Persian Breakfast

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….celebrating my oldest daughter’s birthday

My daughter, A was away on her birthday last week, touring wine country in Prince Edward County. She did, however, want to celebrate with the family and she expressed an interest in having brunch at a very trendy Persian restaurant in the west end of Toronto. Tavoos doesn’t take reservations so they suggested that we arrive at 10:00 when the restaurant opened on Sunday so that we wouldn’t have to wait.

My sister was in town on the same day and she was hoping to spend some time with me so we invited her to join us at the restaurant. In total there were six of us in attendance. Arriving early turned out to be a very good idea because when we left the line-up went out the door.

This unique little restaurant is located on College Street just west of Dufferin. When you walk in you are greeted by a warm, inviting atmosphere with a very Persian decor. There are a couple of areas that are covered with exotic carpets and cushions and you can enjoy your meal sitting cross legged on the floor. Luckily, A requested the small room at the back of the restaurant with regular tables and chairs. I’m not so sure I could get up gracefully from the floor after sitting for any length of time.

The menu offered some very unusual breakfast selections. One of them was a soup made with a goats head and hoofs. We all passed on that item. A ordered the porridge with lamb which was quite delicious and surprisingly sweet. My sister played it safe and ordered a Mediterranean salad and the rest of us had Persian egg dishes. Traditionally the dishes are baked with the eggs sunny-side up on a spinach or onion potato base. With coffee and or tea and tip the total cost came in under $65.00 for our party of six. Pretty good for the city of Toronto.

After brunch we went back to A and J’s house. My sister hadn’t seen their home and it gave us more time together. Of course there was birthday cake and more coffee. We didn’t need to eat again until dinner time.

My sister with ‘my three girls’.

No Sleep is Catching up With Me

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….partly due to the time change

It’s been an interesting week. I’ve definitely not had enough sleep. Twice this week I’ve fallen asleep in the middle of my favourite shows. Both times I woke up during the credits of the show and I had to ask my husband how the show ended. I don’t watch a lot of TV anymore so when I do the shows are important to me. I couldn’t believe that I fell asleep before 9:00 at night. That should have been my first clue that I need more sleep.

The worst thing that happened this week is that I almost burned down my house. For some reason I decided it was a good idea to start making soup at 10:00. I set the stove on high and went downstairs to do another load of laundry. I decided to stay up and transfer the wash over to the dryer. My biggest mistake at this point was opening up my laptop to check my emails and read some of the blogs that I follow. I completely forgot about the soup.

As I started to transfer the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer my noise started to twitch. OMG! I darted up the stairs and ran into the smoke filled kitchen. I pulled the pot off the burner, opened all the windows, turned on the fan and then removed the pot from the stove and placed it on the deck. At this point the smoke detector went off. I opened the front door and the back door and more windows on the main floor.

Luckily the smoke cleared up quickly but I was surprised that my husband slept through all of this. The smell hung around for a couple of days. The next morning when my husband woke up he searched the house looking for the offending smell.

Today at work I had a melt down. When small things start to bug you, you know that there’s more to it. I’m missing my friend CR, the kids are very talkative and unfocused (too much Hallowe’en candy), the staff is under a lot of stress over their report cards, I’m trying to finish projects for the Remembrance Day assembly on Monday and I have to change up my displays in the hall.

Tonight I was able to finish my paperwork for the book fair and before I left I put up some new work from the grade five class. A step in the right direction. Tomorrow’s another day but I have to admit that thoughts of retirement entered my head today. Maybe four days without meat is affecting me. Some of my friends think that I should add some animal protein to my meals.

Cheers!

A rare Beatles video from 1968: I’m So Tired Demo

Day Light Savings – Part 2

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..the downside is that it gets dark earlier

The day seemed exceptionally long but now I’m tired and it’s only 7:00 pm. When I leave work it will be dark outside and it will continue to get darker till December 21st.

There’s always a lot of discussion around whether we need daylight savings time. In the United States, Hawaii and Arizona don’t change the clocks and in Canada, Saskatchewan has opted out of using it. It does play havoc with the body’s internal clock and it takes about a week for some people to adjust.

I think I’m tired because I had a lot on my plate. I got out this morning for a short walk with Lucy. We put our patio furniture away and I cleaned up some of the weeds from the garden. I dusted and vacuumed the living room, cleaned out the jam cupboard, cleaned the fridge, cleaned the bird cage, vacuumed the upstairs, stripped the beds and did four loads of laundry.

I tried a new recipe tonight, cauliflower couscous. My husband and I are trying to eat less meat. I checked out a few recipes on the internet and then gathered up the ingredients I had on hand. After a few modifications I came up with my own version of this tasty dish. If you’re trying to cut down on carbohydrates or need a gluten free recipe you’ll find that this recipe covers both bases.

Carol’s Cauliflower Couscous

1 medium size cauliflower

1 sprig of rosemary

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds

3 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 red apple, skin on, diced

handful of finely chopped chives or green onions

handful of fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 cup golden raisins

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp. cider vinegar

pepper to taste or a splash of your favourite hot sauce

1. In a food processor place the cauliflower flowerets and pulse till the cauliflower resembles couscous.

2. In a flat bottom saucepan pour just enough water to cover the bottom with a sprig of rosemary and 1 tsp of salt.

3. Bring the water to a boil and add the cauliflower couscous. Cover the pot, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. After 5 minutes remove the couscous from the pan and spread onto a baking dish to cool.

5. Add oil to the pan and toast the chopped almonds for a few minutes. Add the celery and cook for another 5 minutes till the celery softens.

6. Add the garlic, chopped apple, chives, vinegar and parsley. Continue to cook just to warm the mixture and season to your liking.

7. Serve warm or cold.

Cranberry Festival in Bala

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. rain, hail and wisps of blue sky

The Cranberry Festival in Bala always falls after the Thanksgiving weekend. My friends L and B and I decided to drive to Bala on Sunday. The entire weekend was cloudy, rainy and cold all over southern Ontario. It was really a last minute decision to drive to Bala at all. We wondered if we had made a wise decision when hail started to hit the wind shield but in the distance we could see traces of blue sky.

The drive in was uneventful and traffic was light. In years past the flow of traffic would slow down to a crawl as cars and buses approached the town of Bala. We found a parking spot easily and with umbrellas in hand we started our walk through town. One of the first things I did was buy a pair of gloves to keep my hands warm. We checked out some of the vendors that were outside and then we made our way into the arena where more vendors were set up to sell their wares. We picked up some stocking stuffers for Christmas, sampled some yummy chocolate and tried on some trendy designer clothes.

When we headed outside the sun finally decided to make an appearance and it warmed up considerably. A vendor selling hot sauce looked at us as if he recognized us. He asked if we were teachers and if we’d ever taught at a middle school in Etobicoke. Well it turned out that all three of us had been at that school but it was our friend B whom he recognized. What a small world. He must have been one of her first students because he was already well into his late 40s or early 50s. He got very emotional at meeting her again after all these years and told her that she had made a huge difference in his life. Talk about making your day!

As we made our way back to the car we stopped and picked up some fresh produce from one of the stalls. Our bags were so heavy with our harvest vegetables and apples that we decided to take advantage of the school bus that transported visitors to and from the festival. When we unloaded our parcels we decided to go back to the church by the falls and have some lunch before heading back to Toronto.

Lunch was a bowl of homemade turkey soup for each of us and a Canadian bacon sandwich cut into three pieces. For dessert L bought one cranberry crepe (it was the cranberry festival after all) with chocolate sauce and whipped cream that we shared as well. We took a few more pictures of the falls and the rushing water and then walked back to the car. Just before we left Bala for good we made one more stop to purchase some more twigs with red berries. The urns outside L’s and B’s places will look very festive this Christmas with those red berries adorning a bouquet of evergreen boughs.

Thanks ladies, for a very enjoyable day!

A Mexican Delight

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..surprisingly healthy

On Sunday we celebrated my husband’s birthday with the family. Food is very important when we have family get togethers and K is usually the architect of our meals. Our daughter suggested we do a taco theme and K started searching for recipes. On our shopping trip on Saturday, pork shoulder, tortillas and banana leaves were purchased.

On Sunday while the pork was cooking inside the banana leaves and the rice and beans were thrown together K decided that we needed something else to round out the meal. I found a couple of Mexican side dishes that looked interesting and we decided on the Avocado, Orange and Red Onion Salad. I quickly did some last minute shopping to pick up some of the ingredients that we were missing and I bought a small birthday cake for K.

When I returned home, my daughter G and her husband were already there and A and her partner were on their way. G helped me slice the oranges while I prepared the avocado. The salad was simple to prepare. The orange and avocado slices were arranged on a platter with the slices overlapping each other. Then the red onion was sliced into thin rings and randomly arranged on top along with some cilantro leaves. The platter was drizzled with the juice of 1 lime and a couple of tablespoons of good olive oil. Not only was it a pretty salad and dead easy to prepare but it was also tasty and refreshing.

The recipe for this salad came from Delish.

Everyone assembled their own tacos with shredded pork, pickled red onion, cilantro sour cream, and Mexican fresh cheese.

The whole meal was surprisingly light and healthy tasting. Nothing was fried and everyone took as much or as little as they wanted. The two salads helped round out the meal and added some pretty colours to our plates. G made the pickled onions. They added a nice crunch to the taco. I’ll share the recipe in a future post. The green dip was simply sour cream and cilantro blended together in the Nutra Bullet. It could probably be made with yogurt if you want to reduce the fat content.

After dinner K blew out the candle on his birthday cake ( the number 3 has no significance…I couldn’t find any other candles).

Coffee was served and then the board game came out. We had a great time playing Ticket to Ride. K has wanted to have a regular game night for awhile now. All in all it was the perfect way to celebrate his birthday.

Happy Saturday

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….another visit to the market but with daughter, G and sweet Lucy

Whenever we go anywhere with my daughter’s Bassett Hound, Lucy, people stop to make small talk. Yesterday we went back to the Junction Farmers’ Market, sat outside on the patio at the Full Stop and window shopped along Dundas St. W. One of the stores that we wanted to show G was the new meat market situated between the coffee shop and the farmer’s market.

Gourmeats is relatively new to the area. The owner and the employees are extremely friendly and helpful. One of their special features is marinating your choice of meat before you leave the store. There are numerous options to choose from and after the marinade is added (no extra charge) the bag and contents are vacuum sealed.

My husband and G went into the store while I waited outside with Lucy. Every time someone entered or left the store Lucy approached the door, hoping to make her way inside. After awhile both Lucy and I began to peer through the glass door to see what was keeping both of them so long. Someone passed by and commented on what a funny picture that would have been, seeing both of us longingly peer through the butcher’s door.

The meats at Gourmeats are of excellent quality. My only complaint is that they are a tad expensive but then we shouldn’t be eating so much meat anyway and you really do get what you pay for. K purchased some pork shoulder, which he should be cooking shortly for our dinner with the kids today. Everyone is coming over later for a family meal to celebrate my husband’s birthday. We’re also hoping to make it into a ‘game’ day as well.

The only other thing we bought was a capon. I’ve become a huge fan of capons after purchasing one down at the St. Lawrence Market earlier this year. We’ll probably get four or five meals from this big bird alone.

Today we’re having the family over to celebrate K’s birthday and the plan is to make Mexican tacos from scratch. One of the things that we needed are fresh tortillas. We knew of a place situated closer to our daughter’s place so we called her and asked her if she could pick some up for us. She texted us back and told us of a place that has recently opened up very close to where we live.

So after visiting the Junction we made our way to La Tortilleria to pick up fresh yellow and white corn tortillas. La Tortilleria makes tortillas and nacho chips daily and also prepares ready to eat meals as well. You can sit in or take out and there is a small store attached with Mexican products so that you can prepare your own meals if you’re so inclined.

Our last stop of the day was at the Pie Commission. This is a brand new take out place that K discovered on Twitter. Our daughter’s partner, J, also texted us about it so K checked it out a couple of weeks ago and he wanted to show us the place and order some pies for dinner.

The Pie Commission makes a variety of savoury meat pies and sells them from a take out window. There are a few seating areas outside the location where you can sit and enjoy your meal or you can opt to buy the pies frozen and take them home and bake them in your own oven. There are plans to expand the place so that you can go inside. They’d better hurry. As good as the pies are I can’t see people lining up outside in the middle of February, especially if we have another winter like last year’s.

We took home a selection of 4 different pies and served them with a large salad. A great meal and a very special treat for us. As good as these pies are, they aren’t exactly diet food.

After dinner we made our way to a birthday party across the street. We enjoyed the company of our neighbours and met some new people. We also got to know some of our dog walking acquaintances better.

One of our fellow dog walkers is Adrian deRooy. I mention his name here because he is quite an accomplished artist and I would like to feature some of his work here. We’ve only met Adrian and his dog a couple of times but he always engages us in conversation. One of the things we didn’t know about him is that he makes his living as an artist.

At the party we noticed that T had great paintings on her walls and four of them were painted by Adrian. Here is Adrian deRooy’s website where you can check out more of his work. I’ve included a few of his paintings here so you can see what a talented guy he is. He is also a very nice man and very down to earth.

Adrian and Daisy

Time to start prepping for dinner and getting ready for the family. It’s been a great weekend so far.

Cheers!

Hanging onto Summer

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….now that we’re officially into autumn, I appreciate all the ‘warm and sunny’ days that come our way

Yesterday I spent the entire day with my oldest daughter, A and her partner, J. We started out in the morning at the Junction Farmer’s Market. I love this small market. The vendors are friendly and young, if not in age certainly at heart. The market has a lovely community feel to it.

The market includes freshly baked breads and healthy treats (and not so healthy), olives and olive oils, organic vegetables, free range chickens and pork, freshly picked fruits, local fish, honey, and ready to eat food, like BBQ ribs, dumplings, and meat pies. One of the vendors took out his guitar and played a tune for those passing by.

After making a few purchases we decided to check out the new cafe situated right next door to the market. It’s called the Full Stop and they make great Americanos. J really wanted one of the scones but she was shocked at the size of it. It could have fed a family of four.

After enjoying great coffee we headed back to my house and dropped off some of the perishables. Then we proceeded on our marathon of shopping….Canadian Tire, Ikea, Zellers, and Costco.

After our trip to Costco we were starting to feel rather peckish. Other than our coffee and splitting one scone three ways we hadn’t eaten in over 5 hours. The girls really wanted pizza but one of our favourite places had a line-up all the way out the door and almost to the street. We decided that there had to be other places that made good pizza.

We chose a place that a couple of my friends really like but I have to say that the pizza was just mediocre. When you don’t eat pizza all the time because of dietary reasons it’s really disappointing when you end up with a meal that you wish you hadn’t ordered. The salad was good but I would never recommend this restaurant for pizza. I took the leftovers home and K ate it when he got back from the cottage. He has a weakness for pizza.

Emma over at My Darling Lemon Thyme posts some of her favourite things every month. This video of an outdoor dinner in a cave by the ocean really made me long for more summer. I wonder how I could do this on a budget? Hmmm! Enjoy!

My Birthday Month

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..the celebrations started two weeks ago and continued last Sunday, Monday and today

Most people celebrate their birthdays on one day. This year my birthday stretched out over two weeks. I wrote about going out with my friend D two weeks ago when we had lunch at Merryberry and then went to the Riverdale Farm. Lunch turned out to be my birthday present from D and today I received a beautiful card from her in the mail as well.

Last Sunday my sister from Chatham came over to celebrate her birthday and mine and my daughter G and her husband joined us for dinner. K made us a beautiful dinner of grilled salmon, green beans and baked plums.

On Monday I met my friend A, downtown and we spent the afternoon at the Elmwood Spa. We started with lunch on the fourth floor and despite a few hiccups with the reservation and my first meal we ended up enjoying a very visually appealing and tasty lunch.

After lunch we went to the water therapy room where we had a steam and then I went for a 50 minute aromatherapy massage. I’ve never had such a good massage. I felt my legs were getting a great workout and it made up for the fact that I hadn’t run that morning. Once the session was over I went up to the pool and swan some laps and then enjoyed a few moments in the hot tub.

A bought me a beautiful black jersey top and we decided to go the store where she bought it and see if I could get the matching pants. The store is called Endz and it carries absolutely gorgeous designer clothes and accessories. I bought the pants and am looking forward to my next visit to this wonderful store.

When I got home on Monday a parcel was waiting for me from my sister in Calgary. The box was quite heavy and when I opened it I was delighted to see a glass box with a scrabble motif. As some of you know I love to play scrabble and I play with both my sisters on line. That, however, was not the entire gift. When I opened the lid I found a set of fine paint brushes. In an earlier conversation my sister had hinted that for her birthday she’d like one of my paintings. I guess I have no excuses now.

Today started off with coffee in bed, the scarf from husband, a morning run and then a wonderful breakfast prepared by my husband. I went to work and was greeted by numerous birthday wishes from my colleagues and my friend L gave me a beautiful crocheted and beaded necklace.

When I returned home from work I was greeted with a bouquet of flowers from my father that had been delivered to the house. My cousin from Germany called me to wish me a happy birthday and my neighbours down the street appeared on our doorstep and sang Happy Birthday to me and presented me with a bottle of wine.

I wish I could have invited them in for a drink but K had made reservations for dinner at Bloom and we were running a little late. When we got to the restaurant my daughter A and her partner J were already waiting for us. The staff was extremely friendly and the food was out of this world. We had been to this restaurant for our anniversary and the service and food were so outstanding that we knew that we would return.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get better the staff at the restaurant presented me with a complimentary dessert, decked out with a sparkler and ‘Happy Birthday, Carol’ written with chocolate sauce on the rim of the plate. Our waiter started singing Happy Birthday and the restaurant patrons joined in. Even my husband was surprised because he hadn’t said anything when he made the reservations. The four of us shared the dessert before I could take a picture of it but I did manage to save the design on the rim of the plate.

All day I’ve been receiving birthday wishes from fellow bloggers, facebook friends and phone calls from family. I am so blessed and want to thank all of you for my making my day so special.

Tomorrow I have to phone my sister in Calgary and my father in Oshawa and thank them for their thoughtful gifts. The only thing that I’m sad about is that I missed several calls from my family. I hope that I can connect with them tomorrow.

Baking in the BBQ

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..and wheat free doesn’t mean carb free

After reading Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD, one quickly realizes that eating gluten and wheat free foods doesn’t guarantee weight loss. There are more and more gluten free products on the market than ever, especially in the snacking and bakery sections of the grocery store. If you were to read the ingredient lists you would discover that many of these products are high in sugars, fats and alternative starches and the calorie count is high for what you’re getting.

I was feeling somewhat liberated when I found gluten free flour at Costco and I was somewhat disappointed when I couldn’t find a gluten free banana bread recipe in Dr. Davis’ book. After using a regular recipe and substituting the gluten free flour for regular flour it started to dawn on me that I don’t normally eat bananas, let alone banana bread, even though I love both. I’ve always known that bananas are high in carbs and the bread goes without saying. It was when I added the 2 cups of sugar, the 1 1/2 cups of butter and 6 cups of flour that I started to question what I was doing.

So why was I baking banana bread when I’m still trying to lose weight? It just so happened that we were going to celebrate my friend D’s birthday on Sunday and she suggested that we bake something special. Besides she had some sour milk that needed to be used and I had some very ripe bananas. I went through my cottage cookbooks and lo and behold I found a recipe that used both those ingredients.

As you know from previous posts I don’t have electricity and I do the bulk of my cooking on the BBQ, including any baking that I might do. Over the years D and I have developed a knack for baking muffins, cakes and breads in the great outdoors. One of the tricks is to use smaller pans so that dough cooks through to the middle in a shorter length of time. The bread in the bundt pan was finished first, or so we thought. If you look closely at the cut slices you can see that the middle is a little too soft.

The two breads in the loaf pan took a little longer but were a better texture. One of the differences with using gluten free flour is that the bread was much denser than a normal banana bread and for some reason tasted much sweeter. If I were to do this again (for my friends who are truly gluten intolerant) I would definitely add less sugar and maybe even experiment with some kind of substitute that isn’t aspartame or saccharin. I’ve heard that applesauce is a good replacement for sugar in some baking recipes.

I had one and a half slices of the bread on D’s birthday and I ate one slice for breakfast the next morning. I’ve always found that if I’m going to eat carbs it’s best in the morning and then avoid them for the rest of the day. Maybe I should clarify that when I say carbs I mean breads, pasta and primarily flour products. I still eat lots of healthy carbs in the way of vegetables, some fruit and dairy products along with lean protein and healthy fats.

I’m going to have to read the Wheat Belly book a little closer and try to figure out how to fit it into my daily diet without increasing my carb intake. Maybe some of you have a gluten free, wheat free recipe, low in carbs, fat and sugar that I could try. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The following pictures are of D and D’s birthday/anniversary dinner that they kindly invited me to. Afterwards we relaxed around a beautiful bonfire as the sun set over Christian Island.

Delicious lamb, fresh tomatoes, green salad with avocados and Ontario corn on the cob. Yum!

Happy Birthday, D!

A Farm in the Middle of Canada’s Biggest City

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….another 5.3k walk to add to this morning’s 5.0k

Actually it’s already Wednesday but I’m writing this as if it’s still Tuesday. After this morning’s walk I came home to a message from my friend, D, inviting me to join her for lunch at a little bistro in Cabbagetown and then go for a stroll to the Riverdale Farm.

I called her back and arranged to meet her at her condo, downtown, park my car and then together we would walk over to Parliament Street and have lunch at the Merryberry.

The walk took us past numerous churches and Allan Gardens. The area has really changed in the last 20 years. There are more upscale restaurants and the old victorian homes have all been renovated, numerous times to accommodate the design needs of their predominantly upper middle class owners.

The restaurant, The Merryberry, is situated directly on Parliament, just north of Carlton. When we got there we were greeted in a friendly and welcoming manner and offered a choice of eating indoors or sitting out back on the patio. We chose to eat outside. There were lots of light fare lunch options. The soup of the day was a tomato peaches n’ cream soup. Both D and I decided on a half bowl of the soup and D had a salad and I ordered a ‘mash up’. A mash up is a sandwich with egg, goat cheese, avocado and chickpea salad served between two slices of multi-grain bread. I’m trying to eat less bread so I asked for it to be served open face. No problem.

When we finished our meal, D informed me that lunch was on her. It was an early birthday present for me. The big day is in two weeks. We ordered a lemon lime mouse to share for dessert. It was heavenly ….. light and tasty.

After lunch D and I started to walk toward the Riverdale Farm. It used to be the Riverdale Zoo and I remember going there with my parents when I was very young. Today the zoo animals are all gone and have been replaced with farm animals. It’s a great place to take city kids. There were lots of them there today, either with their parents or with a daycare or summer school group.

After walking around the barns and the pens there are several hiking trails that one can use. We walked down a very steep embankment toward a pond that has been restored to its original condition. If it wasn’t for the noise from the cars on the Don Valley Expressway you wouldn’t know that you were in the middle of Toronto.