I came home this evening to find a graduation gift from my wife: a bottle of 17 year old Balvenie Sherry Oak single malt whisky. And four Godiva chocolates, one of which I’m stuffing in my face as I write this.
Category: Food / drink
"Hallelujah."
Today was our last full day in Halifax. It started with my convocation ceremony, then lunch with our parents, then a few hours of downtime in the bar and our room, then dinner with our friends Marney & Amy. Great dinner, by the way, at a cool little wood oven pizza place.
We leave tomorrow morning, but not too early. Good thing too…we’re oh so tired. Night, kids.
Yes, we use maple syrup like most people use ketchup
This is one of the reasons I like living up so high.
.:.
Some people don’t seem to believe that I could get as stuffed as I claimed to be last night without having any turkey. Let’s just recap what I consumed:
- Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale
- mixed greens with apple, pear, candied pecans, goat cheese and a maple vinaigrette
- mashed potatoes
- maple-glazed carrots
- peas
- half an acorn squash stuffed with…well, stuffing
- fresh rolls
- 2004 Tatone Montepulciano
- pumpkin pie
Quantities of food consumed: let’s just assume “copious” to be safe. Nellie outdid herself, and I paid for it with a distended (more than usual) belly.
L-tryptophan or not, I'm damn sleepy
You would think that Thanksgiving dinner sans turkey wouldn’t be that filling.
You’d be wrong.
I hurt.
[Note: I’m glad we didn’t do something weird like cook fish. We watched Sharkwater (imdb | rotten tomatoes) just before dinner and it’s kind of put me off fish for a while.]
This had better not be some terrible Stephen King movie
That shot you see up there is of a weird fog bank rolling (very slowly) off of Lake Ontario, in the middle of a bright, warm, sunny day. You can see that it’s virtually covered the Toronto Islands. It stretches to the east up to the Scarborough bluffs; not sure how far westward down the lake it goes. Weird.
Anyway, it’s been another sweet day. I got a lot done this morning while Nellie slept. Hunger finally got the best of us and we tried a new neighbourhood place for the lunch: That Corner Spot at Front & Jarvis. It’s the fourth or fifth tenant in that location since we moved in, but we really hope it sticks. They have good beer (Amsterdam, Mill Street, KLB and others), good food (my veggie burger was excellent, Nellie’s breakfast was good and and they even got her eggs right…that never happens), good ingredients (everything’s purchased from St. Lawrence Market across the street) and good music (I heard Mogwai, The New Pornographers and Death Cab For Cutie among others). Oh, and a large sunny patio ideal for either people-watching or people-ignoring.
[UPDATE: we just heard a foghorn. That doesn’t happen on many days when there’s a blue sky.]
Squeak. Thump.
I love me some long weekends. Since we’re going away next week we didn’t really plan anything for Thanksgiving, save getting a bunch of stuff done, having a nice big turkey-less meal on Monday, relaxing and enjoying the abnormally beautiful (for mid-October) weather.
After shaking off the work week at Smokeless Joe last night and sleeping in this morning, we bought enormous amounts of produce and other groceries, dropped a bunch of stuff at Goodwill, had a beer and a bite to eat on the wonderfully sunny Volo patio, ran a few errands, bought a few things, and came home. After a quick nap Nellie was fired up to do some cleaning, and when it involves throwing stuff out I always get excited, so we did that right up until the hockey game started.
Watching the Canadiens manhandle the Leafs 6-1 (in their home rink, no less) was like watching my old cat torture mice in the yard, just swatting at them as they cowered and shook, until I went outside and killed them with a shovel. I almost felt bad for them, right up until I heard Don Cherry giving Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau shit after the game for having the gall to play his usual power play units late in the game. I watched the game. They weren’t even trying, and they still almost scored, but apparently Cherry knows some unwritten rule that used to matter 30 years ago, and this had him angry. It made me wish Montreal had scored five more goals.
More relaxation and patio-sitting to come tomorrow. Yep, I do love me some long weekends.
Dan
Nuit longue
Last night we needed comfort food and so went to Fieramosca, where the usual debauchery ensued. Funnily enough CBGB walked in and were seated next to us part way through the evening, even though neither of us had any idea the other would be there. We ate, drank and laughed long into the evening. Consequently neither Nellie nor I got up until after 2PM, which actually works out pretty well, since we’re heading out around midnight to take in some Nuit Blanche exhibits.
Lullaby Haze
Tonight: blogging in delicious bite-sized portions.
- The new Mates of State is very good. Maybe not Bring It Back awesome, but very good.
- We’re going to try to do Nuit Blanche this year. That should be interesting…I’ll basically get home, sleep for most of Sunday and then go to a Leafs game. Yes, a Leafs game. Normally I wouldn’t go but it’s a work thing, so I’ll just have to try to scrub off the dirty feelings and record lots of Canadiens highlights to watch when I get home, lest all the patheticness get lodged in my brain.
- My brother just sent me this link, which made me puke and shit a little at the same time. That’s right, it made me shuke. Behold: lobster ice cream.
- The Economist asked people around the world who they’d choose if they could vote in the American election. The results: awfully blue.
- Paste Magazine reviewed the 10th anniversary edition DVD set of Sports Night. I know I’ve said it eleventy million times, but really…go watch it. So good. Stick it out through the first few episodes when they forced Sorkin to use a laugh track.
- My debate plan this evening: watch the Canadian election debate but keep the picture-in-picture tuned to the American VP debate. If Sarah Palin gets that scared fawn look in her eyes, I’m flippin’.
See? Tasty!
Vindaliciousness
Won’t be writing much tonight. We just stuffed ourselves stupid at Indus Junction with T-Bone. Had a drink at The Paddock first, which was quite cool, except that we were quite literally the only people in the place. Maybe that’s what made it cool.
Anyway, maybe it was the vindaloo shrimp or the vegatable baji or the aloo tikki or the malai kofta or the salmon vindaloo or all the rice & naan, but my stomach is stretched to the limit right now.
Still…want more. Gimme.
[tags]the paddock, indus junction[/tags]
Thick but spritzy-clean palate
Apparently the summer decided to grant us one last beautiful weekend before fall arrives to spoil the party. Yesterday we took advantage of likely the last lazy, hazy summer Saturday of the year: we slept in, picked up fresh vegetables and some dessert at the market, walked over to the Bay and bought some new bed stuff and cleaned up the balcony. We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening sitting outside, reading, listening to music, snapping the picture you see up there (note HMCS Charlottetown in the middle-right of the frame…not sure what she’s doing there) and enjoying a Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale until CBGB showed up. Nellie barbecued some rainbow trout, which we ate with maple-glazed carrots, peas, potatoes, two bottles of wine, some Mill Street Belgian Wit beer and the afore-mentioned dessert, an apple strudel. There wasn’t much time left in the evening when they left…just enough for me to pull the trigger on the new computer I’ve been thinking about ordering, and crawl between the comfy new duvet & pillows.
Good day, that.
[tags]last day of summer, great lakes pumpkin ale, mill street belgian wit[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 