Oh my god it's SPRING here! Yes, the sun finally came out today and its 72 degrees already. Whew! At last.

I cheated the other night and instead of apple streudel I made apple/almond danish. It was great, too. Last night I made bananas in rum custard pastries. It's interesting trying out new flavour combinations in tiny batches. (Yes, that's right, I only make a very tiny batch of each, just enough for us for 1 dessert each)

Right now there's a pot of beouf bourginon simmering away in the kitchen - well, I had no choice really. There was half a bottle of excellent red wine left over from yesterday. I had no choice.

Anyway, the monstoon level downpours have done their damage here. A downspout, which wasn't routinely cleaned for the past few years by the realty company, overflowed into the roof/ceiling and ultimately the living room floor here. Since it happend while we were sleeping, not sure if it actually dripped out of the ceiling/wall above the window where we saw 12 feet of water stains or from the edge where wall meets floor. The water was flooded all over the top of the parquet flooring and after we'd mopped it all up, more water was seeping up from underneath the wood floor for several hours. Yes, of course it got worse, the parquet strips swelled and buckled. Then they started to dry and warped and buckled some more. The livingroom floor currently looks like the Alps - after an earthquake. Very ugly. The realty manager came by and then returned with some craftsman who discovered the stopped drainpipe. She returned today with another craftsman who inspected and tested the roof, the attic, etc. Waiting to hear when they will return to replace the fllor. The entire livingroom floor is ruined. A dangerous buckled and warped mess.

I'm going out to walk about in the sunshine. Perhaps take some photos.

Apple Strudel

It's been cold here. And wet. And windy. Ugh!!!! And I do mean cold as in 40's F during the day and pouring rain and wind so strong it drives the rain horizontally at times. This is Not a Good Thing.

So today Asti & I went grocery shopping in that brief period interval between cloud bursts. Not having had breakfast first you can imagine what that was like. And that's why we succumbed to the temptation of strudel dough ready made in the chiller case.

So, I'm about to make homemade apple strudel.