Bowling, Athens, Birthday Cake,

Today, Wednesday, we bowled. First time for over a week. Still a lot of pain but I did manage to get through two games. In fact my second game was a pretty good one. Unfortunately, the alley was crowded. They were shut for a week so people were making up for it. We had two women and a kid (actually they had three other kids, they were bowling on their own lane) and the kid protested vehemently at everything. Matt and I have our own bowling balls. He wanted to use them and when he was stopped he grizzled loudly. It seemed he did that for practically everything. One of the women said he was tired (perennial excuse for kids behaving badly) my response was take the little bugger home for a nap. I did NOT say that out loud. Twice he had a real screaming fit. However, they eventually left and then I found bowling to be better LOL. Even the young man, the son/grandson of the owners, who is extremely tolerant, agreed with me wholeheartedly. What is wrong with parents. Don't they know pandering to this kind of behaviour only makes it worse?

Just watched an interesting programme about Athens, Greece. I was there about 50 years ago and I must confess I don't remember a lot of what was shown in the documentary. One thing talked about

was the silver mines close to Athens which were mined by slaves. The chronicler went down these mines, talk about claustrophobia - they were very cramped and crawling was a constant requirement. Later, he talked about the underground aqueduct built by the Romans and he went down a stretch of them. No thank you. Pretty brilliant construction, but the tunnels were not quite wide enough for him and he kind of went sideways plus they were waaaay underground. But a lot was about the building of the Acropolis and all the different buildings there, I do remember those quite clearly.

We then went to buy up the liquor store. I was out of fizz after all. Can't have that. Must remember to get some extra in for my birthday in a couple of weeks or so. That reminds me, I had a birthday email from the LCBO, our local liquor board. They posted a cake for each astrological sign and recommended what to drink with it. They must know me, they chose Moët and Chandon Champagne for my cake. Here is the recipe for the cake. I love crepes, maybe I will try it. If you are interested in which cake they recommend for you, here is the link.

Mango and Lime Crepe Cake with Lime Caramel

Aside from its deliciousness, the beauty of this cake is that it gets better in the fridge for up to 2 days, meaning you might have forgotten about making all the crepes by the time you sit down to enjoy a

slice. If making crepes isn’t your thing, the easy lime caramel and chopped macadamias are great over tropical-flavoured ice cream, too.

LIME CARAMEL
½ cup (125 mL) sugar
¼ cup (60 mL) water
½ cup (125 mL) whipping cream
4 tsp (20 mL) lime juice
? tsp (0.5 mL) salt
2 Tbs (30 mL) butter
CREPES
2 cups (500 mL) milk
4 eggs
¼ tsp (1 mL) salt
5 Tbs (75 mL) melted butter, divided
1 ¾ cups (425 ml) all-purpose flour
½ cup (125 mL) sugar
2 Tbs (30 mL) finely grated lime zest
? cup (80 mL) water
2 large, ripe mangoes, peeled and thinly sliced
½ cup (125 mL) chopped salted macadamia nuts

1. For the lime caramel, combine sugar and ¼ cup (60 mL) water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until syrup is amber-coloured. Remove from heat, slowly add cream (mixture will sputter) and stir until syrup is dissolved. Stir in lime juice, salt and butter. Allow to cool briefly before covering; refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours. (Caramel keeps for 5 days in the refrigerator).

2. For the crepes, combine milk, eggs, salt and 3 tbsp (45 mL) melted butter in a blender; pulse to combine. Add flour and blend thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

3. Heat an 8-inch (20-cm) nonstick skillet over medium heat. Brush with a small amount of the remaining 2 tbsp (30 mL) melted butter. Pour ¼ cup (60 mL) batter in pan and swirl to evenly coat bottom with batter. Cook for about 1 minute, or until top of crepe appears set and bottom is golden.

4. Gently lift crepe with a spatula and flip over. Cook 30 to 45 seconds longer, or until firm and bottom is golden in spots. Remove to a plastic-wrap-lined plate. Repeat with remaining batter to make 16 crepes, brushing pan with a small amount of butter between crepes. Stack crepes on top of each other with a layer of plastic-wrap between each.

5. In a small bowl, combine sugar, lime zest and 1/3 cup (80 mL) water; stir to dissolve sugar.

6. Place 1 crepe in the centre of a 10-inch (25-cm) serving plate. Brush crepe with lime zest syrup, and top with another crepe. Once again, brush with syrup. Continue until you have 4 layers of crepe and syrup. Cover fourth crepe with a single layer of thinly sliced mango and top with another crepe. Brush with syrup and repeat process until you have 4 layers of crepe containing 4 crepes each, and 3 layers of mango. Cover and refrigerate until crepes have softened and cake is completely chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight. (Cake will keep for up to 3 days in the refrigerator).

7. If serving entire cake at once, drizzle caramel over the whole cake and sprinkle top with macadamias. (Otherwise slice into 8 slices, dress individual slices with a tablespoon of caramel and a spoonful of macadamias; return remaining slices to refrigerator until ready to dress and serve).

Servings: 8

Source: LCBO

Have a great day