According to my research, Pikelets were stated to be Scottish in origin but most of the references of the name seemed to be from Australia and New Zealand.

Over the years, I had made a variety of different types of pancakes but what was different about this recipe was the fact that the batter would rest in the refrigerator for about an hour (minimum) but preferably overnight. This resting period would allow time for the baking soda and baking powder to act and add air into the batter. The end result is that the pikelets are very light and don’t have that dense texture that pancakes will often have.

The pikelet batter is ladled into a hot frying pan (brushed with butter) just a little at a time so the resulting pikelets are only about 3 or 4 inches in across.

Serve them hot right out of the pan along with your preference of maple syrup or, more traditionally, a dollop of whipped cream and a small centre of jam on top of the whipped cream.

After you try pikelets, pancakes will definitely be off the menu.

You can see the recipe for pikelets here.

Baden

We have gotten into the habit of buying our coffee from our local Save on Foods and admittedly the type that we normally buy isn’t always the premium brand but it usually seems good enough.

We didn’t really think about making any changes to our coffee brand until I happened to get a small package given to me by our friends Tony and Anna that happened to contain the most incredible smelling coffee that I had ever experienced.

It was explained to us that Tony and Anna get their coffee beans in raw form and roast them themselves. After grinding them, the result of their efforts gets put into a small bag with a label that says that it should be enjoyed within 24 hours.

So far that hasn’t been a problem meeting that requirement.

Baden

As you might imagine with me just coming back from Germany just over a month ago, German foods are more in my mind than usual but so it isn’t unusual that Barb and I would go to checkout a place called European Speciality’s Warehouse last weekend.

Located near the entrance to Chinatown on 220 Prior St. at Main St., I had been told about European Speciality’s Warehouse by a friend that I work with who goes there on a regular basis. I had actually gone to European Speciality’s twice before I went with Barb and on both occasions didn’t get there early enough as they close at 1PM on Saturdays.

While Barb and I explored the products on the shelves, Barb would stop every few feet and point out some product that her parents used to buy when she was growing up. In case you’re wondering, Barb’s parents bought a lot of German stuff on a regular basis.

We ended up picking up several items from European Speciality’s Warehouse but one of the items in particular is a cheese that happens to be a favourite of Barb’s mother which called hartzkäse (which means cheese from Hartz region of Germany).

Sidebar: When Barb and I first when to Germany together in 2001, Barb’s mother Ruth asked us to bring her some hartzkäse from Germany. We did bring it back to Vancouver but it got confiscated at the airport by Canada Customs people. To say that Ruth was disappointed is a huge understatement.

Although it took 5 years, we finally got Ruth her hartzkäse that we bought for her from European Specialty’s and she was definitely happy to get it.

Baden

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European Speciality’s Warehouse
220 Prior St., Vancouver
604-688-9528

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Right from the time that we woke up I had some ideas of several different things to do that day and the whole thing would start with breakfast.

When I was bike riding during the summer, I would often ride up Victoria Drive and past the Trout Lake Community Centre where I would see a small restaurant called Libby’s off on a side street near across from the community centre.

Known as Libby’s Kitchen, it’s web site state it as “cozy, funky and homey” which are spot on descriptions of the atmosphere inside Libby’s. As soon as you enter the restaurant, you walk past a vintage metal green stove (thankfully not running as it serves as the platform for the milk and cream for the coffee).

The decor inside Libby’s is interesting, to say the least. While there is only about a dozen or so tables, there are a mix of wooden chairs, sofas and benches and there are really no two chairs (or tables) the same in the entire place. Obviously this is the funky part that is talked about on their web site.

I ordered a breakfast burrito which came stuffed with eggs, ham, peppers and hash browns and topped with melted cheese. Paired with the large coffee that I had also ordered and it was just the perfect start to a long rainy day.

Barb and I will have to return to Libby’s for a nice casual dinner – hopefully when the weather is a whole lot better.

Baden

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Libby’s Kitchen
3429 Porter Street, Vancouver
(604) 874-5547

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So without beating around the bush, I’ll come out and say that we’re planning on doing an Eastern Canada driving trip next year. We intend to fly to Halifax and drive to Montreal and over a 2-3 week period exploring 4 provinces and a part of Canada that is significantly different that the west coast where we live.

The good news is that we are in the process of planning this Adventure with Peter and Liz who will be joining us again on this trip, hopefully putting to rest any rumours that we haven’t spoken to each other since returning from Italy together last October.

Interestingly, we had originally talked to Peter and Liz about doing an eastern Canada trip sometime in 2001 (several months before we had even brought up the subject of doing an Italy trip together) but we never went forward with any plans on that destination. The idea of doing that trip sat in the back of our minds for almost 5 years and Barb and I presented the idea again about 4 months ago and this time the timing seemed right.

Barb and Liz got the jump on the planning process and by the time that Barb and I had come back from our recent trips both Barb and Liz had already received their packages in the mail from the tourism boards of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward island and Quebec.

The four of us have already met together a few times to start the discussions of which destinations that we want to visit on our trip and I suspect that over the next few months this process will continue to progress.

Baden

I’ve been rather coy about providing details of what we’ve been planning for either one of the vacations for the next two years but I did mention previously that our vacation in 2008 may well be one of our most ambitious trips yet. As you might have guessed by now by the above picture, Barb and I are planning an Excellent African Adventure for 2008.

Under normal circumstances, we don’t usually try to have so much overlap between vacation planning but as it so happened we had the opportunity to attend a seminar today being put on by a local travel agency on the subject of African vacations. While we learned a little bit about some of the options that are available for such a trip, we know that we still have lots of research needing to be done to decide upon an endless variety of questions that we need to figure out on our own.

Admittedly, we still have lots of time to figure all of this out and for the near future, we’ll be spending most of our attention focusing on more immediate questions – such as planning our next year’s trip.

As usual, I’ll be posting regular updates as we go through the planning stages of both of these adventures.

Baden