On Maple Bacon Icing and Being Stranded

Last night we had a goodbye dinner with the Tlell Bay Farm extended household - Elizabeth, Brian, Ross, Sabrina, Bonnie and myself. Brian, the cheese maker, came up before dinner with a fabulous spread of cheeses and fruit including his homemade brie for us to enjoy. Then Elizabeth had also prepared a full spread for our dinner. We had calamari, local fried oysters, coconut rice, carrots, peas, loca salmon, and local broadbeans in cream sauce. As the grand finale, Sabrina, an avid baker, made a pound cake with maple bacon icing.

I have never before had bacon in one of my desserts. The flavours did work and are reminiscent of a hearty breakfast with pancakes, eggs and bacon all covered in maple syrop. The cake tasted smokey and sweet at the same time. However, I did not particularly enjoy the texture of the icing with the little bacon chunks that inevitably cannot be creamed out all the way. I am usually the biggest icing fan - when I buy cupcakes I delicately eat the icing off the entire muffin before eating it - but in this case Sabrina's pound cake was the best part. I would certainly recommend that bakers give the maple bacon icing a try, but perhaps keep it as a breakfast food. Here is a recipe I found for you to try: Apple Pancake Cupcakes with Maple Bacon Icing.

Yesterday there was a storm blowing all day long. The winds were gusting around 80km/hr on shore and the sea swells were metres high. Basically this meant that the ferry we were supposed to catch first thing this morning would not be able to arrive on the island on time. Which in turn meant that Bonnie and I would not be leaving Haida Gwaii today.

Optimistic, when we finished packing around midnight, we checked the BC Ferry vessel positions and our boat was unfortunately still docked in Prince Rupert. It was not looking good. In addition, the weather forecast for the week was not much improved from Sunday's conditions, so we might be here for a while yet! I guess this is where I learn how to be flexible.

Luckily at 7:30 am this morning, the sun is shining and the wind has died down significantly. We have been informed that the ferry will be arriving in Skidegate around 1:30 pm, but that we will get an update later in the day on when our rescheduled departure will be. For now we wait.