I love the app Timehop. For someone who has the memory of a goldfish like I do, it helps me remember life events and things I've done or seen in the past. Like this little gem from two years ago:
I was hopping on a plane to jet off to Europe for two weeks with a good friend of mine. I hadn't taken a real vacation like that in years and was so looking forward to getting back to Europe, with all its history and delicious food and fantastic sites. I think about the places I visited on that trip pretty often, and can't wait to get back there again soon.
I've been thinking for quite some time about what else I want to talk about on my blog. I've long discussed my love of travel and I've talked about my adventures in recipe testing, but something I've been playing around with in my mind is finally coming to fruition.
As someone who loves food and dining out, I've been lucky enough to try a number of restaurants in and around St. John's. With the Newfoundland food scene really having taken off over the past few years, there is a diverse selection of restaurants out there, offering all sorts of food. I thought it was time I added my thoughts on restaurants around town. Will anyone read them? Maybe. Will anyone care? Maybe not. Is it an excuse to dine out? ...Maybe again. But as someone who is curious about food and how flavours blend together, and as someone who is always looking to try out the next big thing in town, why not??
That's why I'm going to really launch the Foodie Files part of my blog. While I'll still talk about recipe successes or favourite cupcake shops, I'm going to begin writing about my experiences with restaurants around town - my favourite dishes, apps that are must-tries, desserts that are to die for and so on. As someone with food allergies and sensitivities, I also think I'll bring a bit of a fresh perspective when it come to dining out, and the must-ask questions that one should bring up when dining out with a food sensitivity.
So stay tuned, the first Foodie File is coming up soon. Watch this space!
It's that time of year again - my annual year in review. I've done this a few times since I started blogging and I like doing it because it forces me to reflect on the past 12 months and take in all that's changed in my life. So, let's go:
- I hit the big 3-0 this year and celebrated with family and friends in style with a fancy pink and gold sparkle party. The glitzy glam night was exactly how I wanted to enter into my next decade.
- I spent some time in the hospital and had emergency gall bladder surgery! What a whirlwind three weeks that was. As painful as the experience was, I know I'm much better off now that the ordeal is finally over.
- Some of my girlfriends and I began a monthly brunch club, where we tried different restaurants around the city. It was so good to have a regular date with friends, to catch up over delicious food and of course, obligatory mimosas. We love brunch club!!
- After a hectic first half of year with work and surgeries, I finally took a vacation in August and went back to my second home, Toronto for a week of friends, food and familiar haunts. It was so good to be back and to get the city into my blood again.
- I celebrated the ten year anniversary of the term that changed my life. I've mentioned time and time again in the blog how my experience in Harlow changed my life. During the autumn, I remembered where I'd been on a particular day or what I'd been doing during a certain period of time. It's hard to believe ten years has passed since I was with this group of people.
- I took another last minute trip to Toronto in December, this time meeting up with my folks and taking my mother to a taping of one of my favourite television shows, The Social. We had a great time!
- I also popped outside of Toronto and spent a weekend with two of my favourite gals, shopping and visiting wineries in the Niagara-on-the-Lake region. Lots of laughs were had those couple of days!
- I enjoyed a magical Christmas break packed with brunches, lunches, coffees and parties with friends from home and friends from away. It's always a whirlwind time of year, but it's always so good.
So there you have it. 2015 is in the books. It was a good year with me turning 30 and my brother's beautiful wedding, but I have a feeling there's big things to come next year.
I usually like to come up with some kind of motto or quote to live by for the upcoming year. This year, the one I'm really feeling is one I've used before and even blogged about recently during my #NaBloWriMo challenge. "More fun, less fear" is what's going to push me through into 2016 and stay with me throughout the next 12 months. Let's see how it goes.
Here's to new beginnings, new experiences, fresh perspectives.
Pizza has to be one of my favourite foods. Sometimes I like a simple pepperoni and cheese pie, other times I want the works loaded on. While we were in Florence, we wanted to do some kind of Italian cooking class. What better than homemade pizza?!
The Food & Wine Academy Florence offers numerous cooking classes, including the pizza and gelato class we did. Our instructor, Andreas, taught us how to make our own pizza dough, including the recipe for the dough and making sure to let it rise for half an hour.
For something so simple, with basic and natural ingredients, it was absolutely delicious. I topped mine with homemade tomato sauce, salami, onion, oregano and fresh basil, and it turned out brilliantly. I've made it since and loved it every time!
Italy. One of my favourite countries. The architecture, the people, the wine...the food. Ah, the food. Upon arriving in Florence this time last year, my dear friend and I headed out to a restaurant for some dinner. Being absolutely famished, we ordered appetizers AND mains AND dessert.
Prosciutto and melon. Or, in Italian, prosciutto e melone. Simple, yet so, so delicious. The sweetness of the cantaloupe paired with that tasty, salty meat is an interesting combination.
Spaghetti carbonara, or spaghetti alla carbonara. Notice the colour of the pasta? The colour of egg yolks in Italy was such a beautiful, rich orange colour, it translated into their fresh, handmade pasta. We bought eggs that night and had them for breakfast the next morning, again seeing the bright orange yolks. Beautiful.
Gelato. I think we had gelato every single day we were in Italy. Because, why not? Where else would you eat gelato every single day but the place that made it famous? Out of all the flavours, I think my favourite is stracciatella. Or maybe mint chocolate chip. Or maybe hazelnut. I guess I'll have to go back to Italy and try them all again!
The food in Italy was incredible. Every meal, even if it was a simple sandwich or a classic Caprese salad, was delicious. I think I'd like to go back and do a food tour of Italy. I'm sure those exist, right?! If they don't, then they definitely should!!
So by now, if you've read past entries of my blog and especially the Transatlantic Tastes section, you must know that I'm a big fan of Jamie Oliver. I've been an admirer for quite a few years, always tuning into his different television series on the Food Network and buying a number of his books (I've lost count but I have at least five, I'm sure of it.) I even had the pleasure of meeting him five years ago while living in Toronto!
I've cooked my way through a number of his recipes and shared them with friends and family. Some of my favourites include a classic Tomato Soup, delicious Crunchy Garlic Chicken and my absolute favourite that I make on a regular basis, Cherry Tomato Sauce with Cheat's Fresh Pasta, the first recipe I tried out of one of Jamie's cook books and one that has remained in my recipe box for years.
Are you a fan of Jamie Oliver? Have you tried any of his recipes? Let me know in the comments below!
Almost two years, to be exact. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it!
So long, old look.
You may notice things look a little less...pink around here. Yep. I decided that for the new year, I'd give this blog a new look. It's undergone a serious face lift. Out with the pink, in with the gold. (Though, I think there's still some pink lurking around somewhere. I can't get rid of all of it, it's pretty much in my blood.)
I've been really into gold lately - gold jewelry, gold nail polish, gold decorative pieces around my home...so it seemed somewhat fitting to infuse my online home with a bit of gold. I'm really liking the look, and I hope you like it too!
Hello, new look.
I took some time away from blogging the past couple of years due to my offline life getting busy and lots of changes happening. Now that things have levelled out a bit, I've decided that 2015 would be a good time to take it up again. New year, renewed blogging commitment. I'm not promising to blog every single day, or even every single week, but we'll see if I can pump out a few posts a month. Let's start slow, folks. I've gotta ease myself back into this. :)
I've also decided to change my blogging topics a bit - there will be less PR posts and more lifestyle/home decor/foodie posts. The Newfoundland food scene has really picked up in the past few years and I really enjoy going out and trying new restaurants, so look for some resto reviews in the coming months. As I said above, home decor is also something I'm going to be exploring on the blog. I'm still a big fan of Pinterest and have taken to trying some DIY pins I've found, so you can look forward to entries on some simple, DIY projects.
Thanks for sticking with me, and for coming back and checking things out. I hope you'll come back and see what I have in store for this little blog!
Transatlantic Tastes is back for another year and we're starting 2013 off right, with a deliciously healthy recipe for stuffed bell peppers! When N and I talked about which recipe we wanted to try for our first cooking session of the year, she came across the following tasty dish on Skinny Taste: Santa Fe Turkey Stuffed Peppers. Filled with lots of healthy ingredients like ground turkey, corn, tomato and onion, these peppers turned out to be quite the substantial meal.
The ingredient list was fairly simple enough, but as usual, I made a few changes. I didn't include the black beans (I'm not a huge fan of beans unless they're swimming in tomato sauce and slathered on toast) and I couldn't find pickled hot serrano peppers so I used fresh. (I expect it would've tasted pretty much the same though, pickled or fresh.) Regardless of the changes, however, the peppers were really, really good, and really, really filling.
The only real seasonings used in this recipe were cumin, garlic and cilantro, plus a little salt and pepper. Even so, it was very flavourful. Next time I try these peppers, I might season them with a bit of taco seasoning mix, to try a different flavour.
Once the filling was all fried up and the peppers were stuffed, I popped them in the oven in a baking dish with a little water at the bottom to prevent them from burning on the bottom.
About 10 minutes before they were done, I pulled them out and sprinkled some old cheddar and mozzarella cheese on top, and stuck them back in the oven under the broiler. The result? Delicious cheesey goodness.
My cooking partner's peppers were a success as well, and when we both ate a pepper each, we were stuffed! If you're looking for a delicious, healthy, relatively easy recipe, something different from the norm, then I suggest you try these peppers - you won't be disappointed!
If you haven't been to Post Espresso in downtown St. John's yet, I insist you go. It is definitely one of the best coffee spots in the city.
I stopped by on a Friday after work a few weeks ago with a friend for a delicious beverage and was delighted as usual. I love the interior of the shop with all its clean walls, funky lighting and light woods.
I asked the owner when they'd opened and he said they're coming up on their first anniversary, which is very exciting for them. From what I've heard, opening a new business can be very difficult, but it seems the folks at Post have been successful so far in building a loyal clientèle. They serve a range of hot beverages, including coffees, lattes, teas and more. During my visit, I had a cafe mocha and my coffee companion had a maple latte, both quite tasty.
You'll also notice in one of my pictures a Nanaimo Bar square - yes, that was mine. I have a hard time resisting chocolate, especially a treat that is a childhood favourite! All their baked goods come from a local gluten-free bakery in Paradise, called Nourish. You wouldn't be able to tell it was gluten-free because it was absolutely delicious - like everything else I've tried from there!
If you're looking for a spot to grab a tasty hot beverage, Post Espresso should be your next stop. If you can't find something there that you like, then you clearly don't like coffee.
a delicious maple latte
and an equally delicious cafe mocha and Nanaimo bar
Being allergic to peanut butter and sometimes feeling left out when people say how delicious it is, I decided to buy some almond butter to see if it was similar. I planned to make cookies and use it with other yummy foods...but I stuck the jar in the back of the fridge and forgot about it.
A month or two later, I was at the grocery store and thought, "y'know, I should try almond butter. I'll bet I could eat that with pretzels or fruit or bake it into cookies...yeah, I'm gonna get a jar." Completely forgetting about the gigantic jar already in my fridge. So now, I have two big jars of almond butter...and haven't done anything with them. What's a girl to do? Do you eat almond butter? What do you eat it with? Or do you bake with it or add it to a dessert? Share your go-to recipes please, as I'm looking for any ideas!
One thing I really liked doing in Toronto while I lived there was exploring new restaurants around the city, and now that I live in St. John's again, I've been doing that here as well. Last night, I went to Piatto Pizzeria & Enoteca with one of my best friends for some delicious traditional Neapolitan pizza.
I've dined at Piatto a few times before and thoroughly enjoyed it, and last night's meal was no different. I had a delicious Caesar salad and the Americana pizza, which is simply cheese and pepperoni, but coming from this scrumptious pizzeria it was anything but ordinary. To finish the meal off, C and I had the delicious beverages below: cappuccinos with biscotti flavoured Bailey's steamed into the milk, and dark chocolate shavings on top, with a side of biscotti. So good!
It was so great to see my wonderful friend and catch up on our lives again before she headed back to Ontario. I miss her very much and am looking forward to Christmas when we'll be reunited with the other girls again. Hurry up, Christmas! :)
As I said in a previous entry, on March 27, I celebrated my 27th birthday, also known as my Champagne birthday. Now, here's something you may not have known about me: I like to make a big deal out of things. Whether it's birthdays or Christmas or Valentine's Day, whatever, I'm all over it. (Remember the Royal Wedding this time last year? Yeah. I was up at 3am and hosted a Royal Wedding breakfast for family and friends, complete with fascinator. All while wearing my PJs. It's how I roll.)
So for something that only happens once in my lifetime, I really had to make a big deal about it. I hummed and haa'd, and decided a party wouldn't be enough. I usually have a party, but this year had to be different. I needed to really mark the occasion somehow.
I had been missing Toronto a lot lately, and kept reminiscing about all the places and things that I used to visit and do there, and then, at the beginning of March, it hit me: Why not go to Toronto for a weekend? I kept looking at my schedule, looking at all the work I had to do, and checking the prices of flights, and I just didn't think I'd be able to do it. I was pretty bummed. So I went back to moping about the lack of celebration surrounding my big day.
About two weeks before my birthday, I received an email from Air Canada, advertising a 50% sale on flights throughout Eastern Canada. I checked, and sure enough, there was a cheap, cheap flight from St. John's to Toronto's downtown airport. I thought it through and finally decided there really was no way I could ignore this opportunity. I could go to Toronto for a long weekend and come back to Newfoundland the day before my birthday. So, I checked with the boss and then I was off!
For the time leading up to the trip, I was pretty much giddy all day long. I planned my three days there down to the hour, figured out where I'd visit and who I'd see and what I'd buy. When 5am on Saturday, March 24th came, I was on my way...
Check back in a couple of days to read all about my weekend, starting with the fun-filled Saturday!
We're taking a brief hiatus from cooking this week in our Transatlantic Tastes series, due to visitors to our respective homes. And when we cooked last week, my camera died just as I was about to take a picture of all my ingredients, so I don't have a write up about that recipe just yet...but, I decided to blog about food this week anyways!
I was browsing my Twitter feed on Saturday afternoon, and my pal Sarah tweeted that it had been a year since our Indigo Tweetup at LUMA. What a great experience that was! It was so nice to meet fellow food and book lovers, and to come together to talk with people from our favourite bookstore; we all had so much fun. Not to mention the fact that having a delicious meal prepared by one of Toronto's finest chefs, Jason Bangerter, and meeting three of Canada's most well known celebrity chefs, Chefs Massimo Capra, Jason Parsons and Michael Bonacini, definitely made the experience one of the highlights of my Toronto life! The food at LUMA is absolutely to die for. If you ever have the chance to eat there, you must. Chef Bangerter is a culinary genius.
We did have a mini reunion in September just before I left for Newfoundland, which Sarah blogged about, and it was so nice to see the ladies again. I'm hoping to plan a weekend trip to Toronto in the next few months, and one thing that will definitely be on my To Do list for that trip? Another meal with my Indigo Tweets ladies. :)
So instead of writing a whole new entry about our fabulous dining experience this time last year, why don't you read about it right here?
As you probably know by now, (and if you don't, what parts of my blog have you been reading?? Kidding!) I used to live in Toronto, going to school and working in the public relations industry. While I love my home in Newfoundland, now that I'm back in St. John's, I realize that I do miss Toronto an awful lot.
When I first moved to the Big Smoke, I was going to school and living in Etobicoke, so I didn't get a chance to explore downtown Toronto a whole lot. But when I moved downtown after finishing school and lived in an apartment with some friends, that was like a different life altogether.
At the time, I was on the job hunt looking for work, with not much to do and little money to spend. While there were days I stayed home and watched a lot of television, (it was then I discovered and became obsessed with the Food Network - a healthy obsession, I like to think) all that free time gave me a chance to explore the city and get to know it better. I learned street names and subway stations, districts of the city and where popular attractions were located.
Being away from Toronto has shown me how much I really do miss things like:
I miss living with my roommates in our brick townhouse in the heart of downtown Toronto. My friend Heather and I had gone through our public relations program together and our friend Brittany and later, new roommate Kristel, both strangers in the beginning, became fast friends, and are still friends of mine today. It was really nice, being able to come home at the end of our days, make dinner and talk about what had happened at work, and then watch some tv together, play video games, or just chat. I miss those days, girls. :)
I miss walking to the St. Lawrence Market on Saturday mornings with my buddy Paul and having pasta, buying fresh produce and stocking up on perogies. Being able to buy your produce from somewhere other than the grocery store is something that's rare in St. John's. I know we have a couple of little farmer's markets in the city and surrounding areas, but they're nothing like the St. Lawrence Market.
You must know by now that I love cupcakes. I mean, seriously love. So when in a big city like Toronto, there were bakeries and sweet shops that sure, sold cupcakes. But then there were cupcake shops, dedicated to just cupcakes.
Those were the places I used to visit fairly often...so much so, that the staff at one of them began to remember me. I knew then I had a problem. A cupcake-addiction problem...but it's fine, all things in moderation, right? I miss the cupcake shops I'd visit the most, like Prairie Girl Bakery, or Dlish Cupcakes. Both their cupcakes were so delicious.
I know my Toronto friends might think I'm crazy, but I miss riding the subway. (okay, I certainly don't miss the delays on the TTC, but I do miss riding the train sometimes.) I miss getting on the train and letting it take me to wherever I was going, listening to the stops being announced, seeing the people on the train with me, wondering where they were headed. Every once in a while, I'd run into someone I knew on the train (which was rare, since I didn't know very many people in Toronto) and that would always delight me; that in a city of millions, it's still a small world after all.
I miss the atmosphere of the city; so busy and noisy and full of lights and massive buildings and strings of traffic. Those are things that, no matter how much I love St. John's, it just doesn't have, like Toronto does.
My time in Toronto had a big impact on my life and the person I am today. I was out on my own in a city that, while I had visited numerous times on family vacations, was still strange to me. It was a big change. But it was one I had craved and one that I had needed for a while. And because it had such a positive impact on me, there's not a day that goes by that I don't miss that city and all it offered me.
While I do miss Toronto, and still wish I could be back there sometimes, when your home looks like this, it's hard not to feel happy that you're from such a beautiful place like Newfoundland.
This week in our "Transatlantic Tastes" series, we decided to step up our game a bit, while still cooking something that was somewhat basic. We went Indian!
Anyone who has lived in England or is familiar with English food and culture will know that curry has changed the definition of British cuisine. It could be said that the curry has essentially become the national dish in modern day Britain. There are just as many curry shops as there are chip shops in cities and towns all over the nation.
While we didn't make a proper curry this week with rice and all the fixings, we did make a dish that is Indian to its core. I've listed the ingredients below to show you what makes up the recipe, and as you can see, most things you will be able to find in any supermarket. I was a little concerned that I wouldn't find the tandoori paste that Jamie calls for in the recipe, but as luck would have it, good ol' Dominion came through for me! It was even the brand he specified, Patak's!
Jamie Oliver's website hosts a large number of his recipes, including this week's, which you can find at the link below.
Ingredients: naan breads or flatbreads a fresh red chile a cucumber a lemon natural yogurt sea salt and freshly ground black pepper fresh cilantro 2 salmon fillets, skin on, scaled, and bones removed tandoori, or mild curry paste olive oil
Ingredients at the ready...
Should've used Greek yogurt! Ah well, I know better for next time. :)
The salmon is sizzling away!
The finished product...a little charred, but still good!
Nancy's turned out pretty good as well!
This dish was a little challenging because to be perfectly honest, I'd never cooked salmon before. I'm not a big fish eater, and with my shellfish allergy, I generally stay away from all fishy foods. But, I wanted to give this recipe a try, because it involved two things I don't have very often - fish and Indian cuisine. It's always good to try something new! Jamie also says in the recipe that it's called "Quick Salmon Tikka..." because it should take about 17 minutes to throw together...well, it took us a bit longer than that, probably because we pause to talk so much and don't actually try to rush in our cooking. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' with it.
Like last week, I had to switch out some ingredients for others; I couldn't find a red chile pepper anywhere in St. John's (does anyone know where I can find chillies that look like this? Ignore the green! I want red!) so I had to use a jalapeno instead, as that was all they had at the grocery store. It didn't add the heat I think it was supposed to.
I like to think that my finished product looks exactly like Jamie's, however, I'm sadly mistaken. Jamie's salmon isn't as charred as mine turned out to be, but I expected I wouldn't cook it perfectly, since I'd never cooked salmon before, and didn't really know how. However, when the time came for the taste test, it still tasted pretty good!
Welcome to "Transatlantic Tastes with Nancy and Elizabeth"! (We're still working on the name. It might also be called "Bangers and Mash: Transatlantic British Cooking with Elizabeth and Nancy" or "The Transatlantic British Cooking Class". We'll figure it out.)
For our first cooking adventure, Nancy and I decided to stick to a recipe that was fairly basic, since we were just starting out as chefs. We figured we shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves. So when flipping through our Jamie's Food Revolution cookbooks, we thought that a pasta recipe would be a good place to start. The following is so easy, but so delicious, that it's a great recipe for beginner chefs:
Cherry Tomato Sauce with Cheat's Fresh Pasta
Ingredients: 1 1/2 pints ripe grape or cherry tomatoes 4 cloves of garlic a small bunch of fresh basil (While Nancy had fresh basil, I couldn't find any in the grocery stores, so I used Litehouse Freeze-Dried Basil, which worked perfectly!) 1 pound fresh lasagna, defrosted if frozen (we both changed this; she used penne and I used ditalini) sea salt and freshly ground black pepper olive oil 2 pats of butter 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 4 ounces parmesan cheese
To prepare your pasta: Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters, depending on size. Peel and slice the garlic. Pick the basil leaves off the stalks and put them to one side. Finely chop the stalks. Cut the lasagna sheets into 3 or 4 long strips and put to one side. Grate the parmesan.
To cook your pasta: Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil. Put a large frying pan over a medium heat and add a couple of lugs of olive oil and the garlic. Add the butter and let it melt. When the garlic starts to brown, add the tomatoes. Give everything a good stir, then add the basil stalks and half the leaves. Add the vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Drop your fresh pasta strips into the pan of boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Drain in a colander over a large bowl, reserving some of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the frying pan with a splash of the cooking water and half the parmesan. Give it a good stir. Taste and add a little more salt and pepper if you think it needs it.
To serve your pasta: Divide the pasta between your plates or bowls, or put the pan in the middle of the table and let everyone help themselves. Sprinkle over the rest of the parmesan and the basil leaves, tearing any larger ones up. This dish is lovely with a simple side salad!
The great thing about learning to cook is that even though you should try to stick to the recipe as much as possible, there is always room for substitutions and switches. I couldn't find fresh basil, so I substituted it for freeze-dried. Nancy used fresh penne instead of fresh lasagna, and I switched out the lasagna for little round pasta tubes called ditalini. To add more protein to the dish, I also cooked up some chicken and added that in, another way our final dishes differed.
Below are some of the photos I took of our cooking adventure:
First step: Make sure all the ingredients are ready to go!
Off to a good start...
Pasta and sauce bubbling away!
Nancy's hard at work on her dish too!
Add a little parmesan cheese to taste...
The (delicious) finished product!
Nancy presents her finished dish, while I display mine and the recipe!
All in all, week one was a success! It really is an easy dish to make, with Jamie laying out the recipe step by step. One recommendation I would have, however, is that with any recipe, you should read the entire thing through once before you begin, just so you have an idea of what to expect, and aren't taken by surprise by anything that's in there.
Don't forget, you can try these recipes too, by picking up Jamie Oliver'sFood Revolution cookbook at a bookstore near you! Check back in a few days to see how Week Two of Transatlantic Tastes went!
Transatlantic Tastes is back for another year and we're starting 2013 off right, with a deliciously healthy recipe for stuffed bell peppers! When N and I talked about which recipe we wanted to try for our first cooking session of the year, she came across the following tasty dish on Skinny Taste: Santa Fe Turkey Stuffed Peppers. Filled with lots of healthy ingredients like ground turkey, corn, tomato and onion, these peppers turned out to be quite the substantial meal.
The ingredient list was fairly simple enough, but as usual, I made a few changes. I didn't include the black beans (I'm not a huge fan of beans unless they're swimming in tomato sauce and slathered on toast) and I couldn't find pickled hot serrano peppers so I used fresh. (I expect it would've tasted pretty much the same though, pickled or fresh.) Regardless of the changes, however, the peppers were really, really good, and really, really filling.
The only real seasonings used in this recipe were cumin, garlic and cilantro, plus a little salt and pepper. Even so, it was very flavourful. Next time I try these peppers, I might season them with a bit of taco seasoning mix, to try a different flavour.
If you haven't been to Post Espresso in downtown St. John's yet, I insist you go. It is definitely one of the best coffee spots in the city.
You'll also notice in one of my pictures a Nanaimo Bar square - yes, that was mine. I have a hard time resisting chocolate, especially a treat that is a childhood favourite! All their baked goods come from a local gluten-free bakery in Paradise, called Nourish. You wouldn't be able to tell it was gluten-free because it was absolutely delicious - like everything else I've tried from there!
About two weeks before my birthday, I received an email from Air Canada, advertising a 50% sale on flights throughout Eastern Canada. I checked, and sure enough, there was a cheap, cheap flight from St. John's to Toronto's downtown airport. I thought it through and finally decided there really was no way I could ignore this opportunity. I could go to Toronto for a long weekend and come back to Newfoundland the day before my birthday. So, I checked with the boss and then I was off!
Being away from Toronto has shown me how much I really do miss things like:
I miss walking to the St. Lawrence Market on Saturday mornings with my buddy Paul and having pasta, buying fresh produce and stocking up on perogies. Being able to buy your produce from somewhere other than the grocery store is something that's rare in St. John's. I know we have a couple of little farmer's markets in the city and surrounding areas, but they're nothing like the St. Lawrence Market.
I miss the atmosphere of the city; so busy and noisy and full of lights and massive buildings and strings of traffic. Those are things that, no matter how much I love St. John's, it just doesn't have, like Toronto does.
