Saturday 24 March 2018

Saturday, March 24

Today was a nice, normal Saturday, which I welcomed gratefully. After morning coffee and reading blogs, I dressed for the day and grabbed the vacuum cleaner. We live in an old double brick house and now that the weather is warming up (??) and the sun is shining with a bit more regularity we are entering the fly season. By this I mean that flies are waking up, well actually I don't know if they are waking up, but they appear, spin around for a while, and then die. They die all over the place: floors, window sills, counter tops, in the cats' water bowl. So, I have a vacuum that has a detachable feature where I can just carry around the canister and the hose without the rest of it, which makes it lighter to lift. I go around looking for flies to suck up in the vacuum. Sometimes they camouflage themselves with my granite countertop. It is an ongoing quest. Do any of you have old house / fly problems at this time of year?

I've been thinking about coconut recently, kind of a "craving" in a way. I was determined to make a coconut cake. I do not have a favourite recipe because my daughter really dislikes coconut. I don't make desserts or meals with coconut in them for that reason. However, she is not home now and I knew she wouldn't be coming home this weekend, so I had a good look for coconut cake recipes on Pinterest and came up with one which didn't look too terribly difficult.

This recipe called for a simple white cake (i.e. cake mix from a box) with coconut extract added to it in which you poke a bunch of holes.


I was supposed to use instant coconut pudding and pour it all over the cake so that it would seep into the holes. I couldn't purchase instant, so I had to make the pudding that you cook on the stove.


It turned out fine and made enough to form a layer on top of the cake as well.

I've never bought coconut extract before.


After the cake with the pudding sits in the fridge for a while to set up, you whip cream and a bit of icing sugar until it has nice peaks, then spread it on top and sprinkle with a bit of shredded coconut.
Supper was leftovers, but it was a nice treat to have cake for dessert.

Now that I am feeling better and have more energy, it was time to put my house a bit more in order, so along with seeking out flies, I dusted, and washed the kitchen floor. It felt good to have a more tidy house.

The sun was shining today, but it is still quite cold. There are still some remnants of snow here and there, but I don't see it lasting too much longer, especially if the weather warms up a little. I do feel for many of the bloggers out there who have been hit hard with ongoing snowfall. We've had those kinds of late winter / early springs where it seemed like we were never going to get out from under all that snow.

I've just been watching the movie, "Unbroken" on tv with my husband. It was really difficult to watch in some spots and I had to leave the room, or focus on my laptop instead. Have you seen it? It tells the story of prisoners of war in Japan, one being an Olympic runner who survived. Holy, that was exhausting, but then I cried at the end. I'm looking forward to a relaxing Sunday. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

29 comments:

  1. I'm with your daughter on the coconut! We have some flies waking up at this time of year but my real problem comes in August when I spend hours sucking up flies from the conservatory. I have begun the spring clean and unsettled many a spider!

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    1. Not so many spiders here. But I don't have a fear of them, as some people do.

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  2. Hi, via Cro and Rachel Phillips..I'm procrastinating today, doing a little blog wandering.
    A little chuckle...seeing your blog title combined with your photo of snow!
    Its chilly but sunny here...we could do with a porch..but I do have fresh coffee

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    1. You just made me think, I had better change my header photo. It doesn't look like that at all now.

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  3. Your last paragraph was interesting to me because my first husband (who died in 1991) was the youngest serving British soldier to be taken prisoner by the Japanese and was on the Death Railway and the Bridge over the Kwai. He was back home before his twenty first birthday. We had thirty nine years of very happy life together.

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    1. I just read your comment to my husband and his mouth dropped open. He is a history buff and watches the movie, "The Bridge over the River Kwai" at least once every year!

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  4. Jenn, Glad you are feeling better. You are in my prayers. I don't have the fly problem but one summer it was gnats. I watch buying bananas when it's warm. LOL They seem to draw them...like flies. Jenn, there was a swath of snow headed our way yesterday(Sat.) and we are so lucky it went just a few miles south...we got no snow. Indianapolis got almost 9 inches, by 6:30 P.M. So here is a sunny Sunday morning. It's still chilly. I have seen that movie and it is a good one. Blessings to you, xoxo, Susie

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    1. Thanks, Susie. My problem with gnats (I call them fruit flies) comes around the time when I have lots of garden tomatoes in the house at the end of the season.

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  5. I do have the insect problem some years. I say "some years" because it seems as if certain weather conditions will make it happen. The last time was four years ago when I came home to what can only be described as the Day of the Triffids in insects. It was all house flies of quite alarming numbers and proportions in size who had woken up on a sunny day after winter and seemingly come down from the roof or something. Anyway I had to spray them to get rid of them and then keep sweeping them up and more would come until I defeated them,

    As I was scrolling through to comment I caught sight of my name in a comment. I thought in horror, what have I done now! Anyway, thank you GZ, I didn't know you were a regular reader of mine!

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  6. Jenn glad to hear that you are feeling more like yourself. Yeah! Right now we have spiders waking up in the house (mild scream accompanies the discovery). I like coconut but lately my digestive woes are in gear again & coconut is giving me terrible heartburn. Bitterly cold this morning (Sunday) of -14 with wind chill - makes me long for the windows to be open & have some fresh air. ... Mary-Lou =^..^=

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    1. Sorry to hear about the heartburn. I haven't checked the temperature here this morning, but it sure felt cold when I opened the door to let the cat in!

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  7. Hi Jenn :) That cake looks good, though I'm not a fan of the actually dried coconut flakes, I do love a good coconut cream pie! I wish we could get really fresh coconuts here, I'd probably eat the flesh right out of the rind! But who knows how old they are when they hit the grocery store! I'm so glad you're feeling better!

    When I had my condo many moons ago, I had that fly problem every spring too. They'd just drop dead and I'd find them all over the window sills. All the condos had the same issue but nobody seemed to know why. They had wood siding, cathedral ceilings, don't know if that helps. One person said it was a ventilation problem.

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    1. I don't know the reason. I just assume they get in between the two layers of bricks. Ventilation is certainly not a problem in our old house!

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  8. So good to hear you're feeling progressively better after whatever the heck it was that laid you low this winter!

    Flies. Oh, yeah. Our house couldn't really be classified as old, but we still have the same situation as you do. I could sweep/vac them up 10 times a day! They're especially bad upstairs in my husband's unfinished office. I think they crawl behind the insulation and have orgies. (Yuck.)

    I make a coconut cake something like yours. When I think coconut-anything, I can't help but think of a guy our daughter once dated. All you had to do was mention the word coconut and he would feel sick! Up until your post today, I'd never heard of coconut extract.

    I'm having a relaxing, not-do-much-of-anything weekend. Haven't been sleeping well and really need to recharge my batteries!

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    1. I popped over to your blog. Hope you get some good sleep soon!

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  9. We get Asian beetles which look like ladybugs and they can bite. Nasty little boogers. They arrive in October and leave in April. Get so fed up if vacuuming them up. Glad to hear you are recovering.

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    1. I get ladybugs too. I just assumed they were ladybugs, but now I need to look up Asian beetles and see if that's actually what I have.

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  10. The flies and asian beetles are driving me MAD. As Maureen says, they bite, and they stink. The cats won't even chase them.
    The cake looks SO GOOD>!

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    1. See my comment back to Maureen. I definitely have to look up Asian beetles now.

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  11. Flies do the same thing here too. They die at the windows. Here's a tip that will make the poke cake easier. Pour a can of Coco Lopez over the warm cake after poking and you won't have to do the pudding. Wonder why so many don't like coconut it seems? I have a recipe by Emily Dickinson using coconut. I wondered how she came about procuring one in her day.

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    1. Well now I have to look up Coco Lopez! I have no clue what that is!

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  12. It's nice to hear that you are feeling better!

    I've never had a fly problem but we did always have a lot lady bugs surfacing (some of them hanging around all winter) in the house we had in Kingston. So far there's nothing unusual in this house. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

    That cake! Oh my goodness but does it ever look good. I really like coconut and sometimes I make coconut-flavoured cookies. I've never thought to make a cake. That would be fun!

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    1. I remember as a kid, my mom would buy coconut cookies. Well, to say they were coconut cookies was a bit of a stretch. They were sweet, soft coconut in the inside, covered with chocolate on the outside. I don't think you can even buy them now.

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  13. I love coconut!! Coconut biscuits are a NZ and Australia favourite. About time to make them again. Every year we have an nfestation of something, flies, wasps, ants, grasshoppers. Haven't had too many flies in the last few years thank goodness. Horrible things. Keep vaccuming!!!

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  14. Oh my gosh that cake looks sooo good. I never saw unbreakable but its on my list to watch. Thanks for the heads up on the tears lol!

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  15. Hi Jenn... I saw Unbroken awhile ago, but I do remember those sad scenes. The cake looks delish! Glad that you're feeling better. Have a good week.

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  16. No flies on me! Hahaha!
    Enjoy your Easter weekend...
    Cheers!
    Linda :o)

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  17. I get my fly problems in the fall but I know what you mean. I'm on the hunt for cake recipes -- just sent an email to Kid One to pick his birthday cake. We'll see!

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