked out to the Dundas Street East bridge over the Don River to take pictures of my cherry Sorbetto, but then I headed off to visit some of the 19th century gems we've got on our manifest. I don't want to spoil the surprise, so here are a few architectural hints:

Cherry Sorbetto: The hunt for red October begins

Happy Thanksgiving, all! Well, to everyone in Canada, anyway. I am pleased to announce that I actually finished something, mostly, for the Red October Twitter challenge.

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This sew-something-for-an-event thing seems to be working out, for the most part^*. I sewed this Colette Sorbetto hack for Thanksgiving dinner last night. We were going to take pictures on the Dundas St bridge over the Don River on the way to my aunt's house, but it was pouring down rain. Today, by contrast, was glorious, so I went over to take pictures before I tested routes for the Tweed Rally (Come! It will be fun!) and coffeeneuring. The DC had to work, which is why you are stuck with eyes-closed/headless shots taken from the handlebar of the Opus.

How beautiful is the moon?

Another reason to love Twitter: I discovered that yesterday was International Observe the Moon Night. It's an annual event where people, you know, look at the moon, and I was happy to finally put my not-so-newly-acquired Newtonian reflector to use.

The box had not opened since I brought it home in May, so I rushed to assemble the telescope before the clouds took over. Half an hour later, I was set up on the deck trying to find the giant half-lit object in the sky -- the viewscope may need a wee bit of adjustment. However, I found it and got the same thrill I always get when I see the craters on the Moon. Imagine what Galileo must have felt!

Taking a picture turned out a bit better than when I attempted to capture the transit of Venus, although vignetting, which term I have just learned, was an issue. The above is the best of the bunch. Craters!

Très bizarre! Coffeeneuring #1

I had sort of planned to start coffeeneuring last weekend, but it was raining and I was lazy. No such excuse today. Well, except for the lazy bit. That part is always true. Anyway, the day was warm and sunny, perfect for a bike ride.

In which different accounts of Mr. Darcy puzzle PhysicsGirl exceedingly: P&P #24

Pride and Prejudice, 1940

This movie puzzles me. I get that it is played as a comedy, and there are aspects that are well done in that sense. It's just that there is so much wrong with this movie, and yet? I kind of like it.

The good?

The whole tone of the movie is bright and cheerful. Right from the beginning, I felt happy to be watching this movie. In spite of the fact that I've seen it before and knew what was coming...

Hey... about that 9 in 6 challenge?

I should follow up on how I did on that challenge I set myself to sew 9 items in 6 weeks, because I know you are all on the edge of your respective seats. The short answer is... not too bad, but not as well as I had hoped. It should have been no surprise to me that I'm terrible at meeting deadlines unless there is a specific goal involved (say, an event or a potential prize); only one of the items was finished by the deadline set in the original post.

In order: