Friday

Sorry I've been a bit busy this week, hence no updates. Next week I'll be posting about Vancouver. But for now and because it's Friday, here are some menacing sea worms from Vancouver Aquarium.

Moulleux au choclate for dinner parties

The French know how to make desserts, and this one is genius!!

Everything is in the bag, so all you need are a few little ramekins and an oven.

It's a bit messy, but with the aid of a little helper you can scoop the mixture into your ramekins. We like to put a bit of chocolate on top.

It's a great thing to do for a dinner party because it is quick, easy and fun. I asked my guests to bring along a chocolate bar each. We sliced these up and placed them on top of the dessert mixture before it went into the oven.

We have tried Dime bars, Dairymilk, and now Toblerone and Snickers. Dime and Snickers have been the best so far.

Aubergine and Lemon Risotto - Charlotte style

This recipe is based on Yotan Ottolenghi's fabulous recipe but with a few vital alterations/additions...

Day 1 - Preparations
Preheat the oven to high. Place one aubergine on a tray and cook at 200 for about an hour. Remove from the oven, cut a slit lengthways in the aubergine and scoop out the soft flesh, avoiding most of the burnt skin. Roughly chop the flesh and put in a bowl. I usually do this the night before, when I’m soaking the lentils.

To soak the lentils, boil the kettle, measure out half a mug of dried puy lentils. Put these into a medium sized bowl and pour in enough boiling water to cover lentils 3 times over. Squirt in a little lemon juice and cover. Leave this over night to soak.

Day 2 - The feast
Drain the lentils and wash them in cold water.

Cut the second aubergine into chunky cubes. Steam for about 20 mins and then put to the side

Heat a splash of olive oil in a heavy based pan the fry the onion slowly. Add the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes. Turn up the heat and add the rice add more oil in necessary. Add the wine and cook for 3 minutes more.

Add the lentils then pour in the stock. Add the mushrooms, courgettes and some lemon juice and zest and continue to stir all the while, until all the stock has been used up - this will take 10-15 minutes.

Test and make sure rice is cooked properly. If ready remove the pot from the heat, add the lemon juice, half the zest, the aubergine pulp and half a teaspoon of salt. Stir, cover and leave for five minutes. Taste and add more salt if you like and some black pepper.

Add the steamed diced aubergine to a wok generously oiled with sesame oil, give this a quick 5 minute blast and then take off the heat.

To serve, spoon the risotto into bowls and sprinkle with the diced aubergine, Parmesan, basil and the rest of the lemon zest and serve with quarter of a lemon. Leave the basil in the middle of the table, and extra lemon juice for taste.

It was so delicious we forgot to take a photo of the finished dish so I’ll add this next time I make it!!

Ingredients
2 medium aubergines
10 medium mushrooms quartered
Courgette chunky sliced
Splash of olive oil
Glug of sesame oil
2 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed or garlic puree if you’re feeling lazy
100g risotto rice
½ a mug of puy lentils, these need to be put in a bowl and soaked in water over night (water should be boiled to start with), add a squirt of lemon juice for soaking.
Glass of white wine
750ml hot vegetable stock
2 tbsp lemon juice
Grated zest of 2 lemons
Coarse sea salt and black pepper
Parmesan (or other mature hard cheese), grated
Basil plant!

Margerie Glacier, Glacier Bay, Alaska

I've pulled together my favourite shots of this spectacular glacier.

According to Wikipedia, Margerie Glacier is 21 miles long and is an excellent example of a tide-water glacier! Its height above water is 250 feet, and is extends another 100 feet below the water line.

Debris!

What I had not realised is how powerful glaciers sound. It was really exciting listening to all the cracking, ripping and tumbling of ice and debris as it split off the glacier and crashed down into the calm water. You can't hear brilliantly in this video but it gives you an idea.

On this trip we also saw the John Hopkins glacier but I don’t have any photos. Sorry guys.

Ketchikan, Alaska plus Rain Forest Walk

Beautiful Ketchikan! My favourite stop on this cruise.

Ketchikan, named after Ketchikan Creek which flows through the town, is kept afloat but the fishing and tourism industries. Many of the houses are built on stilts and some streets (walkways to a London girl) are made of wooden platforms. We walked through the quieter, non touristy, part of town to get to the rain forest walk.

After mounting countless steps, I stopped counting at 162, we found ourselves in the beautiful depths of the forest. We clambered up and down higgledy-piggledy stonecrumb trail, stopping every now and then to take in fantastic panoramic views, for around ¾ hour until we stammered down some slippery steps at the other end.

I would highly recommend making the effort to find this trail and enjoy its splendour.

Skagway, Alaska, White Pass and Yukon Route

Welcome to Skagway. A quaint hick village kept afloat by cruise tours.

The gargantuan Zuiderdam docked in Skagway.

White Pass and Yukon Route Railway

Those hip sunglasses again!

This railway, built in the 1900s, was born of the Klondike Gold Rush to provide an alternative for the treacherous route through the mountains. It winds through gauged out mountains faces, through incredibly dark tunnels and over a few fragile little bridges.

There are some truly amazing views, it was by far the best way to spend our day in Skagway.

Some tips for ultimate enjoyment!

• Board the train early so you can sit with your group. It fills up quickly.

• Sit on the left on the way up to make the most of the views.

• Stand on the platform outside on the way down and let the wind whip around you, not that it goes very fast.

• We went on a sunny day and it was beautiful. It wouldn't be so good in bad weather.

• Good narration giving you a feel for the building of the railroad, and how treacherous the route was before this was built. What people do for gold! I guess nothing changes... Listen to the narration on the way up, as you should be delighting in standing on the platform on the way down.

• If you like card games, buy the historic playing cards. They have unique pictures for each card and although distracting, they are fun to play with!

• More for adults, it’s quite a long trip so maybe not suitable for kids. We didn't see any in our carriage.

• Charge your camera battery! My camera ran out of battery half way up so I actually sat back and enjoyed soaking up the ambience, history and awesome views. However, I don’t have as many pictures to share with you as I’d like!

Juneau, Alaska plus Cable Car Mountain Adventure

After a day at sea, and with wobbly legs, we disembarked the Zuiderdam and wandered into “town”. This was my first cruise and I was overwhelmed by this tourist trap. We found ourselves surrounded by diamond shops, floods of people and general tat so promptly opted to go up the mountain, out of town, via a sturdy looking cable car. Fantastic plan as it turned out.

We trekked along little woodland paths, singing all the way to ward off any hungry grisly bears. It was quite an adventure, following a random route of narrow interconnected paths and carefully navigating our way over some slippery snowy patches.



The top of the mountain gave us spectacular views over the bay and surrounding mountains. The rest of the town didn’t have much to offer us. It may interest those wanting to purchase/ browse sparkly diamonds or buy overpriced tourist memorabilia.

Zuiderdam, Vancouver to Juneau, Holland America

The Zuiderdam, viewed from above in Juneau. This 10 storey ship had multiple pools, a fantastic gym, a theatre and loads of food! Plus a library and a basketball court on the top deck.

Deck 10 -must've been a good book...

Views in Glacier Bay, Alaska. This is the Margerie Glacier which goes 200 miles back to the Canadian boarder.

Little tiny chunks of ice floating downstream from the glaciers.


Can you spot the mountain goat?

View from our cabin window. Now what was that book? Truman Capote?

This is where the bears hang out. We didn't see any though. Whilst playing table tennis, we saw a pod of whales flicking their tails and a pair of dolphins.