Practice Commute

I practiced my commute this morning to get a sense of how long it will take me to get to work (and back). It's about 40 minutes on the way there and nearly an hour on the way home. Ick. But all is not lost, as I get to pass just West of the Laval Streeet farmer's market and directly past Vice Versa, Cafe Le Twist, and La Brulerie.

I took a break in the 'Treats' cafe that's housed in the bottom of my building. I was ravenous from my 30 minute walk (only 10 minutes of my commute are on a bus), so I ordered an egg and cheese sandwich on brown toast. "No bacon?" the clerk asked me. "Nope," I replied. "Le mayonnaise?" "Oui," I responded (my French is so good!). "Cheddar ou le swiss?" "Cheddar," I confidently replied. It came with bacon, Cheez Whiz, and an inch-thick layer of the cheapest mayonnaise on the planet. Delicious! Also, they have a bookshelf full of old novels in the cafe, so I got to read the first three pages of Monsieur Quixote.

I Spy

Professionals

Fletcher Wildlife Gardens

Pretty Pets

Being Civil

Back Again!

Get Well Soon

Last week, my mum hurt her hip...quite badly. She's been healing very, very slowly, and my heart breaks for her every day she's in pain. This contemporary shredded carrot salad -- one of my mum's all-time favorites -- goes out to her. I say contemporary because I find the 1970s version a little boring. I spiffed mine up with fresh mint from my windowsill garden, plus raisins (of course), raspberry balsamic vinegar, simple syrup, a half teaspoon of olive oil, and toasted crushed almonds.

Kiddish

Choco milschk made from Almond Breeze (my new favorite non-dairy beverage) and PC Organic Chocolate Syrup. Yes!

29 and Feeling Fine

Bowling with my baby. Size 7s and 11s.


Hintonburgettes. Sweet Sarah Sims (plus two babies!), the lovely me (plus, what Adam calls, 'The Teeth'), and the always-ebullient, Emilie.

Retro

My mother's cooking is so good that she's been making the same dishes for 30 years. One of my favorites is marinated cauliflower salad, a food that, for me, is total comfort.

The gorgeous weather this afternoon prompted me to make a lighter version of this salad suitable for a quick lunch. I used my hands to break my little Bryson Farms cauliflower into florets and then I sprinkled it with a sliced scallion, fresh lemon juice, olive oil, S&P, a bit of prepared horseradish, and a teaspoon of simple syrup. Perfecto!

Birthday Doppelganger

My mother has always been firm in her belief that Adam looks like Tom Hanks -- or rather that Tom resembles Adam. And while she's understandably biased when it comes to any of her kids, this time she's kinda right.

Well, today is Adam's birthday, and here's the email he sent me from work this morning.

On the way to work, I pick up a ratty 24 daily. Breezing through the sorry veneer of content, I reach the entertainment section in search of some comic relief. Diana Ross didn't show up to Jacko's memorial; good grief, how infuriating. The Beckhams rent an entire island for their wedding anniversary. Don't they know they are just peeing their money away; BUY, DON'T RENT. Moving on to more quantifiable data, in the celebrity birthdays today, I see that Tom Hanks is listed. Clearly, he is gradually encroaching on my life, and attempting to assume my identity. Do you think I should get a restraining order out? - Adam

My reply: How did you get to be so funny?

Adam: Learned from Tom Hanks.

Happy 29th and 53th birthdays, boys!

Hot Time

It's summer in the city.

In our house, that means fresh salads, tall drinks, daily bike rides, and lots of ice. Yesterday, I put together what was my first of those salads this season: rice noodles in a quick sesame miso dressing with sliced snap peas and green onion (the latter from Ziad's father's reputably amazing vegetable garden). I topped it off with a handful of purple microsprouts from the Bryson Farms delivery. Such a pretty dinner for a weekend bachelorette!

Then, this afternoon, we bought a 1/2 litre of Pascale's peanut butter and salty caramel ice cream at the Ottawa Farmers Market. I feel like such a plebeian for not trying her ice cream before now. I admit that my summer treat of choice is hot dogs or maybe chips and salsa, but Pascale's ice creams may make me a convert. Look for her many other flavors -- Espresso and Fifth Town Goat's Cheese; Hall's Apple Cider; Dark Chocolate Bacon -- all over town.

The winter is dead. Long live summer!

Common Fools

Snack Homage

In honor of my father's mad snack-making skills, I toasted three pieces of sprouted grain bread this afternoon, spread them with tahini, and sprinkled sliced strawberries and raw sugar on top.

When I was growing up, I picked buckets of strawberries with my mum at a local u-pick. Most of the berries were slated for jam (with a few set aside for shortcake -- with biscuits, not angel food cake, thank you very much). But my dad's favorite ways with them were sliced -- on both cereal and buttered toast. And he always made the bread a bit burny, just like I did today.

I miss stemming strawberries with my mum in the kitchen of our old yellow farmhouse.

El Burrito

I can't stop making burritos!

Maybe it was being in New Mexico (which, annoyingly for everyone else, I can't stop talking about) or maybe it was because Adam and I, planning a late-summer trip to NB, have been reminiscing about one of our old haunts, El Burrito Loco in Fredericton. For years, their large and colorful sign read "This ain't Tex Mex, baby! This is the real thing."

In any case, I recently discovered sprouted grain tortillas made by a company called Food for Life. I like them a lot, but Adam prefers the Canadian-made corn tortillas I usually buy. One thing is for sure: pile them this high and they'll never hold!

Les Hot Dogs

You may recall that when Adam went away last summer, I seized the opportunity to dine on canned ham, a processed meat product that had been a childhood favorite of mine.

This week, it was hot dogs -- or tube steaks, as my brother affectionately calls them. Only, this time, I at least sussed out an organic version: all-beef franks free of nitrites and made in nearby Quebec.

With some all-natural ketchup and a salad, this was a meal so effortlessly perfect that it left me wondering if I could eat it at work this fall. Or will the parfum of microwaved hot dogs be too juvenile and too repulsive for my good government colleagues to handle?

Evening Come

Jack and Lorraine taught me well. A day of dining out made us hungry for familiar foods, so we went to the local Whole Foods and grocery shopped, eating out of our bags for dinner.

Afterward, we had a long swim and shared a lounger while the sun went down. The hotel courtyard, just beyond the adobe fence surrounding the pool is a coiffed green lawn split down the middle with a scrolling wrought-iron trellis (home to flowering vines and a flock of tiny songbirds). All around are nooks for upholstered outdoor furniture, mosaic-topped drink tables, and wooden rocking chairs, the kind you could grow old in. We sat outside, eating pina colada ice pops, until the torch lights came on. And now it''s time for bed.