December 1932

When my grandmother was pregnant with my mother, a few days before her due date in late December, she traveled from their tiny village Rausilla to the nearby town of Kotka, anticipating my mother's birth. There she stayed with friends, and embroidered this table runner. I think it's beautiful.

Heavenly Chicken

This recipe is from my friend Elana and I gave it to my mom, who had it in heavy rotation for years. Now I make this all of the time for family, my little son loves it and it goes great with rice and a side vegetable like broccoli or asparagus.

Directions:

Mix half a packet of onion soup, half a cup of Kraft Italian salad dressing, and half a cup of apricot jam in a Pyrex dish with a cover.

Put in 6-8 chicken thighs and spoon sauce all over.

Bake covered  at 350 for 35-40 minutes till it smells done.

Serves  2 adults and 1 kid.

Mom's Date Cake

I can't believe I found it. My mother has been in the early stages of- shall we say- forgetting things, for a while, and there are certain things like her baking, that I very much miss. At times she'll make something simple for dinner, like fried fish, but the complexity of baking is too difficult. I had asked her about this recipe, which she always baked at Christmas time, but at the time she had no idea where it might be; while going through papers I was so happy to find this. It is so good, and has nice caramel flavors from the sweetness of the dates. The flavor of the cake actually improves over days.

Translation (mine and Google's, feel free to correct):

"A legendary cake"

250 g of dates
2 dl boiled and hot water (7/8 of a cup)
1 dl of sugar (1/3 cup)
200 g butter
2 eggs
1 dl of sour cream (1/3 cup)
1 tsp vanilla sugar or half a tsp of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons of baking soda
4 dl flour (1 and 2/3 cups)


Put dates in warm/hot water until soft, do not drain water. Add sugar.  Add all the remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour the mixture into an 2.5 L bunt pan. Bake at 175 celcius (350 degrees F) for about 1 hour. Cool. Tastes even better the next day. Keeps for a few weeks in the fridge.

Finnish Mökki

a mökki is a Finnish cottage, and this is the view of the water from my uncle's place in Mäntyharju. My father painted this view also and when I have time I'll try to add his way more pro version. Chui as always coached during class. The clouds aren't white, they have some red in them. Paint the blue around the clouds to give them shape. The shadow across the rock is a lighter color than the rest of the tree's shadow, as the rock is a purple gray. The lightest spot on the painting is the sunlight hitting the back of the boat, and everything in the boat is compared to that. The color of the grass in the moss is emerald green mixed with light lemon yellow. The light hitting the small branches is a light orangy brown, and the dark under the boat is a mix of all colors, a very dark tone, the darkest in the painting. 

London Long Weekend

We made a surprise visit to London to spend Easter with family.

We stayed at The Luxury Inn which was casual and excellent, an apartment with a common room and kitchen, small rooms but accommodations close by where we needed. This is a view out of the second floor window to give an idea of the neighborhood.

The Luxury Inn common room

Near Buckingham Palace

For dinner the first night we went to the excellent Akari sushi restaurant on Essex

Easter dinner (5 stars delicious) was at The Hunter S. 194 Southgate Road, right next door to our Inn - and excellent gastropub with great decor-art, animal heads. 

Winter Ski

It was perfect winter weather last weekend. Sunny after a big snow. Unfortunately, since then it has rained and warmed up a lot - this year the season for skiing was a little too short.

The laneway in the morning

Mexican Memories

We went to Playacar Palace on holiday. With a snowstorm here today, it now seems like a distant memory!

The baby loved the beach.

This is my "If I had a million dollars" house on the beach.

Went to Xaman Ha bird sanctuary. The baby is in love with birds, it was sort of pricey $22 per ticket for adults, but we didn't have any other excursions and the Aviary was within a 10 minute walk from the resort.

The resort food was great, ceviche and beer (Montejo on tap) was a daily lunch!

Jill’s Shrimp California Curry

One day we were sitting around and I asked everyone's favorite recipe to serve to guests. My bff's sister Jill dictated this recipe, which I wrote down and found after probably 20 years. I finally tried it and it was amazing. It's so quick (maybe 20 minutes start to finish), looks restaurant-like, can be easily doubled or tripled, is made in only 1 pan, and uses pantry ingredients and frozen shrimp, so can be thrown together without doing any grocery shopping. The avocado is optional. The browning shrimp have that delicious smell that reminds me of the dinners we used to go to at Beni Hana's when I was a kid. This photo was from a "TV dinner" for J and I, as in we were sitting watching late night John Oliver on HBO and eating out of bowls.

Jill’s Shrimp California Curry ~ Serves 2

2 tbsp butter

1 onion chopped fine

1tsp salt

1 tbsp curry powder

1 cup canned diced tomato

½ cup sour cream

Shrimp 30 uncooked peeled deveined (I get the already peeled frozen kind)

Sliced avocado

Rice for 2 people 

Lime wedges

Melt 1 tbsp butter in frying pan over medium heat and add chopped onion, fry 7-8 minutes stirring occasionally until softened and browned. (While the onion is frying, get the rice cooking). Add curry powder, salt, and stir, cooking for 20 seconds. Add tomato, stir with spatula until boiling a bit, then add sour cream, mix in with spatula, and take off heat. Scrape sauce into a bowl.

Without cleaning frying pan, melt remaining tbsp. butter and turn heat up to medium-high. Add shrimp in single layer and cook until spotty brown and edges turn pink, about 1-2 minutes, flip and cook other side 1-2 minutes till browned a bit.

Return sauce to frying pan and heat through.

Serve over rice with sliced avocado on the side and a wedge of lime.

Finland and Estonia

Just back from a Finnish vacation, did all of the things I love, ate a lot of fish, a lot of rye bread, went to Estonia by boat (we are leaving Helskinki in this shot), bought a lot of duty free Fazer chocolate. Patkis is my new favorite.

Went by boat to Tallinn, which is so beautiful.

Our cousin manages the Kalev Spa hotel here is the link which was amazing to stay at, the baby loved the pool and water park. The chicken salad is delicious, we all had a big meal here. His sister gave us these flowers which we enjoyed in our room.

And we had fun walking around the market

Back in Helsinki, bought some rubber Nokia boots

Went to my uncle's old cottage (now belongs to my cousin) and the weather was lovely.

The baby tried licorice ice cream- yum!

Went to the cemetery where my grandparents are buried, which in Finland is like the forest

Did some Helskinki shopping at  iittala and at some shoe shops- Minna Parika

At one point in the trip, we rented from Citykoti apartments- it was nice to make coffee in the morning and come and go and live in Helsinki for a while (the baby is looking at himself in the closet mirror).

We enjoyed amazing hospitality with our relatives who were beyond generous, but at one point we stayed at the Scandic Hotel Marski which was great, this is the view from our window.

Montreal Favorites

View from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Parc Lafontaine

When I get asked what to do and where to eat in Montreal I pretty much always say the same stuff, my favourites.

To Eat:

There are 8 million great restaurants in Montreal. These are the last few I went to. My favourite restaurant, maybe in the world, is Pied de Cochon. It is the only restaurant food that I truly crave, and it is not possible to replicate it in one's own kitchen. The foie de gras burger, endive salad, and PDC mashed potatoes are to die. (Reservations necessary, or go early and try to sit at the bar). Pied de Cochon

Dominion Square Tavern - beautiful space, good food and great old timey cocktails. http://www.tavernedominion.com/en/

Vegetarian food:

Crudessence http://www.crudessence.com/ (Partial to the vege sushi and the smoothies)

and Aux Vivres https://auxvivres.com/en/ (the chapati BLT and the chapati faux lox and cream cheese- how to choose?)

A Drink: 

Depends what you're looking for. Classy coctails: Whisky Cafe http://www.whiskycafe.com/en_home.html

Wine and oysters: Pullman http://pullman-mtl.com/en/

A beer at a nice place NYKS http://nyks.ca/?lang=en

Sparrow 5322 Boul St-Laurent, Montréal, QC H2T 1A5 (514) 507-1642 (no link).

Divey places that I go to, that I just like for whatever reason: Laika http://laikamontreal.com/
and Elsie's 156 Rue Roy East, Montréal, QC H2W 1M2 (514) 286-6689 (no link)

To Brunch

Avenue Cafe- get there early. 922 Avenue du Mont Royal E Montréal, H2J 1X1 (514) 523-8780

Cafe Souvenir http://bistrocafesouvenir.com/

Coffee: Olympico http://www.cafeolimpico.com/

To Shop:

Clothing boutiques with amazing Montreal designers: In general St. Laurent in Mile End and Laurier Street are great. I love Boutique Unicorn http://www.boutiqueunicorn.com/

High end department stores that I love:

Ogilvy - they have everything clothes, luggage, lingerie, makeup and whatnot, and even a lovely top floor furniture store AND an adorable cafe in the basement to get away from the fray to have a cup of coffee and a little pastry when needed https://ogilvycanada.com/en/

And of course Holts http://www.holtrenfrew.com/shop/en/holt/storedetail/stores-montreal

Awesome cute home decor at V de V http://www.vdevmaison.com/?lang=en

Also Beige http://www.beigestyle.com/ (it's where I got that weird industrial light in my kitchen).

Bagels: a MUST

Fairmount http://www.fairmountbagel.com/

St. Viateur https://www.stviateurbagel.com/

And with this, Arachova Tzatziki is soooo good (they sell it at both places just ask).

To Do

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a favourite of mine, I go about 2-3 times per year. The permanent collection is free and it's gorgeous. They also have great featured shows, and a wonderful cafe.
https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/

A walk well worth it:

The hike up Mount Royal to the lookout. Head to the Mount Royal Park (on Parc Avenue at Rachel) pass to the left of the statue (see photo) and follow the path up the hill, then continue straight up the stairs, when this ends (you hit the T), take a left, and keep walking until you see a staircase on your right. Walk up about 6 flights and voila, the most gorgeous view of Montreal ever. Takes about 30 minutes. You can walk the long way past the stairs and keep winding up the path to the top as well.

And I do love going to St. Josephs Oratory and just walking to the top, and taking in the view. https://www.saint-joseph.org/en

Turkey Update

So the turkey is still alive, getting tougher by the minute no doubt. It is a male, and I believe it has been eyeing the dog with a certain amount of bird affection. At one point though, Chloe just had it "up to here" with the bird chasing her around, and here is the 10 second upshot.

No news on the geese. We found feathers and stuff in the field, and a couple of raccoons had been lurking around (until they succumbed to lead poisoning, if you catch my drift).

Old Photo

Gone Geese

This is the last picture I have of the geese- they were all killed and dragged off, mysteriously. There are raccoons around, and that is my #1 guess. Last summer they killed 9 turkeys and about 20 ducks; they're known to "surplus kill" just kill until everything is dead. The geese were in the goose garden at the time, it is puzzling though, they are huge and make a lot of noise, so maybe too big for raccoons? Other suspects include foxes and coyotes, but they wouldn't find it easy to get into a fenced garden. The only witness is the dog, and she has been mute with shock and outrage.

My Favourite Hospital part II

This was my view driving into work every morning- such a beautiful hospital. I'll miss it, as we're moving to a new hospital, so I decided to try to paint this to commemorate it a bit. This is from the final night, though it still needs work.

Below was the second or third night. Chui told me to mix red with either Naples yellow or Ochre with red and white for the sunlit buildings. Also this night the second building's windows were too dark, overall that building face has about the same tone. The greens of the roof tops had to be different too. The sky bluer, to bring out the buildings. The background trees were too detailed, he said just make it uniform reddish purple, the colour of trees in the distance. The tree bark is too dark, the trees are really greys in the winter with the haze. I removed the neuro building, it was sort of ghostly off in the distance and not nice. Chui put red in the branches of the tree, I wouldn't have, but since looking at nature I've noticed that it's true, the branches against the sky are really red. When I asked him if they should really be that red, he said "Bien sur!"

The photo I worked from. Notice the moving truck in front!

Venice Vacation

We decided that a little California sun would get us through to the end of this wretched winter, and stayed in Venice. Lots of canals just like the Italian Venice.

We walked to Venice Beach every morning, shopped on Abbot Kinney, went to Malibu and had drinks at Malibu Farm at the end of the pier http://www.malibu-farm.com/

We took a road trip to Joshua Tree National Park and stayed at the awesome 29 Palms Inn http://www.29palmsinn.com/

On the way home shopped at the Desert Hills Outlets and I got a cute DVF dress + shoes...

J's sister was super hospitable.

New Year's Renovations

Well we finally got the renovations mostly done on the house. It was a long and dusty painty process but it looks good.

The baby's room. The wall hanging was made a long time ago by my grandparents. The rug is an old Ikea one, and the lamp is from Living Lighting in Ottawa.

The bathroom, which was inspired (copied) from a page in a magazine- I loved the French looking coin floor tile pattern and the subway tiles. The paint is Betonel White Buck 10YY 72/021. The tub and shower are from Mondeau. The Mercer sconce is from Pottery Barn, but as you can see, the middle glass is broken, it arrived that way in the box, so we're trying to get that replaced which is such a pain.

This was the inspiration

The bedroom needs new bedding, more decor, more furniture and stuff for the walls. The color- when we repaint I want Balboa Mist

The sun room, with the wood stove hauled out of my Montreal place, as they've recently passed a by-law banning their use in the city. It's great in here, though it weighed a ton. The table was made by my uncle and we can play checkers/chess on it.

The kitchen was just repainted, but this shot shows the addition. The lighting is from a great store in Montreal called Beige http://www.beigestyle.com/