and the new arrival…
Those of you who are regular readers no doubt know that I am about to bring home a puppy, and tomorrow is the big day! So I’m putting together most of this week’s post this evening in the hopes that when we get home tomorrow I will just need to grab a moment to press the ”Publish” button!!! (and just maybe add a couple of sweet puppy photos 😊
The last ten months have been very hard, as I have grieved the death of my long-time companion Wil, who died last May. Although my home is constantly full of activity with all sorts of different people in and out for meetings and visits and often a boarder or two added to the mix, I still lack anyone who can offer me unconditional love the way a dog does and having nearly always had a dog in my life since I was 6 years old, being “dog-less” is not a lifestyle to which I easily adjust. Of course I also have wrestled with feelings of being “disloyal” to Wil who was the most AMAZING dog I have had the pleasure of knowing but I cannot bring Wil back to life and so it is time to build a relationship with a new “best friend”.
The fact that 24 people from the CTM community contributed to turning my dream into a reality makes the bringing home of Thomason even more special, since many of those friends are anxious to meet him too!
The past week has felt almost as crazy as the week before Day Camps begins. I know that things are going to be VERY different with a puppy in the house and so have been racing to do all sorts of extra jobs so that it will be possible to keep my head above water in the season of “extreme puppy training”.
Although we had a HUGE blizzard this week (with mountains of snow to shovel…UGH!!) we are inexorably moving towards spring and so the world of Day Camps is heating up, despite the freezing world outside my doors.
This week alone 4 more communities have booked Camps and several others have made enquiries. Arnee is also typing Manual content at a very fast pace so each morning more documents arrive in my Inbox for proofreading. Fortunately Gillian (a former Team Leader now married and living in Calgary and also [trivia item] sister-in-law of my current boarder, Steven) has come to the rescue and offered to do proofreading, which is a HUGE help. Yay Gillian!
The community supply lists, registration templates and poster templates are all ready for sending to host communities but the new Planners are still not quite completed so there is a big push to have them done before the end of this month.
In March I am planning to begin baking and cooking for the Retreat Week and so have also started to compile long grocery lists for all the make-ahead items in the menus. I would really like to do a whole “bonus” post about our newly reconfigured Training Retreat but perhaps that is just too much what with all that is going on plus puppy😊.
The past week also included an extra catering job (dinner for 8), an afternoon sewing tutorial with Jillian followed by the long postponed “First Anniversary Dinner” for Jillian and Victor and a “Snow Day” when the city ground to a halt and everyone shovelled out from the blizzard. Maybe puppy time will actually be more restful. Ha!
Next week is already shaping up to be quite the marathon with both the monthly Day Camp Committee Meeting AND the CTM Board Meeting plus, hopefully, an evening visit with Pippa who still hasn’t been able to work out a good time to come and receive the birthday gift I have prepared for her.
So before I get back to the balance of the office work I’ll just close off with a quick recipe.
For last evening’s Anniversary Dinner I prepared a Cuban Menu (something to remind us of sunny beaches instead of mounds of ice 😊) Our dessert was a Meyer Lemon Swiss Roll. I’m sure it would be very nice with regular lemons, but if you can find Meyer Lemons, well, they are pretty special!!
Meyer Lemon Swiss Roll
- 3 eggs
- ¾ cup sugar
- 3Tbsps. Meyer lemon juice
- 2 Tbsps. Meyer fine lemon zest
- ¾ cup flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. salt
- Filling-
- 2 8oz. pkgs. cream cheese
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp. Meyer lemon juice
- 2 tsps. Meyer lemon zest
- Decorating-
- Thin Meyer lemon slices
- Extra icing sugar
Line a 10”x15” jellyroll pan with parchment paper. Grease and flour the paper. Beat the eggs until thick and light, then gradually beat in the sugar, juice and zest. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and gently fold into the egg mixture using a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread carefully into an even layer.
Bake in a preheated 350º oven for 10 minutes. While it is baking, lay a tea towel on your work surface and dust it with icing sugar. As soon as the cake is done carefully flip it out of the pan onto the tea towel, quickly trim about ½” off each edge, where it has browned then, starting at the shorter end, roll the warm cake into the towel and set aside on a rack to cool completely.
While it is cooling, place the filling ingredients in a mixer bowl and beat together until smooth and thick. Refrigerate until you are ready to assemble the cake.
Once the cake is cool, carefully unroll it from the towel. Spread the filling evenly over the cake and gently reroll. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Just before serving, dust liberally with icing sugar and decorate the top with lemon slices.
Serves 4-6.