Grad School Lazy = RUN

It is time to get in shape using my shapely form.  Going from teaching all day and moving around for 6 hours organizing children, teaching lectures, providing supplies, starting projects and the general mayhem of teaching elementary school, grad school has left me lazy.  Yes, I blame grad school.  Other than the research I completed this summer at festivals and interpretive centres, grad school required my brain, fingers and wrists to function on overload, but not my other body parts.  Hence I am less healthy and fit than I have ever been in my life.  A once former athlete, I have been a casual participant in sports and other activities over many years, and several years ago was so frustrated in a crazy job that I began working out 1.5 hours a day, just to deal with the daily stress and bur-ha-ha.  I was tighter after that job but the insanity lead me to other paths in my life.  I moved to London and started to travel, during which I walked and moved for hours every day, and tried every delicious looking European snack possible (have you been to an authentic patisserie lately?).  Then I transitioned to grad school and lost it all, my sleek calves, my Carnival shaped butt, my tighter abs, and my single chin.  I want these back and in order for this to happen, and under the pressure of great friends, I joined a running club.

This means I have joined the Running Room for a 10 week Learn How To Run clinic.  Now those who know me know I am an athletic person and many of the sports I participate in include running.  My shins have always cried out in pain after a long workout, so I am learning how to run properly and will ease into running with this clinic.  Perhaps I will share interesting wipe-outs and other such nonsense on this blog.  Be prepared for shenanigans!

So far one of the runners this evening told me that there is a new basketball team starting up in Manitoba for women aged 40-49.  I have not found the link yet.  I will keep looking and share because I would really like to get back into basketball.

That would be awesome....must finish thesis first!

My new New Balance shoes:

Love New Balance, always have.

My new ICEtrekkers:

So I don't fall down and go boom!

My new underoos care of Costco and Paradox:

Note: my legs are far more luscious and curvy :)

Summer 2012: Pirate Invasion!

This is my sister-in-law Cheri.

These are the types of cakes Cheri dreams up and creates.

A pirate ship arriving from a water land of cupcakes to a desert land of 'sand' cupcakes on which the pirates will fight with the skeleton crew who have a treasure.  Yep.  She makes the fabulous creations and then we, her grateful family-in-law, have the audacity to eat them.  Truly they should be encased on glass and put on display in a museum.  Instead, we eat them.  We (un)grateful lot.

The pirate ship is made from rice-crispie treats wrapped in moulded tootsie roll.  The masts are cookies.  

The water and sand are cupcakes with delicious icing and candies on them.  The desert has icing which is them dipped on pulverized graham crackers.  So yummy!

In addition to the cake she made cross-bone cookies...because they are so simple to create (?).

The skeletons guarding their treasure

'Come get us and our treasure pirates!'

The pirates descend in a ship to advance towards the booty.

Prepared to fight!

Who will win?!?

This summer I confessed to Cheri that I have a fantastic business idea.  She is going to make cakes like these and I am going to sell them.  Thusly she and my brother must stay together always, and she needs to make cakes faster...or we can hire minions to create the cakes while she dreams them up.  Either way my plan will take some convincing and she just laughed every time I mentioned our new joint venture.  There is some work and convincing yet to be done.  Wish us luck with our booty!

Chasing Cezanne

Chasing Cezanne by Peter Mayle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So far really good and a quick read.  Is the Cezanne missing?  If yes, why?  Taken into the heart of the art world.  Mayle impresses the reader with his knowledge of various fields once again.

Quick read that kept me busy while lying in bed ill with all by body parts aching.  A photographer accidentally sees a Cezanne being moved from the home of a wealthy client into a van, and with his attempts to solve the mystery of this strange scene, he interacts with varied characters, encounters he wrath of several rich and influential people, and travels through France, Britain and the USA.  A fun read, especially if you want to read more about the wonderful food and wines found in Southern France.  I need to have one of those eating trips through France!


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Confessions of a French Baker

Confessions of a French Baker: Breadmaking Secrets, Tips, and Recipes by Peter Mayle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For this read I going to my local (not French but as best as I can do in Winnipeg) baker to get some bread I can munch on while reading.  I love baking, I just have not baked a lot of bread.  More of a cookie, muffin, squares baker am I.

The introduction is a quick read and several of the recipes look delicious but I am in grad school in the heat of Manitoba.  To cook or to graduate?  Yep, another day, another time in my life I will have a home that smells of a French bakery.  For now, I shall return the book and head to the local french bakery to be a patisserie snob (I lived in Belgium as a pre-teen, I know my pastries).

Let me know of you try baking any of these delicious looking morsels and how it turned out.


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Cattle Research Leads to Food

Currently I am completing some research for a new local museum that has opened just south of Winnipeg, the Farm Food Discovery Centre.  I am completing research in an area that is new to me, cattle.  Yep, this urban woman is knee deep in world wide cattle names, histories of new breeds, the ways cattle is used...including their manure.  Quite the learning curve I have to say.

As I look at webpages, read posts, and attempt to decipher breeding charts (yes they exist and they are like a foreign language), I come across other interesting websites like this one.  A man who lives in Geneva who love gastronomy (this word has always made me cringe a bit), and has a post about Swiss cattle and the cheese he found that is made from their milk after they have feed in alpine meadows on flowers, herbs and grasses.  Now that is the life!  Walking about on Swiss mountain sides, munching on natural foliage, hanging with fellow cows and calves.

This was another website that made me want to lick the screen and wow, what a set up!

Travel.  

Find food.  

Create dishes.  

Take pictures from the photography contraption hanging from your ceiling.  

Eat.  

Motivating me to finish my thesis so I can find something this cool to do with my life.  Plus, now I want to join this man on one of his adventures of travel, gastronomy and photography.  Add to bucket list!

The post I found by typing into Google, "what do swiss cows eat in pasture", garnered me this delectable webpage:

Swiss Alpine Pasture Cheese Croute

I don't think Francios-Xavier or Google is actually saying that the cows eat this dish, but I don't really know anything about cattle remember!?!

Here is the generic page of delicious international goodies:

FXcuisine.com

Bring food to the computer with you  

Quality food  

And a napkin

...for drool...

______________________________

Later in the day......

I came across a Canadian Beef Blog, yes I did.  

Yep there is.

This is for all you meatitarians out there who are hankering for an amazing bar-b-q.

Canadian Beef Blog

(Tonia returns to being distracted now.)

Oranges for Dessert

Many years ago when I was naive, lacked understanding and knowledge of the amount of work required to complete certain types of work, I had just finished eating a meal at my Aunt Arta and Uncle Kelvin's house.  Arta does not just serve a meal, she coordinates a feast.  Be in Indian food, turkey dinner, a concoction of salads (couscous, greens, etc), or other assortments of themed delights, she is a host of the culinary arts.  At the end of dinner I asked where dessert was (re-read post's first sentence now).  Arta looked at me and said there was none.  I laughed then said of course there was dessert, there was always dessert.  Arta stood up, walked to her fridge, moved her body about, then returned to the table and plunked an unpeeled orange down in front of every person at the table.  I laughed again (re-read first sentence of post again).  I asked her a second time where the REAL dessert was.  She laughed and told me that the orange was dessert, sat down, began to peel her orange.  I remember being confused because at my house growing up we always had dessert and here, in this house, there was none?  How odd.

Over the years, as I have matured, I have come to know that my mother is a baker of delightful goodies and others are cookers of delightful savoury things (caveat: my mother can cook sweet and savoury in all its delights, but she shines while desserting).  Not everyone eats dessert.  Arta is not a dessert person.  I am.  Many jokes and teasings have been made over the years by both of us about dessert, oranges and the like.

Fast-forward to 2012 as I read for my thesis.  I am working within a framework called Serious Leisure Perspective, a series of concepts developed over 40 years by a University of Calgary based sociologist, Robert Stebbins (or as my recent quantitative sociology statistics professor put it this last term, "Old Bobby Stebbins?!  He is a well-known leisure researcher?!?  Really?!?"  Yep, very much so).  Reams and reams of researchers have built on his work about serious leisure and in the 2010's more is being completed.

As I am reading one of his many books titled, Serious Leisure: A Perspective For Our Time, I come across this as a book summary:

"Let us think, for a moment, of the serious leisure perspective as resembling a serving of Bananas Foster.  Serious Leisure [the banana] is the central ingredient in this confection, which however, is greatly enhanced with the complementary ingredients of rum, salt butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, banana liqueur, and vanilla ice cream...All this prepared to perfection in a flambé pan, where the rum serves as fuel for the fire that cooks the bananas, themselves bathed, as they are, in a sauce prepared from the aforementioned ingredients.  In metaphor or in real life, the bananas alone (serious leisure) are insufficient to constitute this dessert.  Rather it needs for its completion and perfection the other ingredients...for an optimal leisure lifestyle.  Such a lifestyle is Bananas Foster, exquisitely prepared.  Serious leisure is enhanced and blended with judicious amounts of appealing [forms of] leisure...Bananas Foster, sans bananas, is just not Bananas Foster.  Every New Orleanian knows that."

As I taunt my Aunt Arta once again about oranges for dessert sans toppings, perhaps I have not grown up that much at all.  Then again, next time we are in the same city perhaps we shall share in the making of Bananas Foster, a New Orleanian dessert I have never tried.

Bananas Foster care of Joy of Desserts and More! blog:

Picture and recipe from Joy of Desserts and More! blog

Bananas Foster   
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
8 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced lengthwise
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup banana liqueur
9 ounces dark rum

She melted the butter in a skillet, (you could also use a chafing dish), then added the brown sugar. Stir until it melts. Then in went the bananas to saute for about 3 minutes on each side. She sprinkled cinnamon and poured the alcohol over the bananas. Once the alcohol is warm (you can't light cold alcohol), carefully light it with a match or lighter. Gently tilt the flaming sauce to baste the bananas until the flames die out when all the alcohol has burned off. Serve hot immediately, over ice cream.

Computers Are Hot!

Monday night as I sat at my computer and typed out my thesis, Chapter 1, I found I could concentrate more with a bit of chocolate at my side.  Not surprising.  I did spend four of my most influential pre-teen years living in Brussels, Belgium, the chocolate heaven of Europe.  It is here thanks to Leonidas, Cote D'or, Neuhaus Chocolate, etc that I became a snob, a chocolate snob.  In most other realms of life, I reject snobbery as a most laughable, as I do not believe that things and objects make any one person more important or fabulous than another.  However, I am a chocolate snob.  I know the fake when I see it, touch it, smell it and taste it.  If is not refined, dignified, mouth wateringly melty and delightsome, no thanks.  I'll pass.  

This is why as I sat down to write and nibble I grabbed some Callebaut Chocolate out of my cupboard (I warned you.  Chocolate snob).  Even though the maker of said chocolates is Belgian, these are not chocolates from Belgium, but one quickly identifies a delicious substitute when one is so remote from ones country of influence (the snobbery deepens).  And so the process contined: write a little, think deeply, flip a page, mmmmm....ponder, write a bit more, reach of a piece of choco.....ick, what!

As it turns out, my milk chocolate was under the fan vent of my screen and unbeknownst to me had been melting before my eyes as my eyes had turned to my thesis.  Fingers IN the chocolate was not what I had in mind.  Fingers AROUND the chocolate was the actual goal.

I laughed.  I licked.  I stood up to take a picture.

Melted on left.  Solid and saved on right.

Note to self: melted chocolate is a tasty as the solid variety but not so conducive to focusing on the thesis.  Keep chocolate away from all computer cooling fans.

Off to do more writing.

Found In a Bathroom Stall

Read the graffiti.

Believe the graffiti.

Follow the graffiti.

Winnipeg Delights

Here are a few of my favourite things about Winnipeg thus far.  Press play, then read.  Sing along if you wish!



The connection to the land is the first thing I noticed about people of Winnipeg.  They believe in respecting the land and caring for the animals who also share this land.  Animals can be found all over the city, and some appear to be quite tame and well trained.

There are also those who have a strong connection to the water, as Lake Winnipeg is less than one hour away, and Manitoba itself boasts over 110,000 lakes.  Yikes!  This is a watery place.  No wonder there are houses with such theme as this:

Adventure to The Forks

One of the first weekends I was here a friend from Calgary came into town for a wedding and we met up.  Since the people of Winnipeg are so 'friendly', several had mentioned visiting The Forks.  No prongs here but an eclectic concoction of locally owned restaurants, jewelry, knick knack and unique item stores.  A two level complex stuffed with things to browse, touch, smell and oogle over.

The best part for me was The Candy Train.  

My nephew is a train enthusiast and my level of joy increased as I saw an old train car (which he loves), filled with sugary treats (which he also loves).  My friend and I entered and discovered two walls layered with boxes and boxes of goodies.

The usual treats of my childhood were there: pop rocks, lik-m-aid (or fun dip if you are lame), and fizz.  Strangely my friend had not had any of these treats and I gathered samples to purchase for her first 1980's treat-a-thon.  (Alas, her age may have precluded her partaking in such 'me generation' treats.)

One Week in Heaven, Part III

Last year I took the opportunity to purchase a new Olympus Stylus Tough camera, which are both water and shock proof, with several models also freeze proof.  Each model is designed to be used in the water for a certain duration of time and at a specified depth (varying from 30 minutes to 45 minutes, and 3 feet to 16 feet deep).  My camera was acquired when a newer model as replacing the first model and I jumped at the chance of buying it for $160 rather than $300.  It is such a popular camera with my nieces and nephews that they regularly ask to use it while at our rocky beach during the summer.  They also discovered that under water movies are fun too.  Due to its outer strength, I am more than happy to share.  Here are the best pictures taken over other the last two summers.

Nephew under water.

Launch time!

Delish!

I just discovered the tasty goodness of Vanilla Shreddies with freshly cut strawberries on top.  Oh the tangy blend of two simple flavours, vanilla and strawberry, and the goodness of 100% whole wheat.

To my Canadian friends, enjoy the fruits of the season while they are in abundance.  To my American friends, I am sorry the crunchy, tasty, healthiness of Shreddies has not made it across the border.  Time for a little cross border cereal shopping, n'est pas?

(Pictures from Google Images.)

GARAGE SALE
On another note, Garage Sale Part 2 & 3 this weekend, July 24 & 25 at 1 Chisholm Cres. NW.  8 am - high noon.  Many teacher books, lots of kid's chapter books, hard cover story books, classroom decorations, assorted household items, LDS adult books, and LDS CD's all for your perusal.  As well, a rabbit or large rodent cage, bedding, food, carrying case, and leash all available for sale.  Come, we make a deal!

Sommelier Francois Chartier

There are many reasons why I adore the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).  The employees are constantly keeping Canadians up to date and informed about our cities, provinces, country, continent and all the other people who inhabit this planet.  Some of my favourite shows are linked to this website in the right side bars.  They include: Tapestry, The Hour, As It Happens, Radio 1& 2 & 3, and C'est La Vie.  At times I find I am one of those people you may have seen in a concrete parking lot, sitting in a car staring ahead.  In reality I am listening, laughing, nodding in agreement, saying 'no way!', making other side comments, trying to listen to the end of program even though my destination has been reached.  I am merely holding on to the last point being made in the conversation or gleaning that pearl of knowledge from the presentation of new information.  CBC.  Love you!

On Sunday as I drove to work, I had another 'aha' moment and more personal research to pursue thanks to the CBC Radio One.  A man was talking about his research with taste buds and molecules.  What is the connection you may ask?  That is why I was stuck in a parking lot once I arrived at work!  Francois Chartier, is a delightful looking French-accented man, who loves to cook, has taken a 20 year scientific approach to the study of food, identifying the particles in particular foods that, when mixed with complimentary foods and their molecules, combine in our mouths to create the most delightful flavours imaginable.  This is the key to exquisite eating, the correct and most pleasing mixture of food and drink molecules.  So simple but a new a scientific and pleasure connection to me.  

(Book's front cover copied from Chartier's website.)

The original French version of his book, Papilles et Molecules, is available for those who want to brush up on their French skills.  The English version, Taste Buds and Molecules, is to be released in the Fall 2010.  The book promises to demonstrate how foods such as mint, curries, pineapple, beef, anise seed, bass, chardonnay, mango, etc can be combined to create delicious meals.  There are recipes that will make your mouth water upon them touching your tongue.  It also promises to help you to create your own mixture of delightful goodies as well.  Add to this a delightful wine that will encourage the further enjoyment of the molecules and you have repeated mouth watering experiences.  I shall have my taste buds ready!  You?  

Sommelier Francois Chartier (in English)

Globe and Mail Chemistry Eating

Review How Your Sense of Taste Functions

Molecular Basis of Taste (for all the science geeks out there.)

Spain - Madrid, Barcelona, Ibiza

I have spent the last two weeks in Spain.  My first trip to the country and I have one day left to enjoy the sun, 15 degree weather (which is very exciting for a Canadian in February), a lovely walk along the Sea, and more Menu of the Day (a.k.a. spoil me with a three course meal for all one price Catalan, Spanish food), brief conversations with people practicing their English, a restful perch on my hotel terrace looking out over the view (I think I am the only person staying at the hotel, it is down season here), and the usual normal late night 10 pm dinner of several courses.  Tomorrow back to London but I am not done yet.

I will write more when I have the time but it might not be until March.  From here I go back to London to pack my belongings of the last 9 months, head to Egypt for a 10 day pre-planned trip, then to Berlin to meet up with some friends for 48 hours, then back to London to say goodbye and pick up my sister, then back to Calgary.  Will my life ever be the same boring drudge it had become before I began travelling again (can´t find the question mark on the Spanish keyboard.)  I sure will work hard to ensure it does not!!!

If you want a small slice of what life is like for a foreigner to move to the Baeleric Islands from the UK, pick up A Lizard in My Luggage by Anna Nicholas.  I have been reading her saga of 3 books while I have been traveling Spain.  The writing is superbly funny and a delightful description of adventures and unique characters she and her family meets while adapting to a new way of life.  Her second book is A Cat on a Hot Tiled Roof, and the third in the series is Goats From a Small Island.

Anna Nicholas Website

 I am learning that traveling with a book about the region to which you are going, is a phenomenal way of appreciating the place you are in a little more.

Hugs and more writing in the future!

Hint of Mint

When one spends four years of life at an impressionable age in Belgium, chocolate snobbery becomes a way of life.  My palette prefers raspberry and chocolate, or strawberry and chocolate, but I am definitely a high quality chocolate person (Leonidas being a family favourite).  Brussels chocolatiers make some of the world's most decadent and pure chocolate on the planet.  Manon being their very special delectable invention.  As an adult, the thought of the common variety chocolate sold in middle class stores (or anything Hershey related) causes my gag reflex to kick in.  Chocolate snob, all the way through, and I am not the only one:

Chocolate Around the World:  

Canadians recently dealt with the international banking crisis by binging on chocolate imported from Europe and the US, as our consumption increased by 2.7% in 2009.  - Suite 101.com
Top Chocolate Loving Nations are (pounds per year consumed):

1)  Switzerland  22.36

2)  Austria  20.13

3)  Ireland  19.47

4)  Germany  18.04

5)  Norway  17.93

- World Atlas of Chocolate 

The Quince

My eyes had never graced one before. “What does it look like? Can I eat it like an apple?” I questioned. “No, you can’t eat it like an apple and it looks like this,” shared the man at the British market, as he pulled out a yellow roundish fruit that reminded me of a yellow, squashed pear or apple. “Does it taste like a pear because it looks like one?” I queried. “No it is does not taste like a pear, and it does not taste good raw. Here, try this.” The kind man found a wee spoon and scooped a morsel of marmalade onto the spoon for me to try. “Mmmmm, that is really tasty and different.” And I walked away with my first Quince purchase of three minute bottles: Marmalade, Jelly and Jam.

Taken by Laura McCandlish for NPR

I was new to quinces, but they were not new to the world. Grown in Iran, Armenia, Romania, Croatia, Turkey as well as for 4,000 years in Asia. It is perhaps older than the apple and part of the pear family, although like the kind man mentioned, not to be eaten raw. Quinces even have an honourable mention in literature as a ‘golden apple’ within Greek God myths, Roman dining, Songs of Solomon and 17th Century English cookbooks.

Perhaps the joy is in the difference between the Canadian way of speaking and the English suggestions for using quince. Quince Products Ltd., the market products I purchased, have a Quince, Orange and Whisky Marmalade that mentions you use ‘a wee dram on your toast or try a shot in your porridge.’ How cute is that!  The Quince Jelly thusly states, ‘try with meat, cheese, as a tea time spread or add a spoonful to a stir-fry’. My taste buds have had it with cheese, on toast and with lamb. Delish! It has such a light, gently sweet, unique hint of tang.  Thank you to the Wainwright’s at the Christmas Market for introducing me to a new fruit to add to my fruit repertoire.  Mmmmm! 

Fruit and Vegetable of the Month

Simply Recipes

Quince Jam: Step by Step

A New Taste for Quince

Quince with Wine

A version of what I bought from Quince Products Ltd at the market.

Emma Bridgewater Quince Tin filled with Quince Products goodies

and a super Culinary Concept Leaf Design Spoon Image browser.

Just for fun, I bought a few bottles from these people too and so delicious!  Chilliqueen