Om Nom Noms

Greg whipped up this delicious pizza earlier in the week. It was too good not to share: caramelized onions, sun dried tomatoes, goat cheese feta and artichoke hearts. Yummy!

November Hike

Taking advantage of such warm November temperatures Greg and I headed out for lunch and a hike with a group of friends.

We went to Antigonish for lunch at Sense of Japan, it's nice to know there is a good sushi not too far from home:

We piled in cars and headed to Beaver Mountain, just outside of Antigonish, and attempted to hike a virtually unmarked trail - thankfully I took a picture of the map before our walk but unfortunately it didn't help a whole lot and we got a wee bit lost. We DID make it out before dark though, success!:

This was an interesting sight - a larger tree fell directly onto a smaller tree and snapped it over, thankfully the bank to the left of this picture was also helping to keep both trees from falling into the path:

Two interesting structures, the top picture was a super creepy find, it was burnt out inside and had a lot of furniture left. The bottom reminded me of something from a zombie movie, it was locked:

Dinner Party

Last weekend Greg and I made a meal to thank two lovely people involved in our wedding. We had the dinner at my parents house, it was pretty delicious if I do say so myself. Unfortunately I just have the table setting rather than any of the meal so you'll just have to use your imagination based upon the menu:

Big Winner!

Yesterday was the last New Glasgow Farmer's Market of the year. There was a ton of stuff going on (face painting, free cider, music and lots of fresh produce) including a guess the weight of the pumpkin competition and the winner got this huge haul of produce.

I guessed the right weight (166lbs) and won the spread! They even delivered it to our house!

I've also learned there is a new feature in my phone camera since the most recent update and now I can take panoramic shots:

The haul: two 5lb bags of potatoes, kale, beets, greens, parsnips (two bags), carrots, brussel sprouts, onions, cabbage, peppers AND turnips!

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday this year and it was a pretty great decision, cooking and eating this much needs a 2 day recovery period.

To spruce the place up for fall we picked up some gourds from the market and I finally moved the dried hydrangeas to a vase:

Our neighbour gave us another bouquet of dahlias for our Thanksgiving centrepiece:

We ordered our turkey from the market and picked it up from the farm this past Tuesday, it was great to be able to pick it up from the farm rather than the freezer at the grocery store:

Our guests brought a diverse and yummy spread of food, we will have left overs for days (HOORAY!)

Homemade Bread

I have been trying for awhile now to make a loaf of bread that's not a dense brick of carbs. A few weeks ago I tried an oatmeal molasses concoction which turned out okay but it still didn't rise enough for my taste (sorry there is no photo).

Today I made a loaf using a recipe that I've had lots of success with in the past to make a garlic and herb braided bread. I didn't include any of the spices so it's just a plain loaf.

It even has the bulge on top that is typical of breads - hooray!

I also made a pumpkin loaf (remember how I told you it was time that pumpkin made its way into everything?) this morning and put it along side the bread to give you a comparison.

So for the bread recipe:

• 4 - 4 1/2 C bread flour (I used multigrain)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 packages of quick rise yeast
• 3/4 C milk
• 1/2 C water
• 1/4 C butter (cubed)
• 1 egg

1. In a large bowl combine 1 1/2 C flour, sugar and both packages of yeast. Whisk to mix
2. In a small saucepan heat the milk, water and cubed butter until it's heated through, but not boiling
3. Add this milk/butter/water mixture to the dry ingredients and beat until moistened
4. Add the egg and beat until smooth
5. Stir in the remaining flour (I sometimes don't need the full 4 1/2 C, and just for for 4 C total) until it forms a smooth dough
6. Knead until smooth
7. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes
8. Grease a 9x5 pan in preparation
9. Punch down and let rise in the pan you are going to cook it in (9x5 loaf pan) for about 25 minutes in a warm location
10. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown
11. Remove from the pan to a wire rack and let cool

Pumpkin Pie!

It's getting to be that time of the year, where pumpkin makes its way into everything!

I picked up a pumpkin at the grocery store yesterday and made this tasty treat:

Here's my recipe!

Pumpkin Filling Part I:

1. Cut the pie pumpkin (much smaller than one you would carve) in half and scoop out the seeds
2. Places the halves cut side down on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and with a little oil
3. Bake at 350F for 45-60 minutes, the time will depend on the size of the pumpkin so just check it once it hits 45 minutes and go from there
4. Remove from the oven, flip the halves over and let them cool. Scoop the flesh from the peel 
5. Puree with whatever form of blender/hand blender you have or mash with a potato masher

Pumpkin Filling Part II:

• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/4 C white sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2C of the pumpkin you just pureed
• 1C coconut milk

1. Combine the brown and white sugar and spices in one bowl
2. In a larger bowl: beat the eggs, add the sugar mixture, pumpkin and vanilla and mix until smooth (I use a whisk and that works really well)
3. Fold in the coconut milk
4. Bake for 15 minutes at 425F
5. Reduce to 350F and bake for 50-60 minutes (or until the knife comes out clean

Pastry for Single Crust Pie

• 1C white flour
• 1/4C whole wheat flour
• 1/3C butter
• Cold water

1. Use a pastry blender (or fork) to cut in the butter until the pieces are pea sized
2. Add 1 tbsp of cold water at a time over the flour mixture and toss with a fork. Repeat this until you have a dough and can work it into a ball. If it gets too wet just add a bit more flour.
3. On a floured surface use your hands to flatten the ball into a circle and roll the pastry into a larger circle that's about 1/2cm thick.
4. Transfer your pastry to the pie plate by rolling it onto the rolling pin and then rolling it back out over the pie plate.

Summer Sonic 2012

I headed to Halifax on Friday to check out one of three days of the Summer Sonic festival.

I had some observations:

1. There were not many people in attendance (at least on Friday)
2. There was an excellent choice of eats from food vendors at reasonable prices
3. The music was excellent

Upsides to a small crowd:

1. No lines for anything
2. You are easily spotted by friends who didn't know you'd be attending

I was happy to be scared to death by two friends I hadn't seen in awhile and we shared a giant bag of kettle corn - it was lovely.

The line up Friday evening was: Bahamas, Father John Misty, K'naan and Stars. Each act was great, I was impressed with K'naan's band and Stars played their first show of their current tour. I was quite taken with their new tunes and happily handed over $15 at the merch table for their new album, The North. I highly recommend it.

I didn't take many pictures, the first is from my vantage point sitting on the hill when Bahamas was on stage. The second is of K'naan and his band:

I had two opportunities to eat downtown while in Halifax for my short visit. On Friday I went to Hamachi House for a really (4:45PM) early dinner. I was really excited about it since I couldn't remember that last time I had sushi. On Saturday afternoon I grabbed lunch, the biggest sandwich on a bagel at the Paperchase:

I will make another recommendation: eat at both of these places!!

End of Frisbee Season BBQ

Last Tuesday we played last frisbee game of the summer season. Hopefully there will be a fall/winter league to start soon!

To celebrate a great summer season...we didn't win any games but we had a great time...Greg and I hosted a BBQ.

The auto focus is broken on my regular lens so I swapped it for my old SLR lens, it turns out it's not the best at focusing!

Some of the team, plus a few extra!

Thanks for coming friends!

Weekend Breakfasts

This weekend was filled with delicious breakfast sandwiches! On Saturday we went to Baked Cafe in New Glasgow and I had a spinach, egg and other goodies on a pretzel. It was very, very yummy.

This inspired Sunday's sandwich breakfast of homemade egg mcmuffin's. We've made them before, but this time we made the english muffins from scratch as well. It turns out that english muffins are particularly easy to make. I followed this recipe.

Allergy Hilarity

While I am a fan of the musical Les Miserables I am not a fan of allergies. I am lactose intolerant and a number of other foods (which I haven't been able to pin down) seem to wreak havoc on my system.  

This video combines Les Mis and the ridiculousness of food allergies in a super funny way. It's a take on the musical's One Day More and I need to thank Weighty Matters for bringing it to my attention:

And despite this being a spoof of Les Mis, I couldn't help but get excited for the movie version that comes out this Christmas:

Visit to Deer Lake

**click the photo on the left for more photos**

Last week I spent a few days visiting my grandmother and uncle in Deer Lake, the weather was lovely and I came home very well fed.

I took a stroll around town and found an excellent chip truck...well chip, fish, wings and poutine? The Strawberry Festival was taking place on the weekend so I wandered down to where the festivities were taking place to check it out.

My uncle has one fine little veggie garden growing in the backyard, we actually ate some of the greens in a salad for dinner one evening and they were delicious! Next year lettuce and spinach might be on our to grow list. My grandmother has stuck to growing flowers, and they are as beautiful as ever this year.

I spent quite a bit of time on Friday morning at the Deer Lake Library. It really doesn't look like much from the outside, but it's bright and cozy on the inside. On Thursday we went to Corner Brook, and while the second picture has a snippet of a parking lot in it, there are some lovely low mountains beyond it:

While I've eaten (and blogged) about fish and brewis before I took the time to learn how to make it and took detailed notes! From left to right: onions, cooked fat back (scrunchins), uncooked fat back, nan stirring up the onions, cooked potatoes, the finished product. And I know, it doesn't look like much but it's SOOOO tasty!

PEI For Canada Day

**click the picture to see many, many more pictures**

Greg and I took the ferry across to PEI last weekend to take in the Canada Day festivities and visit friends!

Before we got on the ferry we checked out the terminal which included lobster traps! There were also arcade games (which we played) and a portable library crate where people are invited just to take the books with them - forever! Greg was pretty happy about it:

The ferry ride to PEI was lovely, we both enjoyed coffee and read (and I didn't even get motion sick!). At one end of the boat there were a duo of musicians who were quite entertaining:

There were two used book stores side by side on Queen St. in Charlottetown, one (The Bookman) was much more organized and user friendly than the other one (who's name escapes me) but the other store DID have this great book Field Guide to Cows:

There was a lot of eating, and GREAT eating during the few days we were in PEI. We spend some time on Saturday morning at the Charlottetown Market where I had a DELICIOUS salmon bagel (with lemon, dill, capers and diced onion). On Sunday we went to an awesome coffee shop in downtown Charlottetown where we had a very yummy macaroon:

Here is a mish mash of photos, we went to Pets Smart on Saturday as Angela and Dave (the lovely friends we stayed with) wanted to get something for their cat. In the process we found HILARIOUS cat and dog outfits which Angela and Greg posed for oh so well. You should also notice the super cheesy "mussel shirt" and Greg hanging out in a hammock:

Again, there was a lot of eating and drinking. We stopped by the Gahan House, a micro brewery in PEI, and I had a delicious sampler. Another place we went to had their drink menu on an iPad - pretty fancy. They also had a seafood 'soup' which is something I haven't been able to eat since 2007 given that whole lactose intolerant thing so it was pretty much the most amazing thing EVER. Oh and we also went to an olive oil tasting spot where I had some interesting tasting oils:

The main reason we went to PEI was for the Charlottetown Summerfest that was happening downtown. Sadly not many other people were interested in this festival and the attendance was ridiculously low. The first picture here was pretty much the crowd for the second band (of 4) for the day. There were a few people behind us and about 20 more in the beer tent area but really this duo (who were really entertaining) played to an audience of about 50. The band...or rather guy is Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, who made the most of the small audience, talking to and sometimes taunting individuals in the 'crowd'.

After MBF played Mardeen took the stage and the crowd grew perhaps by about 20 people. Still pretty tiny. They played a great set as per usual and as soon as they cleared the stage a bunch of keen Hey Rosetta fans took their places at the front of the stage. It was like a magnet pulled them close. The time between sets the crowd still hardly grew, it wasn't until about 5 minutes before Hey Rosetta took the stage did it really feel like we were at a concert and people were reasonably close to each other:

At the time I thought these were two separate churches (in Charlottetown) but now after looking at them I think they are the same place. Regardless this is a beautiful church:

On the way back to Nova Scotia (again we took the ferry) we had some time between when we arrived at the terminal and when we had to board the boat. So we headed over to a field to play some frisbee and I took some snaps along the way of the fishing paraphernalia and the sandy beach:

We had a lovely weekend and are really keen to bike to PEI for our next visit.

Last Week of School

Exciting and sad times this past week at school. With the end of this school year brings the end of the Adult High School in the CCRSB. So graduation this past Wednesday was rather bittersweet.

The graduation was lovely, I was one super proud teacher and particularly excited about wearing my STU hood again. I'm a nerd, yes I know.

To celebrate the end of my first semester teaching Greg took me out to eat at a great little spot in downtown New Glasgow called The Bistro:

This was the amazing dish I ordered: linguine with smoked salmon, avocado, prosciutto and dill!

Graduation took place in Truro at this lovely old church:

Tables set up with the many awards for students, and check out those pipes!:

A little squinty, but check out that sweet STU Education hood, really I think it might have laid the nicest out of all of the hoods - way to go STU!

Our school team, small but mighty...and fuzzy, whoopsie!

Because grading day is a fun day I decided to make a bunch of bite sized treats for the students and the staff (they went over pretty well). Up first, mini pumpkin muffins:

Up next, mini cinnamon buns, I omitted the chocolate from the receipt. Oh and this mini muffin tray was great:

The finished product:

And the third treat was Scottish Oat Cakes, the recipe came from my notebook but I'm not sure where it came from initially:

I just came home from the last day and I must say it was a pretty emotional experience. Overall an awesome first teaching gig and I hope the first of many to come.

Johnny Miles Run

*click the photo on the left for lots more pictures*

This past weekend Greg and I participated in the Johnny Miles Marathon...but the 10km portion of the event. We had beautiful weather and it was great to take part in a run that we could walk to from our house!

An important part of any run, ensuring your bladder is empty. A pit stop at the port-a-potties. There were lots and lots of people milling about and the run was actually sold out with just over 2000 runners/walkers.

Greg and I before the run, I definitely wasn't wearing the long sleeve while running, it was a super hot morning!

I came in at 57:58, my personal best. Greg ran along with me and I'm sure if he was really trying to compete his time would be much better, but being the lovely guy he is he ran with me and helped bring my time down.

This is post run with another couple of medals to add to the pile. It's excellent to receive medals just for participating!

After we finished we joined in the crowd to cheer on the incoming runners.

We were both really keen to watch the marathon runners come in, particularly because we could AND because a runner was trying to win his 9th marathon. He's a local so the crowd was really loud when he came around the corner and down the finish line. It was a pretty big deal.

After putting in a good run and hanging out in the community all before noon we headed home for a hearty brunch. Monster breakfast sandwiches with egg, tomato, lettuce, cheese (lactose free!), bacon and avocado. Delicious! Oh and we got juice boxes from the run so we had those too:

Since the Euro Cup is on and we don't have cable we headed to one of the two sports bars in New Glasgow to watch the Netherlands and Portugal game. The place was pretty empty as most people were on the deck, it seems that soccer doesn't draw a crowd in this town.

Greg taking in the match:

Overall a great run and a great Sunday. Perhaps I'll try to get a new personal best next year.