BEER!

 I've never been a beer drinker until I discovered vintage, hand-crafted beers, ales and lagers at the Royal Winter Agricultural Fair in Toronto where I attended a beer and cheese tasting session and just completely fell in love!  These vintage beers are amazing!  Each one is different;  each one a unique colour and hue;  each with its own unique recipe. 

At the beer and cheese tasting I learned some very important and/or interesting things:
1.  You don't have to drink a whole bottle or can of beer in one sitting---you can just have a glass of beer.  I know, right?  A glass of beer?  Isn't that against the rules?  Apparently it's not!  You can even put plastic wrap on what's left and stick it back in the fridge for another day.  Clearly, there are different rules for beer that is hand crafted vintage lager/ale/beer.  It is truly wonderful stuff.

2.  Another tip, is to let the beer sit for a bit.  Give it room to breathe just like wine, and don't drink it ice cold if it's vintage, hand  crafted and special. 

3.  Another thing that I find amazing is that you can head to the liquor store and buy a single can or bottle of beer, like I did.  I just went in and picked up several to try:  a cream ale,  an imported dark ale, a dark beer and a vintage beer.   They were all excellent.

Of course my excuse for getting beer at all was a recipe: Beer Braised Chicken.  It was good. 

 My favourite part was when I poured in the beer and it got all frothy and bubbly.  See...

 I added sausage to the recipe cause it just seemed to fit.

I thought I would share the Beer Braised Chicken Recipe so you too can go to the liquor store looking for dark ale and discover a whole wonderful world of .........BEER!  Special Note:  this recipe not only contains beer but BACON too!

Toronto Santa Claus Parade

This year we headed out to Toronto for the Santa Claus Parade.  We take public transit which is great on weekends because they have a TTC Day Pass which allows a whole family to ride the Toronto Transit system for about ten bucks for a 24 hour period.  This is a great deal.  The other thing I should mention, is that both going to the parade and coming home is a bit crowded.  After the parade we thought we would head over to the Eaton Centre for hot chocolate, but this was the scene in the food court....the subway was even more crowded.  Personally, we do not like crowds so we left....slowly.

Anyhow...
We love going to the parade partly because we love walking down the center of the street.  Here is a view of University Avenue looking south.  The fence is a cordoned off area specifically for those who contribute, or sponsor the parade.  A large portion of University Ave. was fenced off and completely empty for this purpose.

The first thing that happens at the parade is the collection of hundreds of letters to Santa.  This mailbox paused so that I could snap a picture. 

 I think this was Santa.  He was in disguise for the parade dressed as a postal worker.

They also threw many toys including bouncy balls and stuffed animals (my daughter got a beaver).

 

There were horses...

....amazing floats.  This one is Mother Goose.

And, some of the best bands.  I particularly love the drum lines.  They really make me happy.

 

This was my favourite float.....



I especially loved shaking hands with the mounties.  There were these mounties on horseback, but also a small battalion who broke formation and fanned out along the street to greet people and shake their hands.  Really nice.



And then there was this....There were so many costumed characters that had nothing at all to do with Christmas, that it really could have been a Halloween Parade were it not for....

...the reindeer, and of course...



 

 SANTA!!!!

 

I must admit, I grew up watching the parade every year on tv and never dreamed that one day I would go downtown with my own daughter and watch. 

 

I still get excited.  I still gaze in wonder. 

For me, it never gets old....

...I hope the same is true for my daughter.

 

 

DMC

NOTE:  I have lots of posts that I should have written long ago....this is one of them.  The parade was actually on November 18th, 2012.  So I will be moving this post to that date after a bit.          

 



Sesame Chicken in Acorn Squash

The last time I made this meal my daughter was 3 years old.  She didn't like it.  She wouldn't eat it.  So today, after 13 years (yes, she is 16 now) I made it again and guess what?  She liked it!  She ate it!

Yippee.  Widening of the palate, I feel, is inevitable.  Young children have very sensitive taste buds and some things are just repulsive to them.  As they grow so does their tolerance for foods with stronger flavours as well as those with different flavours.  That is what I am observing in my daughter, though my daughter loves food and cooking so she is naturally inclined toward trying new things, now that she is into that.

Here is the recipe if you want to try it.  It was good and really healthy.  Sesame Chicken in Acorn Squash

Cereal Bar

My daughter is not a big fan of  cereal.  It's too boring.  So I came up with a new and interesting way to serve it to her.  I made a Cereal Bar.

I included three kinds of cereal:  puffed wheat, multi-grain Cheerios and Wheatabix.  I also offered three sweeteners:  brown sugar, sugar and honey.  And of course three toppings:  pineapple chunks, banana and Greek-style yogurt.  I would suggest offering several types of milk also.  For instance:  Almond milk, soy milk, and cows milk.  I also gave two choices of bowls:  a deep one and a shallow one.

This was a simple breakfast for my family, but it could easily be made into something more formal for special occasions, sleep-overs or company.

DMC

What it's all about....

For us, this time of year is Royal Agricultural Winter Fair time:

one of our favourite times of the year.

 

 

 

The fair this year  was filled with wonderful stuff;  there's something for everyone.

Birds...
 horses, beer and cheese tasting, horse shows, chef competitions,

giant vegetables and...

 

fuzzy feet galore...

like these clydesdale feet.....

...and these fabulous pigeon feet.

But for me, it's all about something else.

For me, it's all about this smile.

 

DMC

Halloween Lunch: Mmmmm....Brain Soup Tastes Good!

Mmmmm, Brain Soup, Snakes in the Grass and Blood Punch with Fingers~~yummy!

 

I must say, the Brain Soup was my "brain-child."  I had purchased a beautiful cauliflower at my local farmer's market a while ago, and thought this was the perfect opportunity to use it before it went bad.  It's an amazing thing though, because I bought that cauliflower quite some time ago, and it was still beautiful and fresh.  This is a plug for buying local, fresh produce.  It is undoubtedly THE BEST! 

I used a fairly generic recipe (here's the link: Cauliflower Soup Recipe ) and added some cheese and seasonings, and left some chunks to simulate actual brains.

 

Snakes in the Grass was really fun to make, and really hard to eat.   The snakes were really cute.

I just used Greek olives (cause that's what I had) for one part of the eye and red pepper for the centre part and for the tongue and stuck it all on with sour cream.  I made the breadsticks special as I was making bread that day anyhow.   I cut up lettuce to look like grass and voila!  Snakes in the Grass  This is the link.

My daughter came up with Blood Punch on her own.  It was really good...but I added a little surprise when she wasn't looking...a severed finger!



(gummy worm)

It was a fun Halloween lunch and really fun to make. 

DMC

Corn Maze and Pumpkin Farm

The first part of Hurricane Sandy brought lots of rain, rain, rain...



....so what did we do?  We went to a farm and walked the huge corn maze, gazed at the piggies and picked what seemed like the last pumpkin in the field.....and we loved it. What an adventure to trudge around in the corn maze in our rubber boots, our umbrellas like halos above our heads. 

We were the only one's there; besides the pigs.

It was a fun time.  We found a perfect pumpkin, got some exercise

and made some lasting memories.  

This is my first blog post in a long time and it was really hard to write.

 I find myself wondering.  Why!  Why am I writing this?  Is it for me.  For some unknown person?  For God?  The only conclusion I can come to is that it is not for anyone or anything.  It just is.  That is how it is intended.  Perhaps some day I will have something to teach, contribute and add to the fabric of the world wide web, but for now this is my humble contribution.  A simple post about a simple pleasure:  running around in the rain with my 16 year old daughter, then listening the the pigs grunt and getting all muddy carrying the pumpkin. 

 Good clean fun. It's that simple

 

 

DMC