Confederation Park Picnic

 all is quiet in Confederation Park, 6 p.m., Friday

The fall weather has been incredible.

The four elements are just right with warm winds, beautiful colours, only the occasional sprinkling of rain, and now the leaves are dropping from the trees.

OK.  Some of the elements aren't there -- like fire?

But yes, there are even places in this beautiful park to have fires.

Each day I walk along Confederation Park I see something new – a bend in the path, a river rock pathway across the stream, a set of picnic tables, more shellacked wooden benches, complete with bronze name plates honouring someone’s life.

Amir calls this jungle.  We call it Confederation Park.

I have taken to walking around the copses of trees and criss-crossing the less trod pathways that go through the trees.

... slice the bread and make your own sandwich ...

I thought Kelvin would enjoy a picnic in the park and arranged one for Friday night.

Friday morning he smashed his toe against the foot of his bed – thinking it was broken, he stayed home while the rest of us enjoyed his picnic at the park.

Burley left for graduate school in Indiana – leaving her deep freezer and its contents for the rest of us to enjoy, so I warmed up the soup – thick with beans, broccoli, zucchini, yellow, green and red peppers and the reconstituted Chinese mushrooms that give it a smoky deep flavour.

I mixed up crab salad to go on top of the country seed bread that was fresh from the oven in the morning. 

Mak arrives in time for dessert.

That is because I was worried that Mati wouldn’t have enough to eat, given he wouldn’t be eating the turkey soup.

Besides that, I made the best zucchini cake I have ever made.  Having two cups of Dutch chocolate sprinkles, left behind by someone who no longer lives with us, I took the sprinkles and spread them between a top and bottom layer of batter.  The dark chocolate layer that splits the cake in two beats adding chocolate chips to the cake.

We took to the baked confection so well that we ate the first cake for lunch un-iced and ate the second for supper by which time a butter, cream cheese icing had been added.

The meal took on new heights for Mati when Amir, after a few bites of the soup said, “Hey, you can eat this Mati.  This is not turkey in the soup, but big chunks of tofu.”

 ...I am not counting how many pieces today ...

This was a big surprise to me, having consumed some of the soup last week and thinking to myself, “My, these are big chunks of soft turkey.”

It was a good surprise to Mati as well, for he made his way through three bowls of the soup.

He said he had two surprises for the day – the vegetarian soup and its goodness was only seconded by the five pound box of Mandarin oranges we had tucked in the car as well.

What is a meal without an orange for dessert?

And for him – the Mandarins are a signal that the early Xmas crop of them is already on its way.

... find the middle layer of melted Dutch chocolate ...

A wind passed through the tree tops and leaves floated down, decorating the tops of the open faced crab sandwiches, adorning the cake, golden leaves, strewing themselves over the table cloth.

... look at the leaves tumbling down and who else could we have invited ...

Our party would only have been more fun, if there had been enough people there to consume all of the food.

What is the trick of not making twice too much food for a party?
 
My best guess is ... invite more people, though Kelvin could have helped us out if he hadn't had trouble with his foot.

Arta