Homemade Ice-cream

Last week we had an extra special dessert treat here at Eagle Falls Lodge: homemade vanilla ice-cream!

I've blogged about ice-cream before, so it stands to reason that we are big fans.  It can be tough out here in the wilderness.  We don't really have good access to ice-cream, milk shakes, and other summertime treats that you folks get to enjoy back home.  However, we are problem solvers.  The group up here last week wasn't discouraged either.  They came fully prepared to make their own.  Now that's the spirit, people!

Denise and Linda - ice-cream magicians!

Travis and I have a hand-crank homemade ice-cream maker back in Illinois, but lucky for everyone involved these ladies had the foresight to bring a motorized ice-cream maker to the lodge.  MUUUUCHHHHHH easier.  Believe me, I've hand-cranked my fair share of this homemade creamy cool deliciousness over the years.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the process of making homemade ice-cream the secret is in the salt.  Rock salt that is.  You will use a fair amount and it is layered with ice between the actual bucket and the ice-cream canister you can see above hooked in below the motor.  

You can buy "ice-cream salt" but rock salt used for melting snow and ice works just as well and you can certainly get more bang for your buck going this route.

Travis even helped to layer the ice and salt while that sweet little motor kept cranking along.

After about 20-30 minutes your ice-cream should be pretty firm.   This will vary depending on how much you make and whether you are living the life of luxury with a motorized ice-cream maker or if you are keeping it old-school with a hand-crank machine.  

We just draped a towel over the whole thing and left it in the shade to set up for an hour or so.  At dinner time we removed the canister, took out the paddle, and scooped away!

Delicious!

We enjoyed ours with cherry cobbler and peach cobbler.  

There may or may not have been a freezer raid a few hours after dinner.  It quickly became a free for all to get some of the leftover ice-cream.   This special dessert treat didn't last long out at camp! 

Mega Shore Lunch!!

Hello all!

I hope everyone is settling back into their routine after the holiday weekend.  

I wanted to share a bunch of pictures with everyone from the incredible shore lunch which took place last week.  We have a father/son duo that have become known around Eagle Falls Lodge for their annual shore lunch extravaganza.  They are nice enough to plan it around our daily chores, so we usually try to make an appearance.  

This year, someone very special got to attend!

Jeff and Andy do all the traditional shore lunch dishes, but also make some delicious extra sides that make it memorable.  These guys plan everything out and do all the cooking.  We just show up and chow down!  It was a beautiful day last week and one of the other groups at the lodge ended up joining in for MEGA SHORE LUNCH!

Here is Jeff frying up some delicious walleye!

Oh baby!

Some of you may recognize this shore lunch spot out on Parker Lake

Our good friends the Dillons

This guy...

Cosmo had a blast!  He had a whole new island to explore.

Mary-Jane and me chilling after a delicious meal

Who are these weirdos?  We look like we have never ventured out into nature before.  Like ever.

And, yes, he did wear his life jacket the entire time.  I don't know why.

 Good looking group!

Celebrating the 4th of July at Eagle Falls Lodge

Happy holiday weekend everyone!

We hope everyone was able to spend the 4th with family and friends - we sure did!  It has started to feel normal to celebrate the 4th of July in Canada, this being the 5th year in a row, but we definitely try to add in some good ol' U.S. of A. flare to stay patriotic.  

I've got to clear the air on one very important 4th of July issue.  Fireworks.  Travis and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum as to how we feel about fireworks.  He LOVES them, lives for them in fact.  Probably starts dreaming about them come Memorial Day.  It was always a big part of Independence Day at the Mack house.  I, on the other hand, am hard pressed to think of anything that seems like a bigger waste of money.  I mean that's what it is right?  You buy a bunch of plastic wrapped brightly colored cardboard and then proceed to set it on fire.  I seriously don't get it.  

I should state that anytime immediately following a fireworks display I usually have a pretty big smile on my face.  Like the one above.  I'm easily entertained, that is for sure.  They are pretty and can be very impressive.  But then I start to worry about everyone's potential hearing loss.  

Alas, Travis is a pretty great guy so I humored him and went all out.  All out for Red Lake, that is.  Where does one acquire fireworks in Red Lake you might ask?  Well, the marina of course.  I got the biggest, most outrageous pack they had.  Appropriately titled the "Dragon Slayer".  You are welcome, baby.  I definitely try to get Travis something he truly enjoys when I can, because he is VERY laid back and doesn't ask for much.  

I think everyone at the lodge was pleased.  

Before the fireworks show got underway, Mary-Jane and I were busy little bees in the kitchen making one heck of a dessert dazzler.  I thought it would be super fun to make a red (which in reality looked pink), white, and blue layered cake.  It turned out pretty well and was SUPER fun to bake.  Everyone gobbled it right up, so I think they liked it!

We also celebrated a birthday yesterday.  Caleb turned 14 and definitely enjoyed celebrating Canada style.  Happy Birthday Caleb!

All that being said, I still miss my annual family reunion in SW Missouri.  We sure hope that everyone and their families had a great time celebrating everything that the 4th of July means to them.  I LOVE SUMMER!

Pie eating contest!

You all remember Ben (Skip's grandson) and Cole (Jack's grandson) from the last blog post, right?  Well they provided a major service to us last week by polishing off some leftover desserts.  Leftovers are pretty much public enemy number one around here.  If you don't stay on top of things it can get ugly.  So, in an effort to keep the refrigerator organized we try and offer up any leftover sweets after dinner each day.  I swear, if you wait 20-30 minutes after the meal they get scooped RIGHT up!

But, that being said it's all about how you sell it.  You have to work the crowd in order to make the sale.  The desserts in question last week happened to be 2 pieces of coconut cream pie.  How these delicious meringue topped beauties lasted past their initial unveiling I will never know.  But something had to be done.  Mary-Jane and I were staring at these poor pieces of pie in the storage room and about to plop them into the scrap bucket (such tragic fate!) when she perked right up and said, "How about a pie eating contest?!" Genius!

We sauntered into the main lodge with one piece of pie on each plate to make our pitch.  Lucky for us two growing young men (Ben and Cole) were playing cards and we had found what we were looking for.

They LOVED the idea!  So, naturally, it got recorded on video (you are welcome) for your viewing pleasure...

Cole was a good sport, and immediately following this loss he eyed the two remaining birthday cupcakes that were still out and proposed a rematch.  Which resulted in video 2....

If you blinked you may have missed it.  One bite, folks!

I think Ben may have career options, don't you agree?

Well done boys!  Never a dull moment around here.

If you were in a food eating contest what would you dominate in?  Or what food should you avoid?  For me, the list of options to try for are endless.  I think I could eat an infinite amount of fresh peaches or bowls of ice-cream.  Yum!  Mayonnaise would be my worst nightmare.

"Timbit Town"

So, here is the thing....


I have a definite love/hate relationship with donuts.  Any and all donuts.  My best strategy is to avoid walking in the vicinity of any place that offers them.  This becomes extra challenging if they are giving AWAY donuts.  Don't get me wrong, I will treat myself every now and again, but I can polish off a baker's dozen in no time flat.

Last summer Red Lake, Ontario got their very own Tim Horton's restaurant (read: donut heaven).  This is a fairly widespread Canadian franchise restaurant that specializes in (you guessed it) donuts.  I'd say it wasn't until last July that this became a real problem for me.  Tim Horton's is located on your way out of town (heading towards Vermillion Bay) so on a typical town day I wouldn't even go by it.  I need to find more town errands on this end of town so I can enjoy them more often.

I would highly suggest to everyone coming up to see us that they check it out for themselves.

Here at the Eagle Falls Lodge we have affectionately started calling it "Timbit Town".  Hehe.  For you poor souls out there that are thinking "what the heck is a tidbit?" let me tell you.  Timbit's are the equivalent of a donut hole - and at "Timbit Town" you can get 40 of them for like 6 dollars.  I told you this was trouble.

Now, if donut holes aren't your thing they have lots of other delicious looking donuts, pastries, muffins, etc.  And coffee, of course.  They also serve actual meals, but who am I kidding.  (Side note: Travis will tell you that their breakfast sandwiches are delicious and the lunch is good as well.)

So, to review...

YOU MUST GO TO THERE!!!

Please report back with any and all suggestions as to what I should have on my next visit.

Black bear sighting in camp!

Good morning everyone!

We are well into our 3rd week of guests (which doesn't seem possible) and they are having a great week so far.  Weather has stayed very nice, but we had an overcast day yesterday and we've gotten a little bit of rain in the evenings.

Travis' family is up here so he is finally making some time to fish with his siblings and dad while they are up this week.  Yesterday he snuck out for most of the day, so Mary-Jane and I had fun preparing the meals and hanging out around the lodge.

While we were busy making these.....

This guy (or gal) meandered into camp...

Yikes!  Before watching the video I need to do a little build-up for you all.

For those of you who don't know myself or Mary-Jane we have a TON of fun together.  Pretty much any mundane or undesirable task we face at Eagle Falls Lodge (or anywhere else for that matter) we can make fun.  So after our mountain of dishes yesterday morning we launched into pie making.  Mary-Jane was busy finishing the meringue on the coconut cream pie and getting it in the oven while I was battling a wasp in the hallway.  We have had our fair share of wasp battles this week for whatever reason.  Remind me to get Travis on that.

Anywho.   I had just swatted another wasp to death and opened the door to dispose of said wasp.  At this point I remembered I should probably do the cabin checks, so I start to leave the main lodge and head over to the big cabin.  I get just outside the door and I notice this big dark mass in front of me a little to the left.  My thought process is this: "How strange for Cosmo to be milling around outside.  Maybe he got stuck out here when everyone was leaving for the docks.  Waaaaaait a minute, my sweet puppy boy is yellow - not black.  Black = bear.  Bear = danger.  Oh crap, get back inside!"

For a timeframe reference, that entire conversation I had with myself took place in about the time Mary-Jane placed the pies in the oven to bake the meringue.

Panic and hilarity ensue.  Not once were we actually afraid.  I ran back inside yelling for the camera.

Sidenote:  Here at Eagle Falls Lodge the top of the refrigerator is a dumping ground for all random papers, screwdrivers, lures, pens, etc.  Naturally there is a camera waiting for us there for such an occasion.

We spend the next SEVERAL minutes taking photos and videos of the bear.  Where is our bear defender puppy, Cosmo, you ask?  Sacked out in his bed.  So much for that.  We didn't even start to think about having to deal with this bear situation until everything was adequately documented and discussed.  We were just getting ready to formulate a plan to get him/her out of camp when we realized THE PIES!!!  Drop the camera, oven mitts on, and swing open the oven door.  Whew, pies are fine.

Okay, back to the bear.  Mary-Jane did an excellent job scaring him/her back into the woods.  Oh, the adventures we have here at camp.  So much fun and excitement.  The best part was when Cosmo finally woke up and was outside he clearly could smell the bear.  With the hair on his back raised he quickly went into defensive mode - looking at us like "uh ladies, we should head back inside.  Seems we have a situation here - never fear, I will protect you!"  About 30 minutes too late, Cosmo.

You can hear us giggling in the background of the video.  Too funny.

You will be happy to know that the pies turned out beautifully!  Everyone seemed to enjoy them as a nice ending to the Monday night fish fry.

Did anyone else have unexpected guests yesterday?  We haven't had this type of unexpected guest in at least two years.  Sheesh.

Until next time.