Happee Birthdae Harry + garden update #3

Pretty much anyone acquainted with me knows that I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I was a late bloomer with the books, reading them all in the span of a week in grade six, but I made up for my lateness with my enthusiasm. I held viewing parties of the movies with friends, making cauldron cakes and pumpkin pasties. I went to the exhibition twice when it came to Toronto. I've watched all three of the Potter musicals no less than five times and have all the music on my ipod. I've knit hats that look like the ones Hermione wears in the movies. One time I greeted my new flute section in a Canada wide wind ensemble by saying, "Hey! I'm E! What's your Hogwarts house?". When I really want to veg out and relax, I giggle at bad HPotts fanfiction on the internet.

Yes friends, I am a nerd.

However, I do not regret nor try to deny this fact. I think there are plenty of wonderful reasons why everyone should be a Harry Potter fanatic. The books are wonderfully written, and teach us important lessons about friendship, love, and courage. They foster community, and have encouraged a generation of kids to get their noses in a book.

So, I try every year to celebrate Harry's birthday in a quiet thanks to JK Rowling and her brilliance. This year I made a chocolate fudge pudding that I think that Molly Weasley would be proud of.

I got the recipe from a cookbook my Gramma gave to me a few years ago from one of her trips to Scotland:

In case you folks don't know, in the UK the word 'pudding' refers to many different kinds of desserts, rather than the North American term which refers something closer to custard.

This recipe makes a delicious self-saucing cake that's easily made in a food processor:

PUDDING:
4 oz butter
4 oz caster sugar
2 medium eggs
3 oz self-raising flour (or 3 oz regular flour and 1 tsp baking powder)
2 tbspns cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
1-2 tbspn milk

SAUCE:
4 oz soft brown sugar
2 tblspn cocoa powder
1/2 pint (1 cup) boiling water

Set over to 375 F, place all the pudding ingredients into a food processor and blend in the order listed until it becomes a soft consistency. Put into 8x8 inch square ovenproof dish (or any that can hold about 5 cups of liquid). Make the sauce by combining sugar and cocoa in a bowl, then adding the hot water. Mix well, and then pour over the pudding mixture. Bake for 40 minutes.

I served mine with freshly picked blueberries and butterscotch ice cream. Yum!

It's Ontario blueberry season!

Now for a quick garden update:

Tomato plant healed with a pipe cleaner + TOMATOES!

BABY WATERMELON! (this was tragically eaten by an animal the day after I took this picture, but the plant has many flowers so I still have hope)

BABY CUCUMBER!

Basically gardening is wonderful and exciting and you should all do it if you have the space.

Wow this was a long post. Thank you for reading. As a prize here is a picture of my overweight cat:

Let's all toast to the boy who lived!

E