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!

Food is Art

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..a special treat to end our Thanksgiving weekend

Yesterday I told you about our trip to Trinity Bellwoods Park. When we reached the south end of the park, my daughter A asked if I wanted to stop for coffee. Is the pope Catholic? You don’t have to ask me twice.

Of course she already had a very special place in mind. Right on Queen St., on the north side and east of the park is a very fancy cafe called Nadege. It was warm enough yesterday to sit outside so we found a table for the four of us on the patio facing the park.

We all wanted Americanos, so A and AB went inside to order. When they came back they raved about the pastry counter and insisted that I had to go inside to see it for myself. I wasn’t disappointed. It was like an art gallery of pastries with real French croissants, tarts, Danishes, French macaroons and delicately and beautifully designed slices of cake. My description here doesn’t do it justice. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words:

A waitress brought out our coffees, glasses of water and a small tray of cream and custard filled puff pastries. Luckily they were small so even though it was an indulgence we didn’t feel too guilty. They were definitely worth the calories. I was glad that I had saved up my calories earlier in the day.

When I had gone inside to check out the counters I noticed that at the back of the store there was an in house bakery that one could see into and watch the bakers at their craft. I took a picture but when I looked at it later it looked like one the the pastry chefs was not too pleased to have her picture taken so out of respect for her I’ve decided to not publish it.

When I went back outside I noticed that there was water on the ground close to where we were sitting. I asked where it came from and they told me that the waitress had accidentally spilled water on J’s back. She had her coat on so she didn’t feel it but the waitress brought three French macaroons, on the house, to the table to compensate for the mishap.

Bonus! We all took a nibble from each one. The orange one was my favourite. It’s a good thing we had to walk back across the park to get to the car. It helped burn a few extra calories. What a great ending to a perfect weekend!

My girls and AB.

The Perfect Weekend

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..mostly good weather and great company

The weather wasn’t perfect but it started off well and ended well.

I spent Saturday with one of my best friends and her family at the art gallery. Both shows, Ai Weiwei and David Bowie, were exceptionally good and awe inspiring.

Sunday wasn’t great weather wise but we spent it with family and enjoyed great food and celebrated my son-in-law’s birthday. We’ve also started what we hope will become a regular family event…..family game night. Who said game night was only for younger children? During our walk we stopped to see my neighbour and good friend, MC, and quickly said hello to her entire family who were also celebrating Thanksgiving together. I’ve known MC for more than 30 years and our children are very close in age. The big difference is that she’s a grandmother four times over and number five is on the way.

Today the sun was shining again. I had a lie in this morning and spent a good hour and a half reading a wonderful book, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce. K prepared a sumptuous omelet for breakfast and together we started making a hearty turkey soup. Actually K prepared most of the soup while I started cleaning out the fridge.

I know that most people wouldn’t find cleaning a very enjoyable activity. I have to admit that it’s not my most favourite thing to do but I do get a lot of satisfaction when I finish a task. Today the birds were given a nice clean cage, the bedding was stripped and washed and my vacuum cleaner that stopped working two weeks ago has miraculously started working again so the second floor and the stairs got a long overdue cleaning.

After cleaning I took a break and read some emails and other people’s blogs and wrote about our Thanksgiving dinner for this blog. As I was finishing up my latest post, the phone rang and one of my oldest friends and first teaching friend invited me to meet her at her place and then head out to Trinity Bellwoods Park and go for a walk. Perfect ….. the one other thing that I hoped to do today was get outside and get some exercise.

AB and I have a very special relationship. She is a few years older than I am and was my mentor when I first started teaching. When our first child was born she became her godmother and has always taken a special interest in all our children. In fact she considers all three of our children her god children. We’ve always considered and treated AB and her partner as members of our family.

I picked up my daughter, A and her partner, J and headed out to AB’s place. We drove over to Trinity Bellwoods and parked the car at the north end of the park. It’s a busy park with walkers, runners and cyclists. The leaves are just starting to turn and some of the trees are bearing some unusual fruit. There are numerous memorials and statues in the park, representing individuals and groups that have made significant contributions to the neighbourhood.

: I have no idea what kind of tree this is.

: A close-up of the fruit on this unknown tree.

: Any idea what kind of tree this is?

When we got to the south end of the park my daughter suggested that we stop for a coffee at a cafe across the street. She had obviously been there before and she was anxious to share this special place with me. More about this in my next post. It was a perfect way to end a perfect day and perfect weekend.

Cheers!

Family Get Together, Again

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….Thanksgiving dinner at the Cormier house

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada but we celebrated yesterday. We enjoy having Monday has a down day, where we can relax or in our case catch up on our reading, blogging, cleaning, gardening, etc..

Yesterday the big Thanksgiving Day dinner was hosted at our place. Come to think of it, I can’t remember when it wasn’t. When my mother was alive we used to go to my parent’s house. One year they decided to go away with friends on the Thanksgiving weekend. I was devastated, after all Thanksgiving is suppose to be spent with family. I can’t remember how that turned out but I think that soon after that we hosted the annual event. My sister had it at her house a few times but she ‘didn’t cook’ back then so a lot of the food was prepared ahead of time and brought to her house.

There were only six of us at the dinner table this year. My son is still living in the Netherlands and my sister and her family and my Dad and G had made other plans this year. We were planning to deep fry our turkey again but when we woke up it was pouring rain outside. Since we do the deep frying in the backyard we had to quickly decide if we chance it and wait out the rain or do the turkey the traditional way in the oven. Deep frying takes one hour versus the oven which takes 5 hours.

We decided on the oven. Good thing because the rain continued all day and came down even heavier when we would have started the deep fryer. Of course this meant more work for me but once the bird was in the oven the rest of the meal was easy. Our daughter G brought over a great salad made with barley, tomatoes, arugula and ricotta cheese and A, our oldest daughter, made homemade pumpkin pie ice cream and roasted plum ice-cream.

After a delicious dinner, we celebrated B’s birthday. We gave him a new board game, Small World, Underground. We were all very full from dinner so we decided to go for a walk around the block before we started a new game of Ticket to Ride, Europe. A and J liked the last game so much that they went out and bought their own game.

A great day. Wishing all my Canadian friends a great Thanksgiving Monday! Cheers!
P1030384

Ai Weiwei (part 1)

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….pronounce ‘I way way’

Today my friend L, her sister and father and I drove into the city to the Art Gallery of Ontario to see the David Bowie Show and the Ai Weiwei Show. A lot to take in, in the short time we had. Considering it is the Thanksgiving weekend the gallery wasn’t too busy when we arrived at 1:30 but later in the afternoon the line-ups were quite long.

I’m going to share a few of the pieces that I saw at the Ai Weiwei show. This incredible contemporary Chinese artist produces photographs and installation art pieces that raise crucial questions about the right to express and conduct oneself freely and that feature repurposed furniture and artefacts.

One of the first pieces that you can’t help but notice is the snake like sculpture that hangs above your head as you enter the exhibition. It is made from 800 backpacks, commonly used by students in China, to represent the souls of the many children who died in 2008 during the Sichuan earthquake.

As you pass the through the hallway of floor to ceiling photographs and enter the main hall you greeted by a sculpture called “Grapes“. It consists of 40 wooden stools from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) that have been reassembled in a way to transform its meaning and obscure its function. There are no nails in this piece and like the individual stools it is held together with traditional joinery techniques. The whole piece is supported by the legs of one stool.

In the same room, a series of seven chests made from huali wood are lined up across the far side of the room. Each chest has four circular openings that when aligned created the effect of showing every phase of the moon to visitors who walk through the installation. The challenge here was trying to get a shot without people passing through. The piece is called Moon Chest.

I will feature a few more pieces in future posts. In the meantime if you’re in Toronto and you haven’t seen this show, I highly recommend it. Hurry though, it closes October 27th.

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!

Hooray for the Weekend

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….my week at a glance

I can’t believe that 5 weeks of school have already passed. I’ve already been on a three day trip to the outdoor education centre with the grade 5s. We’ve had a community BBQ, curriculum night, our first school council meeting, and Terry Fox Run. Our cross country team has been out running for the last five weeks and on Monday 120 students are going to the first of three meets. The girls’ and boys’ slo pitch teams and flag football teams have been practising for at least three weeks and the primary and junior choirs have been singing up a storm getting ready for the Remembrance Day concert in November.

On Monday of this week I went with the grade 4 and 5 students to the McMichael Art Gallery where we toured the gallery for half the day and saw work from the Group of Seven, Norval Morrisseau, Inuit artists and Edward Burtinsky. In the second half of the day the students were engaged in a hands on watercolour painting session. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera but one of the mom’s took lots of pictures. Hopefully I can share a few in a future post.

On Tuesday we had our first Future Ace assembly where we honour students who have demonstrated outstanding character traits, such as kindness, respect or sportsmanship. It was also the launch of the school magazine drive which raises money through the sale of magazine subscriptions. After school I made a trip to Arts Junction but left with very little in the way of art supplies but I did buy my husband his birthday present on my way home.

On Wednesday I taught two double periods of art to two of my grade 3 classes. I’m starting to feel better about their Norval Morrisseau style paintings. Last week I lamented how some of them weren’t getting the concept. I made a sample for the children to model from and I’m pleased to announce that they’re starting to understand the concept of ‘x-ray paintings’. This lesson from Kinder Art helped put the lesson into a perspective that the students could understand.

Here are a few of the paintings that are starting to show some promise:

After school on Wednesday my husband and I celebrated his birthday. Thursday was uneventful and today we started the day with a special breakfast to celebrate World Teachers’ Day. The shirts for the cross country meet arrived today and B and I opened up the report card program on the computer for the teachers so that they could start preparing for the progress reports which are due in three weeks.

This weekend I hope to get the farmers’ market again. We’ve been invited to a surprise birthday party on Saturday and on Sunday the family is getting together to celebrate K’s birthday. Hooray for weekends!

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!

A Guys Weekend

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….leaving me by myself in this big house

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that my husband is off for the weekend with one of his best friends. He doesn’t do it often and I’m so happy that he’s enjoying the cottage. Apparently so is the dog. It just feels weird being in this house by myself. K’s gone away before but he’s always left the dog with me so I’ve never felt alone.

I stayed late at work again tonight. Knowing that no one was waiting at home, I decided to unpacked more boxes of books. A lot of the books that the boys and girls were asking for were still packed away so with the help of 3 former students who came back to help me in the library we pulled out the more popular titles. We created some more space by using the top of the lower book cases. I know that the boys will be happy to see Star Wars, Captain Underpants and Wimpy Kid back in the library.

On the way home I stopped and did a little bit of shopping for dinner, picked up some supplies for my budgie birds and bought a lottery ticket for tonight’s draw. When I walked through the front door my husband called from the cottage. He’s having a great time with his friend D. They got some more work done on the staircase railing and they hope to finish tomorrow. They’re eating like kings and the sauna was warming up while we were talking. Frances, our wonder dog, has been in doggy heaven. There aren’t too many people up at Big Sand Bay this weekend so she’s had a lot of freedom. She’s had so much fun that she hasn’t even wanted to eat. She was sleeping when K called. She’ll be one hungry dog tomorrow.

My daughter, A called about an hour ago and we’ve made plans to get together tomorrow. We’ll be heading out to the farmer’s market in the Junction and we’ll see where we go from there. My husband’s birthday is next week so we’ll probably be looking at some potential gifts to buy. Unfortunately my vacuum cleaner stopped working this week so I might also be looking for a good sale on vacuum cleaners.

As I’m writing this post I’m watching the last two episodes of America’s Got Talent. This year’s show has some of the best talent I’ve ever seen. All of the six finalists are winners in my eyes. They all deserve to be there and I will be happy, no matter who wins (or won, seeing that the winner was announced earlier in the week).

I had planned to get some work done around the house this weekend but I think having fun with my daughters and friends is going to take precedent.

Cheers!